‘What Does This Look Like In The Classroom?’

This is a good book which attempts to bridge the gap between research and practice. In this blog post, some strategies from the book are described and how they went. In particular they focus on questioning, assessment and feedback.

Do take a look if you can:

http://www.teachergratitude.co.uk/2017/11/24/experiments-with-strategies-from-what-does-this-look-like-in-the-classroom/

Principles of Instruction

Often there can be ideas in Teaching and Learning which are not well-researched or evidenced which can be frustrating. I cam across this article from a few years ago which looks at principles of instructions which are evidenced as being effective. The summary is below if you are short on time, but the article is well worth a read.

https://headguruteacher.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/rosenshine-2.pdf

Mini TeachMeet 9

Link to Presentation

1. Higher-Order Questioning
SS shared some good question prompts for different levels of thinking (see presentation for question prompts):

• Knowledge, Comprehension
• Application, Analysis
• Evaluation, Synthesis

2. I’m going to speak as……

• This was adapted from the training we had in September, which SS greatly valued. He has come up with 8 categories of individual to ‘speak as’ during lessons (Chief Designer, Head of Manufacturing, Client, Inventor, Head of Quality Control, CEO/Board Members, User, Head of Finance) which he has found work well. He encouraged other departments to think of similar categorisations for their subjects.
• This is particularly powerful when asking students to ‘speak as’ these individuals and encourages them to think about aspects they might not have done if just answering the question themselves without the roleplay.

3. Purple Pen

• Student responses to feedback recorded in purple pen
• Some students work is nearly perfect and so has little purple pen, others have added significantly following feedback. 
• All students end up with similar level of detail but it is clear who has had support or who has completed the task independently
• A good way of evidencing response to feedback

4. Feedback proforma

• SS shared a new proforma they are thinking of using in Product Design where the WWW parts of the work can be completed from a checklist and ticked whilst EBI feedback is then given in a more individualised way.
• Saves the work of writing the same/similar things on 20 pieces of work whilst still providing meaningful feedback as long as the criteria are sufficiently detailed – which they were!

Thinking Keys

Following the January Training Day, a colleague shared these 'Thinking Keys' and some example activities that tie in well with the material from the Lazy Teacher.

Find the full set of keys below:
Thinking Keys Presentation

Strategies to promote challenge

With a focus on differentiation, it seemed apt to find a blog post on Challenge. I like #15 here - 'Don't Round Up'. When students answer questions in class do we too often focus on the parts that are right and move on? I often tell them in what ways they are right but then ask them to improve their answer, or challenge others in the room to improve their answers.

Anyway, the post follows (source: https://pjlovingthelearning.wordpress.com/2015/02/15/strategies-to-promote-challenge/ )

The word challenge is much used in education. There can be no doubt that sufficient challenge is important and the stakes are high. Too challenging and students give up and find learning uninspiring. Too little and work becomes too easy and monotonous and little learning happens.

Here are 16 strategies that may help you to challenge students.

Much of these strategies are self explanatory or maybe even plain obvious. However, I think these three ideas in particular are all really important.

Firstly, as Willingham rightly says
‘Memory is the residue of thought’. So, strategies that make students think are essential, in my view, for challenging learning. Otherwise, we run the risk of our students being on ‘autopilot’ and therefore not learning.

Secondly, encouraging students to take risks in their learning and not worrying about failure. This is easier said than done. However, a climate of excellence, positive classroom relationships and using the ideas of Dweck’s Growth Mindsets should support this.

Thirdly, I had increasingly come to believe that questioning is one of the most essential tools in the pedagogical toolbox. Doug Lemov’s ideas in his work ‘Teach like a Champion’ really struck a chord with me. Not rounding up student answers and using probing questioning to challenge misconceptions and promote deeper thinking can be adeptly utilised by the teacher to support challenge, thinking and understanding. Crucial is not just the questions we ask but how we respond to their responses. Through increasing our own wait time by a few seconds we can ask more probing questions and foster better class discussions.

Clearly, this is not an exhaustive list. Ultimately, it’s about us, as teachers, taking that risk and really believing our students can do it. So, what if the students say ‘I can’t do it’. Great! They are being challenged. ‘You can’t do it yet’ must be our reply.

So, think about how we learnt to ride a bike when we were younger. When it happens and clicks it really is one of those ‘eureka’ moments. Yet it happens through challenge. Taking the stabilisers off, experiencing the failure and frustration of falling off and taking the risk to really really go for it. That’s what makes lessons challenging too!

What are your ideas on how to best challenge students?