Chris Chivers (Thinks)

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Everyone starts somewhere

28/3/2015

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Reflections for trainee and about to be qualified teachers.

It’s that time of year again, when the merry-go-round of teacher appointments reaches it’s zenith, joined by the multitude of newly qualified finalists and post graduates. This last week, I signed off on my finalists from their school experience where they all proved that they had what it takes and that they have much promise.   

Like all learners, at whatever stage, you are where you are, because of the experiences you’ve had to date. Continue to be a learner; that way you’ll develop and hone skills through your actions and by sharing the journey with and through others.

As a Link Tutor with one of my local universities, I am looking forward in the next few weeks to working with the Post Grad students who will be making their way into local schools to gain more insights into the craft of teaching and to hone their skills a little further. Undergrads will also go out into schools over the next few months.

In September 2014, I was involved in the introductory week for the Solent Teaching Schools Alliance, School Direct route students (Primary). As only one of these participants was in a paid route school, all the others were essentially PGCE students, each of whom has paid £9000 for the privilege of being trained to be a teacher. To save money, some had moved back to the family home, or were relying on partners for financial support. Some were adding to loans. Becoming a teacher today costs a substantial amount and is not for the faint hearted.

I had a short experience of Teach First during a visit in the summer of 2014 to a London Academy, meeting some Teach Firsters in class and, during the second day, seeing the school “invaded” by an induction group.

All routes lead to the same end; they become a teacher. On the completion of their chosen course of study, they become qualified to teach. If they are lucky, they then run the gauntlet of application and interview and end up in a school which sees them as NEWLY qualified, not FULLY qualified, so that they receive additional training, coaching and mentoring opportunities, so that they can operate effectively.

The vast majority of these aspirant teachers have had (some) experience of school prior to their training. The School Direct group had all been teaching assistants for most of the previous year, some much longer, so they had insights into what schools are about. They now have to make a shift in their thinking to become the classroom leader, but they are all capable of doing that.

Both the Winchester Uni and the School Direct group will have a similar message, based on the Teaching Standards and discovering that the essence of teaching is a sequence of decisions, based on a simple premise- that you know your learners well.

Two diagrams sum this up and provide the basis for reflection and discussion.

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Advice and questions for a newbie.

What does it mean to be professional as a teacher? Develop a teacher persona; look, sound and act like a teacher at all times in the professional setting and remember the teaching standards part 2 can apply outside school.

Safeguard yourself. Find out immediately what the school procedures are for safeguarding and who the key personnel are. That way you’ll be in a position to respond appropriately should a situation arise. You and the child can then be safe.

Behaviour management. Again read the school policies and develop schemes that operate within that. Consistency is the key in behaviour. You need to be able to respond to challenging behaviours.

Analyse: Start points- know the learners well, from prior records, from talking with previous teachers, from the earliest activities. Know what is expected from the curriculum during the year.

Plan effectively over different timescales; long allows you to breathe easy knowing that everything is covered, medium sets the road map and the detail over a few weeks, while short term is likely to be your lesson aides memoire, things not to be forgotten. This is your basic statement of “expectation”.

Effect- Do; Make sure the resources are appropriate, available, easily accessible and returnable, that the technology works and you know how it works. Know your story really well, have the ideas and vocabulary to engage with your “audience” and, like a stand-up or improvisational actor, think on your feet, spot needs and adjust to the information coming from the audience.

Review; Always reflect after the event; what went to plan, what needed adjusting and why. This will help with subsequent planning. Mark effectively and reflect on the outcomes. Can you move on, need to go back over some bits for all or some of the class?

Record; Write notes, adjust/annotate plans, jot down things you spotted about the learners.

Teaching is a team game and your more experienced colleagues all started like you. Ask for support, help, advice or just to chew the fat with more experienced teachers. You are one of them, even if you are at a different stage. They can share their insights and experiences. Reflect on them.

Expectations will rear their heads. What are they? We all have high expectations, as far as the Teaching Standards are concerned, yet they can be somewhat nebulous as a concept. Expectations of behaviour for learning, for social interactions are likely to be central to thinking, but what about learning outcomes as expectations? Every teacher is judged on their learning outcomes, so shouldn’t this be a central plank of the high expectations? Outcomes will vary across a school, from year-group to year-group. It is essential to have a clear series of anticipated outcomes to be able to judge whether the outcome is good enough, good, or high. Moderating and discussing outcomes will be a time-consuming, but developmental activity.

And always remember; no-one has yet absolutely cracked the secret of the perfect lesson, or you’d have been trained to that formula. Every classroom, every school, every set of learners is subtly different.

In that way, you are forever an explorer and learner yourself.

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Educating By the book? 

23/3/2015

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There is a clichéd expression about thinking outside the box. I am wondering if there’s a need to think outside the book.

Today’s teachers are expected to teach like champions, have an ethic of excellence and a growth mind-set, while being at all times on the lookout for marginal gains, ensuring that, in a world without levels, learning has no limits, although there is a need to ensure that formative assessment underpins all your decisions. That sounds easy enough. Read six current books and all will be well, or, seen another way, choose your guru.

To me, there is a little element of the “truth” about teaching and learning in each of the books, each author putting their personal “slant” on the writing, by virtue of the way that they see the world at that point in time. Each is also updating ideas that have been around for a long time, in some form, as part of good teacher practice.

Education has, for many years, come in a box or a book, the latter with a different set of authors who all sought to distil the wisdom of the time into forms that would describe learning and provide background to teacher decision making. A few years ago, Bruner, Piaget, Vygotsky and Kolb, would have taken over from Dewey and Rousseau.

Simplification is often the order of the day in any writing about teaching and learning. In effect, every single teacher has already distilled their own learning, via ITE, subsequent experiences, reading, discussion and listening to the available expertise.

Every teacher takes, or should take, themselves into the classroom, with a much clarity in their thinking a possible, all premised on good knowledge of the children who make up their class(es). This latter point is, to me, the most significant aspect, as underlying knowledge of each child ensure that challenge, support and feedback are more refined to the needs of each learner.


Problems arise when the distilled knowledge of the acknowledged experts is then interpreted into systems, either at a national or a school level. The systematising, in itself, becomes a box which traps and guides teacher thinking to specific ends. So words like differentiation lose their meaning. Instead of articulating the next real challenge for the learners, with subsequent focused teacher questions, guidance and feedback, each of which gives rise to teacher reflection, or assessment, they can be systematised into the visual of different activity, some of which may be inappropriate to needs.

Assessment has developed into a pseudo-science with tick box mentalities determining, in many cases, the tasks children would be given. The devising of such fine-tuned tasks, has to me, distorted teacher effort and slowed learning for many children.

The biggest problem, in my opinion, though, has been the view that seems to be gaining traction, that it is purely the teaching that matters, with the implication that children cannot learn anything unless it passes through the teacher. This is creating a mutual dependency culture, between learner and teacher, in a world where children need to become independent and a teacher life is eased, a little, with that independence.

In real life, the chances are that any challenge that needs to be accomplished will take the practitioner to a point where they need to find out something in order to progress with the task. That is the point where learning takes place, moving the person from one state to another.

For that reason, I think that a real focus on task design would be time well spent, as it always has been. I can remember discussing task design from the beginning of my career. The ubiquity of the internet-available resource and the use of the photocopier has exacerbated the problem of easy to fins and easy to copy resources. If you have to hand write differentiated work cards for a class of 39 children, thinking about what they will do takes a lot of time, as there is no benefit in spending hours for a few minutes of challenge.

The recent ASCL conference spawned a weekend of Twitter and blog writing, as different individuals sought to make sense of what they had heard. As a non-attendee, I was left with the reportage, with much focused on one slide from Professor Robert Coe, seeking to look at learning, or what is often viewed as learning. This slide came from @CarlHendrick’s blog on Engagement, after the event.

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What I find interesting is that there is an articulated view that this is learning, rather than the conditions within which the likelihood of learning is greater than an opposite set of statements. Apart from the first one, each describes, to me, the learning environment; control, learner focus and understanding through discussion and reflection evident in the environment, with some evidence of validation in the outcomes.

The first point, I would agree with totally, as it embeds that which I would argue very strongly, that the quality of the challenge in a task is the determinant of the potential and the actual learning. It is stated that Prof Coe argues that learning happens when children have to think hard. That seems to validate my assertion. I would argue that children should become producers of learning, rather than just consumers of learning activities. Children who are under-challenged, or challenged AT their perceived current levels will, by definition, not be progressing their learning, except, perhaps by chance.

Challenge, however, can be difficult for less-secure teachers, as that could take the lesson in unexpected, or unanticipated directions. Yet, in the hands of confident teachers, prepared to go with the flow, these are the lessons that enhance the learning experience for everyone.

Learning is, in reality, likely to be fluid in nature, identifying blocks or gaps in learning which need to be addressed. Good learning challenge enables that fluidity; planning happens across a period of time, within holistic structures, adjusted over successive lessons to learner capability evident in outcomes. The diversions enable a broader look at the landscape, enhancing the sum of understanding. Learners, supported by teachers, unpicking and articulating their learning journeys, sharing these with peers, with the evidence of their outcomes as good examples (WAGOLL), enables a significant event, the “lightbulb” moment, when another learner sees a way forward.

So, in an effort to reframe the slide above and to link with the current library shelf, I’d suggest the following.

Know your children well, using the available (data) information with care, not to create a wrong impression.

Plan effectively, over time, so that each lesson has a part to play in the whole, but allow for adaptation to need.

Know your stuff and order and organise the sharing of this with care. The choice of register and vocabulary provide models for learner discussion. Are you aware that you may speak differently to different classes? How good a “storyteller” are you?

Ensure that relevant and appropriate resources are available and easy access/return, to support the learning environment.

Overview tasks should allow for personal challenge to each child in the class, even within a whole class lesson. Tasks may have to be adapted to need within the lesson, to increase or decrease the challenge to need, if there is one challenge for all.  

Spot and deal with evident issues; children off task, finished early, worried looks… adapt to need.

Celebrate and unpick outcomes. Use these to check personal learning needs.

Displays of outcomes can provide the food for thought for personal development.

Test by creating tasks that enable the showing of the accumulated learning. 

The above describes the reality of the current teacher standards, which I discussed in another post, 24652. Click here if interested. Learning, as such, may not, as David Didau argues, be visible.

The conditions within which learning might occur might well be the closest we get, during the process. Checking the progress will depend on the quality and closeness of questioning and subsequent follow-up challenges.

At transition, it may also depend on the quality of understanding from the receiving teacher, if progress is to be maintained. But that’s another story, maybe…It is very easy to underexpect, or underplay prior performance, therefore limiting progress.

Seeing learning as a process might be a more useful starting point. Here's a diagram that seems to put the whole together, linked to the current Teaching Standards.

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Exploring and questing

20/3/2015

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I love maps, always have and will always make sure that, for any longer journey, I have looked at a map to make sure that I have got my bearings, just in case the satnav decides to have a funny five minutes.

As a young child, I enjoyed getting my own atlas and looking at the strange shapes and colours of different countries, trying to read the unpronounceable names. I drew maps and traced maps; Izal toilet paper was extremely useful for that, if a bit tough otherwise. Tracing maps, colouring in the details and copying the names on the maps supported ad range of developing learning skills. I have to say that this was being done on my own, as a pastime, as my parents were not always around, or interested.

Adventure stories were the background to my early independent reading, Biggles and Tarzan loomed large, while westerns were a regular feature of early weekend TV viewing. Adventure stories were also a large part of classroom experience, as the teachers told the stories of people like Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus and James Cook.

I have to admit that childhood, for me, was largely spent outdoors, enabling exploration of the local areas, with friends, so our ability to move around was relatively unhampered. Up until about seven years of age, I lived in Exeter, close to the prison and an army barracks, but also a field away from the university. We used to draw sketch maps to support our playing, or the old trick of chalked arrows to follow each other. We explored, discovered and made sense of our local world. This was enhanced with trips to grandparents in South Wales, exploring a different environment.

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When, with my family, I emigrated to Australia as “£10 Poms”, this was, inevitably a true adventure. We spent nearly six weeks on the Oriana, passing through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, via Colombo, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. As our final destination was Brisbane, we had a very long train ride to the temporary reception centre. Throughout the journey, I remember being encouraged to keep a diary, with pictures and practising my writing. I still have memories of Pompeii, bazaars, the colour and smells of Colombo, seeing a black swan, but inevitably they will be filtered through the lens of childhood.

Australia meant a different adventure, but also new stories of adventure, never heard, such as John McDouall Stuart travelling South-North around 1860. The ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition. How camels were brought in especially to help with desert conditions, then turned out into the wild. The stories of Ned Kelly and his gang. We sang a new set of folk songs, of colonisation, convicts and desperadoes. One of these was “The Wild Colonial Boy”

There was a wild colonial boy, Jack Duggan was his name.

He was born and raised in Ireland, in a place called Castlemaine.

 As for “Walzing Matilda”, the social history came to life.  

It is always interesting to me that a great deal of social history is embedded in the folk tradition, but this is often an area that is not valued in education, whereas is supports spoken and reading activities, as well as providing the springboard for research questions.  

My adventuring continued for several more years, with a return to the UK, parental divorce and a second emigration to Australia, which, for my father was a “promised land”. Sadly the dream turned again to a nightmare, as he discovered the difficulty of being a single parent, having relied on my grandmother for much of our upbringing after the divorce.  

I still love exploring though and am very happy diving off the beaten track and finding unexpected gems in backstreets. Everything adds to the sum of my experience and knowledge. I also know that there is much still to discover and that can only partially be satisfied by second-hand experience through a screen or by a retelling of someone else’s experience. I can’t get the full flavour through their words or their pictures. The picture is the central part that they chose to show. There is much more at the periphery and the sounds and smells are missing.

My exploratory mind-set was developed in childhood, with localised experience. While this freedom might be less available today, for a wide range of reasons, it is still possible for families to undertake mini adventures, even to the local woods, seaside, or other natural areas, to look, listen, feel and smell (not taste) and to talk. He same can happen in towns, looking above the shops to find clues of former times.  

Alternatively, finding an atlas and exploring imaginatively, with grease-proof paper for tracing, can be the start of a lifetime of awareness and looking.

It did it for me.

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Tribal memory

19/3/2015

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A strange term perhaps, to use in the context of a blog on teaching and learning, but the concept came up in a conversation this week with a recently retired teacher who has chosen to become a part time classroom assistant for a couple of years to run-down gently into full retirement. A few weeks ago there was an interesting documentary on BBC about Anglo-Saxon Britain and the rites observed, not least was the sacrifice of the leaders if they failed in their perceived duties. A little melodrama goes a long way.

We were talking about the ebb and flow of school development. Her school had moved from a need to improve to outstanding and her current situation was in a school which has moved from special measures to good. With each of us having enjoyed long careers in schools, we were reflecting on how schools change over time, as new teams form and move forward, then slowly disintegrate as promotion, or life takes over and changes the dynamics.

We both agreed however, that it can be as tough being in an outstanding school and seeking to maintain that position, as it is in a category school. There are no really easy rides, except perhaps in staff dynamics, especially appointments. It is probably a truism that well known, successful schools attract a significant field of applicants for each post, so the choice is greater and potentially of higher calibre.

In many ways, though, continuity is maintained by those who stay, the “tribal elders”, who are the holders of the tribal narratives, the history and the myths, which can be shared with newcomers. The myths and tales can become the source of problems, if poor approaches are retained, as well as being helpful, if progress can be articulated and built upon.


If the leader leaves, like any tribe, the successor has to be selected and they will take time, especially if from outside the tribe, to understand the working methods of the group and the individual make-up of the group. This can be a tough time for all concerned, as personal issues can be aired. The need to make change, although probably accepted by many, can be resisted by some, who see the articulation of the need for change as criticism of previous approaches.

Within any tribal structure, there can be factions, cliques and coteries, of supposedly like-minded colleagues. These can be friendship groups which are long established, across all staff categories and can be a source of strength or weakness. Some may see themselves as the real leaders in the group, especially at a time of change and may seek to strengthen their positions. These minor politics can become a significant distraction from progress, especially if needs develop to deal with side issues, rather than substantive changes.

Change can, in specific circumstances, be the catalyst for rapid improvements, if the leader’s vision is clear, clearly articulated and effectively communicated with the members, with clarity of rationale based upon real internal research, ie talking with the members of the tribe to create plans that are based on internal strengths and knowledge of individuals with the skills and knowledge to help to lead. Plans are put in place, known to everyone, with specific checkpoints to celebrate successes and review areas for further consideration. Moving together and sharing success provides the feeling of tribal goodwill and self-worth.

I suppose that the moral of this is that there should be a good story to be told and shared with incomers and new members of the tribe, so that they can quickly understand their place within the tribal workings, establishing themselves in the whole, ensuring the best available advice and support has impact, thereby enabling the smooth and effective running of the group.

We don’t want a rerun of “Lord of the Flies”…

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Challenge and Improve

16/3/2015

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Know your children well (baseline). Challenge them appropriately. Engage in the journey; support and guide as necessary. Explore and Improve outcomes. Outcomes become new baseline. Repeat.
 
It is always interesting talking with student teachers, because, by definition, they are still learning; they are students in Initial Teacher Education. Trying to unpick different elements that go to make up good teaching can give rise to interesting side issues, not least seeking synonyms for different aspects of the role. The two most common to seek alternatives are differentiation and assessment.


I quite like to start with simpler models then build onto that framework of understanding. When I was training, I had a friend whose first port of call for any topic was the Ladybird series, where there was easily available a rapid introduction to a subject, so that provided the sub-headings to be filled in with detail later.

It is very important for trainee (and qualified) teachers to develop a holistic awareness and knowledge of the needs of the full range of children with whom they will work, so that, when faced with a particular year-group, their attainment can be seen in context and provide the basis for planning.

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Knowing the children in their classes holistically, as described in the diagram above, supports decision making. Visualising education in the round, and being aware of the children’s backgrounds can enable the teacher to underpin areas where the prior, background experience may become a limiting factor.

My own model of what teaching is can be described as a cycle; analyse, plan, do, review, record, or, even more simply, as in the nutshell below.

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Knowing your children well, as a start point can be the greatest confusion for a teacher, as the records passing with the child may be incomplete of confusing. In an era without a common assessment language between schools, this could become a significant issue at transfer, if not within transition, as teacher judgement is embedded in assessment information.

The range of children within a class can vary significantly, but, even within selected classes, such as streams and sets, there is a range to be accommodated, with both subject knowledge and skill needs to be addressed. Knowing the different needs of the children ensures that challenge within tasking can be tailored to their needs, with the need to articulate challenge being greater than the need to show different activities, which can be the fall-back position.

It is, in reality the need to see children challenged within a lesson that an observer wishes to see. What have the children got to get their teeth into, to think about, to talk about and then to write about? That this will be different for different children seems to me to be self-evident, but then, I taught before the initial National Curriculum, quite often in an Integrated Day, group-based approach, which was then a feature of Primary practice. Group-based tasking was normal.

So, the first word that needs to be evident in the classroom is challenge and how this is manifest and visible across the range of abilities. It can be embedded in personal challenge or learning targets, which can be the main focus within a broader tasking.

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Improvement is the second word that needs to be in common use in the class. If the challenge is correct, then there will be an outcome. Whatever the outcome, it should be capable of improvement, so sharing this with the group or class through the available technology should enable the children to talk through how they would seek to add even greater value to the shared outcomes.

The use of display, as in WAGOLL (What A Good One Looks Like) walls can be a valuable asset to discussing improvement. It is a case of constantly putting quality in front of children, so that they can build a visual image of expectation and take some charge of their own efforts.

Every outcome should become a new baseline if the process of challenge and improving outcomes is embedded in classroom practice. Each successive outcome becomes a descriptor of progression.

Of course the issue then is how to describe progress across a subject, so that there is a framework against which to make the judgement. The question is; how far have they travelled and where next? And so we go round the houses, especially without clear frames of reference.

Other linked posts.

Frame of reference?
http://chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinking-aloud/frames-of-referenceformative-assessment

Progress and outcomes
http://chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinking-aloud/progress-and-outcomes

What does progress look like? http://chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinking-aloud/progress-what-does-it-look-like

Assessment with children in mind.
http://chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinking-aloud/assessment-with-children-in-mind

 

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Teaching is a team Game

15/3/2015

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I have always thought that teaching is essentially a team game, and, as such, relies on each member of the team for the whole to function effectively. The team leader(s) have to recognise that their plans, vision and aspirations for the organisation will succeed or fall, depending on how they manage to get the best out of the rest of the team.

As I read more and more of the blogs by current education leaders (Heads, SLT, Middle managers and classroom teachers), I constantly think that the system is blessed to have such an articulate, committed, thoughtful and reflective group of professionals, prepared to put their thinking on-line, with the potential for others to comment and further develop ideas. The value of the sharing is that, even if you disagree with them, they have shared, made you think and, more often than not, nudge your thinking subtly in a positive direction. When OA produced a list of education bloggers, this list ran to several hundred. That’s a huge volume of shared thinking, from NQTs to school leaders.

With internet communication being instant, and the ubiquity of social media, it is possible to bring together a large number of professionals to discuss a common theme, as happens with #SLTchat and the other Twitter based formulations; it can, at times, be hard to know which to join. Twitter is also an “advertising space” for bloggers, who link their writing to tweets.

Twitter allows for continual themes, such as the #teacher5aday initiative, from @MartynReah, and my own #edn1000years, both of which, starting in December, have taken on a life of their own.

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I’d like to think that the, often very detailed, thinking being undertaken by the profession is being matched by “the powers that be”. Occasionally there’s a glimpse, a chink, as senior Ofsted people engage in “dialogue” across Twitter, with developing evidence that they are listening.

I don’t think the same can be said of the Government, or of the other political parties, all of whom seem to be following slightly varying versions of the same policy, with sound bites trumping coherent policies at every step.

The box at the header of this blog talks of leaders working through the efforts of others and that looking after the team is a significant aspect of the leader role.

As a life-long multiple sports fan, former player and coach, I am acutely aware of the need to ensure that each player is fully fit. With the Five Nations rugby on our screens at the moment, it is essential for the coaches to be aware of each player, so that they are each at peak fitness in order to play a full part in the game. To not do so could put the team under strain, which is why judicious use of substitutes can play such a key role, in the same way that cover arrangements need to be effective.

In a school setting, the leadership role is to ensure that the environment is conducive to maximising outcomes, to provide the best possible spaces for teaching and resources that enable the teacher and the learners to make best use of them. Allocating appropriate time for learning is a key function of management. If lessons are too long or too short, there can be shortcomings.

Everything has to tie together.

One weakness in the system is often a lack of awareness of external issues that might impact on performance. This can affect leaders as well as others. Leaders need to reflect on their own strengths and limitations so that they don’t become the weak link. I blogged about this, to some extent in “When a school gets sick”. Life happens to everyone, from the common cold, to “man flu”, broken bones, broken spirits/minds and more.

The ability of the team to “carry” a member not fully functioning can be diminished if the carrying begins to weigh another down. Whole team awareness is therefore essential.

I have been reflecting that, while the need is for the “system” as a team to grow, on behalf of all children, there is the potential for those schools in a sufficiently fortunate position to be at the top of the current pile to be making great progress, as a result of a fit team capable of promoting that growth. By default, though, that growth and success might, in itself become demotivating to others, in the same way that in a class where the same child always comes “top” can become demotivating to the rest of the class.

The only real way forward is to see education as a whole as a giant team, all working to the same ends. Sadly, the constant fragmentation of the system, with schools pitted against each other rather mitigates against that ever happening.

The one way that this could have been enabled has been removed with assessment being devolved to schools. Just working out what “good” looks like, as learning outcomes could have been the common thread that held the whole together. Now we have schools competing to have their assessment models replicated throughout the country.

If there is, therefore, the need for each school to think for themselves, then I think schools should take that luxury unto themselves. Organise the building, the teaching spaces and the available resources to maximise potential. Think, envisage possibility, plan effectively and efficiently, put in the necessary support, mentoring, coaching and oversight to see through the plans, with set review points. Celebrate positives at all stages, Value contribution and say thank you, individually and collectively properly. Unpick the successes and the areas for further improvement, learn from the process and repeat with the next project.

Build on success, even small successes and be able to share the development narrative, the rationale and the outcomes to the wider audience. Learn from the best, yes, but also think for yourself. Learn from doing and reflecting.

Remember; teaching is a team game. Pull together, or you can pull apart.

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#edn1000years gallery 3

10/3/2015

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The kindness of contributors means a constant flow of ideas to try to capture into an appropriate image. Thanks to all those whose ideas feature here.
Please read the full contribution on http://chrischiversthinks.weebly.com/blog-thinking-aloud/1000-years-of-experience If you feel you'd like to contribute, please use the comment thread to do so.

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More maths Activities

10/3/2015

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Still browsing files. Here’s a series of maths activities that lend themselves to open ended investigation with a little tweaking, or can be used to think though specific issues within a practical base.

Investigating with cubes

Resource; tray of multilink cubes or similar.

Investigation; To explore how many different shapes can be made with 1,2,3,4,5,6 cubes?

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This investigation enables discussion of reflected and rotated shapes and whether they are “allowed” as separate shapes, or whether they should be disallowed.

A table of results could be developed, to record results.

A subsidiary activity could be, having created shapes with 4 cubes, better perhaps, if each shape in single colour, to see what shapes can be made by using combinations of cubes, say 12, 20, 28.

This can give rise to drawings of different elevations, top, bottom, four sides. All can lead to mathematical discussions.

Investigating squares

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Devise a checking method to show how many squares there are in a 3 squares by 3 squares grid.

Repeat this for a square of 4 by 4 squares.

Set out results in a table.

1 square

2 squares

3 squares

4 squares

Is there a pattern in the results? Consider square numbers.

Could you predict how many squares would be in a 5 by 5 grid, then prove it?

How many squares on a chess board?

Triangles

In the same way as the squares investigation, the use of triangles might give rise to a different range of mathematical discussions.

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Isometric paper allows children to draw the triangles for themselves, or they can be provided for them.

Start with one triangle side, two, three, four, etc, so that investigation is ordered, and have the children create a table for results.

After three, they can start to predict how many triangles they expect to find and to explain their thinking.

 
Pyramids

Using multilink, can you make a square based pyramid two stories high, with one cube at the top?

Three, four, five…

Enables early discussion of square numbers.

Predict the next series of layers, then prove.

 

Back to one…

Dividing by 2 practice.

Allow each child to choose a starter number, appropriate to their current awareness.

Rules of the task.

If it can be divided by 2, do it, if not, add 1.

Example

33+1=34/2=17+1=18/2=9+1=10/2=5+1=6/2=3+1=4/2=2/ (2=1) repeats

If this is drawn out, linking all the numbers, a tree starts to grow.

 

Rectangle arrays.

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Resource; multilink or similar linking cubes.

Discuss the attributes of a rectangle.

What’s the smallest rectangle you can make with cubes?

Make a series of rectangles of different sizes and explain their attributes.

How many different rectangles can you make using 12 cubes each? (4)

How many cubes would it take to make five different rectangles with the same number of cubes in each? (36)

Question; is a square a rectangle?

Six (60), seven (120-192), eight (120)

 

Back to zero “snake”

Based on the idea of function machines, each stage is an equation, with the output becoming the input into the next machine.

The start number can be any with which the child feels comfortable. NB The function machines can be hand drawn, as the task progresses, or before starting, if a specific number of equations are expected.

The child can devise their own trail through the snake, taking responsibility for accuracy. If, say, 20 functions are expected, then it is possible to specify that 4 will be +, 4 as -, 4 as * and 4 as /.

The level of challenge can be differentiated, by expecting somewhere in the snake for numbers to go above a specific point.

Whatever happens through the snake, the answer at the “head” is always zero.

This activity is very simple to organise, but can be adapted to any age and ability, by varying the expectations.

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More to come soon...
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Create or creativity

9/3/2015

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We cannot create observers by saying 'observe,' but by giving them the power and the means for this observation and these means are procured through education of the senses. Maria Montessori

Create; bring (something) into existence. She created a beautiful garden.

synonyms: generate, produce, design, make, fabricate, fashion, manufacture, build, construct, erect, do

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When you look at the word create and some of the synonyms for it, in reality, it means to make something (happen). That, in itself, describes the efforts of young children, who can be happily absorbed in making something that embeds their thoughts, even if the end product does not, to an adult eye, look like the intention.

“Look mummy, I’ve made a …” Smiles and pride…Response?

The incomplete nature of the product may be due to a lack of hand control, choice or availability of materials, but is, to the child, a work of immense pleasure. The making, in itself, gives pleasure.

You don’t have to be an expert to achieve that level. 

You cannot create experience. You must undergo it. Albert Camus

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Having created something, the act of reflecting on the process of creation can lead to practising specific aspects and improving elements of the process. That could be, in the case of the young learner, practising cutting with scissors to improve the cutting skill, or exploring alternative ways to join different materials together. Looking at and evaluating the outcomes from others can provide insights into personal needs for improvement, but also to other possibilities.

Improving discrete aspects of the process can lead to improvements in future outcomes.

My favourite words are possibilities, opportunities and curiosity. I think if you are curious, you create opportunities, and then if you open the doors, you create possibilities. Mario Testino

I have a problem with the use of the word creativity in education at the moment, as I think it is being over-used to the point where it has begun to lose its meaning, especially as it has been taken to only mean a few specific subjects by some.

Every subject has the potential for creativity, sometimes by design, sometimes by accident.

Creating can simply mean following a recipe or an instruction, step by step enabling something to emerge. This copyist approach has a place, especially if the steps are designed with specific processes in mind, so that they have to be practised and replicate several times to develop facility in that skill. This was the basis of the early Design Technology curriculum.

However, if the only diet in creating is the copyist route, the learner does not learn an essential skill; that of making appropriate decisions about selecting materials, organising work areas and working methods. It also undermines confidence to move away from the recipe, which can be restrictive. As EYFS children can show skills in these areas, it is a concern that older learners often struggle with that often as a consequence of a recipe based diet. They unlearn their natural curiosity and confidence, becoming less, rather than more independent.

Circumstance can dictate periods when resilience and adaptability are tested. The need to “make do and mend” is often the point where this is so. At some point soon, I have to drain down my central heating system to take out some sediment that has built up. In seeking to do this a few days ago, I discovered that the drain valve has locked and cannot be used as planned. So I have to adopt a different approach, which will take longer, but which will clear the water, very slowly and allow me to replace the drain valve before putting it all back together again. It can be a case of “If you can see it, you can do it”.

Now that’s a practical solution to a problem and, in reality, that’s life. Occasionally things will happen and it need to be sorted, so that life can go on. Sometimes it means adapting circumstances. You may not have exactly what is needed at the time, so you improvise, sometimes a little more creatively than others.

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Creativity, to me, is thinking around a problem or an issue and coming up with viable solutions. That may be a plot line in a story, an issue with a piece of art work or a practical issue. If you can see the problem, you might be able to see the solution.

The problem with a recipe/copyist approach is that the recipe deviser has already removed the problems from the process, so adaptability from the copyist is not required. Not required means not practised, so not developed and refined through use. This reductive approach does not bode well for future needs, when the recipe may not fit the needs of the problem.

As a classteacher, I often found that starting a task with the terms “create”, “design and make” or “show how” had a very positive impact, as it did not specify from the outset how something should be done. It also embedded the need to consider the process involved. Children were encouraged to make choices at every stage. They developed what I would term creative habits of mind, analysing the project, planning and approach, starting with the knowledge that adaptation was possible within the task, reflecting throughout and making decisions. They always finished by evaluating the outcomes for future reference.

Examples might be

  • Create a picture that shows spring.

  • Design and make a model of how a portcullis/drawbridge might operate.

  • Create a plan for…

  • Design and carry out a fair test to see…

  • Create a 3D model of …

  • Show how you thought through a specific equation.

  • Create a circuit with three equally bright lights.

As a result, the children became practically adept, as well as able to make decisions within the tasks. In my terms, they became creative.

They were my infant classes…

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I'm free!

9/3/2015

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I thought about doing a pastiche based on the exploits in Grace Brothers in the sit-com, "Are You Being Served?" from the 1970s, but it soon became obvious that I was feeling something different.

Looking forward in anger.

You’re the Secretary of State for Education and you have around 25,000 schools for which you are ultimately responsible and you have been given your budget allocation for the coming period. Do you, ensure that the throughput of training teachers is sufficient to supply the needs of the schools, ensure that basic funding allows resources to be bought or necessary repairs and replacement buildings are available? No, you decide to open a series of new Free Schools.

If a headteacher, in allocating the available budget, did not first consider staffing availability, needs and costs, then the resource needs, building fabric, space, replacement then potential upgrades, their judgement would be called into account and leadership and management judgements at inspection would be poor.

I’m trying to think why I have such a problem with the announcement today that Free Schools are to be expanded. Might be useful to put some of the issues in a list.

  • Free schools are set up by local interest groups; there is no guarantee that educational expertise is present, so decisions can be flawed.

  • Free Schools, if set up by Trusts, may still suffer the same issues.

  • Premises need to be found; cost and potentially not suitable for purpose.

  • Management posts need to be filled, Head, Deputy and Admin needs to be in place, as well as finding a brand new team of staff with appropriate skills to develop a wide range of schemes of work.

  • Starting from scratch, all resources need to be bought and made available, with potential training needs. Cost and suitability? Mistakes will be made.

  • No policies will be in place. School “sold” on aspiration.

  • Effective team building takes time.

  • Processes may not be in place, so things can be made up as they go along, with ensuing hiccups.

  • Inspection monitoring visits are not made public, so parents are unaware about the quality of the provision.

In the right hands, with the right decisions at the right time, with the right people, the right building, resources and local support, any school can succeed, whether LA maintained, Academy or Free School. I take that as a truism. Tweak any aspect to wrong and the whole can come under strain. Again, to me self-evident, except, that the saving aspect in many schools is the quality of teaching within each classroom, as a result of well-qualified teachers doing their best every day.

In many ways, it is the secretive nature of the local development of a Free School that worries me most. Parents are told what they need to be told, with the initial stages being akin to a sales job, just like any other, with colourful prospectus, sales-people approach to face to face contact and in the press. The Department for Education may visit regularly, to monitor and advise I assume, akin to an Ofsted Inspection, but the outcomes are not made public. So what happens when a Free School goes wrong and some do, as have been recently evidenced?

If 500 new Free Schools are proposed over the next five years, that will be at significant extra cost to the system, not least because 500 extra headteachers, deputies and admin departments will be needed to coordinate the systems, beyond the additional teachers and buildings, which would be needed anyway.

Some will be in inappropriate buildings, with limited facilities, which then require extensive remodelling, at a cost. Some of these buildings may be on lease, so the long term future of the school might be at risk.

It strikes me that the wrong analysis has led to the wrong description of the problem, which in turn has created a wrong plan and execution.

Within this, there are real children, whose chances of a quality education might be being compromised to political whim.

There are also real schools, with real heads and staff, with appropriate facilities, which, with a small amount of building, even temporary, and some new staff, could have a significant impact on the need for school spaces.

That, to me, is the simpler solution, and, if we need an aspiration, perhaps to ensure that all schools are good schools, with appropriate staffing and provision? I thought the Government was responsible for that, first and foremost?

PS. I have avoided anecdote, but have recently had a grandchild in a Free School. The experience was not entirely positive.

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Primary Science is a practical subject

6/3/2015

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It was interesting this morning to browse Twitter and find an article about a speech from John Cridland of the CBI suggesting that in many schools science was being squeezed as a subject, not getting the two hours a week that is suggested. The Government spokesperson response that he was talking nonsense might be less than helpful. The BBC report can be seen here; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31749900

Science, as a subject is very dear to my heart. As a child, I was very excited by things scientific, which led to a chemistry set for one Christmas and a microscope on another. I received, from a relative, a book called Chemistry Experiments at Home for Boys and Girls, by H.L.Heys (1959), which had the kitchen cupboard style experiments, eg drop vinegar onto baking powder, among many others.

Looking up the book, a copy can still be bought via Amazon and I’ll let the following review state the case:-

This is the book that 'turned me on' to a study of chemistry. It's pure nostalgia - you can't do this sort of thing anymore. When I was a teenager (back in the late 1950s) you could walk into a pharmacy and buy chemicals over the counter. I can remember going home on the bus with bottles of concentrated acids and all manner of substances. Today the H&S people would have a fit if you tried this.

CEAHFMAG sets out the sort of 'safe' experiments that you could do, with largely home-made apparatus. You are shown how to carry out basic chemical operations (distillation, filtration, crystallization, etc). You can perform simple chemical reactions that are interesting and illustrative of what can be done with a minimum of fuss and also fairly cheaply. The prices of chemicals in those - now - 'far-off' days are measured in terms of £sd (and I don't mean lysergic acid diethylamide either). Most were a few pence ('old' pence) per ounce (metric measurements were not used back then).

No, you can't use this book as any sort of laboratory manual any more - but it's enormous fun to read through and see what could be done. If you studied chemistry before the descent of the National Curriculum on our heads, then this book will appeal to you in so many ways.


So I got used to looking around me, trying things out, posing questions and seeking some kind of solution that satisfied me. It may not have been truly scientific at every stage and I may not have had the requisite knowledge beforehand, but it got me hooked into the potential of science which I have kept throughout my life. Spending a year in a science lab as a lab assistant, counting worms and bivalves did dent the enthusiasm a little; but it meant that I took that experience into teaching, where I did, expectedly take a science based Primary course.

One major resource on every staffroom shelf, was the Nuffield Science 5-13 series. This was an investigative series, full of interesting ideas to support exploratory approaches, with very clear teacher guidance on what to do, how to do it and the essential background knowledge to share. They were thematic, so fitted with classroom activities well. Some, such as Holes, Gaps and Cavities, were sufficiently broad to enable them to incorporate many other curriculum areas over a sustained topic.


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This, very practical, hands-on approach was the hallmark of all science teaching in my classroom career and through my headship. The quality of the science teaching, the exploratory and investigative nature of the approach was often emulated by others, especially as the outcomes, as measured by SATs and transfer reports were positive. Our children left school with a love of science (and learning). Many went on to scientific careers.

Science topics, like others, were blocked, to ensure quality time was available to the teacher to organise any fine-tuning necessary. It seems very possible, to me, that if science is timetables for a couple of hours each week, that, in itself could be the squeeze, especially if on the “science afternoon”, something else happens. It can also mean that practical science is purely demonstration, with little time allowed for child exploration.

Practical science can and should be a significant and important catalyst for high quality writing, of lists, contemporary notes, instructions and reports.   

In many ways the precursor to what eventually became the spine of the school T&L policy, developed from the thinking into science processes. We developed an investigative approach to History and Geography too, with the over-riding principle of children making sense of the experiences that they were having.


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Internal documentation was firmly in place well before the QCA schemes, which were never used, as they were significantly worse as a scientific approach than we had. Science is not a recipe, it is s thought process, starting with a problem or a query. Reflection on the issues might lead to a working methodology and some kind of hypothesis. Having time to undertake investigation is one of the luxuries of the Primary classroom, if you actually allow yourself that time. Thinking, talking, arguing, organising (space, time, resources and people), observing, recording, reflecting, evaluating, writing up or presenting outcomes are some of the essential skills needed for life and the workplace. Just giving a child a card and saying “follow the instructions” is less likely to achieve these ends.

In many ways the balance between knowledge and skills is in sharp relief in a subject like science. A certain amount of knowledge enables questions to be asked. The asking of the question can lead to an investigation, either through observation of through looking up possible answers, in books or the internet. The outcome of the investigation will hopefully add to the earlier knowledge. Science had to start somewhere, and I’d hazard a guess that it was likely to have been some kind of observation or a happy accident that caused some surprise, followed by follow up thinking.

Over-focus on just the knowledge will not produce scientists. Showing children that it is possible to undertake investigations for themselves might. It starts early, for example in the bath, pouring water from one vessel to another, higher to lower. Asking the question; what do you think will happen if we … ?

John Cridland may well be right. Just having a “world class” policy does not necessarily translate into practice in every classroom. Perhaps we need Primary teachers with questing, investigative mind-sets, prepared to develop thinking approaches in their classrooms.

Science from the Postman…. Materials…

I looked out some ideas that I used in the classroom, to develop science related activities.

Get the children to make a collection of as many different types of paper that they can from within the school (and from home) Use a magnifier, microscope or visualiser to look even more closely at the papers. Sort, classify, display. Explain similarities and differences, as well as uses.

Devise a fair test to find the best paper to send a parcel through the post. (Think of the journey of the parcel)

Devise a fair test to find the best writing tool to write the label. (What will happen to the parcel)

Design an envelope or a parcel to send a delicate article through the post.

Devise a fair test to find which is the best material for a bag to keep the letters dry.

Devise a fair test to find the best materials to keep the postperson, cool, warm or dry.

The postie often starts work in the dark. What is the best colour for a coat to be seen?

Fair testing is possible, guided, with very young children, who have an idea of what fair means, so this can be translated into the practical activity.

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#edn1000years gallery2

4/3/2015

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Thanks to the many colleagues who have spent time thinking about the lessons from their careers and distilling their thoughts into short enough elements to be memorable.

To view the original blog and follow the comment thread for many more words of experience, click here to go to that webpage. Please feel free to add your own thoughts. The more the merrier.
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Reading, words, Phonics...

2/3/2015

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Trying to find a context for phonics.

Everyone is at it. It is a wonder how we ever really learn to read.

(My) Simple View of Reading; For a start, I am wondering if we are in danger of overcomplicating things, with a focus on the teacher rather than the needs of the learner. I do have a relatively simple view of reading, which can be summarised as, in through the eyes, churned around in the brain (which we can’t see) and out through the mouth, if you want to extend to performance, with this latter often casing children evident discomfort as they are very much on display and can suffer from the equivalent of stage fright.

However, we need to take a step back even from that phase, as a child will have lived a few years before learning to read, so will have developed some oral language which hopefully is sufficiently sophisticated to interact with storylines as they develop. We cannot legislate for pre-school experiences within families, nor the quality of oral interaction, but it is to be hoped that there will have been some learning of nursery rhymes and songs, with some simple poetry and that picture books have already been introduced and shared. Hopefully visits to places of interest which stimulate talk will have happened. I know it won’t be the same for each child and this can become significant variable, with teachers making assumptions about what their children might have experienced.

In this phase, a number of learners will begin to associate the squiggles, the black shapes on the page, as writing, with the adult reading the squiggles. If they are introduced to the concept of writing their name for example, they may well see their name in all sorts of places, usually as a result of seeing the first letter. Children will often as what something “says”, which shows an insight into reading.

So the idea of the squiggles “saying” something is an important step.
Phonic knowledge (sound and spelling) Identifying the squiggles as letters provides deeper insight, and develops visual and oral skills, with recall an essential aspect. Just saying the alphabet does not equate with knowing the letters.


The learner begins to pick up combinations of letters, which together subtly change the sound to make a new sound. Just learning the sounds does not make a child a reader. The sounds have to be recombined into the words, which in themselves embed concepts.

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I’ve always had an analytical brain, so looking for patterns is almost hard-wired into my brain. Putting combinations of letters together must have just made sense, as I don’t remember having a problem with a combination of letters that made “and”, then adding letters to make “families” of words, such as band, dandy, hand, land, sand, which gave me insights into the whole world of whole words.

For example, tree, requires some juggling as the single sounds would not be helpful. T-r-e-e brought together as tr-ee, to make the two sounds (three in SSP; t-r-ee), supports successful articulation. If a child has an image of a tree, that supports learning, as the concept matches the word. Nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives can fall into this category. You can picture it, draw it or act it out in some way.

Phonics is important, whichever approach suits the learner, as far as I am concerned. It is one skill in building a complete picture of what makes words.

Word recognition: Quite a number of words which support a broader concept of reading either are not all phonetically simple, nor do they necessarily embed an image. Articulated clearly within the Ladybird Key Words research, they included the following:

a and he I in is it of that the to was all as at be but are for had have him his not on one said so they we with you about an back been before big by call came can come could did do down first from get go has her here if into just like little look made make me more much must my no new now off only or out over other out right see she same their them then there this two up want well went who were what when where which will your old

Extracting the 25 most common words, which make up one third of reading, increases the urgency to know these particular words efficiently.

the of and a to in is you that it he was for on are as with his they I at be this have from

I like to think of some of these as narrative words, part of the language that supports linkage of ideas. Rapid recall of words aids fluency, while fluency aids understanding, as the words are put together into sentences. It is the basis of many early reading schemes.

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Language comprehension – is understanding the meaning! Our speech patterns follow the rules of oral grammar, for the most part, to a point where people are able to complete the sentences of others.

In a written form this is articulated as cloze procedures, where words are erased from a text and the reader asked to find appropriate words to make sense of the text being read.

The little …… was on ….. bike in the ……..

There are lots of possibilities, rather than one correct choice for each space. This allows for a teacher to check grammatical understanding.

Fluency, to me, is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression. Fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. When fluent readers read silently, we have to assume that they recognize words semi-automatically. They group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read.

Because fluent readers do not have to concentrate as much on decoding the words, they can focus their attention on what the text means. They can make connections among the ideas in the text and their background knowledge. In other words, fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at the same time. Less fluent readers, however, must focus their attention on figuring out the words, leaving them more limited attention for understanding the text.

Reading fluency encompasses the speed or rate of reading, as well as the ability to read materials with expression. Meyer and Felton defined fluency as "'the ability to read connected text rapidly, smoothly, effortlessly, and automatically with little conscious attention to the mechanics of reading, such as decoding" (1999, p. 284).

Determining a child's reading rate

A child's reading rate may be calculated by dividing the number of words read correctly by the total amount of reading time. If you count out 100 words in a passage and then time the child as (s)he reads the passage, you can get a view on the speed.

Miscue analysis: If the 100 word passage is also marked for any miscues, the teacher can also support a diagnosis of the specific needs of the child.

Performance: Eventually the early reader is encouraged to perform as a reader, often using the teaching level book, sometimes within a Guided reading session, where there is a larger audience. All reading aloud is performance, whether adult or child. Reading aloud is likely to cause some internal tension, as it is, for the child, a test situation. This is not always considered by adults, who use it as a means of ascertaining the child’s current reading skill.

The performance is often judged by additional criteria, beyond accuracy, with elements such as fluency and expressiveness being highly regarded. If a child is reading an unprepared passage, or at a challenging level, it is likely to suffer from reduced performance.  

Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and with expression. Their reading sounds natural, as if they are speaking. Readers who have not yet developed fluency read slowly, word by word.

Fluency is one reason why I have always favoured colour coded reading schemes as the basis for reading, especially independent reading; a variety of schemes graded according to challenge, with an associated reading age. This allow for a number of challenge levels, the main two being teaching, where a book can be read with some support and guidance, and fluency, which essentially is any colour beneath the teaching level. If children are able to select widely and change their books as needed, they can enjoy reading for themselves, but also can explore performance based on an enhanced fluency. Going above the teaching level can allow some to become frustrated, but the challenge might demonstrate to some that they are better readers than they think.

If children can learn to ride a bike and skateboard once some early support has been given, through personal practice, why can’t we let them do the same with reading?

Can children really fall off a book and hurt themself? Why shouldn't they have a book and have a go? They might make a few errors, but that's not necessarily completely wrong. They will still need specific coaching and guidance and interest being shown, but there is a real need to enhance overall reading skill as reading impacts on the whole curriculum. 

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Every day and In every way

2/3/2015

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I’m getting better and better.

Or, you get one life; make the most of each day.

Thanks to the ever young Frank Spencer of 1970’s comedy fame, for a number of memorable catchphrases and cod psychology. However, I, like Frank, perhaps on occasion can be accused of being naïve. Like him, I am not perturbed by that, in that sometimes, I now know that, in order to look incredibly superior, some people seek to belittle others. If you can see through that, then that can place you in a sound position, as the intended hurt may be lessened.

There is a lot in the world to rail about and, as a parent and grandparent, I am regularly exercised by the futures for my children and their children. Despite having been born in the (early) 1950s and able to have a memory of the last post-war rationing, I have to say that I think I had a better childhood than my grandchildren’s generation will have. It was something of a surprise to come across an article in the Guardian that discussed the changes in the words within the Oxford Junior Dictionary, where a large number of words describing the natural world have been removed, to be replaced by words that can only be describe as curricular and digital media related. Now, I know that it is difficult to get children out of the house at times, but, if the words aren’t in the dictionary, they cannot even be stumbled upon to awaken some curiosity.

I’ve written about my own childhood in other blogs; much of it spent outside, in true 1950s style, exploring, making dens, collecting things, making friends, falling over/out of trees, getting up and keeping going, so as not to lose face. Outside was space to run, jump and climb, to stop and look at something unusual, to surmise and be generally curious. I-spy books, tea card series and the Observer series supported looking around and identifying what we saw. Someone knew, and if not, we knew someone who would, so we asked. This was free exercise, fresh air and easy distraction, which may not be available today to all children.

My generation went into university or training colleges for free, and being from a low income household, I got a grant; not enough to make me rich and I didn’t get an extra penny from parents. All my holidays were spent working in holiday camps or bars. When I emerged as a teacher and married, the first house was bought on four times one income (Twice joint was the phrase). Today, the same house would require a significant deposit and at least ten times a teacher starting salary. Is it any wonder that the aspirations and energies of today’s similar generation may be dampened, especially as they now come from uni with a whopping debt? I remember distinctly the impact of rising interest rates on our lifestyle. Significant choices had to be made, and, when they reached 15%, the choices were to do with eating habits. It was the point where vegetarianism was an economic survival strategy, as pulses cost significantly less than meat, and if we wanted to give the children meat, lentils and beans would give us our protein. Today’s interest rates are historically miniscule; what will happen when they rise? We know that money stress has a significant demoralising effect, with an impact on children in the worst cases.

Education has become the great whipping post for all shades of politicians. With six grandchildren, already in, or who will enter education in the next four years, I have a continuing interest. Now, I don’t want to accuse the politicians of playing with these children’s lives, but that in reality is what they do. Politicians, who may never have taught children, advised, perhaps by people who may be exceptionally bright outcomes of their education, but never taught, or by a range of hand-picked “experts”, who decide what is the best for all schools, in terms of the offered curriculum, but also in terms of the external systems within which they will operate. The semi-abstract nature of the decision-making can seem to create a divide between intention and outcomes, as successive layers in the system interpret the edicts from on high, adding their own twist for good measure. It can sometimes feel like an episode of “Wolf Hall”, with a slight wondering who is a likely candidate for the chop. That is more likely to be the bottom of the pile, the schools, who can feel very vulnerable as their interpretations of expectation are interrogated by the external force of Ofsted. Or, in the frenzied world of education coteries, anyone who doesn’t believe ( eg in systematic synthetic phonics)  

It can feel that everyone knows better than teachers; the cliché that everyone’s been to school so is an expert, can sometimes ring true. However, a new phenomenon, of the celebrity teacher expert, is on the rise, as a result of blogging and Twitter sometimes challenging centrally held views. There have been a number of examples over the past couple of years where the centre has talked to the ordinary teacher.

There is a potential danger in that arrangement, in that celebrity teachers are then created, whose words themselves become gospel. Given the age range of education, expertise and success in one realm doesn’t make you an expert in all. Success is often context dependent.

It can all combine to create insecurity where it is most needed, in the teachers in the classrooms with the children for whom they have responsibility. Trying to second guess the intentions of others is a weakness in the system. SLT have been guilty of that and some still are, trying to work out what Ofsted want. In that scenario, teachers try to guess what SLT want, so can skew their working habits to become less productive.

The teacher who knows their children well, knows their stuff well and can make learning interesting, to me is the bedrock of good and better teaching. While everyone wants each and every child to succeed as they pass through school, to squeeze the system so that it approaches breaking point is not productive either. Personally, I’d rather children left Primary school with a good basic, but broad interest in their world and the necessary English and Maths skills to interpret it effectively and with articulacy to share their insights, so that transfer to Secondary was a continuation of that interest.

Children who enjoy learning have more chance to make progress; simples. Let’s make education a case of supported growing up.

Every day and in every way

I’m getting better and better.

What better mantra could you have for education?

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Transition/Transfer

1/3/2015

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This morning, I read an excellent blog by Jon Brunskill, discussing the issues of transition from year 6 to year 7 and asked for ideas that might seek to address aspects which could be seen as embedded problems.

Now, I’ve been around the clock a couple of times now and have had a very long career in education, so have seen a range of different approaches, some of which work, if they are bedded in and continued through reflective practice.

Quite often the changes in staffing, especially at Secondary level, can mean that understanding and interpretations of the roles involved can vary from year to year. It is also possible that, where Secondary schools articulate that they will test the children on arrival that all records up to that point can seem to have become irrelevant, with the implication that the preceding teacher judgement and the National Curriculum testing should not be taken as the baseline.

The lack of professional acceptance has been a feature since the inception of the National Curriculum in 1987, at which point I was the Deputy in a First School, feeding a Middle School where the staff would never accept the judgements, even if they had been moderated and validated by County Advisors and Inspectors. It happens at all stages, yr2-3, 6-7, 9-10, where transfer into another Key Stage with some kind of terminal testing might be an issue.

It has long been argued that a level 3 in Infants was not the same as in Junior or in Secondary. It is an issue of looking down on the stage before. It happens within schools too, at transition points, but can be further exaggerated at transfer, where the children are not known at all.

Primary schools know their children extremely well, especially if the staffing is relatively static, as previous staff knowledge is not lost between years, so all become the eyes and ears of the system, ensuring that change is quickly spotted. As Jon said, the equivalence is that within a half term, the Primary teacher will have seen their children for as many hours as a Secondary teacher does in a year. It is a great pity if that knowledge is devalued or effectively lost.

While transfer can be a new start for some, for the majority it is important that continuity of expectation ensures that the transfer year is not spent doing the same as has been done before, so that previous benchmarks can be the start point for that year.

Some suggestions for transfer activity:-

Talk, talk and keep talking, even when transfer has happened. Evaluate the process from all angles, staff, children and parents. Did it work for each of them?

Quality visits between schools, with Secondaries walking their feeder Primaries, so that they have a full picture of where their new entrants have come from. Otherwise, you might as well meet in a coffee shop and just talk about the children, disembodied from their learning context.

Share and value records passing from the previous phase. If this is too much, then at least a small portfolio as a record, against which the new efforts can be judged. Avoid slippage, as this can become a significant negative. The number of children who come back to Primary and tell teachers that they are doing the same again, as in years 5 and 6, is probably significant. It was a regular feature in my school. (The Secondary bus stop was just outside the school, so easy to pop in for a chat on the way home)

Agree to use the same books across years 6 and 7, so that the last book used in year 6 is taken with the child to be the start point in year 7; benchmark known.

Cross phase projects; see the work of Pete Jones @Pekabelo in this regard, for excellent examples. This enable quality work to be developed across the summer holiday in preparation for the new start.

Growth mindset should be the hallmark of transfer. How will the receiving school/teachers build on the successes to date? Levels do indicate some level of ability, even if you’d rather they didn’t.

 

 

 

 



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    Chris Chivers

    Long career in education, classroom and leadership; always a learner.
    University tutor and education consultant; Teaching and Learning, Inclusion and parent partnership.
    Francophile, gardener, sometime bodhran player.

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