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National writing project; revival time?

20/10/2014

I was surprised to discover that the National Writing Project, 1985-88, which played a very large part in my classroom career, took place nearly thirty years ago. The project coincided with Deputy Headship and taking a Postgraduate diploma in language and reading development, so allowed a level of immersion and reflection which then had an impact on the English curriculum approaches when I took up my headship. An articulation of the writing approach adopted is the subject of an earlier post on a two page, process based approach to writing.

It is amazing to think that, after thirty years, we are still looking for an approach that “works” to ensure that children become writers. There are only so many ideas within writing; we should be capable of putting them together in a coherent whole.

The CfBT education Trust wrote a pamphlet in 2008 to describe the need for a revamped UK National Writing Project along the lines of the USA, where the government had continued to pursue the process, whereas in the UK, the NWP stopped in 1988, at a point where it was argued that the National Curriculum embedded many of the aspects of the project.

The NWP in the USA started in California (Bay Area Writing Project) in 1974 in response to concerns over the level of children’s writing. After a few years this went national and has remained so since.

Basic tenets of the National Writing Project (USA) approach

The basic tenets of the National Writing Project were that:

1. to teach writing, you need to be able to write

2. students should respond to each other’s writing

3. the teacher should act as writer alongside the students, and be prepared to undertake the same assignments as the students

4. there is research about the teaching of writing that needs to be considered and applied, where appropriate, in the classroom

5. teachers can be their own researchers in the classroom

6. the best teacher of writing teachers is another writing teacher

7. various stages of the writing process need to be mapped and practised: these include pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, conferencing (see no 2 above) and publishing.

A fuller account of the way in which the National Writing Project (USA) works to support teachers is contained in Wood and Lieberman (2000), cited below.

Aspects of this project formed the basis for the NWP in the UK, based on regions with seconded support teachers coordinating activities. Fortunately for me, one local regional teacher was a seconded Deputy Head of an infant school who was instrumental in bringing together a very active group of teachers prepared to try a variety of approaches in their classrooms, then come together, show process and outcomes, moderate and support further development. The ideas that came out of this created a significant dynamic across the whole area.

The abiding legacy of the National Writing Project in the 1980s was the sharing of innovative practice between teacher and teacher. One of the important gains was an understanding that real audiences were important to emergent writers and that a range of types of writing could be enjoyed and experimented with. In this latter case, the initiative meshed well with the wider base for genres and styles of writing that was established in the first version of the National Curriculum for English, in the late 1980s, as well as with the early coursework-based requirements of GCSE. Any sense of the impact on pupils or of a sustained change in teacher professional development, however, could not be captured in such an exclusively bottom-up approach.

Raban (1990), gives one of the best accounts and evaluations of the project in its Berkshire context.

Raban concludes (p72) that specific gains in understanding and shared practice were made which included the importance of :-

opportunities for reflection and evaluation;

control over the processes of writing;

active re-shaping of past experience;

confidence and time to be tentative and to learn from mistakes;

and the importance of collaboration with others.

The NWP promoted the view that the writing process was paramount, that the different stages were equally important to the final outcome, that writing should not be a solitary activity, but should involve the active participation of others along the developmental route, including the teacher, that the process was enhanced by time for drafting and redrafting, with improvements discussed at all stages. The enhanced nature of audience offered a perspective that can be missing from much writing in class.

Making writing visible, throughout the process, is easy today with visualisers available in many classrooms, to support the developmental journey. Consideration of how to display the outcomes is essential. This can be through simple displays of writing, or within class anthologies, or personal portfolios of final drafts. All of these can then have impact on progress, as they form a new baseline from which to make progress.

The introduction of the National Curriculum brought one dimension which supported the NWP approaches, the introduction of descriptors of progression. It didn’t matter what the context for writing was, the descriptors could be applied to describe achievement and next steps, supporting detailed conversation with learners so that they could become co-labourers in their own progress. Descriptors attached to the edge of the writing book support an on-going dialogue between teacher and child and between children, as an outline journey is described.

The Literacy Strategy was, to my mind, undermined by a mixture of politics, the regular articulation of the Literacy Hour and local interpretation which led to a stereotyping of approaches, diminishing the thinking of class teachers to become copyists.

The principles of the NWP could be easily adopted within a school or a department, with individual teachers undertaking small scale research activities then sharing outcomes at internal CPD sessions. The process of teachers learning about writing progression ultimately enhances the writing process for learners.

Wood, D.R. and Lieberman, A. (2000) ‘Teachers as authors: the National Writing Project’s approach to professional development’, International Journal of Leadership in Education, 3:3, 255–73

Raban, B. (1990) ‘Using the ‘craft’ knowledge of the teacher as a basis for curriculum development: a review of the National Writing Project in Berkshire’, Cambridge Journal of Education, 20:1, 57–72.

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Assessment; righting wrongs?

20/10/2014

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The road is long, with many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where, who knows when.

But I'm strong, strong enough to carry him
He ain't heavy, he's my brother

Where assessment went wrong and how it could come right.

Elevating assessment almost to the level of a science in schools was always likely to be flawed, as the system is based on teacher judgement and that, inevitably suffers from individual insights, based on their experiences. Younger teachers have limited experience so do not have a clear frame of reference against which to make accurate judgements. Older teachers can assume that they have “cracked” assessment and may, by default introduce “time-saving” ways into practice, which, over time, embed inaccuracies.

Sharing good practice can be flawed, as the good practice has been reflected upon, trialled and implemented in a specific situation, by a specific teacher/school. To seek to take and replicate, without considering the contexts and the insights of the developer, can lead to rapid failure.

Level descriptors, in themselves, were a useful guide to expectation and progress, especially in the Primary school. I can accept that they became more problematic in Secondary, as they appeared to become less quantifiable.

There is one area where issues have never really been addressed, transition within schools and transfer between schools, where receiving teachers and schools seek to say that the preceding experience and judgement was flawed, in doing so, downgrading the professional judgement of a colleague. Level 3 at KS1-2 and 5/6 at KS2-3 transfer has been problematic for the past 27 years.

This may be a result of the high stakes now attached to progress and outcomes. If a Junior school takes in a high proportion of level 3, they have to make progress to 5/6 as an expectation, similarly for 5/6 entering Secondary. It was salutary to hear the Secondary that received children from the Primary cluster talk of retesting on arrival; nothing changes…

Essentially, I think assessment, as a process of interrogating learning, went wrong when it was moved from the level descriptor words, through sub levels, which were so fine-tuned that they were virtually impossible to plan tasks for, then to APP recording sheets, which, for every child, resulted in a bureaucratic nightmare for teachers.

However, before we throw everything away, consider whether APP style sheets could support the fine needs of tracking SEND children, as they do largely describe a step by step approach which could support teacher thinking.

Equally, there may be a case for revisiting the wording of levelness, to see how they can be adjusted to better suit the needs of the new curriculum. The words are the essential component of the process, in that they can be shared, in an appropriate form, to create mental and written targets for personal effort.

A number of new systems that have been developed and shared, especially by Secondary teachers, have seemed to be based on an alphabetical or numeric grading system. There is the implication behind some, that they are linked to GCSE grades, over a three/four/five year period. Some have levels linked too as a cross-over reference. There is potential in these systems to see a future where inaccuracies could still emerge.

In doing all this, assessment, to my mind, has become more about the teacher and less about the learner as part of the learning dynamics.

How it could come “right”

Reflections on one training event and the Teaching and Learning Takeover conference (TLT14), which brought together three days of thinking about assessment, both to deliver and then to listen to four presentations during TLT14. This post will use both slides from my presentation and tweeted thoughts from TLT14 to illustrate.

Introducing a talk on assessment to a group of teachers recently, I asked if anyone was teaching when the original National Curriculum was introduced. I should probably have how many of them were alive then.

There is a diminishing group still practicing in education, who can actively remember the inception of the National Curriculum.

It was, inevitably, a cumbersome beast, created by expert groups in each subject, with a shelf-full of files to tell everyone what should be done. It caused a stir, as teachers, who had been used to working in their own ways, had to reflect on their practice against a new benchmark. In reality, apart from tweaking a few aspects of some subjects, and reordering some topics, for most schools in my area, there appeared to be limited impact.

Over time, there were reviews and slimming down of the documentation. However, there were three parts to the Curriculum, the pedagogy; usually the first section, of differing lengths. The subject specifications and the level descriptors.

As the curriculum and the pedagogy were reasonably solid aspects of local school, it was the level descriptors which caught the professional eye. In fact, it was the level descriptors that had the biggest impact in the raising of teacher expectations of learning outcomes, as they articulated criteria to look for in children’s work, which showed that they were showing certain capabilities. As this was across a range of subjects, the quality of expectation rose, even in subjects where teachers felt a little uncomfortable. Once they had had help in creating appropriate tasks, they then knew what to look for during the task, and they also knew what to look for next. Learning processes had a structure.

There is a difference between knowing how to do something and knowing something. The Primary curriculum became an amalgamation of learning contexts with knowledge and process outcomes. When I became a head in 1990, we developed internal topic specifications across all aspects of learning, using the local inspector/advisor service, to establish a very strong learning narrative that covered both the content and the process needs. Assessment was built into the system, seeking to establish working levels, so that future planning was better focused, rather than a relentless focus on every individual. This latter point was an area for further reflection, over time.

Teachers make a wide range of decisions all of the time, some rapid, due to the immediacy of the situation, some more reflective and needing dialogue with colleagues.

What is assessment? In a nutshell, it impacts on everything that a teacher does; it is in essence thinking about children, where they are and what they need to learn next.

It links with Growth Mindset. As Sir Ken Robinson says in one of his talks; Why wouldn’t you?

Is there an alternative to growing learners?

It can also link with how you feel about yourself, as a person and a learner.

Informed teacher judgement is critical.

It can be an enhancing or a limiting factor in learner development. Teachers need to know their subject at an appropriate level to lead the children, through the stages of development of subject specific skills. Inevitably, with thirty children in the class, there will be nuances and subtleties that apply to individuals. Knowing the children really well is a prerequisite to them being supported to make progress, with guidance and feedback fine-tuned to their emerging needs.

Subject development has always suggested to me a mental model akin to a map, with stages to be reached along the way. Other useful analogies might be a ladder or even mountaineering, which I particularly like, as a metaphor, as it also embeds the notion of risk. There’s not very much risk at a desk.

It is also worth considering though, Tom Sherington's "Fuzzy edges" approach to assessment; always acknowledge that the judgement may not be absolute. Sort of ok, with more time and room to think, might be the route to sustained development. Right/wrong could become a block for some.

Planning for learning is a multi-faceted discipline, which allows the short term decisions to be adaptable to emergent needs.

Targeting learner improvement is a part of the assessment process.

Where you put the targets and how actively they are a constituent part of the learning, feedback and marking will help to determine the speed and dynamics of progress.
Often in schools, and a straw poll at the training day showed the reality, targets are inside or outside book covers. Once the book is opened, they cannot be seen by teacher or learner so they cannot be a constituent part of learning dialogue within a lesson.

Modelling, showing, sharing exemplars, all go to support learner visualisation of what they are attempting to do.

Displays of good outcomes with the process of development also shared and discussed is an essential component.

How I got there/ how you get there, is as important as the finished outcome.

And, in case anyone is wondering why they should be considering all these things; quite simply because, it is in the Teaching Standards, where the teacher role is to maximise outcomes.

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Inspection/judgement or audit/support?

19/10/2014

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As we all are in a situation of looking for ways of saving money and at the same time seeking ways to improve the school system, should any aspect of the system be “ring-fenced” and become untouchable?

Political parties of each shade will wish to improve education and each will claim to have the magic solution.

Having entered Teacher Training College over 40years ago, taught and been a head teacher within a 32 year career in schools, it is almost flippant to say that I have heard it all before. However, that is true, but it is also true that the impact of successive change has been tinkering, superficially revolutionary, as one system replaced another, often with piecemeal impact. Real evolutionary development has not been a hallmark of any system change. It can sometimes feel like the plumber’s visit, with the inevitable “Who put this in? I’ll do a better job than those cowboys.”

Each school is in a unique situation, based on location, staffing and resources. The former, ranging from leafy suburbs to inner-city can be a determinant of motivation and aspiration, both important to success. The resources, from building to moveable items, can encourage or discourage potential teachers and motivate students. The best teachers inspire students, encourage them to aspire and show them ways to achieve, with support, space and time to think given by management.

The systems within which teachers work are often the limiting factors, if they work to the book and therefore in a dogmatic, stereotypical manner. Teaching should be efficient and effective, but real learning can be messy.

Ofsted is one such system. There are aspects of Ofsted which I would seek to keep and tweak. There are limitations to the system, which can have a detrimental impact on school development. It is always encouraging to be told that your school is good, even better maybe to be outstanding. At the other end of the scale, a school potentially struggling with a very wide range of issues, causing distractions, will not be helped by simply being told that what they are doing is not good enough, by a team which then leaves the recovery to others. It is a very expensive audit tool and as such should add value to school development, if the country is to make full use of visiting expertise, which we are told is outstanding.

Interventions by Local Authorities or others, such as Academy chains can then exacerbate the situation, as multiple (often simplistic) agendas are pursued, within very tight timescales. There have been examples of heads being dismissed, or resigning, as a starting point.

If I was in charge of education today, I’d want Ofsted to perform two functions, separating the inspection of teaching standards from the running of the school.

For the first, as an enhancement, I would institute a validation system, like an MOT test, based on the teaching standards, and expect every teacher to undergo formal assessment within four year intervals, a form of quality control, supporting their continuing professional development needs. The evidence would enable teachers to make valid claims for promotion and ensure national consistency. Every head teacher and other observers would be formally trained in lesson observation to the standards. This judgement would be validated through joint observations during inspection visits.

The second; I’d want every school to be visited every two years, by an experienced assessor, to explore the effectiveness of the school, looking at the local context, local issues and the internal organisation, working to validate school self-evaluation, with one of two outcomes, acceptance of judgements (possibly with advice notes) or a decision that an extended inspection was necessary, within a specific timescale.

Why two years? Schools can experience very rapid change, especially through staffing and this can have an immediate impact, if change is at a senior level. I would expect every school inspected to have a detailed description of development since the last inspection and an action plan for the subsequent two year period, which would form part of the validation exercise. What has been the two year development, how is it to be sustained and developed?

Would this system be cheaper? Possibly. To some extent, it would depend on the decision on the first proposal (external or internal) and the contact time needed for the second.

However, it would allow latitude for evolutionary development, especially if the system was allowed to run for a number of years.

Basic mandate for education

Schools:-

Will ensure that they understand the needs of each individual child.
Will have clear plans to ensure that each child makes at least expected progress while at the school.
Will plan maths and English with regard to the national expectation.
Will devise a local curriculum which inspires and engages children in learning widely, covering all the curriculum subjects.
Will demonstrate that learning takes place in many different settings, through extended experiences, off-site or at home.
Will ensure that all communication is of the highest quality, within the school and to outside stakeholders.
Will monitor the performance of all teaching staff to ensure the highest quality of provision. Staff will participate fully in the school development agenda, taking responsibility for their own Continuing Professional Development, supported by the school.
Will ensure that they regularly quality-assure the running of the school, with additional external validation as appropriate.
Will ensure that systems are in place that ensure progression throughout a child’s education, especially at transition and transfer points.
Will ensure that all children leave formal education with qualifications that equip them for further academic study or to enter the world of work.

Support and challenge- LA/Academy/Ofsted:-

Visit school to quality assure the organisation, based on the school responsibilities outlined above.
Focus on the senior management roles of quality assurance, to validate internal judgements, including sample joint observations and joint work sampling.
Explore fully any inconsistencies evidenced, particularly on transition and exit data.
Support school development after inspection, with clear action plans, developed in discussion with the school.

Government:-

Devise, and keep under regular review, frameworks for mathematics and English that ensures every child leaves school with competency in these subjects appropriate to the needs of life, further study and the workplace.
All other subjects will be subject to monitoring through national progress descriptors until a child starts a formal examination route, when that grading will take effect. Equivalence between stage descriptors and examination grades will be established, to ensure all study routes are equally valued.
Academic and vocational routes will be equally valued, from year 10, as students prepare for the next phase of study, or the world of work.
No student, at school leaving age will leave without a clear descriptor of their capabilities, through exam success and broader abilities.
A national aspiration would be for 85% of children at age 7 to reach stage 2+, at age 11 to reach stage 4+, while at age 14 they will reach stage 6+. Children not achieving this stage will be entitled to appropriate personal support. (I know we ‘re not using levels, but the principle holds, in my opinion)
Quality-assure Ofsted inspection/validation through sampling and mentoring by senior inspectors or Her Majesties Inspectors.
Use its resources to explore and disseminate the best practice available throughout the world, to extend the information base for schools to develop their curricula and classroom approaches.

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Don't assume

19/10/2014

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Expect the unexpected, especially in a school setting.

We live a lot of our lives based on assumptions; a major one is that having woken up and made plans, the day will run as we’ve planned. We make plans that span time, like looking forward to holidays or arranging special events. Most of the time our assumptions turn out to be correct, allowing for the normality of daily life. Minor blips don’t usually cause confusion or throw plans out.

It is the adaptability of an individual to situations that arise that ensures that minor issues don’t become a catastrophe, such as having to take a detour when driving and navigating through unknown roads. That can also be a metaphor for life in general.

We assume that life will go on in the same way, but there will be many readers for whom real catastrophe has affected their lives. We fill the available space as if nothing will happen and then have to rapidly reorganise to the new demand. Highly adaptable people, over time, might develop grit and determination, essential life skills.

Teaching can be based upon assumptions. I’ve met teachers who, having been given their class records from the previous year, put them to one side, with the view that they’ll get to know them soon enough and will make up their own mind. Where this is the case, there can be slippage as learners adapt to new demands, which might be lower. Where this involves transfer to another school, this can be exaggerated.

No teacher goes into school unprepared, or wishing to do a poor job, but teachers can assume that the learners will enjoy the learning, that the subject will enthuse and their approach will inspire. There can be an assumption that the lessons are correctly pitched, with appropriate match and challenge within the activities or worksheets, especially if they’ve been “borrowed” from a colleague or internet site for the same year group.

Another assumption can be that setting and streaming create homogenous groups, to be taught as a whole, with no differentiation. As these groups are often created to suit the available space, the top 30 might contain a group which could, under different criteria be in a “lower” group, while the upper group in the next set might include some who could achieve in the top set…. As for the lower group, there can be an assumption that they have lower capabilities than they have. In a Primary classroom, the “top” group could be six as there are six chairs around the table. So we could encounter differentiation by table space.

Where there is a high degree of assumption, the signs that all is not well can lead to teacher comments which distort the working nature of the classroom. The focus can be on task completion, rather than the learning within the task. Off task behaviours may not be signs of ease or discomfort with the learning requiring a support and guidance intervention. They can be seen as distracted behaviour in need of correction, requiring “behaviour policies” to be deployed, in the assumption that these are correctly applied.

We make an assumption in teaching that our judgement is correct, that we can accurately assess children’s work, find the good bits and suggest ways to improve. We can make assumptions when talking with parents; we are, after all, the experts in child development. We are even sufficiently presumptuous to dictate aspects of home life, with significant amounts of homework for some individuals.

We assume that we are people-people, nice to know, with interesting lives outside teaching.

In many ways, we have to make these assumptions. To do otherwise would be to live with significant self-doubt, which can lead to illness. However, to teach based on assumptions can allow situations to get out of control.

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Single question questionnaires

19/10/2014

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Do you enjoy getting unsolicited questionnaires?

What do you with them?

Do you often wonder what happens with responses or the impact of non-responses?

Are decisions made by organisations by default, through non-returns?

Do you send out questionnaires to parents?

Is your questionnaire a copy of a standard format, your own or Ofsted?

Do you get a high number of responses?

How have you sought to address any shortcomings?

Do you personalise any questionnaire to suit your audience?

Is the use of language accessible to the audience?

At what point does the asking and answering of questions become something of a chore, which results in the questionnaire being binned?

How about the one question questionnaire? Many schools still send a newsletter, most have an active, accessible website. Instead of sending out an A4 sheet of 20 questions once a year, why not ask one (or at most three related questions) on each newsletter/fortnight?

You could even alert parents to the question through a text service.

You would not be overloading your audience, might get a better response and your data analysis could be more focused, with the potential to respond within the next newsletter, demonstrating quickly that views have been considered.

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A case for moderation

19/10/2014

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I’d quite like to see the word moderation widely used across all aspects of school life, not just when it is required by a specific process.

To some, the term implies a greyness, somewhere between the polarised views of extremes. However, as a moderate person, I reserve the right to draw from the extremes and occasionally to do something to excess if that serve the purposes of the moment. Moderate does not necessarily mean grey, even if the hair has turned.

Moderation implies to me a search for common understanding. Applied to different aspects of the teacher role, it has huge potential to be a development tool.

I know we are not required to use the term levels now, but any development framework is likely to have aspects akin to levels. Let’s say that two teachers work side by side with the same age group.

If they bring together work outcomes, talk about them and agree a common view on the merits of the work, they will be sure that the two class expectations are common to both, at the same time deepening their understanding of their children and their needs.

If moderation occurs across a school, there is common assent to decisions regarding achievement and progress expectations.
If moderation occurs across schools, an area wide understanding occurs.
If outcomes of National testing are seen as moderation, the outcomes provide exemplar material to support internal moderation.
If moderation became a common tool across all schools, supported by external expertise as necessary, there would be a reduced need for formal testing, so we could save money on SATs testing.
If specialist in-house teachers became trained moderators, for internal and external use, the use of such people would provide opportunities for mass CPD and lead to higher expectations, based on a common understanding.
If lesson observations became a moderation exercise, based on the common agenda of the teaching standards, then feedback would be developmental. Nobody is perfect all the time.
If Ofsted and other assessment/inspection visits were moderation visits, to validate the judgements of the internal moderation team, we would establish expectations common to every school in the country.
If Ofsted inspectors moderated each other, the judgements across every establishment would be consistent.
If judgements across every classroom in every school in the country were common, as a national educational establishment we would make progress.

It is a case of all things in moderation. I’ll drink to that- in moderation, of course.

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Thinking lessons; teaching standards

15/10/2014

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Getting the best out of lessons, observed or not.

Grandma sucks eggs.

I have yet to meet a teacher who does not want to teach well nor to improve their practice.

Making the most of the current teaching force is essential, if we are to maximise outcomes. Dylan Wiliam 4.2.13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEaH8UBchD0

Anyone who goes into a classroom to undertake a lesson observation is in a delicate position. By virtue of status, a member of SLT or MLT or possibly an Ofsted inspector is likely to be in a superior position to the observed person. While we talk as a profession of formative and summative assessments within Learning and Teaching, there is a likelihood that the outcome of the observation will be seen as a summative narrative, with feedback and a discussion based on the developing agenda created by the outcomes. However, unless the observation has to lead to a specific judgement, it should be seen primarily as developmental, based on visual evidence and feedback, with a colleague capable of coaching or mentoring as needed.

The observation and note-taking skills of the observer are critical to a positive outcome and future relationships for both parties. Equally, there is a need for the observer to put aside their own practice during the observation to avoid judgements being made based on a “deficit” model. A feeling of “I’m not as good as you.” may already be present, as far as the observed is concerned.

There is a need for a coherent framework within which the observation and discussion will take place, the most obvious being the teaching standards. It is essential that both observer and observed are fully aware of the different aspects of the standards, both in terms of scope and depth, as an overall graded judgement may be made that describes the current teaching ability.

Teaching standards grid form, based in ITT standards

Extracting the higher level skills, which are more likely to describe the aspirations of serving teachers, there is a second level narrative that can be explored.

First column.
Professional status

This arrangement of the standards highlights a process approach, whereby the teacher, displaying professionalism, has good or better expectations and status with the students, allowing teaching to take place. Order and organisation underpin the teacher approach, in planning& resourcing, subject coherence and relations with supporting adults, so that everything works in favour of positive outcomes. Planning or background organisation should show expectations of outcomes across all abilities.

Second column.
Order and organisation, narrative sharing.

The “teacher bit” or input, starter, introduction, or some other beginning concept, is totally in the hands of the teacher. This is the part that should be a significant feature of the lesson, as it seeks to hook the students and prepares the ground for them to engage with ideas. This part is more likely to be didactic, but with elements requiring dialogue, discussion, questioning.

Setting challenge for students is a more subtle aspect of teaching and learning, as it encompasses decisions around differentiation and expectation. Whatever the detail of the tasking, it should be matched to a known learning position, with sufficient challenge to take the learner further. The need for support in learning should be acknowledged, as achieving a task with support still requires demonstration independently, if it is to be counted as a capability.

Third column.
Think and adapt.

Assuming that the students are now engaged in tasks, the essential elements of the standards come into play, assessment and adaptation. In many minds, assessment is something that is done at the end of the process, but, having created expectations, the teacher should be engaging with the learning behaviours that demonstrate ease or difficulty of task, in order to maximise the outcomes for each group. Scanning the room, engaging with students, asking clarifying questions, challenging further as appropriate are all tools within the teacher toolkit.

If necessary, the teacher should be prepared to modify, adapt or even completely rethink the lesson, depending on the needs of the learners and the unfolding evidence from the lesson..

This is probably the Catch 22 aspect of a lesson. Standard 6 suggests "thinking on your feet", spotting learning behaviours that cause concern, for different reasons, and doing something about that, adapting, standard 6, as needed. Not spotting, or not addressing issues is likely to lead to a failed lesson, as vulnerable learners will have been ignored

Fourth column.
Maximise outcomes

There should be reflective time built into the lesson, not necessarily just at the end, as a whole class or in groups, to ascertain student clarity of purpose, issues arising, refocusing as needed, so that the learning journey can be positive. Maximising outcomes is the ultimate aim of the lesson. The learners should have been aware of the lesson expectations, understand what they had to do and to actively engage with the activity. Judging the quality of the outcome should be personal, supported by pees as appropriate, as well as the teacher. Sharing positive outcomes can help this.

Discussion

Getting a feel for the teacher view of the lesson is an essential start point. It would be useful if the teacher was able to undertake a reflective self-assessment before the discussion, including highlighting a version of the teaching standards and to be able to support their narrative with a rational argument. It is an indicator of a reflective practitioner if the teacher can identify the elements of the lesson which went well and those that could have been better. www=what worked well and ebi=even better if are useful acronyms.

Starting with the outcomes of the lesson, seeking to unpick the different end points, tracking back to expectations, then to the planning and background thinking, ensures a clear picture for both participants.

The observer should give an unbiased recount of the lesson, significant strengths as well as areas for development, within a holistic view of learning and teaching.

The observer should avoid giving a single issue improvement, such as assessment, without clarifying why this is an essential development point, ensuring that it can then be put into all aspects of practice.

Outcomes.

Both observer and observed should be clear about the purpose and outcomes of the lesson observation. It should be clear where the records are kept and who has access to them, as well as any mechanisms for asking for a review, but hopefully not for complaint.

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Personalisation is a total philosophy.

15/10/2014

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Intro

Personalisation is the fine tuning of expectation to ensure that every learner makes progress within lessons and across time. Where learners develop as partners in their learning, they can begin to take greater responsibility for their learning progress. The process needs to be modelled, tracked and modified to need. Personalisation is very visible in schools where there is a significant proportion of individual need. Even within these, though, there can be a proportion of children for whom expectation and follow up may be less clear, as they are described as a group, top, middle etc. It is the latter group where personalisation is achievable, but through a clear thought process.

Assessment visits to a range of schools during the 2012-13 academic year appeared to develop a dynamic determined by the schools being assessed, looking to show how they were ensuring that every child received a tailored approach to their educational needs. During the year, I wrote a number of posts based on reflections from visits. I have referred to some of these alongside the sub-headings, but there are others on the IQM website, teaching and learning tab.

This post is prompted particularly by visits to Streatham Wells Primary, Vauxhall Primary, Orchard Primary, Hackney and Phoenix Primary, Wandsworth, four London schools working in extremely challenging environments and with a very broad range of needs to be addressed.

A comment from one head that the school had no alternative but to personalise teaching and learning to address individual issues, because there were so many, suggested that within this statement lies the essence of inclusive/ personalised policy. The greater the need, the greater the adaptation needed and thereby the greater the capability of the school system to accommodate to the next set of needs. High quality Inclusion and personalisation will therefore be a product of identified need and the school capacity to accommodate.

In other posts, I have discussed the teaching standards as they currently exist and it is clear to me from that exercise that there is an implicit series of statements which confirm that the need to identify and address with speed the individual needs of pupils is a core element of standards 6 and 5, assessment of needs and adaptation to need. It is also clear that it is the needs of all learners that are being inspected by Ofsted, so personalisation is of current interest.

Personalisation is a product of a thought process, articulated in other posts as analyse-plan-do-review-record, drilling down ever deeper into individual needs.

Described as a diagram, the teaching and learning process makes the standards more useful as a descriptor. Much of this post will be based around the green boxes as headings, with the external descriptors adding the substance.

Analysis/audit need
Personalisation is a product of knowing children really well from the outset. The better the learners are known the finer the tuning of anticipation and expectation, so the learning journey is more profitable for all concerned. False assumptions can hamper progress. The teacher role is to identify and quickly remediate misconceptions.

There will be records of prior learning, either as an internal tracking document or as transfer data. This is an essential start point, at the very least because it gives the range of need and the clustering of needs, where groups have similar, but not identical, personal capabilities. These records should not be ignored or downgraded. They represent a professional decision and are the start point for the next phase of learning.

Knowing your children well is an essential start point for any teacher. For some, the needs identified will be great, requiring significant adaptation of plans. Others will be capable of following the prescribed curriculum with guidance and less support.

Preparation at this level leads to a teacher mind-set which determines where the learning journey will progress and at what speed. It is an essential precursor to detailed planning. The best observed practice in IQM schools is based on very clear identification of need and the tracking of progress within learning opportunities.

Preparation
Personalisation is not something that just happens. It is a product of having been systematic in thought to afford time within a lesson to engage with and advise next learning routes to a learner, with time built in to begin to address any issues identified.

Before any teaching takes place, the organisation of the available space to accommodate the teaching envisaged is a priority. The arrangement of the tables and chairs, the organisation of resources and the movement routes need to be planned to avoid bumping and boring for spaces and resources. Ease of movement and resource retrieval/return should determine decisions.

The debate about displays in a classroom will always be subject to personal preference. Mine would be to welcome learners into a space where it is clear that interesting things are likely to happen and where work that they produce will be valued. The sophistication of the display needs to be matched to the class need.

Exercise books/paper, chosen with care can add to learning and be capable of personalisation. Plain paper with writing lines beneath can allow for different writing, gross or fine motor skills. Writing drafts of alternate lines can provide space for intervention, redrafting, or just playing with ideas. Another post looks at a two page approach to the writing process.

The school behaviour policy needs to be available to be shared to ensure the embedding of common approaches.

Planning
The curriculum will largely have been determined by the school with reference to national and local expectations. Ordering and organising the dynamics of the learning over a longer timescale, in overview, will offer the teacher a chance to concentrate on the immediate, in the knowledge that other areas are timetabled. An annual plan supports this thinking.

Within the overview planning, themes will be timetabled to cover a series of weeks comprising a specific number of lessons within each of which a specific body of knowledge will be imparted. The whole is a product of the parts.

The time in between is equally important. Homework, addressed as rehearsal time can become components of learning, not just an activity to fill time. The notion of the flipped classroom can also be useful, with time at home spent reading notes, looking and listening to video material. Home can also be a place for note making and first drafts, leaving lesson time for discussion, redrafting, reflection.

Differentiation
Whereas this stage should be an active constituent of planning, embedding, as it does matching challenging work to children’s different needs, it can be diverted by simplistic application. Differentiation embeds expectation, with prior capability being challenged and specific next steps to be considered. Expectation develops a teacher mind-set against which judgements are made within a lesson, requiring intervention, feedback, teaching, reframing challenges among a range of options.

It’s likely that in the early stages of a term, differentiation by outcome will be used, simply as a means to validate earlier data. Once this is done, other forms of differentiation should be deployed, based on outcomes.

Differentiation by support can also be a self-limiting approach, as it can develop dependency, from the support adult and the learner(s). The ability to step back from the learner and to allow time for unaided work is an essential part of decision making, as it is what a child can do for themselves which needs to be assessed.

Differentiation by task is a challenge for teachers, but can be achieved within themes, with discrete tasks being set to challenge different abilities. This was the bread and butter of the integrated day classroom.

Differentiation by expectation, supported by an interplay of task specific success criteria and personalised targets, can be an effective methodology. Teachers tie themselves in knots seeking to demonstrate differentiation, challenge and then progress within a lesson. Yet it is within this aspect that the refining of teaching and learning, seeking to address individual needs is embedded. Differential expectation, if seen as a hypothesis, is then subject to reflective observation within a lesson and adaptations where there is a discrepancy between expectation and evidence.

As the teacher is completely in charge of the “stuff” of the lesson, this should be “delivered” as efficiently and effectively as possible, is likely to be supported by images, artefacts, music or some other stimulus, seeking to offer images into the minds of the learners. Without coherent images, the learner will be hampered in their progress, especially if they are required to manipulate the images into a different form. To me, it seems logical to perceive that image is a part of IMAGination, demonstrating that the picture is not a desirable extra. Unless the teacher has the words from which the images can be inferred, I’d always suggest the use of pictures, video or something similar. A picture can paint the thousand words. Equally, I’d argue from experience that early removal of concrete apparatus, especially in mathematics can cause significant diminution of performance in some children, and that too early a reliance on pure numbers is also a limiting factor, where images might be supportive of explanations.

While the teacher is talking, or sharing a video, children can be practicing note making, supporting their engagement.
Where this is embedded in practice, the notes can support drafting of ideas and keep the process together, where a wipe on wipe off board notes can be lost.

The notion of different drafts can be very powerful, especially if the process is embedded within practice, perhaps as home activity, with lesson time devoted to editing
and improvement, rather than being spent silently writing. Learners should recognise that any piece of writing can be improved, even if deemed a “final draft”.

Task specific success criteria. Sometimes articu
lated as steps to success, these are likely to be a
list of instructions in order to achieve the task. They rarely set challenges at an individual level. There needs to an articulation of expectation for different groups, within which the expectation can be personalised to individuals, from the outset. The term “at least” is a useful non-limiting phrase to articulate expectation.

Personal targets. In a Junior classroom, this can range from writing coherent sentences with capital letter and full stop (L1) to paragraphing and complex sentences with engaging and exciting vocabulary (L4) and the many steps in between, as recorded through APP (Assessing Pupil Progress) style records.

If these expectations are placed in front of both child and teacher, as fold out sheets, they can become a part of the in-lesson discussion, as well as being available for self-evaluation prior to handing work to be marked. Highlighting both the target being assessed and the evidence within the activity can support more detailed feedback comments.

Teacher as observer. It’s essential for the teacher to keep a close eye on the developing activity, checking out the behaviours which suggest an aspect of off-task activity, intervening quickly, making changes if necessary to the task demand, either by increasing or decreasing the challenge, or offering specific guidance to enable the learner to progress. The detail of this is an integral part of teaching standards 6 and 5, where Assessment for Learning decisions lead to classroom adaptation to evidenced need.

Review.
At certain points in an activity, there is a need to review progress within the learning process. While this can be activity based, how far the learners have got, it’s more important to focus on the learning and sharing good examples to provide a continuing stimulus from within the learner group. It is a form of peer encouragement; they can, so you might.

Oral feedback is an integral part of classroom practice. If this is clearly focused on the task success criteria at one level and the learner personal targets at another, the discussion will be focused on learning, with a partnership model developing.

Self-evaluation needs to be against some kind of reference frame. In the absence of any other frame, the use of the level descriptors as progress descriptors would provide a starting point. If written as capabilities, these statements can be evidenced within the finished product, guiding marking, validating a learner insight, or adjusting the frame of reference with deeper insight into the expectation.

The use of visualisers or other images from within the activity can promote a range of discussions. Work can be shared and discussed/improved. Digital images can become a storyboard for retelling and reflection on the process, supporting less confident learners. Make all learning as visible as possible.

Marking is feedback as well as quality control. Learners are entitled to know something as a qualitative response. This is often expressed as WWW-what worked well, with a positive set of comments. Improvement, expressed as EBI-even better if, can be specific to task and personal expectations.

Time needs to be given in subsequent lessons to reflect on the feedback and to address any issues arising, if marking is to serve a positive purpose.

Record

There will be a need to track progress over time. If personal targets are stuck onto the edge of exercise books, are subject to regular use within lessons and for marking, in themselves they become on-going records. If the two page approach to exercise books is used, the teacher summary/marking will also be evidence; placed as the header of the next piece of work, it can be the start point for the next challenge. This ensures that personalised marking supports learning.

Teachers need to develop methodologies which suit their classroom practice.

Display/celebration.

Quality displays of children’s work can provide significant opportunities for learning improvement. Display broadens the audience for any finished work. Where peers are offered the opportunity to comment on the finished product, this peer critique can provide food for thought and further discussion. Questions, teacher comments, post-it comments, can turn a display into a working wall, supporting general class improvement.

Where walls of words are displayed, these can become counter-productive as it can be difficult to find specific words. It can also waste wall space which can be better used to promote learning. Personalised dictionaries, at the desk, are more user-friendly.

Summary

Personalisation is an aspiration and a process. Some teachers intuitively engage at this level, while others have to consider the steps, taking action at appropriate times. Different teachers have differing strengths, so some will be better at analysis, planning, classroom activity, feedback and review or record keeping. It is essential that each component is explored to become an area of strength, so that the holistic aspects become stronger.

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SEND Teachers as investigators

15/10/2014

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Teachers will need to become active investigators in their classrooms.

For the purpose of this post, I am looking at the needs of children starting in mainstream education, as children in SEND settings may well have had a diagnosis before starting school. There is, to my mind at least, a need for schools and teachers to explore their current practices and to enhance these, to allow classroom based staff to make the significant contribution necessary to accommodate the new requirements.

The SEN framework is changing. This has been well documented, on this site and elsewhere. Some of the change is more significant than others, as far as the operation in school is concerned. That’s where I’d like to concentrate. I know that Malcolm Reeve (@Malcolm_Reeve) is currently looking at the Local Offer aspect.

One big structural change is to put emphasis on the classroom as the prime place where good or better teaching and learning is seen as addressing the needs of all individuals. Therefore work has to be well planned, well delivered, activities engaged with, feedback given and supportive, developmental marking afterwards. In which case, the class teacher becomes the conduit through which SEND decisions are effected, with enhanced responsibility. Consider for a moment the position regarding Performance Related Pay (PRP) where a teacher can be held responsible for the outcomes of all groups of learners.

Teachers will need to know their children very well, to be able to personalise interventions and commentaries. The deployment of available support, for specific purpose, with defined, checkable outcomes, will be essential. However, as the highest trained person in the classroom, the teacher may reasonably be expected to take the greater burden of the most challenging learning needs, while the support does just that, supports other learners.

IEPs are not mentioned in documentation. Their omission can be seen either positively or negatively. Sadly, there have been many examples from practice where IEPs have become part of the ritual of planning, without really impacting on the needs of the child. Targets are not always well set or followed through, so become continuous. Timescales are often also over-generous, so that they slip out of the immediate consciousness, to be reviewed later. There will need to be some kind of paperwork trail to track the multiple interventions that impact on a child with learning needs.

Many posts on this blog look at the detail of teaching and learning, with regard to addressing the needs of individuals, aka personalisation, whether more or less able learners. This is based on a simple premise, articulated as:-

1) analysis of evidence leading to quality information being made available to support

2) detailed planning, including the provision of appropriate resources and staffing.

3) Students in the best practice, actively sharing in their learning journey, which is

4) tracked and reviewed at regular intervals with

5) records being collated and disseminated, allowing the process to be cyclic and developmental.

Differentially, this can be interpreted over time scales, dependent on the need to intervene and support, a series of cycles within cycles, based on individual needs.

All aspects need to be considered, starting with the appropriateness of the task, or the necessity to adapt, the need for support to achieve an appropriate outcome.

Within the task, the deployment of staff to be the eyes and ears, with the capacity to intervene appropriately to need will be essential. It will become an essential skill to spot and deal with issues as they arise to smooth the learning path. These interventions will need to be noted in some way. Therefore a methodology needs to be considered. In the first instance, the exercise book could become a part of the dialogue of concern, noting advice given, as well as clear, readable, understandable feedback. A secondary need will be to keep a track of teacher thinking, through post it notes, amended planning, or diary format.

In addition, the teacher needs to get better at initial investigation of issues.

Behaviour is no longer a special needs category. Issues need to be described and explored for causation.

There are four areas of SEN description in the new framework

Communication and Interaction

Cognition and Learning

Social, Mental and Emotional Health

Sensory and/or Physical needs.

Instead of the School Action category.

Teacher judgement plays a significant part. If a teacher has never met an issue, or makes simplistic inappropriate judgements, then the subsequent learning journey for the child will become more complex, with the potential for regression, rather than progress, as the relationships can become strained.

So, from a classroom perspective, I’d offer the following:-

Start a Note of Concern file on individuals who are raising worries.
Annotate plans regularly with individual concerns.
Annotate exercise books with appropriate supportive commentary.
Make diary notes in the Note of Concern to deduce any pattern arising.
All adults become “spotters”. Keep a post it note record of things that happen in the lesson, to add to the Note of Concern. Ask any support adults to do the same.
The record should allow the teacher to create a proper narrative, with action, outcome and judgements/decisions, refined actions. There should be a record of planning adaptation.

At this point, the class teacher can take the beginning of a case study to the SENCo, thus avoiding the generic conversation that starts, “X has a problem with…” or “Y just doesn’t get it…” which then needs to go through the process outlined above. By adopting this approach early, and it is embedded in many schools, valuable time for vulnerable learners is saved.

The class teacher is not being asked to be a diagnostician, but an investigator and describer of learning, behaviours and outcomes. The TA or other adult support can provide an additional insight into issues. The broadest view available will support decision making.

Stepping up a notch. Instead of School Action Plus.

If the teacher has got to the point where the child’s needs exceed their expertise or experience and they feel the need to involve another adult, such as the SENCo, to seek advice and solutions, then the school awareness is raised. This has previously been called School Action Plus, and may involve further exploration of the issues with a range of external expertise, all of which will be subject to reports to the school, enhancing the available evidence.

I’d expect some kind of school based action plan to be developed, with the focus on actions, from the teacher, to seek to effect specific change; to keep a further diary of interventions, and outcomes, over relatively short timescales. These PAPs need to be seen embedded in plans and visible in practice. They should be clear descriptors, accessible and shared with parents at each stage. The focus on classroom action is essential. Progress should be capable of being measured in some form.

Regular reviews and refinements eventually build to a more substantial case study file, which is likely to be then supported with reports from a range of additional professionals.

Another notch. Statements have become Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP)

In order to ask for an EHCP, the school has to be able to present significant evidence of different scales of intervention over time. A failure to do so could lead to the vulnerable child in the school not receiving timely additional focused support, causing a further delay in development.

As with Statements of Educational Need, the EHCP judgements are made by an expert locality panel, which scrutinises evidence in detail. And as with a statement, these do not necessarily come with funding, but may come with specific actions on the establishment to provide support, with an in-built requirement for regular reviews.

Inaction is not an option. Evidence chasing will assume greater importance, with a heavy emphasis on the classroom teacher.

Training will be needed.

Schemes need to be established immediately and embedded in practice.

SEND is no longer “someone’s job”, it is everyone’s job…

Training is an interesting issue, in that there are and will be significant calls from all sides for “more training”. The availability of external staff is likely to be seriously strained in the near future, as all schools ask for the same personnel. I can see a number of options addressing these needs.

Local specialists (possibly including Special School staff) to create fact sheets available to all local schools, to address possible concerns across a range of needs, ASD, ADHD, SALT, OT as an example.
In-house solutions 1. Some special needs in learning can be evidenced against the outcome of younger children. Therefore, by definition, the expertise is in-house. Exemplar portfolios will help with decision making, if they incorporate both a statement of what’s evident and a description of potential next steps. In “old money” a level 2 child in year five is operating on a par with an average year 2 child. By talking with the year 2 teacher, the professional dialogue will offer insights into routes. In a separate system, it may be necessary to make links with feeder schools.
In house solutions 2. The school SENCo, if (s)he has undertaken the required training, should be in a position to offer the broad brush explanations necessary for class-based colleagues.
Planning for learning needs to look at the dynamics as well as the fixed points. The plan, based on expectation, should prompt thinking on the hoof, ensuring interactions that result on lessons being tweaked to the evident needs.
Consider the diagram below. Basic principle of SEND, know your children, well.

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SEND Building an individual case study.

15/10/2014

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Seeking greater clarity by fine tuning actions through a

Record of Actions, Discussions or Decisions, Interventions and Outcomes

(RADIO, in case you missed it!).

Building an individual case study.

Essentially, SEND practice describes a sequence of events, which seek to refine the actions and focus of attention, to identify, quantify and qualify the exact nature of a problem. Once this has been established, remedial action can take place. The longer the gap, the greater the problem can become, as further complications can become built into the experience, not least of which is learner self-esteem, affected by adult and peer responses to the circumstance.

Every teacher is a teacher of individual needs, which often identify themselves as little concerns when a learner either exceeds or does not grasp what is being expected.

The SEND framework 2014 does state that poor teaching approaches will handicap decisions on a child’s special educational needs. SEND is not a substitute for poor teaching or poor teachers. High quality teaching and learning should identify, describe and track needs within a classroom. Work sampling, annotations and record keeping will all contribute to good decisions. Some may say that this is additional work. However, it could be argued that well planned, well focused activities, with good oral and written feedback, to identified needs, in itself constitutes a reasonably clear start point of a record. An annotated personal record, for discrete individuals, as describe below should also be kept.

Teachers receive their classes from someone else, even at the earliest stages, where a parent or nursery member of staff has already become aware of little foibles, or gaps in understanding, or an area where there appears to be extra talent.

The parent is the child’s first teacher; it is to be hoped that their relationship is such that they get to know their children really well, through interactions at home and in places of interest that generate speaking and listening skills. As a Governor of a school in Gosport, as well as my own education career, I know that this is not the case, with children arriving operating at two year old levels, of speech and socialisation.

The adult role, teacher and support staff, is to be vigilant in spotting the child reactions in different situations, noting areas of concern, but also of achievement, so that a balanced picture can be built. The profiles built up during the Early Years stage is a more refined document than may have formerly been available.

If concerns emerge, there are likely to be three phases;

Short (wave) term, classroom based. The teacher and other adults become aware that an area of need exists. They develop a short term plan to address the issue and agree a monitoring approach that allows them to spot and track the outcomes. Where feasible, discussions with the learner might deepen the adult understanding of the learning issues. Outcomes are checked carefully to deduce any patterns arising, which are then shared with parents and decisions reached about next steps.
Medium (wave) term, involving internal specialist colleagues. Where an issue goes beyond the current capacity of the classteacher, the school internal specialist, the SENCo, should be involved to oversee the record, to discuss with the teacher and the parent possible ways forward and to agree a new plan of action in the classroom. This may involve using a discrete approach to the identified problem, with some specified time need. For example, a child with a specific reading issue might need some individualised time with an adult, whose role is to undertake a miscue analysis during each session to deduce with greater accuracy the nature of the problem. The SENCo may be involved in classroom observations, keeping records of on/off task behaviours, relationships, task application, with outcomes being photocopied and annotated to deepen the understanding of the problem, thereby refining the classroom action. Interventions strategies must be SMART targets. Too often in SEND situations, classteachers operate at too global a level, so that the refined needs of the individuals are missed, until they become more critical. There is a need for regular work sampling and annotations to describe the learning journey and issues still arising. The lack of such a record could handicap a child and the teacher, as it will be requested before specific help can be offered, especially if the school SLT has to allocate additional funding/adult support to address the issue.
Long (wave) term, the school will involve a range of specialist experts, to support the diagnosis of the issue. Diagnosis depends on the quality of record keeping in the classroom and the school, if patterns are to be describe and the area for investigation is to be narrowed. As a result, a programme of action is likely to be agreed, timescales set and evidence needed identified. This is likely to be similar to the needs above, but within a refined remit.

Over time, a case study emerges, with a record of actions, discussion, decisions, interventions and outcomes. It may be, at this stage, that the collective wisdom is that there is a problem that is greater that the system capacity to identify and remediate the need. In the new SEND framework, schools will apply for consideration of an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

The evidence file is sent to a panel for consideration, along with other applications. Each case is judged on its merits and there is no guarantee that awarding an EHCP will be the outcome. Equally, an EHCP may not guarantee extra funding or alternative education placement. The EHCP, if awarded, is quite likely to be a tighter descriptor of the learner’s individual needs, the education response to be allocated by the establishment, the timescale and regularity of reviews.

SEND issues cause teachers to become worried.
There are also worried parents. They need to know that their children's needs are being met and recorded.

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SEND Tic-Tac-Toe

15/10/2014

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TIC – Team including the child; TAC- Team around the child; TOE- Team of experts- a graduated approach to Special Needs?

For the uninitiated, noughts and crosses and tic tac toe are the same game, the first title being British. Derived from a Roman game, it is a game of strategy, with two players trying to block the other’s moves. A good description of the game can be found on:-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tic-tac-toe

However, it is not the game that interests me in the field of Special Needs, so much as the strategy. Over my sixteen years as a headteacher, I had many discussions with parents expressing disquiet over the processes of the SEN system, particularly the hoops that they had to jump through in order to get some external views on their child. This was often particularly severe in the case of statements. Over time this became clearer with children having some kind of designation, Early Intervention, School Action, School Action Plus, with funding allocated to specific categories. There were still “blockages”, mainly due to allocation of time by specialist services, but it was possible to develop a system which was understandable to all parties.

Reflecting after the event and also on the practices seen in a number of the Inclusion Quality Mark schools’ reports, it would seem that a system based on the initials, rather than the strategy of Tic Tac Toe would be helpful.

TIC – Team including the child; TAC- Team around the child; TOE- Team of experts

It is arguable that all teams are teams around the child, but it is possible to visualise this as a journey that starts with conversations between the teacher and child, develops with parent-child-teacher, then starts to involve a larger group of internal and external expertise in support of the child’s development. Essentially, the system is creating a series of safety nets through which, it is to be hope, no child can slip.

There are many examples of these systems across the IQM family of schools, with a common thread of high level communication among all participants.

Parents at John Bentley School in Calne, Wiltshire the John of Gaunt School, in Trowbridge, articulated the view that “Contact arrangements with school are very good. There is very good communication with the school staff, especially the Health and Welfare system and Individual Learning Department, with very quick response to queries. There is a quality of access to teachers at all levels, including senior managers. The systems in the school support their children. They value the Parentmail system, improving regular contacts. Staff visit the home to support individual children. Work is provided for children when they have to at home for an extended period. The “time out” system allows students with specific issues to self-refer to support.”

The processes showed that “Inclusion is a strength of the teaching and learning environment, with a range of dedicated staff allocated to support individuals, either in learning or their emotional security. The Calne Cluster Multi Agency Forum has become, over the past couple of years, a significant factor in the assurance of coordinated support action with external agencies. Developed with the aid of NCSL funding, this cluster meets regularly to share good practice, which can be based around anonymous family case studies. It also gives a strong personal basis for Team Around the Child (TAC) as they become necessary to support individuals.”

Red Oaks Primary School, Swindon demonstrated that “The term “Team around the child (TAC)” was used on many occasions to summarise the staff approach to the individual needs of the children. The school creates internal TACs to oversee the wellbeing and educational needs of vulnerable individuals.”

“Children are safe and secure, basic needs are assured, they feel well cared for by all staff, and have good self-esteem, thus creating the environment where they can make decisions, think for themselves and try, knowing learning is derived from attempting something.”

In West London Academy, Norwood- The underlying philosophy is prefaced on the view that everyone is good at something and that all have the capacity to succeed in some form. Here is the language of possibility being articulated and lived through the students. Staff articulate the view that “We don’t give up on the children” and evidenced this throughout the Academy, with SAFE staff suggesting that support continues after some individuals have left.

Students are safeguarded and have a very clear wrap-around system of support that ensures that, not only do they not “slip though the net”, but are enabled to pursue their personal ambitions.

Children are discussed on a regular basis, eg Primary Phase class teacher, Safe worker and class worker roles, together with HS Safe workers, Key Stage Learning Leader role, Education Welfare Officer, Academy Counsellor all work together to ensure inclusion. Information is shared between them in weekly ECM Meetings.

There is much joined up thinking, with staff articulating their working relationships with others. This was particularly evidenced in conversation with the Academy Counsellor, EAL team member, JCS staff member and the year 8 SAFE worker, where each found ways to describe how they work together for the good of individual children. This was endorsed through other conversations focused on curriculum entitlement, where children are supported to succeed. All conversations had a focus of building capacity, taking personal responsibility, good communication, demonstrating that each child in this Academy has an identifiable Team Around each Child, always looking to enhance opportunities.

Orchard Primary, Hackney held regular meetings across the three schools in its group, checking on the vulnerability of each child, with specific focus on certain children and families. There was a follow-through system, with specific staff delegated to monitor and mentor as needed.

Bethnal Green Academy pastoral care was exemplary, with multiple layers of support, with mentoring and coaching at the heart of the systems.

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Life is group-work.

15/10/2014

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Life is group-work. Most of us grow up in some kind of family group. If we are lucky this is an extended group with the broader family within relatively easy reach. Each family member has his or her place in the hierarchy and takes on a role to suit. Sometimes this involves fighting one’s corner with a sibling, arguing with an adult, seeking to get personal advantage and sometimes it’s playing, working or talking together.

A broader definition of group-work would include our place in the broader life of community, how we interact with each other as citizens. Since most of us live in villages, towns and cities, we have to accept the rules by which we all live. Many of these rules can be described as a “how to” guide, many of them derived from the Ten Commandments, things that cause dispute, anger and retaliation, a diminution of group life. Children need to learn the rights and responsibilities of group living.

When children enter school at Nursery or in the Reception class, they are, by and large egocentric in their behaviours. They will have some social skills learned at home, like turn taking or sharing, but there is a need for them to learn to socialise within a larger group in order to make the most of school.

A primary skill is the ability to talk so others can hear and understand, and to listen so that another point of view can be heard. This cannot be taken for granted. A significant number of children come to school without these skills being well developed. Some, at this stage, have a hearing issue diagnosed, as a result of interactions with in-tune adults. Working together in a small group, perhaps of three, with an engaged adult, allows a conversation to develop, leading questions to be asked and the outcome recorded for pattern analysis over time, perhaps supporting a medical diagnosis.

Working together requires the development of negotiation skills, linked with basic manners. Could I please have….? Would you like….?
Negotiation skills would include asking someone do something, following a request, responding to an expressed view, how to handle disagreement.

Being an active participant in a group task allows insights into the speech, ideas, manners, viewpoints of others. Learning that discussion is two-way, perhaps that others know more, but that’s ok, because we can learn from each other.

Group work can, if well-ordered and organised for, can provide depth to many learning situations. It’s important to stress the well-ordered and organised aspect, because these factors can make or break group activity. By this, I do not mean “recipe” group work, where every step is controlled by an adult, but creating the working space appropriately, with resources likely to be needed available easily.

Every area of the curriculum is capable of supporting and being enhanced by some aspects of group activity, with a significant focus on developing oracy. It is possible to ask a group of learners to discuss an issue before being involved in general discussion. For this, group size can vary, from two up. This skill can be further developed with problem solving activities, where there is a need to develop a range of potential experimental routes, deciding on their merits or otherwise, resourcing appropriately, creating an effective workspace, carrying out the task, reviewing and evaluating, recording.

Starting as a secondary teacher of science, environmental studies and geography, pupils gained a great deal of insight from discussion of issues. It allowed them to clarify their thinking, permitted them to challenge ideas and to be challenged. A carousel of practical activities in science might allow a small group to gain insight by making something work.

Primary, however, became my main love and it was a delight to use the same ideas with younger children. What intrigued me was the way the children themselves would identify the points where they were stuck and had a need for a new skill, which could then be taught in context, so it could be instantly used and applied. Having been given permission to think in this way, it was noticeable how independent the children were able to become. They took on greater responsibility, including collection and organisation of resources. As there was not classroom TA at the time, that was a great boon.

Group based problem-solving, in every curriculum area became the norm in the classroom. By becoming the norm, the children developed working methodologies which further supported successful completion of the tasks; they developed significant personal and group capability, including a well-developed independence.

Tasks for group challenge included:-

Create a collage that represents spring.
Design and make a crazy golf hole. Ask individuals to try it and record their achievements.
Create a storyboard. Use this to select instruments with which to make a sound story.
Set up a fair test to find out which paper is best to send a parcel through the post.
Here’s a maths problem. In a group, come up with possible solutions.
Paired work in educational gymnastics.
Small team games in PE.

Group size varied, but ranged from two to five, rarely more and depending on the age and maturity of the children. The group provides an audience for ideas, whether they work or not. Error and failure are the points for reflection, reassessment, reframing and retrying. They should not be end points.

Group work is the means by which many children develop skills associated with self. They learn about themselves in the context of others. They become self-aware, develop self-belief, a growing self-reliance, self-esteem and self-possession, self-sufficient and have a view of their self-worth. All of these traits support a developing independence.

Children from a very young age show that they can be independent. In fact it is independent skills that are encouraged by parents, to make their lives easier, such as putting on clothes, getting out and putting away games, watching a TV programme alone while parent cooks the meal.

We need learners capable of being independent, but also capable of working collaboratively. The skills are not mutually exclusive and need to be progressively developed, or they become rusty or unlearned. Good group work supports a broad spectrum of learning, of “stuff” and self.

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Exploring scientifically

15/10/2014

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Set up a fair test to find what’s the best colour to wear to be seen walking along a road?

Alternatives; in the woods, on sand, in snow, on water.

What about the worst colour to wear?

Explore camouflage.

Unnatural colour- undertake a litter hunt. Discuss.

Set up a fair test to find out who can hear a sound best.

What are the best clothes to wear to keep warm/to be cool? Fair test.

If you are wearing a hoodie, can you see as well as if you weren’t?

What’s the best coat material to keep dry?

Set up a fair test to find the best paper to send a parcel through the post.

Best ink to write a label on a parcel.

What can you see in a mirror?

If you have plastic mirrors, what happens when you bend them?

Hinge two mirrors together with masking tape; what happens to images if you open them out different amounts?

Put two mirrors parallel. Explore and describe the images.

Try three hinged mirrors. Then make a triangle. Make your own kaleidoscope?

Paper structures. Show different ways to make a sheet of paper stronger, eg folding and rolling.

Use rolled paper to make a free standing structure 1m tall, strong enough to hold a crème egg.

Wind-up toys

How far will the toy travel for one turn of the winder? 2 turns? 3 turns? Predict for 4,5,6. Test and find out.

Does the surface make a difference?

What about on a shallow slope?

Forces

Make a device that will project a ping pong ball 3m into a container.

Make a free standing framework that will hold a mass 1m above the floor.

Design a packaging machine that will sort balls into 5s automatically.

Make a one minute timing machine.

Find a way to test whether a balloon weighs more flat or inflated.

Test elastic bands to find how much they stretch when mass is added.

Who has the strongest hair?

Collect an assortment of clothes pegs. Devise a test to find out the strongest.

Rafting (link)

Helicoptering. Simple helicopter model ( templates online) Time take to drop from different heights.

Electricity

Make a bulb light up. Add a switch. Make 2,3 bulbs light up the same brightness.

Make a buzzer sound. Make a burglar alarm for under a mat.

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Investigating mathematically

15/10/2014

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Stamping about

The post office only has 1p and 3p stamps. Can you make every amount up to 30p using the least number of stamps?
What if they had only 1p and 5p stamps?
Or 1p, 2p and 7p?
What if they didn't have 1p stamps?

Coining it

Using only 1p, 2p and 5p coins, make every amount to 50p with as few coins as possible.

Folds

How many times can you fold a piece of paper in half? Does it make any difference if the paper is large or small?

Grid movements

Fold or cut 16 rectangles of paper and arrange 15 as below, with a gap at the bottom right corner.

Move the X from the top left corner to the bottom right corner in as few moves as possible and devise a way to record each step for checking afterwards.

Tables in context

2s Factories making pairs of gloves, socks, shoes etc eg 6 pairs of shoes =12 shoes

3s Tricycle manufacture 8 tricycles=24 wheels

4s Car wheels, horseshoes, 10 horses= 40 shoes

Daisies

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Quick (one minute) data

15/10/2014

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In one minute, how many times can you:-

Jump up and down on the spot?

Write your name?

Hop on right leg?

Clap your hands together?

Write the alphabet?

Throw and catch a ball?

How many words can you read in one minute?

How many squares can you draw?

Record each outcome individually and then collate across the class.

All the above ideas can contribute to collecting information/data, which can then be interpreted in a variety of ways, depending on the age and ability of the class.

Lists of achievements, ordered from high to low or low to high. Looking at clusters.

Arrow diagrams of achievement.

Pictograms, barcharts, graphs.

Using data to work out mean and median and so on.

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The answer is twelve?

15/10/2014

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There has always been a discussion about the utility of learning “tables”. As an integral part of my early education, rote learning of tables was embedded in the fabric of every maths lesson. In many ways, memories of the learning are blurred, perhaps because I somehow enjoyed the learning? I did grow up in the dark ages when there were fewer screen-based distractions, so perhaps the “boring bits” of days could be devoted to memorising the boring bits. It was perhaps my equivalent of singing to myself!

There are many aspects of mathematics which contribute to the end product which needs to be memorised. The diagram above suggests some, but there will be many others. Taking the equation 3*4=12 leads to a broader consideration of mathematics, where a lack of experience or knowledge in any aspect might impact on future learning. It is a process of build up and make links.

It has to be considered that just rote learning of mathematical formulae may not in itself be productive. The rapid recall of something is good, if one has a use for it. The formula when applied correctly in a situation where its application facilitates the resolution of a problem has merit, especially if recalled rapidly.

I really enjoy driving in France and somehow “enjoy” the mental activity of converting kilometres into miles, so I am able to divide by eight and multiply by five in my head. Useful in that context, as then I can also estimate time of arrival, which, if heading for a meeting can be essential. So perhaps my mental facilities have been honed through use and purposeful application, not just rote and exercise based? Or did I have a talent for numbers? I do remember classmates not finding the learning as easy.

An anecdote from my classroom career comes from a tables chanting session I became aware of a sound that was clearly not the words expected. Moving around the class identified one child who was somehow getting by with “Da, da,de da; da da de da; da da de da de da; da da de da da”, as if she knew the rhythm, but not the words.

Children need to be able to see applications for the factual aspects of learning, so that they can use their energies positively. They also need to be able to identify points where their knowledge needs to be developed. All learning should be within meaningful contexts, with links between ideas being constantly made. Learning becomes deeper through application.

Rote learning can appear to be real learning, but in reality it can be an over-simplification, taking the end product of thinking, putting it in a higher place than is useful to subsequent learning, in so doing creating the illusion of a house of cards.

My mathematics began to falter at “A” level, pure maths, in part because the arithmetic approach did not always support the thinking needed within more abstract number contexts, such as differential calculus. I just couldn’t “see” what was happening. I was fine with formulae applied in sciences, as the purposes were defined.

My current worry is that that the proposals within the draft NC focus more heavily on memory, with fewer overt statements about use and application. Without the latter, there may be many learners whose progress through mathematics reaches personal limits. Are they to be classed as “failures” at that point, or will enlightened teachers still teach in ways that ensure they enlighten children through purposeful and developmental activity?

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Maths everywhere

15/10/2014

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Maths can be everywhere.

While it is possible to argue that language is a part of every piece of learning, as we think, talk and read the language all the time, it is also possible to consider the role of mathematics across many aspects of learning too. This latter point needs to be teased out a little.

I’d always want to use talk for maths, like talk for writing, with a broad range of appropriate different concrete apparatus. This would allow the learners to develop visual images from which to develop mental structures. I’d allow learners to draw processes throughout their learning, if that enables them to visualise more effectively.

One, to, three, four, five… Once I caught a fish alive

Ten green bottles; one man went to mow; There were ten in the bed..

There is a rich language of number in song and nursery rhyme.

Simply asking how many, or how much embeds a mathematical concept, number or amount, involving perhaps some estimation before more accurate matching, or 1:1 counting. It is possible therefore to utilise mathematical language across the majority of subjects in school and outside, if teachers, parents and children seek out opportunities. It may be an area where parents need some additional support if they are to become partners in progress in maths, either through information booklets or parent evenings, but possibly with carefully structured talking maths homework.

On the 8th November, the #ukedchat was a special on mathematics. An enjoyable hour spent discussing issues surrounding the learning of maths. It was interesting to hear so many teachers saying that they found this more difficult to incorporate in lessons. The whole chat can be viewed here: http://ukedchat.com/2013/11/08/session-176-maths-subject-special/

My own take on this was captured in a series of tweets, which the archive and the infografic allowed me to access for reference.

Teachers should be looking for real life situations within which to explore the maths- emphasise reality of maths.

I have a firm belief that maths is all around us and we carry with us the tools to explore the world mathematically all the time. Everything can be counted; how many cars, lampposts, trees, can you see? Measures can also be counted; how many paces between lampposts? “Which of these leaves is larger?” takes us into comparison, which can be extended by putting a series of items into order by estimated size or weight. The use of body parts, hand spans and thumb widths for example, allows the estimation of size through non-standard measures. Knowing that my hand span is approximately 22cm (9inches) has allowed me to estimate items with more accuracy in the absence of a measure.

A collection of leaves, drawn onto squared paper, allows the number of whole squares to be counted, greater than half to be counted as a whole, if the less than halves are not counted, so giving a close estimate of the area.

Measuring spaces around the school links to counting; for example, how many metres long is the playground? Representation onto squared paper allows discussion of scale.

Even in English, maths can play a part. A prime example would be the excellent 100 word challenge, where learners have to write within a 100 word limit. Haiku work within a specific number of syllables per line. It is possible to explore text to find the most common letters or how frequently some words occur in a text, creating tally charts then using the data for bar charts.

Music has beats in a bar to be counted.

Art has perspective, seeking to show distance, but also uses shape in different ways.

Practical, link to pictorial representation then to more formal diagrammatic then to abstract.

In my opinion based on a long career, learners are too quickly removed from the concrete apparatus which underpins much of their early experience, which has a particular bearing on their understanding as numbers get bigger. A child who can manipulate multilink blocks, bridging through ten to twenty, does not yet have a firm grasp of number sufficient to explore place value. Multibase especially base ten materials, were developed, by Dienes, to illustrate place value concepts through manipulation within functions.

Handling the material, keeping drawn records of actions taken, then introducing diagrammatic forms to simplify allows the teacher insights into the child’s thinking before moving on.

The move to abstract too quickly is the bigger problem, can undermine the teacher’s room to differentiate effectively.

Mathematics becomes “fuzzy” for young learners, and for some adults, when the numbers involved are greater than their mental comfort, or are doing something that they do not understand and cannot picture. The ability to utilise skills from an earlier stage, whether to use concrete materials or to draw should be an active part of all mathematics teaching. This supports thinking.

A quantity surveyor will work from diagrams and architect drawings in order to estimate the quantity of material that will be needed for a particular job. Estimation and working out quantities are essential life skills, with a mathematical base.

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Show maths, talk maths, draw maths, image maths.

15/10/2014

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Create mental images before mental maths.

Early learners need security, which comes from engagement with the real world, interpreted as concrete materials, then as visual models, then into mental images which can be manipulated with facility and accuracy.

There is a significant difference between being able to count and understanding maths, but sometimes you can be forgiven for thinking that it’s that simple. Visiting grandchildren recently, I was delighted when one of the two year old twins took my hand and articulated the counting numbers and went past ten. I was amazed we went past three to be honest, but she had a pattern and it had been retained and could be repeated, just like a poem or nursery rhyme. We sang lots of those too, many embedding numbers and she and her sister joined in.

This set me to thinking though, about early number acquisition.

There’s the stage of knowing that number and size exist as a descriptor of the world. Things exist as a group, the cardinality of a number; it has some value, which doesn’t change, ie the conservation of number. This links with 1:1 matching. Things can be put in order, the counting numbers, representing one more, or they can be ordered as fist, second, third. They can be compared, more/greater than, less than (fewer than), heavier/ lighter than, bigger/smaller than, taller or longer/shorter than…… Ordinality…Ordering and organising in this way are often a part of play. Real life situations, encountered every day. Maths is everywhere and can form a significant part of everyday conversations. It is certainly a part of the Early Years Foundation Stage and into KS1.

At some stage the child moves beyond 10. This is a point of issue for me, in that for many children, this perpetuates the counting aspects of maths, whereas there is potential for exploration of issues that move towards an understanding of place value.

Put a handful of counting material on a table and ask children to estimate how many there are. Accept all answers, but ask for clarification of their thinking. Now ask them to find out how many there are. Many will just count them up, one by one. It is an interesting exercise to ask the children afterwards how they could prove their answer. Their only strategy is likely to be recounting. However, if some might organise them into groups, showing some order and organisation, they may be in a position to demonstrate that their organisation allows them to count up in bigger units. So 26 may be described as two groups of ten and six units or singles. This, to me is a precursor stage to written modelling, as the image of the two tens and six units can be recorded as an image.

This imaging allows a child access to many of the next steps of mathematics, but the lack of it can relegate a child to numbers swimming around their heads. Without clarity of visualisation, mental manipulation cannot easily occur.

So, I would argue for holding onto appropriate concrete apparatus for as long as necessary for a child to easily access the concepts and to be able to show a facility with thinking mentally. This can develop into a proof after mental activity.

Working with concrete apparatus, modelling and images can underpin all stages of mathematical thinking, with children being allowed to record their findings in ways that are suitable to them. These can be translated into mathematical speak by the teacher or other adult, to demonstrate the links between the images and pure number. This too is an essential stage. It does not always arise by osmosis, apart from a few possibilities.

Numbers do stuff; we have the four “Rules of number”, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, each of which has a number of synonyms.

Add; put together, add, add together, total, count, count up, figure up, compute, calculate, reckon, tally, enumerate, find the sum of, amount to, come to, run to, number, make, total, equal, be equal to, be equivalent to, count as…

Subtract; take off, take away, minus, reduce, fewer, (difference) decrease, deduct..

So even within supposedly simple experiences there can be vocabulary induced issues, which cannot be ignored, as you can’t determine that children will always experience a maths problem in the way that they have learned to answer it.

Difference, to me, can be taught as addition or subtraction, whereas quite often it is seen as synonymous with subtraction, hence the brackets.

What is the difference between 6 and 14? This problem can be seen from either end. What needs to be added to 6 to make 14, or what needs to be taken from 14 to make 6? It can be made visual with the aid of “towers” of counting material and compared before calculating. Of course the question could be asked differently. How much bigger is 14 than 6 or how much smaller is 6 than 14.

All of these questions are based on the same premise, that 6 and 14 are not the same….

and that’s the challenge for early stage learners; they have to make sense of the language and the embedded concepts in order to be able to think of them for themselves.

So, my early maths recording books would be blank pages, with printed and laminated guide sheets beneath to support organisation. I’d allow children to draw their thinking and get them to talk the maths, recording as needed to interpret, or just making notes as aides-memoire. In the same way as some exams ask children to “show their working”, I’d encourage this approach at all stages. This approach allows insights into the processes, rather than just the right or wrong answer. That can come later, when a child is secure and just needs some practice to prove or improve accuracy.

Check out the Inquiry Maths website, which has a large number of interesting approaches to Maths teaching.

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Draft-check-improve/redraft

15/10/2014

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Drafting and redrafting
The background to this article was watching a student teacher developing a lesson on redrafting a short piece of text that had been developed the previous day.

There is often confusion between rewriting and redrafting. I well remember a colleague for whom redrafting meant simply “writing out in best”. This unproductive activity could take the best part of an hour and for those with poor handwriting could mean lunchtime too. It also meant that for many they were copying out errors and reinforcing them by copying.

Drafting is the process of refinement of a piece of work and it goes without saying that every piece of writing could be improved by careful editing, word selection, phrasing and at times complete reorganisation. I’m 100 words into this post, and already someone will have picked up something which grates. It’s the nature of making writing public and for every learner their efforts are always public, even if only between them and their teacher. For some the public extends to all those who walk past displays.

The process of drafting should be embedded within the writing processes already in existence, so that it becomes part of writing improvement, not something that is done because it says so on a long term plan, done one week and forgotten the next. It should become second nature.

Another post looks at the two page approach to writing.

This is capable of incorporating redrafting by adding an additional page (left hand, for those who’ve read the original, for a second draft to be written after changes have been worked.

One significant issue is the amount of available space for redrafting ideas, especially in 1cm lined books where learners write on every line. Where do they put changes? I’ll express a preference for A4 unlined paper exercise books with differentiated line guides. If learners write on alternate lines, they can revisit their writing and have space to incorporate changes. Also plain paper allows a broader range of activities to be developed within one book.

Redrafting can be messy. Learners have to get used to crossings out on their original work, adding new, better words, phrases or whole passages.

Redrafting doesn’t have to be the whole document or poem, at least not within a lesson developing the skills. Better to have evidence of improvement of a few sentences, than an extended piece with maybe a word or two changed. Focus on the introductory sentences. Do they engage the reader? How could they be reworked?

Further redrafting can become useful homework activity.

Teacher feedback between stages should be guidance towards improvement-formative commentary, based on personal learning targets.

There’s time for a summing up at the end of the process.

The whole process can be supported with technology:-

IWB, linked to visualiser, scanner or iPad/phone can put an example into general discussion. With the use of highlighting, rewriting, addition of specific words, phrases, with correct punctuation, the children can SEE what you mean. This is a highly effective strategy. A portfolio of exemplar materials available to all learners is also a very useful support to the visualisation process.

Drafts created on pc or laptops are very easily edited and printed, considered away from the computer, then rewritten.

Typing work already written has limited value, see comment on rewriting for handwriting, unless it is for display.

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Reading dynamics

15/10/2014

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Guiding developing readers
If you can read this, thank a teacher. Attributed to Harry S Truman

In the wake of recent pronouncements on reading, it is a wonder just how children in the past learned to read, especially without rigorous tests to make sure that they were learning. A high quality reading curriculum has benefits across the whole curriculum, so deserves to be centre stage. It is often the prescribed, often narrowing approaches that get in the way.

I’ll admit at the outset that I’m not a fan of pure “fonix” being the only route to reading. It is an important component among many that contribute to accuracy.
In and of itself, it does not develop fluency, nor enjoyment, nor meaning and comprehension, with children engaging in reading for pleasure, creating their own reading dynamic.
It is a tool and like any tool, needs to be handled carefully at the right time and honed with use.

TEN SIGNS OF A SUCCESSFUL (ENGLISH) TEACHER

(Exeter University; Primary Improvement Project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust 1997)

This project looked at learning dynamics within reading classes and found the following:-

A high level of personal enthusiasm for literature, often supplementing the school’s resources with their own books.
Good professional knowledge of children’s authors and teaching strategies
Importance of literacy stressed within a rich literacy environment
Progress celebrated publicly and children’s confidence increased
Teaching individualised and matched to pupil’s ability and reading interests
Systematic monitoring and assessment
Regular and varied reading activities
Pupils encouraged to develop independence and autonomy, attacking unfamiliar words, or teachers backing pupils’ judgment as authors
A high quality of classroom management skill and personal relationships with pupils
High expectations, children striving to reach a high standard, whatever their circumstances

It is a truism, but a teacher usually prefaces any commentary with “in my experience”. This is largely because teachers will always seek to develop high quality practice which a) suits their children and b) suits their way of thinking and thereby develop a coherent, working practice. This post is based on experience.

Learning to read should be based on a whole school approach, to ensure that children pass through different classes, but still are enabled to make steady progress. This can be based on trialling methodologies, with evaluation and feedback to develop others.

I started teaching so long ago that it was almost the dark ages for reading. The book stock in the school was limited and based on the Ginn 360 scheme, which gave a progression, so weekends and holidays were spent rummaging in charity shops to build up a personal class collection which would support the broader range of needs. The prevailing advice from inspectors was that some must be individually heard daily, some at least three times and the better readers at least once. With a class of 39 children that created a need for a lot of reading time. An integrated day, child-centred approach afforded some time, while playtimes and lunchtimes offered more. USSR, Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading happened straight after lunch, sometimes, but not often becoming ERIC, Everyone Reading in Class. Parent helpers were always welcomed.

Phonics were taught, either directly to specific groups of children or within games situations. Approaches were multisensory, with sand trays, sandpaper shapes, plastic models, painting letters while saying out loud.

At the same time personalised sight vocabularies were being checked, developed and supported with spellings home and regular tests. Spelling was based on the look, cover, write and check approach, developing aspects of short term memory. Children learned to read and to gain pleasure from reading.

Cliff Moon’s Individualised Reading approach effectively colour coded the available reading schemes into bands within a defined readability level, from approximately age 5, rising by 6 months for each colour.

stage 0 red; stage 1 yellow; stage 2 white; stage 3 dark blue; stage 4 pink; stage 5 brown; stage 6 green; stage 7 grey; stage 8 orange; stage 9 black; stage 10 beige; stage 11 dark pink; stage 12 pale blue.

If each colour was stocked with sufficient books, this allowed free access to children to change books as and when they finished them, rather than waiting for a defined change time.

Home-school reading record books became all-purpose reading records and comment books, shared by teachers and parents, with comments made at the time of hearing a child read. Individualised reading records were kept.

This approach created an understandable spine, with defined progression embedded. It allowed consideration of the different needs of readers, in that where a child needed some guidance within a book in order to be able to read it, defined a teaching level book. All books below this would be fluent level books, while any book above the guided level was probably at a frustration level. For reading at home, children could select from their fluent colours, changeable daily if needed. Inevitably, the movement from one teaching level to another determined the books read at home, so there was an element of competition engendered, as well as a desire to be seen to be making progress.

Guiding teachers, children and parents within these books was achieved through bookmarks which had been written with a specific level in mind. Based on a “can do” approach, the statements, linked to NC levels were given to encourage conversation between reader and listener. Colour coded to link with the books being read, they had an appreciable impact.

Beyond and around the spine, other books were available. Children took home a non-fiction book each week within their library exchange period. “Free reader” was the ultimate accolade, when self-selection from the available books required different guidance and knowledge from the teacher of the available texts. Non-fiction texts were displayed within the topic corner, available for reading, but also for study skill lessons, using the books to enhance the literacy curriculum, through note taking and information gathering. The index and contents offered opportunities for alphabetical order and judgements about suitability of the text.

Free readers need the skills of choosing a book for themselves. To facilitate this, children were taught the “five finger” rule; read the first page and fold one finger for each word that caused a problem. If five were counted, it’s probably too difficult. They also had to read the blurb to support their decision, made in discussion with the teacher. Children also had the (adult) right to say that they were not enjoying a book.

Children learned to read and enjoyed the process, in doing so becoming avid readers. Proof? For want of better, SAT English L4+ scores at age 11, 85%, in classes with 20%+ SEN. Others will have greater evidence.

By now the reader will have noticed a theme developing.

A good range of reading material should be available, organised to support progress. Colour coded?
Teacher awareness of individual reading abilities and interests is essential.
The reading journey should be guided and supported as well as personal practice and a dynamic that encouraged sharing books as widely as possible.
Adult engagement with different aspects; diagnostic if necessary, such as miscue analysis and developmental feedback, written records of books read and qualitative statements of reading. Consider a home-school diary, especially for those who need close monitoring, and make sure that there is a positive dialogue, not just a parent notebook.
Reading between guided sessions is essential to fluency.

Develop a culture of reading in the class.

Create a book corner which actively encourages engagement.
“Author of the month”; a collection of books by one author, to be read and then followed up.
Postcards to an author; Fold A4 in half; Side one, a pictorial interpretation of the book, side two a postcard commentary, aimed at the author.
Letters to an author, alive or dead; Commentary instead of formal book review.

Display potential

Reading walls, considering an audience. Potential for home activity?
Photocopy book covers. Speech bubble commentary from children.

I LOVE books

Wordsmiths. Ten interesting words I have found in ……….(book title)

Settings, characters. Descriptions into art, art into words.

Settings in a box. 3D theatres allowing story telling, possibly animation.

In 1995, I wrote an article for Books for Keeps, based on 3D models. Can be read here:-

http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/92/childrens-books/articles/other-articles/books-into-art

Storyboarding a book. A book as a 5 picture cartoon.

Parents as partners

Where parents are considered as partners within this process, there is no guarantee that they will all have a clear understanding of expectations, nor can it be assumed that every child goes home to a literate household.

Schools need to be aware of this dynamic, to avoid stress either to the child or the parents. Support and help may be needed and, where there is limited scope for support, this may need to be the focus for in-school intervention, such as additional TA time for reading.

Many schools have developed parent evenings specifically devoted to reading guidance, with modelling to parent of how to share books, not just talking about reading policies.

Where this was repeated over time and with an assurance that every parent participated, the impact on reading progress is often very impressive.

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National writing project; revival time?

Assessment; righting wrongs?

Inspection/judgement or audit/support?

Don't assume

Single question questionnaires

A case for moderation

Thinking lessons; teaching standards

Personalisation is a total philosophy.

SEND Teachers as investigators

SEND Building an individual case study.

SEND Tic-Tac-Toe

Life is group-work.

Exploring scientifically

Investigating mathematically

Quick (one minute) data

The answer is twelve?

Maths everywhere

Show maths, talk maths, draw maths, image maths.

Draft-check-improve/redraft

Reading dynamics

Chris Chivers

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