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Boys; same but different?

9/11/2014

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While sitting is a school staffroom, and having a few minutes to browse the wall displays, I was intrigued by a poster from Oxfordprimary.co.uk, encapsulating the work of Gary Wilson seeking to find ways to raise boys’ attainment. There were many very sensible ideas, some of which could be seen as generic teacher traits, but when applied to boys have a significant impact. Some probably are very easy to develop in class practice, whereas others will require some thinking time before being enacted.

Relate to boys’ interests; Respect boys’ interests; Connect the learning; Get active; Short term goals and rewards; Reflective learning; Build self-esteem; Engage boys in fiction; Talk, talk, talk; Parent power.

The notion of connecting the learning is important from the beginning. Boys need to see where they are going with their learning and to see the point of each part along the journey. It is a bit like travelling on a car journey and having someone asking if we are there yet. That is disruptive.

Consider the notion of whole-part-whole. When applied to learning football, the equivalent would be give them a ball and allow a warm up kick-around, stop them and demonstrate a specific skill, then return to the game where the skill can be developed. Each bit fits into the whole, with encouragement and praise helping to build the self esteem. “Yes you can, have a go”, is much more powerful than “you can’t”.

Knowing the route and the stages along the route can enable a child to look out for the signposts and therefore have an insight into their own learning. Once on-board, they can begin to take charge and begin to determine their own progress. Achievement that brings rewards move towards the intrinsic reward that builds self-esteem further. Boys are innately competitive too, so having staging posts can encourage competition, which itself has to be managed, but can provide an additional stimulus.

Getting active implies the need for kinaesthetic approaches. I’d broaden this to using concrete apparatus, allowing manipulation to underpin the visualisation processes, in order to understand the underlying concepts before moving to abstract symbols. Firming up thinking, reflection is a powerful tool, supporting the quest for the “light bulb” moment, when a learner can see the point within the learning.

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So, we might have active learners in a classroom, manipulating apparatus logically and purposefully, developing internal visual images which they can use to support their next learning steps, all the while talking and explaining what they are doing, description leading to questions and experiment.

There are implications for classroom organisation and layout, resourcing, time available as well as the needs of the other learners in the class. Some teachers at this point will be saying that it is too disruptive working like that. The other side is to have bored and disaffected children, boys, causing disruption to the learning of others. Is it better to engage them constructively or to deal with the consequences of poor behaviour? Would the teacher rather discuss learning progress or problems with a parent?

The organisational difficulties can be overcome by seeing the classroom as a learning workshop, appropriately resourced and organised to support independent learning opportunities. Get them to see some point in the learning, not just because it is needed for a job or an exam.

There is a significant link between poor literacy and antisocial behaviour; Every Child a Chance Trust 2009- The Long Term Cost of Literacy Difficulties

Today, I was part of an in-service day organised by a local university, with a focus on Literacy. One of the workshops was on boy’s reading, while another was a group of Masters’ students feeding back on their researches. Inevitably the sessions drew together a number of strands and raised a number of very significant questions. There has for a long time been a gap between the attainment of girls and boys in reading at the age of 11, but evidence was presented that showed a greater gap over the recent ten years. While the evidence is there, the questions are many.

  • Have boys changed their learning behaviour in that time?
  • What are their distractions and interests?
  • Is current reading material of interest to them?
  • Have teachers changed their T&L behaviour over ten years?
  • Do children have books and reading modelled effectively?
  • Is reading aloud causing anxiety for readers, especially less able and boys in particular?
  • Is it not macho to read?
  • Do teachers know their children, their interests and the book material available within their schools?
  • How skilled are teachers at diagnosing the reading needs of pupils?
  • Is technology used to support reading?
And so on. These questions have been around for a long time. Prescriptive approaches have focussed teachers into certain T&L behaviours, which may be limiting to reading progress. Is guided reading sufficiently focussed and linked to other reading challenges and expectations, to provide a coherent approach? Are children reading often enough, in and out of school? Is the teacher teaching and modelling reading or focussing on the elements of reading such as phonics, guided reading, TA/parent support for independent reading?

One young, recent graduate gave a very coherent account of some intervention that he undertook with a disengaged reader. The significant factor in the child making progress was a teacher interested in the child as an individual, with reading tailored to his interests. His self–esteem had been low. Raising that had give confidence to have a go and take responsibility for learning. This teacher tackled the so-called Matthew Effect, which is described in the words of Keith Stanovich (Adams, 1990, pp. 59–60):[1]

Slow reading acquisition has cognitive, behavioral, and motivational consequences that slow the development of other cognitive skills and inhibit performance on many academic tasks. In short, as reading develops, other cognitive processes linked to it track the level of reading skill. Knowledge bases that are in reciprocal relationships with reading are also inhibited from further development. The longer this developmental sequence is allowed to continue, the more generalized the deficits will become, seeping into more and more areas of cognition and behavior. Or to put it more simply – and sadly – in the words of a tearful nine-year-old, already falling frustratingly behind his peers in reading progress, “Reading affects everything you do”

Adams, Marilyn J. (1990). Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

The teacher role cannot be exaggerated. The teacher is the organiser of all that occurs in their classroom. While they do work to the dictates of the school, society and Government, they are still responsible for the very basic needs of children, as described in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation). Self-esteem is the precursor of self-actualisation. If we want independent children and learners, we have to ensure that their self-image is strong.

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On creativity

9/11/2014

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To live is to have problems and to solve problems is to grow intellectually.

J.P. Guilford 1897-1987 US psychologist

The world of education has never really defined creativity. For many, the notion of the creative curriculum means the arts subjects, music, art, drama. At times enlightened experts have proposed creative approaches in other areas, but these have often been lost in a rush to return to basics, or as now, the core curriculum, which means whatever the current Secretary of State deems it to be. The difficulty of this is that the core determines what is to be tested and is therefore important, so we are told, as a tool to check that schools are doing what they should do.

Should education be a case of either-or, or should we be seeking to find ways of covering the basics within a more creative curriculum? If J.P.Guilford is correct, then if life is a series of problems to be solved, schools should be creating a curriculum which allows them to tackle problems with support and guidance, making errors and being helped to see how to resolve them. How much of the current curriculum is risk free?

Daily, children are being given photocopied worksheets, sadly, often unaltered from the internet or ideas book, so may not be applicable to the class or child context. Pre-prepared templates, limited, prepared resources and finished items to be copied are even seen in “creative” lessons, leading to thirty identical copies. Craft, skill development or real creativity?

If a budding Picasso was in the classroom, would this approach enhance his skill? Some would answer yes and many artists move from formal training to the abstract after college.

There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns. Edward de Bono 1933- physician, author on thinking skills

Where Edward de Bono promulgates the notion of creativity as a human resource to be developed, many schools offer a variation of what has gone before, often many years before, without question. Teachers actively share resources, and while there is no need to “reinvent the wheel”, as is often quoted, there are few classrooms where the same activity will achieve as much as the originator of the idea. However, patterns are repeated, often in the name of innovation, where what was a good idea twenty years before is rediscovered and repackaged as the next new idea.

We have, over time thrown away many good ideas, because they’ve dated a bit, but if anyone was to look at the Nuffield Science 5-13 series (1967-75), they’d find a very practical, experience based, problem solving, creative science curriculum. But then along came QCA guidelines, which gave a recipe based science approach, to go along with further recipes for other subjects. Creative, it was not.

 To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires a creative imagination and marks the real advances in science. Albert Einstein scientist and mathematician 1879-1955

 If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Isaac Newton, polymath 1642-1727

Einstein would be turning at this point, but then so would Isaac Newton, who had the humility to give credit to the thinkers who had gone before. Children need to know facts, but then they must have the chance to explore these, compare other sources of information and come up with a reflective, considered view. There is always more than one way to look at the world. Everyone is different and the new Einstein or Newton may well be in one of our classrooms, still to discover the spark of imagination from which the next big advance in science will come.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create. Albert Einstein.1879-1955 (He said a lot)

Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination. John Dewey 1859-1952 philosopher, psychologist and education reformer

Imagination is often underused as an educational tool. It is often mixed up with recall, of facts, places visited, people met, so is more likely to be an activity based on memory or description.  If Einsten and Dewey felt so strongly about imagination and they were working 80-100 years ago, why have we not embedded imaginative problem solving in the curriculum?

Real imagination stems from some version of hypothesis building, which is capable of being checked in some way, leading to reassessment. Real imagination allows someone to take a flight of fancy, to create a new reality within which a story can be set. Real imagination takes one or more idea(s) and transforms them into a novel solution. Real imagination can be rare, but these children do exist and may well be sitting in the classroom. They are not always the capable, academically able children, nor are they necessarily the ones with their hands up. They may be the child who is daydreaming, while looking out of the window.

The human mind once stretched by a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. Oliver Wendell Holmes 1809-1894 physician, poet, lecturer and author.

We wish children to make progress in learning throughout their school careers. We’d like to think that we stretch their minds. Many studies have shown that this is not the case. Children often are subject to repetitive activity and may be suffering from repetitive strain. They may not be enthused to learn and that’s the crux of the matter. Schools are places of learning. Children learn in different ways. Children should be being guided to learn by engaged teachers, who know their talents and their learning needs.

Last, slightly sad, word from a past Prime Minister. You’d think that with a little imagination we could come up with a stimulating, life-enhancing education system across the board. Maybe this is a reality check.

Perfect solutions of our difficulties are not to be looked for in an imperfect world. Winston Churchill 1874-1965 statesman, author, artist.

But then, maybe Churchill was prepared to work with imperfection, if it offered a temporary solution to the problems facing him, giving him time to come up with a better solution when circumstances improved. And maybe by making one thing better, the situation shifted sufficiently to allow the next steps to be imagined.

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Differentiation explored

9/11/2014

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“I often warn people: “Somewhere along the way, someone is going to tell you, ‘There is no “I” in team.’ What you should tell them is, ‘Maybe not. But there is an “I” in independence, individuality and integrity.”  ―    George Carlin

Moving towards an evidence based approach to teaching and learning, seeking methodologies that support the learning needs of the whole class, including special needs and gifted and talented.

The teaching profession, at times, can appear to be seduced by methodologies that eventually become stereotypes. The three part lesson appears often, introduction, activity, resume/summary/plenary. This can support whole class teaching, which occasionally is necessary. The first question that arises is whether all the children are in need of the input. If some are already secure on the teaching point, could they be better occupied on an independent task, based around the same elements, while those who needed the input had direct teaching? The able group could then have a more specific and useful input following this, while the taught group was engaged on their activity. This increased dynamic will have a positive impact on learning behaviours. Once the input is over, there is the question of activity. In a mixed ability class, how is this achieved?

The needs of any grouping of children will be as diverse as the number involved. Every child has individual capabilities, each of which needs to be developed. This causes teachers to shudder, as they deem themselves incapable of meeting the needs of so many individuals. Many then revert to whole class teaching, supported by different challenges for different groups, sometimes with unspecific outcomes, such as “all must, most will, some might”. If “some might”, who are they and shouldn’t that be the bottom line challenge for that specific group. In this case, is “differentiation” potentially allowing some children not to be sufficiently challenged? Differentiation is, in reality, a constituent of assessment and diagnosis, using the information arising out of assessment activity in order to provide clarity in the next steps for learning. Differentiation by outcome, by support and by task are the most used approaches.

Differentiation by outcome, where all the children are given the same task, supports whole class teaching and can be, if created with care and then followed up in detail, a very valuable diagnostic approach. The teacher role is to engage fully with the outcomes to support their subsequent planning. Attempting to do this for a class of thirty children is time consuming and demands considerable analytical skill from the teacher. The outcome should be a careful descriptor of the capability of every child, a series of “can do” statements, providing the starting points for subsequent learning, supporting detailed target setting. It is often the case that differentiation by outcome becomes the norm of the classroom. However, it can also be used as an excuse for no differentiation, where outcomes are largely ignored and have no impact on subsequent learning. So differentiation by outcome is a starting point, not an end in itself.

Differentiation by support is often deployed in classrooms where a teaching assistant is available, more frequently to work with the lower ability children in the class, sometimes becoming the normal operation. This approach can have impact, but also has drawbacks with overuse, as it can mean that children with specific needs are always working with less qualified staff. This can lead to reduced independence being shown by the children and can make the TA define the role as his/her norm, with the teacher becoming more deskilled in dealing with SEN children. As a result of the teacher analysis of pupil need, differentiation by support should be part of targeted intervention with clear development articulated and anticipated, measurable outcomes known to all participants. Without this, the TA can be working in the dark and the children can spend time drifting, rather than devoting time to learning. Consider whether it is possible to institutionalise dependence in bot children and teaching assistants.

Differentiation by task is the harder approach, but over time is by far the most challenging to learners and, if carefully supported and encouraged by the teacher and other staff, can lead to greater outcomes. The outcomes of a piece of work allow the teacher to sort the children into general ability groups, based on their levels of achievement, which can be generated from level descriptors, “can do” statements or APP-style records. This provides a general range of ability with specific challenge points, each of which can have the next learning steps described. Once these are in place the setting of discrete tasks can happen. These can incorporate more subtle learning challenges, like collaborative or cooperative working methods or independent use of resources. The tasks are set with clear learning outcomes, based on a teacher hypothesis, so the teacher is essentially saying “Within this task you’ll be able to show me if you can……”, so assessment at outcome is either yes or no to achievement.

Differentiation by task is not just a matter of starting with the special needs children and then making tasks a little bit harder for the rest. This approach may leave able children unchallenged, or insufficiently challenged. Start at both ends then consider the middle. Are the middle ability really all the same? Are they in reality several sub-groups? Do some need tasking nearer the able children, or the lower group and what about the real middle?

Therefore, in reality, it is the tasking of learning opportunities that might cause teachers to avoid the detailed approaches demanded by differentiation by task, as it can be argued that the teacher is creating four or five “lessons” within one. In reality, the tasking is likely to have similarities, but with the implications of targets challenging different end points, providing restrictions for some, perhaps the use of concrete apparatus as a learning support, while others have more open tasking to see how far they can progress. Support and tasking will lead to outcomes. It is the diagnosis of these outcomes that provides the base for the next challenge. Is there a need for pre-teaching, recapitulation of the information or is there room to progress? These questions will receive different results, even within groups.

Gradually the class teacher is moving to personalised learning. The next question may be how much certain able individuals can challenge themselves and take responsibility within their own learning. In this scenario, if each child is capable of self-generated target setting, the teacher role becomes far more subtle, with the need to engage with individualised need. The teacher and TA will at times then become the facilitators of learning, but also available to be the knowledgeable other, teaching as necessary.

Differentiation by expectation.

This reflection was prompted by the #ukedchat Twitter discussion on Thursday 29th November 2012, which was focused on differentiation. There has been much consideration of this topic and it is often the most difficult aspect of teaching practice. Reflecting on interpretations of differentiation, it would appear reasonable to promote the idea of differentiation by expectation, which may be a more accessible idea than differentiation by other means, especially of task, where there can be the perception of planning for several separate lessons in one, so this is then ignored, reverting back to differentiation by support or outcome.

Differentiation by expectation occurs before the learning, not after, so articulated, group-specific expectations provide clarity to the learner and the teacher during and afterwards for engagement and feedback.

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Some teacher planning for differential expectation is articulated as all will, most should, some could, which, although it does appear to provide a scaffold for progress might not provide the rigorous challenge for the most able, nor contribute to the pace of the lesson. Challenging all abilities to produce provides outcome at maximum, achieved within the class, which can be shared to engage all learners in potential, possibly future aspirations.

Differential input

Many teachers have been seduced by the three part lesson approach, input, task and summary or plenary. It can be seen regularly in use, with a large group of children sitting around the teacher on a carpet or at their desks, depending on the age group. The teacher presents the same material to the whole group at the same time. Is it realistic to assume that all the children need the same input, unless perhaps, it is a completely new piece of learning?

If a teacher, standing in front of the class, is aware that some of the class already know the information, why do they still have to sit through another resume of the activity? Are they learning anything? Could they be doing an activity that captures the essence of the information, while allowing the teacher to focus on those who need a more scaffolded, rehearsed approach?  The teacher would then follow this up after the input to the remaining group.

Equally, some children will be finding the activity too hard, so perhaps they could be given a preparatory, sensitising activity before coming to work with the teacher?

This approach is a variation on the three part lesson, but seeks to put the notion of differentiation to more practical use from the beginning of the lesson, rather than just at the task stage. Adopting this approach, which is relatively simple to accomplish, allows greater interaction with the learning needs of the learners at an individual level, guiding the teacher to closer engagement during the task, allowing challenge levels to be refined, feedback to be personalised and children to take more responsibility for their learning.

Whole class inputs can lead to whole class tasking and then a great deal of individual marking. Refining the approach ensures that the outcomes can be more clearly defined, supporting a deeper intervention and future learning.

Developing personalised target setting

Where a school is developing a strong Teaching and Learning agenda, there is usually much data, which is capable of supporting the target setting agenda for the children. However, this does need to be interpreted into useful information to be able to ensure that children are party to their progress. This omission could be a contributory factor in holding back the achievements of some significant groups. With this in mind, the following idea is offered. Choose you own scale if not still using levels.

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Teaching and Learning Policy?

9/11/2014

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There has to be a central theme to any school, in terms of their approach to teaching and learning, ensuring that there is coherence and continuity throughout a child’s experience within the school. An overview of a policy is offered as a starting point for discussion and adaptation. It could be used as a whole, but any policy must reflect the local situation.

Learning and Teaching Policy

A Statement of School Vision

  • Everyone involved with the educational process at X School is a partner in progress
  • This, in terms of children, is encompassed in the motto Thinking, Working , Playing together.
  • Educationally making guided progress, through individual and group effort.
Our Aim

A typical child leaving X School will have these attributes

  • Confidence in themselves, as people and learners.
  • Awareness of the world around them, locally and wider, showing sensitivity, an enquiring approach, and a developing sense of awareness of themselves as spiritual beings.
  • Capable of working in many different ways, with different grouping of others, and be able to sustain effort when required.
  • Solve problems with different, but developing, levels of independence.
  • Think creatively and reflectively when appropriately challenged, organising their needs, and being able to talk clearly to anyone with an interest in their activities.
  • Accept guidance to achieve the best they can, with a clear understanding of their strengths and areas for further improvement.
A policy for learning, achieving the vision

  • Children, their thinking and learning, are our core purpose, within the context of a broad, balanced and relevantly challenging curriculum. They are to become active producers of learning, rather than passive consumers of teaching.
  • Children will start as information gatherers, capable of clear description.
  • Children will progressively become problem solvers, applying a range of relevant skills, able to articulate clearly in speech and then writing, the detail of their learning, and to have a developing repertoire of presentational skills through which they can show their ideas.
  • Careful consideration of information, and logical thinking, together with the ability to explain their thoughts, using 2-D or 3-D models, will lead to secure links in learning.
  • Learning processes will be clearly articulated to children, who should be able to explain what they are doing, and why.
  • The processes through which the children will be challenged will be known to teachers, parents, support staff or any other assisting adult.
  • The potential for learning across and between different abilities needs to be maintained, to ensure that children derive learning from as many sources as possible.
  • The taught curriculum will be well taught, with teachers working to improve their personal skills and practice across the curriculum.
  • ICT in all its forms will be a central tool of development.
  • The school and each of its constituent parts, will see itself as part of a wider learning community, deriving information  and good practice from sources that complement our own developing practice.
Putting the vision into practice

Teachers at X School plan to ensure that the vision and aims are put into practice, employing methodologies outlined in the policy for learning, through an approach summarized as Analyse, Plan, Do, Review, Record, Report.

Analyse… Teachers will receive information from a range of sources about the prior attainment of each child. This will provide a framework upon which to base decisions about working arrangements, suitable objectives for learning and tasks to achieve these.

Plan… Teachers plan over different timescales, annual, based upon allocated topic specifications. It is for individual teachers to use these specs creatively to provide a dynamic approach to learning.

Contributing to Planning Detail

Whole of National Curriculum through School based Topic Specifications

Literacy and numeracy frameworks.

Planning at different levels

  • Content
  • Learning needs
  • Space, timescales and resources
Do… Tasks given to children will be creative, challenging and engaging, leading to defined progress.

Task design. Each task will have a definite purpose in progressing an aspect of a child’s progress, known to the child and any assisting adult.

Activity presentation. All activity will be clearly presented and understood by children before being active.

Independence levels, skill, knowledge and attitude will all be considered when devising the task parameters, as the different learning attributes of individuals and groups should be encompassed in the task challenges.

Children working

  • Understanding task… Children will have a clear grasp of what they are being challenged to achieve, be able to discuss and articulate purposes when asked.
  • Task behaviours… Children will be expected to demonstrate appropriate approaches to tasks, developing persistence to achieve.
  • Team working… Children will be challenged to operate as collaborative, independent learners on tasks specifically created to allow for qualities of cooperation to be developed.
  • Oral skill…Children will develop appropriate descriptive, analytical, exploratory languages to communicate clearly to a peer or interested adult.
  • Recording skill, written, pictorial, mathematical…Within any learning experience there will be opportunities for children to use different forms of recording to help them to remember sequences of events within an activity.
  • Evaluation… Children learn about learning by doing, by reflecting on the process and activity, and evaluating changes to approaches for future reference.
  • Review… Children will develop as primary evaluators of their drafts. Peer reviews will be developed over time, with the teacher giving informative feedback to help with the next phase of development.
By being given tasks that they will need to discuss, decide on action, carry out, review, re-evaluate and repeat, they will develop an insight into the ways in which adults work and solve problems.

Outcomes..Review

  • Teacher as reviewer and quality controller…Any piece of work from a child is the current draft capable of being reviewed and improved. Ongoing oral feedback should support the child within the learning process. Marking should provide opportunities for advice, and an overview of quality.
  • Feedback to children…should enable each child to review their own needs in learning for subsequent pieces of activity.
  • Room for improvement… advice on areas for development.
  • Objective and subjective…Correcting spelling or an aspect of grammar may be clearly objective, whereas a commentary starting “I liked…..” would be subjective.
  • Moderation…At intervals it is clearly good practice to share views on achievement. Moderation allows a consensus view about a discrete piece of produced work.
Record… Teachers will keep records which assist them in progressing learning for individual children.

Report… At half year and year end, teachers will write reports to inform parents about achievements and room for improvement.

Review, Recording and Reporting

  • To colleagues
  • To parents
  • Significant others
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Blink

8/11/2014

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…and you’ll miss the chance, or the science of rapid decision making. The book of the same title, by Malcolm Gladwell, may, at first sight, not seem to have very much to do with teaching and education. However, the main premise of the book centres on the decisions which people take in very short time scales, those decisions that may appear to be taken as a result of intuition, or similar, reactive behaviour.

He discusses the notion of “Thin slicing”. Put as simply as possible, this is described as making decisions with very small amounts of information, often only a few seconds. The claims are backed up with very clear references, particularly from psychological research, so these are not just assertions. Personal relationships, husband-wife, doctor-patient, the power of a glance are all examined.  And extended through describing real life situations, such as a discussion between a doctor and a patient, looking for the points in the discussion where the patient lost faith in the doctor, giving rise to the potential for the patient to consider malpractice when the procedure went wrong.

Many examples of rapid decision making are given throughout the book, most notably the story of Paul van Riper, an American army officer, whose background experience, especially in Vietnam, was used by the Pentagon within a simulation of a Middle East battle scenario. Van Riper was often seen as a bit of a maverick, who led from the front and wouldn’t ask someone to do something that he wouldn’t. Battle hardened, used to “the fog of war”, van Riper was to lead the Red team against the official armed forces. He made a link with the American stock exchange and used traders on his team, as he saw clearly on a visit to watch them working, that they made a large number of split-second decisions within a very short time scale. They also demonstrated that they were excellent game players and very strategic in their considerations, but, by experience, had honed this expertise to a point where they may not be totally conscious of the actual decision, but “knew” what to do almost instinctively. Ok, so who won? Was it the might of the American military or the team led by the rogue commander? The Red team won by skilfully recognising the strategic patterns of the established forces and mounting counter attacks which were not only unexpected but devastating. This exercise proved to be prescient, as it came before the Iraq conflict.

Choosing politicians by look, trying to decide whether a statue is a fake, car salesmen are all discussed and Gladwell shows how people can be fooled by wrong instincts, as well as discussing the merits of accepting that many times our instincts are right.

Are teachers makers of rapid decisions? In the classroom, every day, thousands of important decisions are made by adults, often at speed. These are very often responsive to the activities of children, but also relate to the running of the classroom, on many occasions, making decisions to engage and intervene, or to stop a lesson which is not going right. The teachers who are thinking on their feet in such a way are bringing together a great deal of information, as well as the sum total of their reflections on their earlier teaching experiences. They have a wealth of background detail about each child from which they are able to respond, with decisions that determine the subsequent learning steps to be taken. They are capable of decoding behaviour, at a glance, taking remedial steps globally or individually.

Is running a classroom like running a war campaign? Hopefully not in reality, but the essence of decision making is the same, from an overall strategy to many rapid decisions in response to the reaction of the participants. Where teaching can fall down is in the lack of a clear strategy, knowing the direction of travel sufficiently well to be able to either lead the children or have them understand the direction in which they are travelling, so that they might be capable of travelling alone.

The exemplars in the Gladwell book all have a common theme. Where expertise is deployed at speed, there has been beforehand a significant amount of preparatory experience, as well as, in some cases, a predisposition to rapid decision making and action. Experience comes from life as well as the work environment. The individual skills are honed in different settings, so that they form the armoury that supports decision making. In some ways, the old adage that “Practice makes perfect” is well described. However, while this is demonstrated in terms of repetitive practice in sport or military preparation, it is also clear that problem solving also has to be practiced.

Gladwell summarises decision making in two parts:-

A)   Successful decisions rely on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.  Teachers have to indulge in visualising the journey that their children will take over the course of the academic year. In doing so, they create the space to think on their feet and to react to circumstance. The absence of strategy puts the teacher into short-term approaches, which may leave teacher and child short of the progress being sought.

B)    In good decision making, frugality matters. Classrooms are filled with information and teachers have become very good at ensuring that this is all captured, but, is there too much data and not enough clear information on which to base decisions. Are teachers looking for specific information and missing the bigger picture? Are decisions based on good information or assumption?

In schools, children often experience repetitive individualised activity, but may more rarely be placed into situations where they are required to make decisions. Every subject lends itself to developing challenges within which children can self-select approaches to their solution. Working collaboratively supports articulation and refinement of thinking, group consensus making and achievement through group effort.

For teachers to be able to engage with these approaches, they need to know the direction of travel for the year. Annual planning to provide an overview framework for learning, allows teachers to focus on the medium and short term planning, with a finer focus on the expectations for pupil progress within a lesson, a week or half term. It is possible to develop an argument that some schools demand planning that actively acts as a deterrent to real progress, where the planning is so tight that it precludes spontaneity. In two/three/four class year groups, it is not impossible to find that all the children are being given the same activity, with no differential challenge. Work in sets is often whole class, as there is an assumption that the differentiation is embedded within the overview decision making, differentiation by outcome.

Teachers cannot be responsive to need if they are tied to prescriptive curricula. Therefore they will not develop the skills of rapid response. Perhaps they won’t be in a “war zone”, preferring comfort to uncertainty, but they may also be ensuring that their children grow up with the same lack of responsive, problem solving skills.

Will children in the future need the skills to solve problems?

Don’t blink. The future is on its way and our children will be in charge!

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Planning Permission?

7/11/2014

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Ain't gonna need this house no longer, ain't gonna need this house no more
Ain't got time to fix the shingles, ain't got time to fix the floor
Ain't got time to oil the hinges, nor to mend no window pane
Ain't gonna need this house no longer, I'm gettin' ready to meet the saints

When you want to build a house or extend your house, you have to apply for planning permission and building regulations to provide an element of quality assurance to the project. The overview planning has to fit within the local area, not to impinge on neighbours and cause them problems. It’s sometimes a frustrating system, but generally serves the needs of the community well.

I might have different views on the impact of larger scale developments on an area though, as these larger scale projects can seem to ride roughshod over the wishes of a large number of locals. Similar feelings are caused by changes wrought by Government, in terms of more localised decision making, premised on national needs.

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One of my favourite places is the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, at Singleton, near Chichester. This site, covering many hectares, is dedicated to saving and restoring houses from around the area of the Weald and Downland, from Kent to Hampshire, and as a result of the work of paid and volunteer staff, has amassed a collection of houses from the 12th to the 20th centuries, all of which have been restored to such an extent that it’s possible to walk with ease through the history of house building.

I still have a book on my shelves, bought around 1976, written by R.W.Brunskill, called Illustrated Handbook of Vernacular Architecture, which I used extensively to begin to “read” the details of houses, doors, windows, arrangements of the same, chimneys and chimney pots, glass styles. Where I live is an area rich in a wide variety of housing styles and is also well served by clay seams. These have been exploited for many years for brick, tile and chimney production; the local museum holds many examples as well as a library of local investigations.


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Why, on an education blog, am I rambling on about houses?

Well, for one thing, they have to be planned and planning is the bane of many teacher’s lives. So I want to link and reflect on the two.

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At some stage, an architect, hopefully working with education experts, creates an image of a school, based on the articulated needs, draws up careful overview plans which are passed to quantity surveyors to work out the materials needed, then to engineers to work out the project plans that enable everything to be times and carried out efficiently and effectively. The project is overseen by a nominated lead, whose role is to coordinate the efforts of the team putting the plan into action There may be negotiation at specific points where an unanticipated issue arises, requiring some adaptation. Even if, sometimes, the project has a slight overrun, the outcome is usually pleasing, especially if the focus has been a quality product. Teachers and children appreciate the newness of surroundings, resources and opportunities.

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Plans at classroom level derive from overview plans, as per the planning overview. What is done day by day, builds into the bigger jigsaw that is the term, year and overview school plan.

The overview plans form the basic structure of the school, and, like all structures, don’t take kindly to being shaken. Earthquakes can be caused by Government edict, create insecurity in some structures for a while.

Overview plans, secured as year expectations, provide the project maps for teachers to develop appropriate journeys from known start points, towards an anticipated end point. Teachers, having developed the journey maps, have a very good idea of the way forward, even if they may anticipate the need to divert on occasion. This level of planning, to me is a source of security for managers; the teachers know where they are going, for the next six or seven weeks of the term, half-term. This level of planning, I’d want to see.
Once the foundations are laid, the walls are

Pimp your “short term” plans? Do all short term plans need to look the same?

Teachers are individuals, each thinking slightly differently to another. Some, for some subjects, need to write themselves a detailed script, in order to assure themselves that they will not forget anything, while others can write down the general direction of the lesson, then rely on their knowledge and ability to adapt to the developing needs of the lesson.

There are often, on social media like Twitter, comments about planning demands. This is such an individualised need that I’d want to argue that an imposed short term planning structure can become a limitation and a barrier to thinking about the essentials of learning. As a headteacher, I enabled staff to do just this, with the only restriction that the plans should be in a hard back log book, so that it could be read and reviewed, if there were any concerns about children’s progress. If I had to step in and take the class as a result of absence, I’d refer to the medium term plan and talk with the children about their previous learning as a start point. That made more sense than trying to decipher a script. Perhaps that says more about me!

Schools seek to differentiate for children’s learning needs, talking of “Growth Mindsets”. How much do schools limit the potential of teachers, by requiring short term planning in a specific format? That can feel like allowing a leaky roof to continue.

You may wish to build castles in the sky, but to do that, you have to plan for it.

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Contact details for Weald & Downland Open Air Museum
Chichester
PO18 0EU
Telephone: 01243 81136301243 811363
eMail: [email protected]

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Reading; once upon a time...

5/11/2014

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Wen oi were young, grow’n up in Deb’n, us lernd them ther letters ‘n zounds. ‘Twern’t difficult.

A were f’r apple, b f’r banana, c f’r cat, ‘n the teacher, her spelled it out cer, ah, ter. ‘Twas enough to read Janet and John. Them wuz grate, but Biggles, ‘e were my fav’rit, ‘specially if ‘twer zunny, ‘n oi cd read outzoid.

Now, having read much more and travelled extensively before the age of eighteen, and since, I’ve had the advantage of many different education settings, in different countries. I had a strong Aussie twang at the age of eleven, which had to fade fast to survive in the traditional Grammar where 11 plus success sent me. It was that or the “bear pit” treatment.

I watch my grandchildren going through the same stages and I wonder. Today they not only learn about letters and sounds, but phonemes and graphemes, digraphs, trigraphs, medial sounds, blends, as if they are degree level linguists. Mind you, I still visit schools and see mis-formed letters and her children struggle with reading in exactly the way they have done for generations.

They are learning far more about the structures of language, as per the Government synthetic phonics requirement. They get guided reading support, take home books regularly and have supportive home and extended family. They are happy reading aloud, especially if snuggled on the sofa, and are delighted with the inevitable praise for their efforts. It’s the pleasure that promotes further effort, struggle, resilience, then success.

But, are they better readers than previous generations? Is the insistence on phonics, to the exclusion of many other aspects of reading development having an impact? I am not totally convinced. Within a broad reading diet, phonics is one tool to be learned. Putting the sounds into complete words and memorising those larger chunks improves fluency, with fluency allowing greater ability to comprehend.  The “chunking” of sound groups into whole words and “words within words” allows a broad family of related ideas to be collated.

How many words can you find with “art” in them?

For starters, just using the alphabet as single letters, you get Bart, cart, dart, fart, hart, part, tart. These can be extended with –ing, further extending possibilities. So one small piece of learning can be explored and extended.

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‘N oi dn’t railly zpake loik that.

But I’ll guess that you were able to read it though and then reform it into received pronunciation.

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Education; through the looking glass

5/11/2014

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Sometimes, watching or listening to an education discussion can appear to suggest two or more people looking at the same thing and seeing exactly the same idea in totally opposing ways. Black and white, good and bad, right and wrong; the arguments rage backwards and forwards. While this can be mildly entertaining to watch, and even if one realises that it is possibly a set up, it might suggest serious compatibility issues which then impact on learners, where continuity and consistency provide the backbone for progress. It can feel as if some specific topics become taboo, which is a shame. If we all listened to the “common sense” rhetoric of politicians, we’d become totally confused.

Summer holiday 2013 and the October 2014 half term saw a number of “discussions” via Twitter, not all of them edifying. Some people seem to like to argue for the sake of arguing. It can cause a bit of a Twitter stir, increasing traffic to a site, so could be seen as a form of personal advertising.

In at least one case, I have wondered if the dilemma was based on the participants’ teaching situations, and as such began to consider the telescope as a metaphor; your personal clarity depends on which end you choose to put to your eye, or in Nelson’s case, supposedly, whether you can see or not with that eye, or choose not to as the apocryphal stories have it.

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Telescopes can aid sight, but if they are unfocussed or used badly, they are blurred or miss the point.

As a young child, my dad had a telescope and I’d enjoy putting it on a wall for stability and looking around the neighbourhood, delighting when we went on holiday to Paignton, where the rocks provided the stability and I could explore Torbay. I had to learn to get the length right and organise the eye piece, but, that done, the sheer delight of bringing boats and fishermen into close up was a revelation, matched only by the arrival one Christmas of a microscope. I still cherish my copy of “Common Objects of the Microscope” written by the Rev J.G.Wood in 1872, bought for the princely sum of 6d in a second hand book shop. At the time, I couldn’t read the words, but the pictures were interesting. As for the Observer series…rapture.

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If you are an Early Years or Infant teacher, by definition you are dealing with extremely young children, many of whom start school performing behind their peers, while some will already have progressed significantly. Immediately there is a range of ability and need. The EYFS teachers and assistants will spend a significant amount of time during that first year tracking each individual with care against a wide range of criteria, based on their observations of the children reacting in play and other learning situations. They will have looked back at earlier experiences, discussed these with parents and will also be looking forward to the needs of transition into Key Stage 1. This is a tightly focussed period of assessment, the outcomes of which inform the receiving teacher.

As a child progresses through the system, there is a developing track record of experience and any necessary support having been given, so teachers know what the children have done and should have a clear view of their ability. Internal moderation is likely to have added to the quality and acceptance of the judgements made.

In a Primary school, the growth ethic is very strong, looking to build on the positives, while subtly ironing out the areas where difficulty is being encountered, in the knowledge that a young learner has a lot to learn and their school career is long. It’s easy to accentuate what is not known and depress performance. In many ways, the growth ethic has been supported for many years by levelness descriptors, showing children where they are in their learning and where they need to improve. In the current climate, it is likely that many Primary schools will choose to hold to these as they provide a suitable progression ladder, while exploring alternatives.

School contexts can create diverse needs. In a post on personalisation, I gave examples from a variety of London based IQM schools dealing with significantly different issues from many others. They had to develop approaches which were significantly individual in nature.

Transfer can be a significant time of difficulty. There are significant discussions between schools before transfer, visits between schools, with vulnerable pupils having a greater degree of access and support to aid the transfer process. Detailed records are created and shared. Used effectively they can lead to a rapid start to the new school setting. Ignored, teaching can be less well structured, with less positive outcomes and relationships as a result.

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Anyone looking back from the rarefied heights  of GCSE or “A” level teaching might feel impelled to ask questions about their students, some of whom will have arrived with an A*, while others might have a C; the latter group, by definition will demonstrate lesser skills than the A* students. The removal of levelness has been seemingly well received among Secondary writers, but I wonder if this is because the exam systems leading to GCSE provide a suitable system from which it is possible to extrapolate progression criteria and A levels will also have specified criteria. From their inception, the NC levels were seen as potentially tying up with GCSE grades, with level 7 being a C equivalent. Then the argument is context- not in the context of a specific course of study. The arguments can appear circular.

Looking down on the preceding stage, the following questions have been articulated at some time;

  • What did they do in nursery, EYFS, Infants, Juniors, years 7-9 and why can’t they all do the same things?
  • What have they been doing for the last x years?
  • Surely there’s a proven approach which should have been used?
Children learn at different rates, at different stages and as a result of differing stimuli. They learn through play, through exploration, through direct teaching. They learn if they are in a place to learn. Personal circumstance can be a barrier as much as personal ability. They may have other issues working through their minds, crowding out the teacher voice, so they miss essential information. They may have a home life where shutting out sounds is important. The gaps in learning can become barriers to learning if exaggerated by commentary from a teacher. Can’t can become won’t, removing a learner further from school learning.

They also forget, as do adults, often as a result of not playing with an idea and fixing it in memory. They may not yet have trained their memory to retain, organise or recall essential information with fluency.

Every child is unique, despite sharing characteristics with their peers. Rather than looking at them through the telescope, a magnifying glass or microscope would be more useful, seeking to identify the specific aspects which need support and which are sufficiently secure to be challenged.


According to annual statements, 25% of year six children leave Primary School unable to read, a global statement. Many of these children will have achieved level 3 at a high level, so they can read, but perhaps not yet sufficiently well. To look at the detail of individualised needs and to provide discrete remediation to those needs is essential if learners are to continue to make progress.

It’s the little things that matter, within the bigger picture of progress. Learning is the sum of the parts; know the children well and keep refining the picture, so that engagement and interventions are clear, have purpose and improve outcomes.

Look up, look down, look around; it is a case of 360 degree, 20:20 vision. Whose misconception is it anyway?


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Thinking logs; (dia)logue?

5/11/2014

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Developing a thinking log.

Good or outstanding schools are, in my experience, usually reflective institutions, across all staff, having an impact on students.

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I’ve always valued clarity of thought and  admired people who are able to effortlessly speak with passion and detail, even more so if they speak without notes, or appear to be doing so.

For the whole period of my sixteen years of headship, I kept a running log book of my thinking about the school. Most thinking is of a developmental kind, not fully formed, unless you have the equivalent of a PC brain, and there are some of those. Lesser mortals need to work through things in ways that help them to make sense. Some prefer their tablets or laptops, but, for me, I have yet to find a system more effective, Luddite that I am, than a blank sheet of paper, closely supported by post-its.

The thinking log was not my idea. It was shared during a Deputy Head training opportunity, led by the late Neville West, who was, at the time, Reader in Education at Sussex Uni.

The premise is a simple one. Leave page one of a hard back not book blank and turn to the first double page. Only write notes from talks, or your first thinking, on one side, leaving the opposite page free for your reflections, or, in my case, the questions that arise, either to share within the discussion, or afterwards with colleagues. The mirror page can also permit a précis of thinking to be developed, for ease of future recovery (links with revision?)

Plans for school improvements were developed in the same way and were often presented to staff as works in progress, to allow their thinking to have a strong influence at the development stage.

I strongly feel that it is important not to be seen as a head who only presents final thoughts, as it supports my belief in collegiality. If everyone is party to developing ideas and processes, they then have a stake in ensuring it is enacted effectively. A top down model requires several stages of assimilation before it can be delivered. This is a weakness of national policy, which is rarely the subject of consensus and often has a polarising effect.

So a dia(log) can support this way of thinking. It can also support teacher planning, as the two page approach allows the clear plan on one side and note taking on the other. It allows different forms of note making, such as “mind mapping” variants, drawing, diagrams, as well as verbatim written text.

The dia(log) became the basis for the two page approach to writing, detailed in another post (framing writing)

The dia(log) approach lends itself to a wide variety of applications. I now use a variation during school visits, where a blank sheet is used to capture on-going discussions. At the end of the discussion, the sheet is folded back, allowing a short summary, which will be the basis for the report.

Revising for exams is often a fraught period. Developing a note-making mentality can support future needs and reduce the need to overlearn every aspect.

Worth a thought in the dia(log)?

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Reading; essentials

5/11/2014

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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 “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.

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.
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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.
  • Reading between guided sessions is essential to fluency.
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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.
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  • 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.

A number of schools have developed parent evenings specifically devoted to reading guidance. 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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The search for quality

5/11/2014

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Like everyone else, this is, and I am, a work in progress. Discussions inevitably come back to the same points, how to define and achieve the maximum progress for each child within learning.
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Do we know what it looks like?

Thanks to Pete Jones (@Pekabelo) for developing the idea of quality in an excellent post describing his and his school’s attempts to describe quality to learners, http://deeplearning.edublogs.org/2014/03/02/a-manifesto-for-excellence-work-in-progress/#.UxRX4BRFDIV   but also for a link to a very interesting article, using the ideas of Berger. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/deeper-learning-student-work-ron-berger I particularly liked the idea that learning was “a work in progress”, with the implication of try and retry/draft and redraft- consider the French verb essayer-to try.

Ever since I started teaching there’s been a debate about quality or quantity. This arose mainly from consideration of the amount of writing that children were doing; it appeared to be most lessons and every subject apart from in Maths, where the concern was the number of “sums” they were doing. The latter often depended on the approach of the school-decided scheme to be followed.

An associated debate can be seen in the process or product discussions that regularly arise, which can morph into knowledge vs skills, or progressive vs traditional.

Teaching is probably best done in an ordered and organised way, to ensure that information/knowledge is imparted in ways that ensure that it is available to the learner in timely fashion to ensure that they have the skills and knowledge to engage with their ongoing learning challenges. In the same way, as an adult learner, if I don’t know something, for example in a practical area like plumbing, it’s better to look at the You Tube tutorial, or read the manual, before undertaking the task. To be taught does not necessitate an actual teacher being present though. Auto-didacts do it themselves, with varying degrees of success, but, like all teaching and learning, that is the case.

Learning is much messier to quantify and is only really made visible in situations where the learner has to apply what has been learned to produce a defined outcome. Fixing a light or fitting a radiator both have very clear outcomes, work/not work. Learning outcomes in school are usually less clear cut. Children have different start points, different cultural backgrounds and family support or guidance, retain information differently. As a result, outcomes will vary. Therefore, it is important for children to reflect on their own performance in order to provide quality personal challenge.






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Personal benchmarks can be established with each piece of completed work. A benchmark allows a return to a prior position to reflect on the journey and the progress made. Constantly establishing what is “good for me”, with articulated improvement statements, allows consideration of the next steps. Reflecting on the journey enables the learner to become a personal driver within the process.

In order to take part in this, learners have to be inducted into the language of improvement. This will be a combination of process/capability statements (skills) and defined learning contexts, which provide the knowledge base. The defined learning contexts and the essential learning processes are inevitably the provided curriculum, determined by adults. Both of these can provide exemplars of what quality outcomes would looks like and the means to achieve.

Capability is in the descriptor of the learner. Judged against the process, it is possible to determine where a learner is on a journey. If judgement, personal or teacher, is constantly against a model of perfection, a lack of perceived capability can become debilitating. It is not uncommon for a child to say that they can’t do something. This can mean “I can’t do this as well as I know you would like me to, so I’m not going to try and fail”. In the past, such a situation has allowed teachers and parents to volunteer comments which have been demeaning and unsupportive of learning in any form.

A pass/fail mentality does not support sustained progress.



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So, if a child is to be introduced to the language of self-improvement, this needs to be a common language, supporting dialogue, not an imposed language of teacher judgement. It should concentrate on build-up commentary, rather than over-focus on negatives and should be based in a clear knowledge of the learner, so that it is personal, not generic.

There is an imperative to replace level based commentary within the next incarnation of the National Curriculum. Will learners suddenly start to produce exceptional work, just because the curriculum has changed? Will four year olds, on entry to school, be enabled to read and write Shakespeare, or are they likely to go through the same phases as every other generation starting school? Will changing the curriculum embed the expectation that every child will start in Reception at the same stage and make the same progress throughout the next seven years? Yet, that could be a reading of the year-based curriculum expectations, with judgement outcomes of above expectation, in line with year expectation, below expectation. Each of these statements is likely to have an element of subjectivity.

Equally though, unless process has been clearly established, the yearness element could emphasise knowledge, at the expense of process, so could provide a limitation to a rise in quality while “mastery” by all is sought. Could the “above expectation” children be handicapped by waiting for the others to catch up, or “below expectation” be further labelled, by teachers and fellow pupils as a result of a need to wait? I have the image of a group of learner out for a walk/journey with the teacher. The keen ones keep up, and some might go ahead, but with oversight and might then have to wait for the stragglers, with associated comments about being “slowcoaches” etc.

Perhaps a way forward is to use what we know now to establish benchmarks, or exemplars in order to balance our future judgements. Currently, using levels, a year two child is expected to achieve 2b, year 4=3b, year 6=4b (defined by David Laws as Secondary ready level). There will be clear examples from children achieving these and higher levels. They could provide a benchmark portfolio of outcomes, to support future expectations. This would ensure that future standards are in line with previous expectations, but also support future learning from examples, rather than reliance on teacher words.

A case of show how developing know how.

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Assessment or critique?

5/11/2014

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Make quality visible, so it can be discussed and evaluated openly and regularly.

In dictionary terms a critique is an article or essay evaluating a literary or other work; review, [from Greek kritikē, from kritikos able to discern] whereas an assessment is the act of assessing, especially (in Britain) the evaluation of a student’s achievement on a course.

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On the surface then, the difference between critique and assessment is nuanced, with each having some characteristics of the other, discernment or judgement. If these are seen as synonymous, then critique is the same as assessment, but I’d argue that there is enough difference to persist with seeking some clarity, for myself anyway.

I’ve always enjoyed art, bringing to it a scientists eye, shaped in part by the purchase, at the age of eleven, of two second hand science books, Victorian in origin, one with plates of ferns, the other with plates showing “Common Objects of the Microscope”. If I went by the art teacher’s implied assessment in my first year at a Boy’s Grammar school, I’d say that I was a failure in art. His method of assessment was to line everyone up, holding up their pictures and move boys up or down the line until the final resting place was given a percentage mark, which we had to write on the back. I was usually towards one end of the line. I am sure it cut down on his marking, but did nothing for my self-esteem. We received no other feedback, so had no understanding of how we, as individuals, might improve. I thought I was useless at art, at twelve.

Fortunately, at the end of that year, I transferred to another Grammar school, with a significantly different ethos, where critique was a significant part of methodology. If something was not right, there was a rationale given and advice on how to improve. Teachers were adept at coaching learners. Having joined an evening art class in the equivalent of year 11, I discovered the school art teacher leading the class. I’d already gone into sciences as my main GCE choices, so it was a delight that part way through the year of the evening class, he suggested that I might also enter for GCE art, as an extra. To cut a long story short, I passed, so could now assume a modest natural talent.

In my own case, poorly managed assessment brought down my self-esteem, whereas critique and coaching supported my development.

Reflecting now, though, and in the context of recent blog writing about quality and capability, the two elements are also evident in formative and summative assessment, with formative assessment, to me, embedding aspects of critique, based on the formation of an opinion. Summative assessment can lead to seemingly more clear-cut statements, although in my own mind they are simply a moment of taking stock.

Assessment is normally based on clearly articulated or published criteria, with a judgement of whether the outcome demonstrates certain abilities, so that the assessor can say with some definition that “x can do…”. Some assessment situations also require a judgement of pass or not, with a pass at merit or distinction. These are bottom line capabilities, seen, for example in driving tests, music exams and Initial Teacher Education, each of which requires a level of competence in order to progress, with further guidance available.

Critique is what I think I do when I go to an art gallery or listen to music, usually starting from appreciation of what I like, through areas which make me less comfortable, to aspects that I don’t like. This is coupled with a rationale, so my critique is a descriptor, linked to personal insights. There has to be a “because”. As a reflective person, sometimes this is an insular activity, but, when in company, a shared reaction can become the stuff of dialogue, comparative and nuanced, and that’s the part that interests me in terms of classroom practice.

I think children and their teachers should engage in discussion of quality in work, in all subjects. With visualisers becoming a part of classroom practice, it is very easy to share outcomes and explore and diagnose aspects of the work, together, with children being enabled to explore the language and parameters of critique. Description, followed by speculation, enables the questioner to raise issues in the mind of the producer, to enable answers which might, in themselves, highlight the specific areas for improvement. I’d also expect classroom spaces to be awash with examples of quality work, on display, or in portfolios, which set the benchmark for expectation and reflection within the class. It is a holistic approach.

I am now beginning to view success criteria as surrogate mark schemes for a specific context. If they embed statements which clarify the steps that need to be taken in order to produce a piece of work of quality, they can be checked at the end to see if they have been followed.

However, on top of that, there needs to be the capacity to advise individuals about the quality within the finished work. These personalised targets, attached to the edge of the book, can summarise the qualities being sought from that learner adding to the potential for both critique and assessment. Assessment, in this scenario, becomes a “signing off” activity, with the critique proving a qualitative set of statements.

Learners can engage with success criteria and a number of schools embed systems where learners have to highlight areas of their work which, in their opinion, demonstrate a specific success criterion or personal target, which focuses marking. Self-diagnosis of outcomes is an essential skill of editing, drafting and redrafting activities.




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As a Deputy in a First School, my year 2 class were writing stories based in castles as part of their topic on Invaders and Settlers. I tried something different with my more able children. On day one, we spent time collecting, collating and discussing information about castles and their inhabitants. They spent time making notes. That evening, they took home a small exercise book, with ten pages, with the need to draft the first part of the story, with the emphasis on the setting and introducing the characters. We were going to write chapter books. Day by day, the in-class activity was editing one chapter and reflecting on the next, with drafting done at home. By the end of the week, there were substantial pieces of work produced, as a result of discussion, reappraisal and self-criticism. A very kind parent helper offered to type the stories too, so they looked good. Afterwards, they had time to read each other’s work, with time to discuss them together.

I think the simplicity for me is to value descriptive and evaluative, reflective discussion, which is capable of being modelled, guided and scaffolded by an engaged adult. By learning to talk in this way, children can do it for themselves and each other and in so doing, prepare the ground for self-improvement.

Improvement judgements should not be the sole province of a teacher. Improvement should be a partnership.

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Virtuosity; the search for your own tune

5/11/2014

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Meaning; great skill in music or another artistic pursuit, eg “a performance of considerable virtuosity”

synonyms: skill, skilfulness, mastery, expertise, expertness, prowess, proficiency, ability, aptitude, adroitness, dexterity, deftness, excellence, brilliance, talent, genius, artistry, technique, art, creativity, flair, finish, polish, panache, finesse, wizardry, calibre, quality, professionalism.




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It is strange how one word can begin a train of thought which rumbles and twists around your brain, pulling together ideas and memories, which can then coalesce for a short while in a blog post, as a means of putting them together. In many ways this week has reminded me of my approach to school assemblies, which often came together through reflecting on a single word as the theme.

Last week, Andy Tharby wrote a post about failing better and how we can all learn from errors, which prompted me to send a tweet suggesting that aspects of his post brought the word virtuosity to my mind, and it has stayed there. Is there a point where virtuoso could be applied to a teacher’s practice and what would identify the approach as such?

In music, virtuosity is evident when an individual performs with or without music, usually the latter, interpreting the composition in ways that share the emotion of the piece with the audience. The performer puts themselves into the music in such a way that the audience can almost feel it as well as hear it. This doesn’t need to be showing off. Virtuosity can be quiet efficiency and effectiveness, calm, controlled sharing. Yehudi Menuhin, Stephane Grapelli and Nigel Kennedy, as violinists have all been described as virtuosi or perhaps a prodigy, by displaying talent early. Each has had a distinctive style, in their respective genres, in terms of self-presentation and playing styles.

So virtuosity has to have something to do with talent and personal style.

My own relatively shallow experience in the music world derives from folk music, where my bodhran playing allowed me to play in France and England with barn dance and social dance bands, as well as playing in the Truffe de Perigeux, where our band Octan played in the final. We didn’t win and I had to come home to headship! Tant pis.




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It was a regular feature of meeting with other musicians that know-how became show-how with techniques shared, tunes and songs exchanged through immersion and rehearsed by playing together- jamming, just for enjoyment. As a result repertoires were extended, through personal effort, absorbing the new into the old, not just recreating the tricks and tips, but playing and singing in your own voice.

So virtuosity might mean the capacity to unpick and share.

Tricks, tips and bright ideas are the stock in trade of education. Teachmeets make this sharing easier, at least for the brave souls prepared to put themselves forward to share something from their classroom practice. It’s really important to reflect and embed these ideas in a longer term plan, so that they have meaning and can be presented with confidence, just in case something goes wrong and can’t be rectified, because it hasn’t been thought through and rehearsed, whereas the “expert” has already thought through these details.

Virtuosity depends on capability with the tools and significant mental and physical reflection and rehearsal.

Virtuosity, to me, is a state of heightened professional and personal skill, honed through practice or rehearsal to a point where presentation becomes seamless. It can then be difficult for an observer to unpick the details.

Virtuosity should also travel outside the safe contexts within which it has been honed.

In teaching terms, using the teaching standards as baseline descriptors, I’d suggest the following as a starter for a journey to virtuosity in teachers.

  • They know their stuff well, breadth and well as depth, so can easily take alternative routes and come back to the main journey, as the need arises. TS3
  • They are ordered and organised, mentally and with resources, in such a way that they make appropriate links, ensuring seamless classroom and learning management. TS4
  • Learners have confidence in them, so they have professional status, demonstrated through positive relationships which allow learning activities to proceed effectively for all learners. TS8
  • The teacher and the learners know the consequences of disrupted learning. Behaviour management is effective; consequences are seen through. TS7
  • The teacher knows about child development, can place the learners in the class into appropriately challenging work situations that encourage talk and demonstration of high expectations, on a class and individual level. TS1
  • The teacher understanding of learners allows detailed engagement with individual and class learning, guiding, modelling, coaching and mentoring as needed, adapting to needs as they arise and encouraging the best possible outcome. TS6,5&2
With repetition, the teacher gets to know the children even better and the children are clearer about expectation.

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Voice activated

4/11/2014

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I have the pleasure and privilege to visit different schools. The privilege is that to visit is an invitation, with the school having undertaken a significant self-evaluation, presenting a very high level of evidence against eight elements. The pleasure is in working alongside colleagues who are committed to the Inclusion agenda in its widest interpretation. Inclusion means every child and adult associated with the organisation, with all the adults focused on one aim, the best possible outcome for each child.

In three settings, there were children with significant learning difficulties. As one was a Pupil Referral Unit, these difficulties had previously led to emotional outbursts, which resulted in permanent exclusion. However, at the two other settings, I also met such children, who had been subject to “managed moves”, at the request of a colleague school, to avoid a permanent exclusion. It did feel a bit like shifting sands, the upshot of which was disaffected children in a school setting.

However, the significant feature of all three settings was the commitment to making things work better. All were language rich environments, children encouraged to share their thinking, appropriately, with adults prepared to listen and take part in discussion. Children were enabled to find and develop a voice. The evidence from the schools and the parents of these children, was that they had been given an opportunity, which had been taken and was being valued.

For one child with Autism in a Primary school, his voice was found via the medium of song. A very astute music teacher had noticed that, despite being almost mute in class settings, the child would take part in class singing and had a very pleasant singing voice. When I arrived, the process had taken the six months since the start of the year, but an invitation to attend the lunchtime small group had been taken up. As I was timetabled to visit the rehearsal, I was able to witness a previously silent, introverted child singing with great feeling, word perfect and with an awareness of presentation skills, which certainly was at odds with previous descriptions.

In the same school, small groups of children, all with autism, were working with a supportive TA, and a box of rocks, to discuss similarities and differences. The conversation, at a high level, was supportive of their growing knowledge within the subject, but also increasing their confidence to be articulate.

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A formerly elective mute in another setting, which was certainly language rich, in all aspects, was supported by a TA, who was constantly promoting talk. Slowly, over time, this has begun to pay dividends, and although our communication was limited, there was evidence that patience and  perseverance on both the part of the adults and the child was beginning to have an impact.

At the PRU, the students whom I met during the visit were, without exception, courteous, confident and articulate. They were allowed to speak freely and did so openly and honestly. They were a credit to the  setting.

Ofsted’s recent view was that “Students are admitted to the centre because of their social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and/or medical needs. On entry, their behaviour is often challenging, affecting their learning. Records show that they quickly settle and begin to achieve well because of good quality support and guidance and the emphasis on the centre being a place in which to learn.”

I was able to spend quality time talking with the students, who showed that they had ambition, had begun to develop a range of life skills, had spent time in work settings and had significant hopes of exam success, with the majority due to leave in July having secured college places to continue their studies.

In all these cases, the common factor was that the setting had enabled and actively encouraged each and every child to be confident in their own voice, that they had something of worth to say and that this would be listened to.

The interesting factor too, was that throughout every one of the settings, very high quality work was on display. Children were being enabled to succeed through having found their voice, spoken, written and though a wide range of media.

If we don’t encourage children to have a voice, how do we have a chance of knowing what they are thinking? They need something of worth to talk about, to think about and maybe write about.




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Life's no panto

4/11/2014

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Reading Twitter exchanges can be as good as going to the panto, except that you have limited opportunity to join in with “(S)he’s behind you” or “Oh no it isn’t or oh yes it is” before becoming embroiled in a simmering cauldron.

So I’ve been toying with some thoughts:-

A Twitter tale (fictional)

You may not agree with me, I am me, you are you.

The “truth” is you don’t know me, nor do I know you.

My parents were a product of their upbringing, both were adults in WW2. My grandparents are not yours, mine were miners or of fishers, born before 1900. You will have had your own upbringing, while I will have had mine. Each of us will have been influenced by the people we lived with or met. We will have had, possibly significant, differences in experiences. Mine were not cultured, yours may have been, just by an accident of upbringing.

The “Reality” is you don’t know me, nor do I know you.

You may well have read more than me, have gained a higher set of qualifications and be capable of thinking at a higher level. I am happy to acknowledge that, if it is true. It can be a fact of life, we learn to accept that reality. Discussion, as I understand it, is likely to be a sharing of thoughts, with participants sharing their current understanding or insight into a specific topic. My experience will have led me to one conclusion, yours may be diametrically opposed. Much may coalesce in a “middle ground” of consensus. I enjoy hearing how people’s thoughts have developed; it helps to know how they came to their conclusions. Sometimes the ideas resonate and add immediately to the sum of my understanding; sometimes they are challenging and take time to assimilate.

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Sadly you don’t know me, nor do I know you.

140 characters do not support detailed discussion; if you’re lucky ideas can be condensed. Blogs can become dense, reducing their impact, particularly if an argument is extended too long. To function effectively, people have to enjoy a state of equilibrium. Life already holds challenges for some, by virtue of birth or upbringing. Nobody likes to be told they are wrong, especially if that is given as an opinion; it means that the other thinks they are totally right.

You don’t know me, nor do I know you.

The world can appear sufficiently big for you and me to live happily after an argument, but, you don’t know the impact of your comments.

Perhaps you’re not bothered. Perhaps you think “If you can’t stand the heat…..” Perhaps you are a bully, or misanthropic and just enjoy putting people in their place. Perhaps a little Twitter argument spices life up. It doesn’t mean anything, does it?

You don’t know me, nor do I know you.

And, you know what?

I still don’t know you and you don’t know me.

And the world is still turning. Valuable time wasted in contradiction, rather than seeking to understand, moves ideas nowhere. And life, valuable as it is, is sometimes too short for some to waste on futile argument. Once the hair is split, it’s worth realising that the only impact is on two people. Unless, of course, the “discussion” is on Twitter; then it can become a gang mentality. The real sadness is that in another forum we may well have been friends, with much in common, including the enjoyment of a good argument.

Perhaps, among professionals, discussion can become more productive?

Life is not a pantomime.

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On independence

4/11/2014

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Or don’t hold learners back. Learning to be independent is good. Do we really want a long term dependency culture in learners?

Oxford dictionary online version defines independent as:-

adjective

  • not depending on another for livelihood or subsistence
  • capable of thinking or acting for oneself
  • not connected with another or with each other; separate
  • free from outside control; not subject to another’s authority
In no way would I wish to write an academic treatise on independence, but, having read recently a number of views on the subject, I wanted to reflect on the matter, asserting my rights to think and act for myself.

I’d want to argue that, for me, independence is not a skill. It is more a point in time, with an accumulation of capabilities and competences. As we grow, live and learn, we develop capabilities and skills which, when practiced regularly allow a level of competence where they can be applied without support. We are independent in certain things. I’d still turn to an electrician or a mechanic, deferring to a higher competence, but I am happy with plumbing, as long as I remember to turn off the water first, or carpentry.

I don’t remember learning to walk and talk, but looking at black and white photos of myself, I must have learned to do the former quite early. I was in a better position to watch my own children as they first rolled around, doggy paddled, crawled, then hauled themselves up onto their legs, got stronger, then took first steps unaided. Their babbling became more defined by repetition, copying, more babbling (practice and rehearsal) to create sentences and framing ideas and, over time, independently generating talk. Then it might have been pleasant to have some quiet time!

On a recent visit to youngest grandchildren, including 3 yr old twins, while getting ready to go out, one of the twins collected her own shoes and coat and brought them to be put on with assistance, so demonstrating a level of independence, but also the current limits. Later in the day, the second twin demonstrated the ability to turn on dad’s smart phone and watch a cartoon, independently. Their brother, at six, has had his stabilisers taken off and can ride unaided. All are taking steps to independence.  Independence in one’s own children can cause headaches, such as when they want to go out on their own and independent minded children can cause a few problems for parents!

As parents, we are continually looking for the milestones of childhood learning, celebrating the points where a child can do things for themselves, moving inexorably towards adulthood and real independence. Mind you, it can seem as if achieving full adulthood can be delayed for many. The bank of mum and dad is an active phenomenon in many households.

When applied to school, we can sometimes see different standards applied. The “delivery” of the curriculum is often cited as a reason why children cannot act independently, with some teachers arguing that children are never really independent.   That may be true for a few, but majority must leave their time in education as independent beings.

The development of independence was a major factor in being able to run a Primary classroom in the early 1970s with 36-40 children in the class, no classroom assistant and no ICT support. Utilising an integrated day, groups would be engaged on different activities, embedded within the challenge would be an expectation of teacher demand, to be able to focus teacher time to specific groups. At this point, someone will want to argue that some children were not being “taught” directly. No they weren’t, but they will have been operating within their capabilities, using and applying what they could do, but also identifying the points where they needed support, guidance or direct teaching. Direct teaching did take place, as whole class, group based or as individuals, the latter, especially as individuals. Independence therefore, was a factor in differentiating activity. Independence, if used appropriately in a classroom, can significantly reduce the demand on the teacher. It can also, used wisely, add a dynamic to learning which has a wider impact.

An example would be setting up a science activity, with the skilled children working independently to set up a fair test, while less skilled learners would have some step by step guidance. The outcomes of the activities, in being discussed, especially with a focus on learning approaches, allows less skilled learners an insight into the thinking and capabilities of more able learners. I was often asked afterwards whether the guided group could do the independent activity. It was then possible to phrase the challenge in such a way that they could attempt it, asking for support when they needed it. In that way there was an incremental rise in independence levels. It was based on a simple model, applicable to every curriculum area- have a go, identify needs, address needs, practice and complete, evaluate.

Independence does not have to mean solitary. I’m not convinced that a class of children writing in silence is necessarily independent, as the level of control exerted by the teacher is great. It can be a test of independent skill or capability, but this might be a moot point. A collaborative group can be more independent than the constituent members, because of the collective capabilities, so the group supports peer learning.

My interview for headship was conducted by a panel of ten interviewers. It was the tenth interviewer, a parent Governor, who asked the following question, “If you were teaching science and particularly Newton’s Laws, to a group of primary school children, how would you approach the idea of knowledge?” We had an interesting exchange of views, within the interview, which lasted several minutes, much to the surprise and chagrin of the other interviewers. He had been playing devil’s advocate, as I discovered afterwards, when I was successful. The interviewer was a research scientist with the Admiralty Weapons Research Establishment.

The essence of my answer? Knowledge is what we know now. It is capable of alteration as new information emerges. We hold to certainties until they are challenged, but learners have to be able to ask questions and challenge all the time.

The reason I got the job was because I had showed an independence of spirit and thinking, which was the bedrock of my approach to teaching and learning. I wanted independent learners.

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My story; no mystery

4/11/2014

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A Personal Journey to Learning

Although there is a great deal talked of learning and teaching, with the emphasis on the latter, as it constitutes a major part of public policy, requiring a large amount of public money, there is not always a discussion about learning generally and the plethora of experiences which contribute to the overall dynamics of learning through life itself. Life can be a great teacher and the lessons are often more useful than those learned in school.

The ability to reflect on one’s own life probably depends on age and when one hits decade milestones, it is often the opportunity to look back on what has been as well as looking forward to whatever is in the dream store to be accomplished. So this piece is an opportunity to reflect what were the influences on the person I am now.

1952, September, the beginning. Born in a small Devon town, to J and M, he from a fishing family in Devon, she a miner’s daughter from the South Wales. He was mid-30s, she a little younger. Both post-war, still carrying the scars from serving in the medical corps (39-45) or from making do at home, as well as the hopes that came with peace.

I’m hoping that I was a cause of celebration, memory not very good! My sister came along 11 months later, so they had their hands full.

Probably 1954 or 1955. My earliest memory is of sitting with my mum, in our caravan, with her working through the alphabet, drawing pictures and writing letters. It was obviously the wish that I should get a head start at school, or maybe I was just precocious and needed a lot of entertaining, pre-TV. I did learn c (si) is for cat, not phoneme/grapheme/initial blends/ vowel digraphs. It was simple and we heard stories from Listen with Mother on the radio. I enjoyed the pleasure of hearing a story read aloud.

1957. Exeter, Devon. Primary School. You may have read about this school, fictionalised by Gene Kemp in “The Turbulent Term of Tike Tyler”. While the detail of actually being taught has not left an indelible mark on my memory, the highlights are school plays, Aladdin and Nativities; paintings on the wall, especially one very colourful fish painted after a trip to Brixham; reading (Janet and John) outside in the sunshine as a reward for finishing work early; making models out of junk material and having some work published in the school booklet. Not a great haul of memory from three years. Maybe learning was too easy, but it was fun. I remember walking to school alone, or with friends, from the earliest days, as a five year old. I recently walked the route and it seemed a long way now, crossing main roads and over railway bridges.

Holidays in Wales meant time with other family, large gatherings, aunts, uncles cousins, all seeming to live together, or within a few minutes’ walk. Uncle Don was a miner, who would arrive home after a night shift, bath in the kitchen, sleep for a few hours, then get up to join in the chores, after which he’d take us for a walk through the fields, pointing out different plants, animals, birds, opening eyes and minds. My Godfather Charlie, an ancient neighbour, living in a pipe-smoke filled house, who delighted in giving mental challenges, like reciting the alphabet backwards for sixpence. I never got a sixpence, but remember the challenge.

Childhood and parenting had different meanings at this time. We played outside, from after breakfast until lunchtime, went out again until tea, then out to play football at the park in the evening.  If it was wet, we went to one or other house, played board games or with chemistry sets and microscope, pretending to be scientists. Our playgrounds were the meadows bordering the university grounds and the road. There was a lot of reading, with special books such as “The Wonder World of Nature”, Biggles and the regular magazine, “Look and Learn”. A world of wonder and misconceptions to be addressed at some later stage. I was not consciously learning, just growing up wanting to find out, encouraged by interested adults.

1959. Selling up and becoming part of the mass emigration to Australia, £10 Poms. Six weeks on a huge liner, crossing immense oceans, visiting the strangest, most evocative places ever seen, only read about in books. New sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures.

Transit camp, lumped together in prefabricated houses until work, house and schools sorted.

Zillmere, Brisbane, three years of childhood, outside in sunshine, chasing snakes, catching and watching other strange wildlife, sitting high in a neighbour’s mulberry tree eating fresh berries, warm, sweet and succulent. Reading Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and living an outdoor life. Walking to school barefoot, like everyone else, learning to write copperplate with a nib pen. Rugby, League and Union, Aussie Rules and cricket. You develop hard feet and quick reactions on concrete pitches. A great growing up, having fun and learning.

1964 Selling up again, with an agenda hidden from the children. Moved to Shorncliffe, by the sea, to a rented house, opposite the pier, so plenty of time to learn to fish, swim well and learn about sea life first hand, by collecting, catching or watching. Reading Gerald Durrell. Had been a harsh winter in the UK. Not sure if this caused the return, maybe.

July/August 1964, sitting in the local education office “doing the 11 plus”. Not a clue what that meant, but someone said I had “passed”, while my sister didn’t. Pleasure and pain for the family on the same day. Torquay Grammar for me, Paignton Secondary for her. I didn’t know Torquay would only be for one year, but while there I learned that I could write quite well and was good at a wide range of sports, that I could sing (whole class audition for choir, singing “Early One Morning”. I had never heard the song, but learned it as I was near the end of the line) and that I couldn’t draw well or do maths, after very destructive comments. I also learned that some teachers took pleasure in inflicting physical hurt, tweaked ears, clipped ears, slippering, blackboard rubbers or chalk thrown. Learning was pleasure and pain.

Early summer 1965. Mum announced that she would be leaving on October 6th, when her contract with a local hotel finished, that she was going back to Wales and that we could go if we wished.  Went to school on October 6th to come home to her not being there and an immediate transfer to my paternal grandmother’s; home for the next four years, with a couple of temporary interludes in a flat or a caravan. Divorce was long and drawn out, over three years, acrimonious and damaging, as accusations flew between solicitors. How do a thirteen and twelve year old decide between parents?

Autumn 1965. Churston provided the stability, warmth and “family” needed without really trying. It just happened to be a humane school, led by a gentle man, filled with enthusiastic humans who sought to inculcate their charges into the wonder and wealth of the world. Their enthusiasm was infectious and built on what I brought. I can recall soaking up knowledge at a rate of knots, like the others around me, actively seeking further knowledge in the library, no problem with being a “swot”, we all were. You name the subject, I loved every one and found that I was good at many, but I adored French, the sciences and woodwork, where a well-honed mortise and tenon joint (more French?) and a smooth planed surface could give a sensory pleasure. Thanks to Mssrs Carter, Beale, Emms, Green, Shaw, Yelland et al, I learned that I really enjoyed learning and so did my class mates. I even managed to take some GCEs early, including maths, so was that me or the teacher? I was good at sports, playing several for school and a few at County/Area level.

Sport was enhanced through local clubs, notably Paignton Cricket Club, where the club professional, Harold (Dicky) Bird and the local vicar Ken Warren took an active interest in developing the colt’s side, providing mentoring, criticism and advice in equal measure, challenge and encouragement. They gave their time well beyond any payment and we lived up to that.

Paignton Zoo was also my weekend retreat, as best friend was the superintendent’s son, so Animal Magic came to life in reality. Hours spent watching or helping, time wasting or time well spent? Climbing trees, cliffs, beach combing, rock collecting and the insect box beside my bed, made in woodwork class all added colour to life.

Girls did make some mark too, but that’s growing up.

One person I never properly thanked was my gran, who was over 60 when we landed in her house. 140cm of sheer determination, who had been widowed just before her second son, my dad, was born, in 1919. She’d worked, bought her house and brought up two boys, who went away to war as nursing auxiliaries. She worshipped her boys. She was a rock and did the same for me.

1969 Back to Australia. It was a time when parents held more sway and I believed my dad when he said that I could continue A levels there. Not in reality, so learning was on hold and I got a job with the Queensland government as a junior office assistant, glorified sandwich and coffee deliverer and post-person. The interview included carrying a sealed envelope from one office to another, checking trust. This lasted only a year, as the care of two older teens became too much for my dad on his own. So we came back again, this time via Fiji, Tahiti and the Panama Canal. The French from Tahiti provided an opportunity to develop my spoken French, but in a gauche way. I can still see why Gaughan fell for the country and the people.

1970-71 Working at the ICI station in Brixham, a year of really growing up, being a “scientist”, working on trawlers off Whitby in all weathers, overnight trailing of drones through harbours to seek effluent flows, walking the beaches to find the fruit and vegetables that were tracking flows at different levels. Counting worms and bivalves and more worms and bivalves, for eight hours a day, for the next forty years?

Fortunately, a mature fellow cricketer had just finished at St Lukes Teacher Training College in Exeter and recommended that I should go and have a chat with the idea of becoming a teacher.

July 1971, a trip to Exeter, walked in and asked how I could enrol. Interview with head of science in summer dress and feet on table, very relaxed. Had a chat, ranged over many things and was asked to fill in the paperwork, so I was in, to start in late September, the first in the family to go to “college”.

1971-74 Usual college experience, friends made, drinks drunk, sport played and teaching practices which showed that I could teach and well. Met D whom I married in 1974, the rock on which I could build a secure life.

1974-1994 Successful family life, three children, buying a house, occasional financial hiccups, eventually changing eating habits to vegetarian as it was cheaper. Tenting holidays, leading workshops at Folk Festivals, running Hampshire Watch Group (young naturalists), making steady progress to headship.

1994 Day of twentieth wedding anniversary. “Your wife has cancer”. A bit of a life-stopper. Took stock, ground and gritted teeth, faced the problem and established a plan. Buy the holiday house in France, a life plan to get heads up and look forward. A gift to all the family and fulfilment of my secret dream.

School was running very well, great collegiate staff, all working to the same agenda, so with sometimes limited resources, we made young lives better, made them think and independent in mind and learning habit. I was lucky to work with such a talented group of people and what they achieved, sometimes one could only wonder.

November 2004, one teacher found a lump, was dead in eight weeks. Harrowing and destructive for everyone within a very close, small team, as well as the broader community.

July 2005 It eventually happened. D died. Don’t need to say any more. Had to step away from school, though. Grieving took its course, but I had grieved during relapses for over twelve years, an intense personal learning experience, so I did my own CBT, writing for myself, often through the night, a very tough period. The local hospice was also very helpful.

I met M, whose kind words and support allowed an opening up and a new learning phase, eventually leading to a new life partnership. My career did not die, fortunately. A phase as a part time SENCo allowed opportunities to send my CV to a variety of companies and the local universities, some of whom saw benefit in talking with me and seeking ways to use the skills that I had. My feeling of worth increased. Status does add to self-worth. I’d lost headship, but gained the potential for new experiences.

So now I am here, writing on a blog about teaching and learning, which at the bottom line is children and their life chances. They will have life’s knocks with which to contend. 
I hope they have the skills to cope.

Be well.

3 Comments

Collaboration + communication = Better Outcomes? 

4/11/2014

4 Comments

 
Working together is better than isolation

There is likely to be a small semantic difference between the term collaborate and cooperate, largely to do with the means, the former being all together working, while the latter could still allow some isolated activities which will benefit the group outcomes. However you look at the words though, to me it seems eminently sensible to consider that working together is likely to end up with a significantly better outcome than isolationist approaches.

Collaboration applies to schools as entities and groups of teachers working together. The best practice derives from colleagues working together. An individual’s and a school’s imagination and capacity is limited by their personal and corporate experience; therefore a school’s capacity to improve will be limited by the collective imagination. The best schools engage in information gathering from others. Others may be achieving better. To go and see how they do things there can be illuminating and provide reflective opportunities.

However, just copying may not be the means to improve the home setting.


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Jonah Lehrer, in his book Imagine-How Creativity works, offers many examples of high-tech companies in Silicon Valley arranged specifically to enhance the collaborative approaches which lead to innovation. Pixar films are team efforts. Pixar, however has developed on from the notion of brainstorming ideas, developed by Alex Osborn in the late 1940s. They added the notion of “plussing”. This required the team to be critical, but to come up with a way to enhance the product, not just to leave the argument at the negative point.

Lehrer uses the notion of “The Power of Q” to identify that connected group dynamics can be critical, especially in the theatre, where too few connections might limit ideas, whereas too many can lead to complacency and reduce innovation that way. A mixed group seemed to allow for ideas to be seeded.  There is a very clear discussion of the merits of group activity as well as some of the drawbacks.

The benefits of collaborative learning Ted Panitz [email protected]

Develops higher level thinking skills;
Promotes student-faculty interaction and familiarity;
Increases student retention; Builds self esteem in students;
Enhances student satisfaction with the learning experience;
Promotes a positive attitude toward the subject matter;
Develops oral communication skills;
Develops social interaction skills;
Promotes positive race relations;
Creates an environment of active, involved, exploratory learning;
Uses a team approach to problem solving while maintaining individual accountability;
Encourages diversity understanding;
Encourages student responsibility for learning;
Involves students in developing curriculum and class procedures;
Students explore alternate problem solutions in a safe environment;
Stimulates critical thinking and helps students clarify ideas through discussion and debate;
Enhances self-management skills;
Fits in well with the constructivist approach;
Establishes an atmosphere of cooperation and helping school-wide;
Students develop responsibility for each other.

John Hattie’s research describes a very clear difference in attainment between individual working and collaborative activity, sufficient to account for a difference of one grade at GCSE. It could be surmised from this that at year 6 the difference would be one level improvement. So, if there is clear evidence that attainment is higher when children collaborate, shouldn’t it become the norm for school experience?


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Visiting many schools classrooms as a University Link Tutor and IQM assessor, I have the pleasure of being allowed access to a variety of teaching methods. The vast majority of class activities are individual, even if the children are seated around tables in groups, usually with a worksheet to be completed alone. Judgements are determined by outcome, a very limited form of differentiation, subject to the quality of the teacher’s marking.

If, instead of thirty individuals, the teacher saw the class as four or perhaps five working groups, each with discernible needs, for example working at around the same level, and tasks specific to each group were created and given to each group, what would be the outcome? Probably chaos, for some, especially if the class was not used to this way of working. A transitional approach would be to identify which of the groups already had an independent capacity and offer them the opportunity to work in a different way, thereby modelling learning behaviours to be shared with the rest of the class.

Development activity, the process of creating an idea, lends itself to group working. Creating a storyline or a piece of artwork, D&T, music, movement, an argument for and against a course of action, trying to explain how something works/happens. The list is endless, as all learning activity can be developed within different groupings of children.

Anything greater than one is a group.

The immediate benefit is the need to articulate ideas. Clarification may be necessary, so children are challenged by their peers to provide detail. This articulation, challenge, explain loop can enable the learners to develop an extended oral vocabulary, which in turn embeds concepts more fully, then be captured in some form of appropriate recording.

One of the major drawbacks can be described as “Group-think”, where everyone eventually ends up thinking virtually the same thing. The collective identity is stronger than the imperative to fulfil the task in hand, perhaps out of a desire not to hurt or alienate any member. Creative individuals might be stifled by the collective decision, or by the ideas of a stronger member. Culturally there seems to be a reluctance to accept very bright people, with terms such as “nerd”, “geek” and “boff” being used as put-downs.

Managed carefully, group activity can be life-enhancing as well as generating deeper and more sustaining educational progress, as learners are required to reflect on their contributions. They are put in the position of active producers and contributors to the group success. They participate to save face, but more importantly, they enjoy working things out together.


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Localism compared with centralisation

Schools work within rules and regulations drawn up by governments, including prescribed curricula and preferred pedagogy, both of which can change over time, with the prevailing orthodoxies. These rules are then “policed” by an inspection system, which categorises schools. Achieving one of the top two categories can give a school permission to carry on with practices and to seek ways to enhance what is being provided.

The lower grades require specific improvements within a short timescale, subject to follow up inspections, thereby potentially restricting permission to explore a range of options. A requirement to improve the “basics” can ignore the opportunities of the wider curriculum to enhance application skills in maths and English, through investigation and collaboration.

Parents give or withdraw permission to schools to be as good as they can. This can be measured by the number, quality and time consumption of interruptions to the routines of staff at all levels. Interruption reduces the focus and potentially the effectiveness of staff to get on with quality tasks, including teaching and monitoring.

Teachers work within systems and policies drawn up by senior management and Governors, guided by national guidelines. If these are rigid in application, they can restrict the ability of teachers to create more challenging opportunities, as they are frightened to take risks.

Schools and teachers do not work in a hermetically sealed environment. Listening to the radio or watching television can provide sufficient doubt for teachers to become risk averse.

I remember listening to John Stannard, the architect of the Literacy Strategy for the last Labour Government, in 2000, as he outlined his vision of what it meant to him. What he was describing was my school three years previously. The rigidity of interpretation by the Secretary of State in morning pronouncements and the localised delivery of programmes by County advisers ensured that my outstanding teachers worked to more limited interpretations. It took much discussion and permission from me to allow them to redefine their practice. Our SAT scores went up and parents were pleased with that, so giving permission to do more of the same and, as it turned out, better.

 

In conclusion

If the benefits of collaboration far outweigh achievements by individuals, why do we persist in maintaining practice that was more appropriate for 19th Century clerks, than 21st Century problem solvers?

Why aren’t we encouraging schools to work together to improve practice, rather than setting them up to compete with each other?

Other sites

http://www.collaborativelearning.org

 http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/cl1/cl/story/middlecc/TSCMC.htm

http://courseweb.lis.illinois.edu/~dafagan2/LIS506LEB/best_practices/benefits.shtml

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/coopcollab/index_sub3.html

http://www.jonahlehrer.com

4 Comments

Articulating thoughts

3/11/2014

0 Comments

 
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Articulating thoughts

Life is a spiral of experiences, lived through the linearity of each day.

A long, detailed and very interesting Twitter “conversation” with a very experienced teacher of English as an Additional Language, Di Leedham (@DiLeed), gave rise to thoughts that broadened as the discussion developed through the medium of 140 characters.

I had written a post about the importance of talk in learning and Di, having read and agreed with the substantive points, extended the dialogue.

There was discussion about the quality of talk in classrooms, with an exploration of whether schools with substantial numbers of children from other heritage languages, by dint of the need to immerse their children in English, provide a significantly richer language environment than other schools. Di pointed me in the direction of an EAL publication, Talk like an Expert, which I will seek out and mentioned Shirley Brice Heath, an American anthropologist, who writes about multilingual classrooms. New recommendations are always welcome.

Interest in the difference between the monolingual and multilingual classroom led me to speculate that perhaps there is a difference in the general culture of the classroom, in that a child from a different heritage is seeking to put the new language into the context of earlier learning, so may be indulging in an analysis of the comparisons/contrasts between the languages, or, more simply, they might be having to work a little harder to make sense of everything.

However, it does give rise to considerations of how we impart/share language to/with children. It is easy to fall into the role of being a language dispenser, so that children learn what they are taught and then have to repeat this in their own work. In that way, the commodification of an approach, into a utilitarian/mechanistic approach, might actually become a barrier to broader learning, or enable learning for oneself. It could be argued that the learning of English, in itself, has become more challenging, and possibly less accessible, simply by the importation of more academic language vocabulary. Letter shapes and sounds become graphemes, morphemes and phonemes.  

An overuse of pseudo academic terms can embed a deficit model onto learners, with a side issue of self-esteem and social/emotional fall-out.

The value placed on learning, both in the school and in the home, will impact on personal effort and rehearsal between lessons. The home aspect is unique to the school community. It is essential for schools to understand their community well, to be able to tailor any demands to the ability of parents to support.

An exploratory approach to language learning, with children being required to play with language, to analyse, to make sense of language in use, orally, in reading then to embed their understanding in their written efforts. It’s worth reflecting on the French word “essaie”, which means to try. Most children’s speaking, reading and writing is in “essaie” form, with opportunity for development.

So, how is it possible to become more analytical in approach?

Where a sentence is read or written, discuss the use of specific words in the sentence. What alternative words could have been used, to subtly change the meaning?

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

The words can be explored for grammatical aspects, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, order and organisation. Switch the sentence around, start from a different point. The playing with the sentence, in itself, gives rise to further opportunities for discussion and clarity.

Using cloze procedure to come up with a list of alternative words, to discuss their merits or otherwise, not just find the “right” word.

The ……….. brown fox …….. over the ……. dog.

Word, or letter, frequency can link literacy and numeracy, exploring text for details.

Fundamentally though, the essence of all good English teaching is the articulacy of the teacher and the learners. As a collective they need something of worth to think about, to talk about then to record appropriately, recognising the benefit of revisiting to revise and refine.

 Life is a series of lived narratives, linear and sequential through time and space. Mindscapes and language experiences add further dimensions to the developing experiences.

It’s just got to make sense.

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0 Comments

Reading; between sessions

3/11/2014

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Like all learning, what happens in between quality time with the teacher?

You can read between sessions, without ruining your appetite.

As an adult reader, I often come across words which are new to me. I have developed a broad range of predictive and deductive skills which allow some access, but, if all else fails there’s the dictionary. The journey to reading was, for me, painless and beyond a few childhood memories of the books which I read, like Janet and John and Biggles, I don’t remember really learning to read.

As a teacher, hearing children read was individualised, with some children being heard up to five times each week.

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If you go into any Primary classroom and see the timetable, there’s every chance that you’ll see guided reading planned in, a twenty minute slot where a group of children will sit with and adult and share a book. During that time, between six and eight, mixed ability children will read together, sometimes as a group, sometimes individually, which, if the latter, amounts to 3 or 3.5 minutes of teacher observed reading time per week. Those three minutes can be very valuable, as a means of checking current reading skills, especially if the teacher or other adult is very skilled at picking up and addressing any issues that might arise, through some kind of miscue analysis.

However, if there are five guided reading sessions a week, to ensure all children have this contact, totalling 100 minutes per week;

  • What is happening for the other 97% of reading time?
  • What are children reading between the sessions to ensure that they are making continuous progress?
  • How do teachers make sure that beyond the guidance, the skills that have been the focus of that session are being regularly practiced?
  • Is the guided book actively part of the time between sessions?
Reading is a fundamental building block of becoming literate. The better a child can read, the easier they can accommodate and assimilate new information, through their own efforts. Their enjoyment of the written word provides a driving force for continued improvement.

For many children, there is a great need to read more regularly than the once a week guided group, which for them might need to be supplemented with further sessions. The presence of additional classroom adults can support this.

All groups in a reading session where one group is likely to be working solely with a teacher need to know what is expected of them during the time, so discrete challenges need to be articulated. It should never be one quiet group and a free for all.

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  • The book selected should be just slightly ahead of the current fluency levels of the group, to provide challenge, but that will vary with the individuals.
  • Fluency level books need to be the regular diet of the children, with regular opportunities to change these, even daily. There should be sufficient quantity of books to enable regular changing. These should be available to them at home and in school.
  • Reading non-fiction, as well as fiction, is a constituent part of reading learning. Topic based book research can be incorporated into reading activity, if a very clear question focus has been given. One simple idea which I used with many themes was to research an alphabet for the topic, where every child could subscribe to a developing glossary to support the global knowledge bank (which might just be a great title for a thematic display)
  • Comics and magazines are often seen in guided reading sessions. Taking a five picture comic story as a storyboard and turning that into a five sentence story narrative can provide an incentive to some.
  • Interpreting stories into their story threads, identifying key points in the narrative, as a sketch map can support retelling at a later stage.
  • Digital microphones can be used to make an on-going record of developing reading, but also allows for listening back and self-correction.
  • Interactive stories for younger readers, via a laptop and headphones might provide a substitute adult reader model.
  • Flip the reading. Send the book home, with a challenge to read to a specific page within a timescale then use the group time to discuss and move story interpretation forward.
  • Guided reading in itself does not fulfil all the needs of a developing reader.

    In one sense it offers the teacher an opportunity to hear reading. Unless specific guidance follows, that might be all that is accomplished. It is essential to look at the whole reading diet and the embedded dynamics, to develop confident, fluent readers.

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      Chris Chivers

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

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