Go outside; there’s such potential out there.
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With the arrival of autumn, you can’t help but notice the changes of the colours of the leaves, and that they are beginning to fall in profusion, together with their fruits, conkers, acorns and various nuts, providing food for a variety of animals.

Knowing something of what you are looking for is really important, if children’s attention is to be drawn to specifics that might lead to an interest that lasts a lifetime. I was lucky as a child, that an uncle in Wales took us for walks over the mountains, sometimes after a nightshift in the mines, to clear his head, but also to introduce us to the world around us.
Uncle Don won’t ever have known that he instilled a love of nature in me, as a messy parental divorce led to estrangement from Wales that existed until one of my own children was eight. Deciding to make contact with my mother, I arrived on the doorstep on the morning that Uncle Don had died in his chair. Life can have a strange symmetry.

However, in my turn, as a teacher who loved the outdoors, from the early 70s and well before the “Forest Schools” theme came into existence, I was developing conservation areas, to enable outdoor study and making links with the local wildlife trust, eventually becoming a Watch (junior naturalists) leader, and voluntarily taking on the role of County Organiser for Hampshire. It was a measure of the success of this that, when I stepped down, it was advertised as a paid post!

You may wonder what there is to look for when outside. It’s worth having some sort of guide if you are unsure. One constant since it was published in 1972 has been the Collins Guide to Animal Tracks and Signs, by Preben Bang and Preben Dahlstrom. This series was very useful as an introduction to many areas. Other guides are published by the Field Studies Council and one still exists from my Watch days.

Conservation starts with observation and asking questions, then following up with some research, which might include asking an “expert”. It involves learning the names of animals and plants and identifying them easily.
It is about attention and awareness, without which it’s easy to miss that there have been fewer butterflies this year, or that ash trees are suffering and may well die out in large numbers in the next few years. When creatures die out, as a result of our apparent disinterest, we are partly to blame.
Go out and look; be an active discoverer of the world and, do you know the best bit? It’s good for your well-being! Go outside, breathe fresh air and look…

​And maybe you have the next David Attenborough in your class.

So, what to do?
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1)      Visit a DIY store and find colour charts with autumn colours. Get children to bring in egg boxes. Put one autumn colour in each egg space and go out to find something that matches the colours in the box. This can be a home activity.
2)      Go out and look for the signs that mammals have been eating nearby, especially where nuts or pine cones have fallen. Unpick a pine cone to find the pine nuts that are being sought. Show children something that is not obvious. Look at the nuts, especially hazelnuts, to find holes, or if they have been split in half.
3)      Look for droppings, of different sorts, even in towns, where rabbits and foxes may be most obvious.
4)      Make a sand area or find a mud area where animal tracks may be more visible. Make plaster casts; a circle of cardboard to secure the plaster, add the plaster to an appropriate amount of water (a small mound should appear above the water to make it the right consistency), pour into the mould and wait. Clean off when dry. Nb you can practice making plaster casts in the classroom, with handprints in plasticine.
5)      Look for bark scratched or gnawed off trees.
6)      Look, listen, film, photograph. Make an Attenborough style documentary.
7)      Speculate; where do the animals live? Make a map of the area, record where the evidence has been found and then look for any holes, or other signs, that might show where the animals are.

Primary science is about children
Asking questions
About their real world
And
Finding answers by some kind of first-hand experience.
It is about children being scientific,
A process involving the skills of

Observing; starting with direct and short term observations,
Employing all their senses
And later,
Using tools to aid the senses to find the less obvious
And increase their ability to select from those observations
Those things that are meaningful,
Later ordering those observations to derive pattern and structure

Classifying; beginning by sorting things
According to attributes selected by the children,
Recognising similarities and differences,
Gradually accepting and using official ways of classifying.

Measuring; using non-standard units of volume, time, length, mass,
Later moving to standard measures, with increasing accuracy
And more sophisticated instruments.
Using measures to determine patterns of events, such as growth and change.

Predicting; speculating about possible outcomes of events or experiments,
At first intuitively,
Later making use of prior experience and logical argument,
To develop predictions that can be tested by experiment,
Eventually being able to formulate general hypotheses
Rather than single predictions.

Experimenting; early attempts to make tests fair
And record results,
Takin increasing care over control of variables,
Later selecting specialised equipment to tackle practical problems
That are abstract from familiar environments.

Communicating; Oral and drawn descriptions of first hand experiences,
Late developing a more precise use of language of planning, reporting and explaining,
Events or experiments,
Increasingly more accurate in recording,
Developing diagrams, graphs and working with data,
Making general statements, conclusions, from the results.

Explaining; exploring the links between cause and effect,
When I did this…that happened,
With increasing use of reference material
Supporting their thinking and reflections,
Later developing explanations that derive from their reflections
Rather than relying on first-hand experience.

Evaluating; reflecting on the whole process,
Suggesting ways in which they would change their approach,
Next time.

Making sense of their experiences, through refining and honing central skills,
Using developing knowledge to help address new situations…

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We know that we have knowledge, or not, at the point where it becomes useful. It is the same for children. They know what they know and hopefully, their teacher understands what they do not yet know. They learn to function in the world that is created by their own knowledge. Hopefully, their curiosity is piqued by ideas and experiences, so that they glean from each experience a few new nuggets of knowledge to store away, squirrel like, until they are called upon to use it.

It is in the using and application of our knowledge that we may come upon a point where the detail and security of our knowledge is challenged. This could be a practical situation, when making something, that an unexpected problem means that we have to stop, to think, and perhaps to adapt our approach, to suit the tools available or the material. Learning in a classroom can often throw up the evidence where a child or a group become “stuck”. This is the point where the aware teacher intervenes to identify the reason and, by a variety of approaches, including instruction, enables the child or the group to continue with the task to completion. Education and training are rarely smooth processes, as the complex range of needs in the “audience” ensures that the language, vocabulary and register, of the trainer will be understandable to some, but may cause difficulty for others.

Use and application of knowledge are, in my mind, akin to testing, in that the learner is asked to perform, within a set challenge, to demonstrate their knowledge. The challenge is to identify the areas of need, to address them and to unstick the issues, so that learning can be continuous. Learning within a task can be very valuable, as it is seen in context, so has a clear purpose.

On being a higher achiever

The news this morning, 10.6.16,  highlighted the concerns of the Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, about the “plight” of higher achieving children. Since the newest incarnation of the National Curriculum, I have been concerned about this group too, as they can be less well challenged in tasks, even where there are progressively harder task to work through. To spend time on the lower challenges might be wasting valuable learning time.

Reflect on this week’s lessons and answer the following questions.

1. What was the point of being bright in the class?
2. Would an observer see a difference in expectation, in challenge or in outcome for those children?
3. Did they have to sit through the same inputs as the others, every day?
4. Did they actually need to do so?

I am talking about the more able quarter or third of the children in the class. If the answers to the questions were 1) none 2) no 3) yes and 4) no then there may be a problem in the room.

The teacher, or the system within which they are required to work, may be a barrier to learning.

Hackles rise. Of course teachers can’t be barriers to learning!

But surely, if you look at your class and know that a proportion already understand, from your assessment, what you are about to share, why waste twenty valuable minutes?

Why not give them a separate independent task to validate your judgements?

Perhaps they could be given a reflective task to simplify and remember information and teach the rest of the class at the end of the general input?

If “they all look just the same” within the process and the output is identical, where was the challenge and the embedded thinking, leading to children making decisions? Just following a recipe does not make for innovation and we should be looking to our brightest children to provide that level of spark, showing the best and the range of what can be achieved.

If you had as an example, Picasso and Cezanne within your class, how would they be accommodated? Picasso was demonstrating his abilities very early, a prodigy, whereas Cezanne was a late bloomer. Would they both have had the same experiences in art? A liberated Picasso was able to paint prodigiously and create world famous masterpieces early in his career, whereas, arguably, Cezanne’s best work was done in his sixties. The difference? Picasso was a better draftsman early and had the capacity to pull together a range of ideas in novel forms, possibly pure genius. Cezanne worked hard at the craft and got better. He did produce wonderful work. Would Picasso have received all the accolades and Cezanne been told not to bother? See Malcolm Gladwell’s book, What the Dog Saw, the chapter on late bloomers, for a deeper insight.

It is conceivable that the child looking out of the window and daydreaming may just be coming up with a tremendous idea.

Giving children time to be reflective is an important constituent of lessons. If children are allowed to think, discuss then articulate to an audience, their thinking is likely to be significantly deeper than an answer given as a response. The teacher determines this aspect of a lesson, by setting the challenges in the tasking.
​

Differentiation by task challenge embeds a series of expectations, called variously success criteria or WILF (what I am looking for). The latter construction is useful, as the full explanation is likely to be; I am looking to see if you can.... with specific criteria stated depending on the subject and context.

Task differentiation is by far the more difficult of all differential approaches, but, let’s take an example of a class with a range of attainment in science. The high achieving children will need to be able to demonstrate independent actions within a fair test, whereas some children may need to have the process scaffolded for them, step by step.

Lower achievement
They make observations and measurements to compare living things, objects and events, using equipment provided for them. They record findings using prepared tables and communicate observations using scientific vocabulary. They say whether what happened was what they expected and, when prompted, suggest different ways they could have done things.  

Higher achievement
Pupils decide appropriate approaches to a range of tasks, including selecting sources of information and apparatus. They select and use methods to obtain data systematically. They recognise hazard symbols and make, and act on, simple suggestions to control obvious risks to themselves and others. They use line graphs to present data, interpret numerical data and draw conclusions from them. They analyse findings to draw scientific conclusions that are consistent with the evidence. They communicate these using scientific and mathematical conventions and terminology. They evaluate their working methods to make practical suggestions for improvements.

Talking to higher achieving children is also likely to show different approaches, in language forms as well as specific vocabulary. A very cursory skim over the descriptors above indicate a greater depth of knowledge required by higher achievers, so one would expect to hear a difference in group conversation and teacher or peer to peer didactic language.

It is possible that such a level of discussion would demand an extended reply as the teacher responds to the cues being given by the children.

There is a need to,
Look at planning and verify the challenge and extended nature of the tasks being set.
Allocate time for reflection and reflective articulation of thinking.
Allow a level of autonomy in decision making and selection of materials and resources.
Reduce prescription and enhance independence.
Give the time, space and resources and see what they can achieve.
Engage, but be conscious of your own role and the danger of becoming directive.
Be self aware, emotionally literate and model the reflective behaviours that you are seeking from these children.

Tasks should be challenging and, by extension, be testing. They should enable children to create ideas, to seek to use their current knowledge to find solutions. They can reprise and embed learned facts and allow extension through need.

If, after the challenge, the child, or children share their reasoning, the process, their choices and decisions, working methodology, outcomes and evaluation, peers can gain an insight into ways of thinking from the success or otherwise of their peers.

Everyone benefits, with the insights informing teacher decisions, as high quality assessment for learning.
A final question.

​Would you, as a (demonstrably) able person, currently want to be a child in your class?
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​The high achiever’s lament

What’s the point in being an achiever in this class?
We all do the same, same question, same activity, same organisation, same time.
Some get help to get it finished.
I took my time, lots of time. No point in finishing early,
Just to be told to check and check again.
Quiet, not to be noticed, because doing just enough is good enough.
We move at the speed of the slowest.
It could be different.
My group could have our own question, be allowed to think for ourselves.
To generate ideas, possibilities, choose our organisation, select our resources, check out our working.
Talk together, not too noisily, maybe talk with the teacher to confirm some things, be responsible for ourselves and what we produce.
Share our ideas with the rest of the class, encouraging them to try the same as us.
Instead, we all do the same, same question, same activity, same organisation, same time.
Same as always. It doesn’t get “better”.

​Note
The picture at the top of the blog is from FSC, The Field Studies Council, among others, but should be available from local Wildlife Trust outlets.

​The science pictures came from Association for Science Education publications in 1984 and 1988. Practical Primary science!