Author: Mr D WARREN

Issue 4 Autumn 2020

Teaching & Learning Bulletin

It’s been a while...

Welcome back. After the longest, strangest time. I promise not to use the phrase unprecedented times (and I only break this promise once) but as we work towards our new normal and welcome back our students to classroom-based learning, that’s what we have faced.
Huge thanks and praise must go out to all staff adapting to online teaching with such speed and willingness. It was an incredible load and the challenge was faced head on. Now, we have a new challenge. To win back the hearts and minds of our youngsters and support their learning with a new set of circumstances.
As discussed on Inset day, the gap in our young peoples’ education will be different for every student. We know some who struggle to focus in the classroom but have found the lack of audience has meant they have worked harder than ever. Others haven’t lifted in pen in months whilst some had to be guided to put one down occasionally. How do we bridge this?
Primarily, through curriculum. We need to reassess our curricula in our department areas and ensure we have amended this accordingly. If the Christchurch Earthquake and the ensuing school closures were ‘the unplanned experiment in teaching and learning’, then this is the global version!
As ever, the Welland Park way is through support. Settling back with routine and encouragement. Welcoming and reassuring students. Establishing social distancing and hygiene rules. Confirming and re-establishing school routines and expectations can help students face the day and reduce anxiety.
Diagnostics. What do our students know (skills, knowledge, content) and where are their gaps? Complete some AfL without too much formal assessment. Consider formatively marked tasks, strategic questioning, summary tasks, group discussion, think-pair-share, low stakes testing. Give students the opportunity to RAG themselves. This is not about testing what they have completed, rather establishing where the students are currently and what the gaps in knowledge and skills are and how they are best filled.
Differentiation. Gaps will have widened. More than ever, knowing our students is our biggest tool and how to support them best individually is how we wield this tool.
Support ourselves and each other. We, too, have had a very different experience for months. We have been juggling everything and spinning all the plates. We have been teaching differently. Recognise that this is a challenging time for your and your colleagues, as well as the students. In the same way we are instructed to put our oxygen mask on first by airline staff, look after yourself.

Issue 4 Autumn 2020

Next Episode in 15 Seconds...
Waiting for a bus? Look at your phone. Adverts on TV? Look at your phone. Got to wait a whole 15 seconds for the next episode to start? You get the idea. We live in an age of instant gratification, a generation who don’t stare out of the window or wait a week for the next episode of the latest hit TV show. So how do we, as teachers, ensure young people are engaged in their learning? How do we do this when their daily diet for months has been more digital than analogue? Just before lockdown, Ant Collins shared his findings. More than ever, these ideas can support our planning and teaching. Overleaf, Jen Jerred trialled one of Ant’s ideas with a pre-Covid class.

What do you understand by the term “engagement” in an educational context? How deep does that understanding go? Many of us see engagement as pupils being switched on and participating in the lesson, which to an extent is true; that said engagement is far more profound than that. True engagement is a spectrum or is composed of a variety of levels.
My reading for this topic forced me to reflect on my own practice and consider the question “just how engaged are my students really?” Sure, for the most part, behaviour is good and the pupils generally work hard, but that isn’t engagement in its truest sense. I realised that for the vast majority of my students they hovered between ritual and strategic compliance and were motivated by extrinsic rather than intrinsic standards.
True engagement, as defined by Phillip Schlecty in his work 5 levels of student engagement, is persistent and “sustained inquiry, self-direction, playfulness with content and unprompted transfer of understanding.
If I am being truly honest with myself and my own practice, the students I have that fit those criteria I could probably count on two hands, if not one, most of them fall within the level below (see fig.1). So, how do I get them all to reach those dizzying heights? Honest answer… I don’t know! ” What I think though is that this really can only come from within, from the students themselves. As a teacher you can’t force this but you can inspire to achieve through your passion for your subject ,determination for the pupils to succeed and through the lessons you deliver.
When was the last time you were at the top of the engagement mountain when thinking about your own subject? If you’re not there then what chance do your students have?
Just some food for thought.
Ant

Engagement

More than ever, we need tools to engage our students

Issue 4 Autumn 2020

Quiz Quiz Trade in action

After a pre– lockdown Teaching & Learning group meeting about engaging students, I decided to try out a strategy that Ant Collins had shared called Quiz Quiz Trade. My Y11 class were madly trying to memorise quotations for their Literature exams, but I find that they don’t always do enough with these quotations in terms of exploring or analysing them.
I printed and cut up 32 quotations from the play An Inspector Calls, one for each student. They had time to check that they knew all there was to know about their quotation and write the following on the strip of paper:
Which character says it and when
Why they say it and what it implies about their views or beliefs
How the quotation helps Priestley to explore the big ideas and themes about society (crucial assessment objectives for the exam).
Students then got out of their seats and mingled, taking it in turns to quiz each other on their quotation, questioning their partner to remember all the above info. When they had both explained all of the information above, they swapped slips of paper then moved onto somebody else.
I set a countdown timer and also a target of 5 quotation/quizzes so it didn’t drag on indefinitely! When they returned to their seats, the students had to record as much as they could remember in a grid.
We enjoyed the activity - it made a refreshing change from my usual revision lessons. However, there are definitely a couple of issues I need to think through before trying it again. It was a great way to engage students and deepen their understanding of quotations through oracy. It would work equally well (perhaps better) with recalling quick-fire knowledge like subject terminology/facts, especially in KS3 - which I know is how some of the Languages, Science and Technology departments have used it.
Also, my classroom layout was pretty restrictive; I ended up climbing over tables to circulate and check that everyone was doing it properly, which wasn’t very dignified! In future I may take the class outdoors to avoid that predicament.
Jen
Edit: Obviously, things changed pretty quickly after this lesson (globally!). As we return to classroom based situations, this kind of activity will need to be modified in light of social-distancing restrictions. However, sharing ideas and teaching peers is a powerful way to revise.

Issue 4 Autumn 2020

T&L Bulletin—can you help?

So I promised not to use the phrase unprecedented times, but these really are and we need each other more than ever. As we face a new school year after the strangest year, we must share support, ideas, and kindness. If you are able to, please:
Share an article, thoughts, or pictures for this bulletin
Join the Teaching & Learning group
Share a recommended education/ leadership book that you’ve read or would like to read
Write a short book review
Borrow a book from the staff library
Join the book buddies (pair with a colleague & read and discuss the same book)