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Pedagogy exchange - steeped in practice March 2013

e u s s i s Thi P1. Foreword! P2. IWB: Zones of influence P3. Using enterprise

y breeda Rudd Thoughts by

P4. Carousel feedback

Want to get some cooperative learning into your lessons? Turn to Page 4 for some great ideas.

P5. Action research / CPD P6. Super spelling starters

P e d Ex - ex t en din g o u r sh arin g ph ilosophy Here we have the second edition of PedEx, the All Hallows magazine devoted to teaching and learning. Thanks must go to the many colleagues who contributed to the first edition which captured and shared some great examples of the good practice that happens on a daily basis in our College. We have not been short of contributors, and it is this willingness to recognise, share and continually keep up to date with what constitutes excellent practice, that makes our College an exciting place to learn for both our students and our staff.

Investigation supreme

As we move forward together we want to continue to develop this ethos of openness, with all staff learning together, showing a commitment to raising the bar and closing the gap. PedEx provides an opportunity to showcase what we do well, share it with other colleagues and celebrate good practice. Do not be tempted to think your

ideas and practice are ‘just what I do in the classroom’. Your practice and ideas are worth sharing with members of our community. I look forward to seeing your contributions soon. (Ann-Marie Connor)

PedEx is published termly by All Hallows Catholic College Teaching & Learning Group.

Maximising the ‘interactive’ in IWB ‘Zones of influence’ (2 of 3) The use of 'zones of relevance' is helpful especially when encouraging students to create a closely focused argument. Using the diagram, shown on the right, on notebook means that students can create an indepth debate using a number of arguments around the main subject of the question. In this example, I gave each group a different 'possible argument' to arrange the social changes around. Each group took turns coming to the front of the class to rearrange the diagram whilst explaining their decisions. The final outcome of this task was that every student in the class had contributed to the discussion from a different angle meaning that the debate was enriching and not repetitive. As students took ownership of their arguments, they were more likely to respond to counter arguments, creating an enriching debate. Finally when students completed the

This is the zone of influence page referred to in the text, used to facilitate discussion around social unrest in Britain 1951-64.

question, there was a greater diversity of answers factoring in greater range of arguments leading to much greater understanding by the students. (Nick McCaul)

The snapshots above show some of the changes that took place as a result of each student making a modification to the position of each idea on screen.

Using Enterprise skills to underpin TEEP learning Encouraging students to use and develop enterprise skills in the classroom is an excellent way of reinforcing TEEP learning principles.

Give students the freedom to be enterprising by solving problems with others in a group or team situation (‘two heads are better than one’).

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skills

Apply to demonstrate

Here are a few examples of how enterprise skills can be used to reinforce aspects of TEEP Learning:

Use the ‘apply’ stage of the TEEP Learning Cycle to provide opportunity for students to use their initiative.

i) Setting their own goals ii) Solving problems iii) Being resourceful If students find it difficult to set their own goals and objectives, an important enterprise skill, involve them more in your thinking as a teacher by engaging them in discussion about learning objectives. By working together to agree learning objectives and outcomes, not only are you involving students in an important stage of the TEEP Learning Cycle, but you are also encouraging them to learn how to be ‘enterprising’ in this way!

“Enterprise Education can give young people confidence in so many areas of life and work. From tackling a job interview, to planning for a house purchase, from understanding how businesses operate, to everyday budgeting. Enterprise Education gives people skills to make them more enterprising, resourceful and flexible.” Iain Wright MP Former Under Secretary for 14-19 Reforms

Encourage students to ‘improvise’ by presenting them with limited resources to complete a task. Not only are you encouraging them to be ‘enterprising’ by doing this, you are also encouraging them to be ‘resourceful’ too and this could lead to a discussion of issues relating to environmental impact! You will also be encouraging ‘Thinking for Learning’ through developing thinking skills to a higher order, an important underpinning element in TEEP Learning. (Jane Lynch)

Students show little initiative when simply asked to recall knowledge, but can show enormous initiative when asked to apply this knowledge to a real situation. In having to apply knowledge, students are required to use ‘higher order thinking’ which stimulates the mind to come up with unique answers, thus demonstrating initiative! An example of this can be seen on the back page of the PedEx, contributors have to use their knowledge of an aspect of pedagogy and put this into the context of a recipe complete with ingredients. These type of activities can also provide real engagement from those students who are able to think out of the box and have creative flair.

Carousel Feedback in RE - Kagan gets a makeover

Carousel feedback is a wonderful extension to class questions. Students benefit from seeing creative solutions to problems, learn to critically examine their own work and others, and are celebrated for what they do well.

An example student decoder sheet.

Students ........ .......practice evaluation skills .......learn to give feedback .......are celebrated for their efforts .......evaluate the work of others .......articulate opinions Exam questions are an integral part of learning at KS4 RE for their GCSE exam. We have found that some students struggle to answer ‘c’ and ‘d’ type questions that require them to i) develop their answers in detail ii) use religious vocabulary and keywords iii) have an opinion that they can evaluate

We have created our own version of the Kagan structure ‘Carousel Feedback’. This involves students completing a ‘c’ and ‘d’ type exam question. When completed they move top another table to mark their work and leave feedback. They do this using a decoder sheet and green pens. The decoder sheet was introduced to show students what they needed to do to get high marks. Most students now do not even use the decoder sheet as they feel so comfortable. Green pens are used by students to ensure that their work stands out as opposed to teacher comments in red.

Students give a target to improve on what they have done well. This ensures that students know what they need to do to improve and what they do really well. Each table marks the work and allows them and me to see how consistent they are as a group. This has made a huge difference in how the majority of students are now answering exam questions as they understand what they need to do to gain full marks. The students also really enjoy the structure and it has cut down on marking and repeated comments from me as well as being a more effective model of assessment for learning. (Breeda Ruddy)

Action research sharing practice & delivering CPD With a constant drive to improve results, and in particular the achievement of C/D borderline students, I was called upon by the Art, Design & Technology Faculty leader to develop an initiative that would improve results whilst also support, non-specialist staff across the faculty and beyond in their delivery of Art & Design subjects. The CPD sessions were organised as follows: Each teacher on rotation delivered a short CPD session to other members of the faculty showcasing how they have successfully addressed GCSE Textile Assessment Objectives 1, 2 or 3. A sample of students work showcasing the skill/process accompanied a short demonstration of the technique. All members of the faculty attempted the technique covered and a photographic record was made to capture the activity to develop an online ‘toolkit’ that all can access to enhance their practice.

ADT staff work shown here and below,carried out in one of the sessions.

With an initial focus on AO3 (Recording) 5 sessions scheduled for Monday break times were delivered by all staff. As the initiative developed across the year, this was expanded to include review techniques and the whole faculty were involved including food technology and

hospitality teachers. Meetings and information were given through a digital network that I set up for the whole faculty. (Lucy Parry)

Feedback from the staff that participated in the initiative was wholly positive and they felt that it had improved C/D border line students’ ability to access the curriculum and enjoy and achieve. Results, also look good this year with an estimated 94% A*-C in Textile Design which indicates, more students are achieving a C grade on last year.

Super spelling starters - Part 1 games you can use to ‘hook’ students into learning…

The new Ofsted framework places heightened emphasis on the importance of literacy skills being addressed across the curriculum. One way to do this is through active teaching of spelling in lessons, particularly spelling of key words related to your subject. This is also a handy way to recap terminology at the beginning of the lesson. Here are a few spelling

Begin the lesson with a mini review – students look through their books to find words they have spelt incorrectly (indicate these when marking with SP in the margin…) Write these on a post it and stick to the board. Use the ‘look, say, cover, write, check’ technique on posters in all classrooms. Students could be retested on these at the end of the lesson or try to include them accurately in their writing at the ‘apply’ stage. In the next issue two more ideas will be explored.

(Emma Stebbings)

Why don’t you be a contributor to the next issue? Think about an aspect of your practice that you would like to share with colleagues. Then think about making the linkage to the underpinning elements or stage in the Learning Cycle explicit. All contributions gratefully received.

I n ve s t ig a t i o n s up r e m e ( S c i en c e F a cul t y )

I n g r e d ie n t s

1 hypothesis

1 innovative, and int eresting plan

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." Albert Einstein Scientist

2 stimulating prec ision practicals extra Bunsen burn ers (optional) 1 related video clip 1 elegant conclusi on 1 evaluation

Mix all the ingredie nts together. Then th ink about what your observ ations, etc., tell us abou t every day life. Think about how the new knowledge/un derstanding could be used to benefit the whole of man kind. search WWW an d the VLE where there is a host of resources, to ad d the finish!