Learning Lessons The Research Publication of King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford www.kegs.org.uk
Talking to Learn This is a focussed snap shot of the KEGS 2013 Annual Carousel Event, the culmination and celebration of our year long Teaching and Learning work. Teachers showcase, present, display and talk about the teaching and learning projects that have inspired, challenged, motivated and kept them busy for the past year. Luckily we have a myriad of media to hand to help in this dissemination process but what struck me, this year, was the significant value of fact-to-face human interaction. Perhaps it is because, as a result of the Talking Texts project (see Learning Lessons Vol 3 Issue 4), of listening with the heart, of making the time and creating the space to connect with each other through talking, we are even more appreciative of the value of simply talking to each other; in an age where we can and do so often connect remotely and at fantastical speeds, where initiatives are churned out in lengthy documents, this surely represents deep communication. As I discovered from students when trialling recorded, spoken feedback on work, the voice conveys nuances, tone, meaning, subtleties in communication that are not always apparent in written text. Speaking aloud breaths life into what we are trying to convey. So too the dialogic interaction of telling someone about your work disseminates much more than simply why I did this, how I did it and what I discovered; it connects listener with the passion for improvement at the centre of that individual’s teaching and learning project. As teacher-listeners we are attracted as much by this passion as by the project itself. So this Learning Lessons records transcript excerpts from a small selection of this year’s conversations. I wanted teachers to talk from the heart and I believe we have captured here the natural and unself-conscious dissemination that makes the carousel so successful and powerful. And if we read the transcripts aloud we might just capture some of the passion and enthusiasm that made these conversations so memorable.
In conversation with Paul Leverett (Maths Teacher and Head of ICT)
Paul’s CamSTAR research project investigated the role ‘flipped learning’ has to play in the classroom. Paul, can you explain exactly what you did? In simple terms I was setting homework for students where they watched a few videos and then they tried to see if they could do some of the questions set. So you selected the videos? Yes I did. I just picked videos that were out there on the internet already, Youtube videos, other sites and tried to compile some kind of questioning system so students had a check as to whether they were getting it right or not. I did it a couple of times around, I did it with classes of different ages and different abilities.
before, some hadn’t. In my questionnaire at the end I was asking them if they had done any of this before, how many of the questions could they have done without the videos, how many can could they do now with the videos and their opinions on whether the videos helped and if they could have been better. After all, what are the main advantages of learning via watching a video? You can do it whenever you want, you can do it where ever you want these days, and if you’re stuck or didn’t quite catch what the presenter meant you can press pause, rewind and listen again. And while that’s a simple thing, if you’re of a lower ability and embarrassed by the fact that you didn’t quite get it in the first pass, there’s no embarrassment about rewinding and listening again. One of my key conclusions was that the lower ability classes preferred this more than the higher ability classes. Higher ability students said there’s nothing wrong with the way I am working at the moment, so why are you trying to reinvent this; just give me a book, some questions and we are away. For the lower abilities they thought it was much more engaging, much more interesting and yes, we’ve got this ability to listen a few times.
Were you using videos for a new topic?
So did higher ability students not like it because they considered it a waste of time?
This was the question. Some of them had seen these videos
Yeah, it took too long, had limitations that were holding them
Volume 3 Issue 8 Author: J Breen Editor: J Breen
July 2013
back, it’s not interactive enough. It’s too static, you can’t ask can progress yourself no matter where you are in the world, questions and there is no one sitting next to you to have a and what economic background you come from, you just plug conversation with afterwards. in to the internet and suddenly it’s all there for free. So really it’s like Victorian style chalk and talk teaching, only So how could you develop your project further Paul? Is this the students can repeat it as much as they want? end or what are you going to do? Exactly. But it’s an option that enables you to accelerate the learning of the class beyond what you would be able to do normally, because you can give them a bit more input, because outside of class they can go and do it as part of their homework, so by the next lesson they have a head start. But it’s by no way a replacement for teaching, and even things like the Khan Academy with their very complex interactive checks and tests is still like shackles on your learning because you can’t go as deep as you want to go. You can’t ask the questions you want to ask, you have to trawl through long videos to find it. If you invest lots of time and energy you will get far, but it’s never going to be as effective as being in a class. But it will get better, and 10 years from now the artificial intelligence behind the questioning will be such that you are interacting suitably. But for now, no.
Well I’m going to see if I can make some more videos that are better than the ones I found on the internet because that was the main failing with the videos I tried to use. The videos just weren’t of a good enough quality. There’s even one guy who has managed to sell a 100 videos on a DVD collection for a workbook he’s made for GCSE maths students and he’s probably made a mint. His explanations weren’t bad, they were the best I’ve found, but even they were pitched at a certain level. Our students would benefit from a library of 5-10 minute videos explaining the key principles in maths that they can watch over and over, I think that would be something they would actually use. So I’m going to give that a go and try and demonstrate a few principles – mechanics in A level and actually show them some of the things and record it on video because that would be more powerful than just hearing about it and reading about it. So, make a few videos. The interactive So how did go about this? side of it is tricky and you can’t do that without a proper investment in technology. Simple questions go so far but much This is how I set up the videos. There are 4 differentiated better would be pitching questions where students are at and videos, they get more sophisticated and there was a learning growing their profile. ladder of questions and the students had to see how far they could progress and they would get clues as to how to get to the But can’t students bring those questions back into the end from the more complex videos. classroom? So that’s what they did when they watched the videos at home? Exactly. My final comment on this is that it is good for short bursts of introduction or consolidation or key bits of Yes. And this is AS level maths and Yr 9s got to the end. information, then quick learning checks plus questions and immediately follow it up in lessons. Otherwise it just floats in Wow! Were they not really pleased about this and really the ether and doesn’t get anchored into the flow of learning. motivated by this? Yes, and the format was so fresh and interesting they were really excited by that. So would they have got to that level normally?
* * * In conversation with Jo Moore (English Teacher and Special Needs Coordinator)
The English Department investigated ways of encouraging and Possibly. But this provided a forum for them to spend their sustaining independent and wider reading among English A2 time on it at home and they could spend as much time as they students / Pre-U students including diagnostic self-assessment liked, whereas we couldn’t have done that in class. sheets, making a small amount of time available in class to discuss wider reading, and facilitating a range of formats for And the questions you set meant you could monitor who had student feedback: a reading group, wider reading projects, a done the homework? KEGSNet discussion forum, and personal reading journals. Yes. The first task I did was simpler and I think it was better in the end. But also everything hinges on the topic. In Maths certain things lend themselves to a video format whereas other topics are much more complex and you need to have a discussion.
These are reading journals. This is all independent reading. It’s not meant to be anything they have come across in class, just a log. So you can see the student has obviously taken real pride in it.
And this is extra, not part of their course? Perhaps it’s good for younger students because it gets them into good habits about independent learning, following up learning This is purely for enjoyment. From the start of the Pre U course themselves? we said that wider reading is part of the course. There is an unseen paper at the end and they have to be able to identify The philosophy of Khan Academy is that you get the internet some of the contextual factors around that unseen piece of and suddenly you’ve opened up a wealth of learning and you prose, poetry, whatever. So you need to have a sense of
movement in literature. interact with each other? So with their first text (I did Jane Eyre) I just Yeah. So Vicky’s group are started handing out involved in a wider reading passages, Lady Audley’s discussion forum on KEGSNet, Secret, Woman in White, where students were asked to from books I have at select a text - drama, poetry, home – we each have a prose - from a period that they tiny library in lesson – and knew little about and complete a hand those out and say project on that text. These “right, share those projects were in the form of a around, read them, come presentation, booklet, or podcast. back,” and at the end of a They presented these in class and couple of lessons, “what also posted these on a discussion did you think of that? forum. Then they were Make some connections”. encouraged to browse each Some of the Pre U other’s projects and use them as students set up their own reading club at lunch time and they stimulus for further wider reading. It’s great because students gather and talk about books, and this is the log. have posted follow up comments in reaction to their peers’ projects and so a dialogue has been created. It looks like a manuscript from one of the Brontë children’s booklets! There is a strange enthusiasm about reading in general because I hand them out a massive sheet, with blank boxes for each We’ve been trying different things. We’ve always given out century and the different genres and say, “right, how many can reading lists and things like that but you look at a reading list you tick off in each box?” and they look at it and say “oh, I and think, “gosh, I have to plough all the way through that,” so haven’t got any from there, so that’s something to concentrate now I’ve been trying to change displays instead and put up book on.” It’s strange, it is a bit competitive - “I’m missing a lot from covers so the students come in and the book covers are a the 18th century, no prose there, I’d better get that gap filled in, talking point – “oh I’ve read this one, I haven’t, what do you what can you recommend?” They definitely seem more think...” and I try to put some modern titles alongside that enthusiastic than past A level groups. actually go, so for example Hardy paired with Notes on a Scandal and they might like a modern take on a relationship. So Wider Reading Projects Blog. Comment left on Dostoevsky’s we keep changing the titles and trying out other things. We’ve Crime and Punishment been bringing in lots of passages and poetry for unseen practice and just handing them out and saying “there’s no pressure to I liked the book, though, but it’s better in Russian – you should read these, but if you’re interested...” read the original. You mentioned that the main reason for Raskolnikov’s confession was due to his guilt which was caused Does this engage all students? by inaction – but I don’t think he had much of a choice, he was That’s a really good question. I think there’s a strange kind of already getting paranoid that he was going to be found out, peer pressure because they feel – even those who maybe with Porfiry on his case he wasn’t even well enough to act wouldn’t be quite so comfortable talking in a book group or innocent. Also, I think he tried to confess quite early on in the something like that—that when they have a journal, and when novel – when he was called down to the police station for it’s their opinions and they don’t think anyone is really going to something – but, things were pretty fast paced at that point. look at it then they are a little bit more adventurous, they don’t Maybe it wasn’t his own guilt or conscience that made him have to come up with something profound on it. Students that I confess, but rather his concern for his own wellbeing. Either thought were very, very quiet, having English as a fourth subject, way – I’m glad you like the book, I thought it was a pretty good when I ask what they have been reading, and because I am read: P making time to do that in lesson, instead of just talking about the book we are all focussed on, often respond really well. Perhaps too, because they know the question is going to come at some point: “what are you reading at the moment?” Do they share their journals or are they private? Essentially they are private. They might take them along to read in the reading group, which we [teachers] have absolutely nothing to do with. We just walk past from time to time. We also take them in now and again to have a browse and so we can offer them some reading suggestions – but we don’t give them an official grade or anything.
* * * In conversation with Frankie Orr (Maths Teacher) and joined by Paul Leverett.
Frankie’s Teaching & Learning project involved collecting maths challenge questions, working through the answers and using these in maths club to facilitate broader mathematical understanding among students in Years 7-10. Teaching maths successfully is, indeed, a global challenge. As Bill Gates said: You say some of them blog about their reading. So do they “in American maths classes, we teach a lot of concepts poorly
over many years. In the Asian systems they teach you very few concepts very well over a few years.” At KEGS, Frankie’s project is an attempt to find the perfect synthesis and to stimulate a deeper love for and understanding of maths.
But that’s exactly why what you have been doing, Frankie, could be so valuable to other schools. They might not even have the maths staff capable of delivering this, especially as maths is a shortage subject.
Ok Frankie, tell me about your project.
Paul: or the support or the culture to promote such high level G+T work.
It came into being because I organised teams to do the various national maths competitions. There are 3 stages in the maths Frankie: All the students who win nationally are at the top private schools in the country – Eton, Harrow, City of London, team challenges. Millfield, Westminster, Magdalen College School. So is this for more able students? But the skills students get from this maths challenge club must Yes, it’s actually for the top—definitely the very top students. be good for life long learning and skills across the curriculum? Years 7-9, Year 10 on its own and this year Years 11-13, stretching the very, very able. It takes me quite a long time to Paul: It’s about a specific skills set and really high level problem type out the solutions so there are many still to do. It involves solving. It’s the kind of thing you’d get at interview at Oxford or techniques we don’t tend to use in normal classroom Cambridge. It’s about how you approach problems. What teaching—it’s extending literally every student. I’ve picked out would be really interesting to find out is if solving these some of these questions and given them to whole classes; challenges is an ability you’re born with or something trainable. you’re teaching them a different way of thinking about a problem and that’s the exciting bit. Sometimes I do these as Frankie: I think it’s trainable because I’m starting to do that kind starters, but for the speed and the breadth of thinking, in of thing to some extent with my Yr 7-9 because they are the reality it has to be for the very top really. Some of the tougher students who keep coming back to maths club. questions at the end of the number and geometry sections challenge even the most able maths teachers! They are really Paul: Yeah, there are only a certain number of approaches, and for people who are interested in going to top universities to if you learn them all and get used to the way it’s set up then I suppose you can get into the mind set. study science, maths or computer science. But you identify the students early on in the school?
Frankie: It’s about seeing a way to approach a problem, a different way, that might not at first be obvious.
It is open to anyone, but we are trying to target the most able and make sure they attend the maths challenge club. The Paul: Exactly. Experience as much as intelligence. students who really want to do well go home and study, they Frankie: If you start teaching them in year 7 and start easy, then sometimes take away questions. these are skills that can be developed, and that’s really exciting. So do you find that when they come along to this maths And I reckon we could develop more than just the top section challenge club and tackle these questions it has some impact on of students. their progress? Paul: I tell you what it is. It is the complete opposite of national This is what I am hoping to discover, but it’s a longer term curriculum levels and getting through exams and a specific project and I would need feedback from other teachers. This syllabus. It’s problem solving in the broader sense. year I worked with top set Yr 10 and they came 8th in the maths challenge, but they had to work at a level beyond the Frankie: Forget the word exam. This is of interest. curriculum. They went on to binomial expansion, which is A Paul: We make everything we do so two-dimensional when we level work. push them through exams: get to this, practise this, this is what So it’s catering for your G+T students in a way that is quite you’ve got to do, whereas this is more like, I’m not going to tell you what to do, I’m not telling you which topic it’s from, you’ve manageable and creative. just got to use your whole skills set and general lateral thinking and crack it. Paul: Manageable in the sense that we let Frankie do it! I do want to see ultimately if it has an impact on these students So you are teaching students to love maths, not just be successful at GCSE. This is revolutionary thinking! in class. Don’t you think other schools would find this really, really useful? For their G+T programme? Schools would give their eye teeth for access to this.
If you would like to find out more about anyone of these projects please contact:
Frankie: The questions and single answer solutions are there already. The key missing ingredients are the worked solutions showing all stages of working out.
Paul Leverett: pleverett@kegs.org.uk Jo Moore: jmoore@kegs.org.uk Vicky Hartwell: vhartwell@kegs.org.uk Frankie Orr: for@kegs.org.uk