http://blogsync.edutronic.net/
I challenge you to find a single teacher that actually enjoys marking. After three years I'm still not a huge fan but I've tried to find ways to make my marking manageable but, more importantly, meaningful. I was given the opportunity to run a session on feedback for NQTs this term alongside one of our Assistant Heads and this (combined with the October theme of 'marking' for #blogsync) seemed like a good time to reflect on my own practice.
What do I mark?
As an NQT I would spend hours trying to mark every piece of work and it took a lot of repetition from my Head of a Department before I recognised the value of only marking selected pieces of work. I now try and set certain pieces of work with the intention of marking it (as opposed to looking through student books after the event to try and pick a piece) and make sure that students know what I will be looking at. See the brilliant post by @MaryMyatt "Should I be marking every piece of work?" for more on this.
How do I mark it?
In order to make my marking easier I try and share the specific success criteria with students so they have a checklist. Recently I've been printing off these checklists so that they can be stuck in and I can tick and cross each criteria instead of writing out the same few WWWs and EBIs for students. The time that I save on re-writing the success criteria can then be spent writing a question or giving a hint to students on how to respond to their feedback (see my post from 29th September for an example). I also love the 'purple page of progress' idea from Danielle Kohlman (@kohlmand), a great way of making feedback stand out and become more useful for learning.
Why do I mark it?
There are so many answers to this one: because I'm supposed to, because I'll be criticised in our department book scrutiny if I don't, because one day Ofsted might pick up one of the books during an observation... I think the best reason for marking books can be found in David Didau's (@LearningSpy) blog post "Marking is an Act of Love" - we mark because we want it to have an impact. I couldn't agree more with David's argument (and that of many other bloggers on this topic) that for marking to be effective we need to give students DIRT time (dedicated improvement and reflection time). This is something I've tried really hard to fit into my lessons this year and I was amazed when I marked my books for a second time to see that nearly every student had completed a 'learner response' to their EBI. This certainly didn't happen in my books last year, and I doubt it would have happened this year if I hadn't given students DIRT time or made them aware that they have the resources (their own exercise books, their peers, the textbook, the internet on their tablets, me...) that will allow them to improve their work. I also think it is really important to acknowledge that students have completed their learner responses, perhaps with a snazzy sticker like we have at Greenford High. This continues the (written) student teacher dialogue and might even encourage students to have a quick look back at their work and remember what they did two or three lessons ago.
I'm still not saying that I love marking books (especially the part where I found out that between me and my partner my Toyota Aygo doesn't have enough boot space for us both to fit our half term marking in...) but I certainly feel a lot more positive about it knowing that it will take me a maximum of an hour and a half per 30 books and knowing that the marking allows students to make progress.
('What, How, Why' taken from Zoe Elder (@fullonlearning), one of the books on my half term 'thank goodness I finally have the mental space to be able to read this in depth' reading list... Other books include 'Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your Potential' by Carol Dweck and finally finishing 'What's the Point of School?' by Guy Claxton)
Mary Myatt http://marymyatt.com/2013/10/12/should-i-be-marking-every-piece-of-work/
Danielle Kohlman http://magpieandtry.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/26-purple-pages-of-progress.html
David Didau http://www.learningspy.co.uk/assessment/marking-act-love/
Sunday, 27 October 2013
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Why I will be striking on October 17th
Tomorrow I'm going to take the difficult decision not to go into school and teach the students that I care so much about in order to try and win a longer term improvement for their education.
The union will be claiming that the strike is over pensions, pay and working conditions and I agree but I think more needs to be said about the impact that the changes to pensions, pay and working conditions will have on our students. Our core purpose of improving the life chances of the students that we work with day in and day out is being threatened by rapid and ill thought out change at government level.
Pensions
If you make teachers pensions worse (even though the current system works and is apparently in credit) you are less likely to attract the best people into our profession and so students will not have the best teachers in front of them. Making teachers work until they are 68 is virtually physically impossible if they are expected to keep up with the current demands of being in the classroom and providing high quality learning experiences. Forcing older colleagues out of the profession also means that students are missing out on valuable expertise acquired over a lifetime in teaching.
Pay
Performance related pay is not about paying good teachers more, it's about paying more teachers less. The overall budget hasn't changed so for every teacher you pay more, another one has to be paid less. This will lead to negative competition between colleagues in schools and will start to erode the community of support that our students have around them from every subject teacher, every pastoral worker and every member of senior leadership that cares about them. In addition the best teachers will avoid the worst schools because they won't be able to guarantee the performance that will get them a pay rise. This means that students from socially deprived backgrounds will be further deprived by not having access to the best teachers.
Working conditions
I love my job. I love the students that I get to work with on a daily basis and I love watching them learn. If I'm honest though I often struggle to be as good as I want to be for the students because my PPA time every week is nowhere near enough to plan the amazing lessons that I want to do, never mind trying to fit it all the marking and other professional duties that are expected of me. I want to do all of these things, I'm not being lazy and trying to get out of them - I genuinely want to do everything that I can for my students, but I can barely manage it now and I certainly don't know how I would do this if my PPA time was taken away from me, or if I was told to be in school from 7am until 6pm, or if I had to cover lessons for colleagues and invigilate exams. All of this could happen and all of it will directly impact on the quality of learning that is able to take place in our schools.
I couldn't agree more that our education system needs reforming, that we need to reconsider our curriculum and examination system and that perhaps our payscale isn't perfect in the current form. I also know that we can't fight for positive changes to be made when we are desperately trying to cling on to what we have already fought for.
I don't want my students to miss their lessons with me tomorrow but I feel like Michael Gove has left me with no other way to fight for the future of British education but to go on strike. I know that I couldn't live with myself if I found myself in a classroom in five years (or even in a year) thinking "I wish it wasn't like this" and knowing that I didn't stand up for my students against the changes.
Sunday, 13 October 2013
This week I've tried... The self-development edition
Last week I think I experienced many of the 'continuous professional development' opportunities that the education system has to offer, all that was missing was a TeachMeet and maybe some whole school training... I was asked by @benton_clare on Friday (after discussing the toll that being so ridiculously busy has taken on us!) which I thought was best and it made me think that I should take the time to reflect before it all passes me by.
This week I've tried...
Masters in Science Education King's College London "What makes a good dissertation"
WWW I now have a clearer focus for my dissertation topic, we looked at examples of abstracts from previous dissertations and it was useful to have the opportunity to discuss ideas with a variety of other Masters students (some full time, some part time but teaching in different subjects, or in primary)
EBI A disappointing lack of 'practice what you preach' from King's College - too much teacher talk and nowhere near enough time for discussion on the practicalities of how to get started or setting action points for our next steps
Coaching in department meeting
WWW The gift of time! 30 mins was kindly given by our HOD for discussion in coaching pairs and I got to witness the realisation by the two colleagues I was working with that coaching provides an opportunity to discuss concerns and come to your own solutions by having someone listen. Observing the interaction in pairs and giving feedback on how to improve the coaching process was interesting as well.
EBI If I had maybe put people in groups of three or four so that they could all observe the coaching process instead of just leaving people in their pairs. I also want to set up an anonymous survey to see whether all colleagues found the process useful or not.
Teaching Leaders Middle Leadership "Navigating your team through change"
WWW Considering 'what does successful change look like?' as a group. Looking at the 'personal transition curve' for those leading the change, but also for those being affected by the change (http://www.businessballs.com/freepdfmaterials/processoftransitionJF2012.pdf). Looking at the Kotter 8 step change model and applying it to a change that I am currently attempting (http://www.kotterinternational.com/our-principles/changesteps)
EBI More time had been spent on how to effectively implement change/overcome the barriers and strategies that would allow a team to move on along the 'personal transition curve'
Being observed by my HOD
WWW Seeing the impact of thorough planning and positivity on a C/D borderline class - my HOD commented that he'd never seen a class where every single student was engaged all of the time. I feel like this is the ultimate goal for a teacher - if our students are engaged they'll learn more.
EBI Don't wake up at 3am in a panic about being observed. Being (uncomfortably) aware that if I had time to plan all lessons more thoroughly they would be better...
Observing a colleague
WWW My colleague recognised that they wanted to improve their teaching with this set 4 class and we discussed strategies before agreeing to a follow up observation in a couple of weeks - I love working in a department where everyone is always trying to improve so that they can provide the best for their students.
EBI Wishing I done this as a 'developmental' observation rather than a 'judgemental' observation - the teacher, and more importantly the students, might have got more out of it. I feel like I've seen something about this on twitter, or read about it somewhere - now I'm going to have to research it! The conversation @benton_clare and I had with @fullonlearning on Friday gave me some excellent starting points though.
Action research group with Zoe Elder
WWW Collaborating with colleagues, beginning to understand the principles of action research, considering potential enquiry questions for my own action research, creating a 'web' with colleagues and spotting the links between our potential action research plans, being given time to be able to do all of this!
EBI Every school got to do this! I'm not sure whether action research would appeal to all teachers but by being selective perhaps there can be a 'trojan mouse' effect across a school (http://dailygenius.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/bring-on-the-trojan-mice/)
I think I would find it hard to pick a favourite from the list above, they all had value in terms of improving either my teaching, the teaching of others or improving my leadership and management skills - all of which should directly impact on the students. I loved the Action Research Group for bringing me back to the core purpose of being a teacher - the learning but I also really enjoyed working with colleagues in my own department through lesson observations and the coaching programme. That's not to say that the Masters or Teaching Leaders sessions weren't valuable, they're just a little more removed from the day to day classroom but ultimately they're still linked to the bigger picture of providing better teaching and learning.
A quick final point: One of the things I noticed that came up as I was writing this is the fact that I always want more time for something! As a fourth year teacher I feel like I'm starting to get slightly better at maintaining a work-life balance but I wonder how long that will last if Michael Gove gets his way with our working conditions...
This week I've tried...
- Masters in Science Education King's College London "What makes a good dissertation"
- Leading our Coaching Programme in department meeting
- Teaching Leaders Middle Leadership "Navigating your team through change"
- Being observed by HOD
- Observing a colleague
- Action research group with Zoe Elder (@fullonlearning)
Masters in Science Education King's College London "What makes a good dissertation"
WWW I now have a clearer focus for my dissertation topic, we looked at examples of abstracts from previous dissertations and it was useful to have the opportunity to discuss ideas with a variety of other Masters students (some full time, some part time but teaching in different subjects, or in primary)
EBI A disappointing lack of 'practice what you preach' from King's College - too much teacher talk and nowhere near enough time for discussion on the practicalities of how to get started or setting action points for our next steps
Coaching in department meeting
WWW The gift of time! 30 mins was kindly given by our HOD for discussion in coaching pairs and I got to witness the realisation by the two colleagues I was working with that coaching provides an opportunity to discuss concerns and come to your own solutions by having someone listen. Observing the interaction in pairs and giving feedback on how to improve the coaching process was interesting as well.
EBI If I had maybe put people in groups of three or four so that they could all observe the coaching process instead of just leaving people in their pairs. I also want to set up an anonymous survey to see whether all colleagues found the process useful or not.
Teaching Leaders Middle Leadership "Navigating your team through change"
WWW Considering 'what does successful change look like?' as a group. Looking at the 'personal transition curve' for those leading the change, but also for those being affected by the change (http://www.businessballs.com/freepdfmaterials/processoftransitionJF2012.pdf). Looking at the Kotter 8 step change model and applying it to a change that I am currently attempting (http://www.kotterinternational.com/our-principles/changesteps)
EBI More time had been spent on how to effectively implement change/overcome the barriers and strategies that would allow a team to move on along the 'personal transition curve'
Being observed by my HOD
WWW Seeing the impact of thorough planning and positivity on a C/D borderline class - my HOD commented that he'd never seen a class where every single student was engaged all of the time. I feel like this is the ultimate goal for a teacher - if our students are engaged they'll learn more.
EBI Don't wake up at 3am in a panic about being observed. Being (uncomfortably) aware that if I had time to plan all lessons more thoroughly they would be better...
Observing a colleague
WWW My colleague recognised that they wanted to improve their teaching with this set 4 class and we discussed strategies before agreeing to a follow up observation in a couple of weeks - I love working in a department where everyone is always trying to improve so that they can provide the best for their students.
EBI Wishing I done this as a 'developmental' observation rather than a 'judgemental' observation - the teacher, and more importantly the students, might have got more out of it. I feel like I've seen something about this on twitter, or read about it somewhere - now I'm going to have to research it! The conversation @benton_clare and I had with @fullonlearning on Friday gave me some excellent starting points though.
Action research group with Zoe Elder
WWW Collaborating with colleagues, beginning to understand the principles of action research, considering potential enquiry questions for my own action research, creating a 'web' with colleagues and spotting the links between our potential action research plans, being given time to be able to do all of this!
EBI Every school got to do this! I'm not sure whether action research would appeal to all teachers but by being selective perhaps there can be a 'trojan mouse' effect across a school (http://dailygenius.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/bring-on-the-trojan-mice/)
I think I would find it hard to pick a favourite from the list above, they all had value in terms of improving either my teaching, the teaching of others or improving my leadership and management skills - all of which should directly impact on the students. I loved the Action Research Group for bringing me back to the core purpose of being a teacher - the learning but I also really enjoyed working with colleagues in my own department through lesson observations and the coaching programme. That's not to say that the Masters or Teaching Leaders sessions weren't valuable, they're just a little more removed from the day to day classroom but ultimately they're still linked to the bigger picture of providing better teaching and learning.
A quick final point: One of the things I noticed that came up as I was writing this is the fact that I always want more time for something! As a fourth year teacher I feel like I'm starting to get slightly better at maintaining a work-life balance but I wonder how long that will last if Michael Gove gets his way with our working conditions...
Thursday, 3 October 2013
This week I've tried...
A slightly belated post from the activities I tried last week...
Summary spirals
This can be done with scrap paper - students cut out a circle and then cut into and around the circle to make a spiral. They can leave a slightly larger centre to put key words in and then write their summary from the centre outwards (if they run out of space they can just turn around and write back towards the middle!)
I then got students to move around the classroom and pair up when I said 'pause' so they could show off their spirals and award a sticker to the best one (each students gets one sticker - see 'gallery critique' in a previous post)
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Scrunch and throw
Again, scrap paper is fine to use for this. Students write down everything they can remember from the lesson/from a topic before (loosely!) scrunching up the paper. Don't forget to get students to put their name on or getting the right sheet back to the original owner will be a nightmare, as I discovered the first time I did it... Students then throw the paper (not at each other, not at me) and pick up a new one. They they add more information from their own knowledge in a different colour before scrunching and throwing again. On the final 'unscrunch' they are allowed to use textbooks/exercise books/other resources to add new information in a final colour.
Speed dating
Students stand in two lines facing each other (see the lovely picture of my year 13 Chemistry students - they were very excited about being in a blog post!) One student asks the questions and is allowed to use the textbook if they need to and the other student answers. After a minute or two you move one student from one line to the opposite end of the line and everyone else moves one place to fill the gap. Then switch sides for the students that are asking the questions.
In other news: I'm very excited about teaching lessons the 'lazy way' after our amazing inset by @thelazyteacher, will try and get the best ideas down in a blog at some point - if only there were more hours in the day!
Summary spirals
This can be done with scrap paper - students cut out a circle and then cut into and around the circle to make a spiral. They can leave a slightly larger centre to put key words in and then write their summary from the centre outwards (if they run out of space they can just turn around and write back towards the middle!)
I then got students to move around the classroom and pair up when I said 'pause' so they could show off their spirals and award a sticker to the best one (each students gets one sticker - see 'gallery critique' in a previous post)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Scrunch and throw
Again, scrap paper is fine to use for this. Students write down everything they can remember from the lesson/from a topic before (loosely!) scrunching up the paper. Don't forget to get students to put their name on or getting the right sheet back to the original owner will be a nightmare, as I discovered the first time I did it... Students then throw the paper (not at each other, not at me) and pick up a new one. They they add more information from their own knowledge in a different colour before scrunching and throwing again. On the final 'unscrunch' they are allowed to use textbooks/exercise books/other resources to add new information in a final colour.
Speed dating
Students stand in two lines facing each other (see the lovely picture of my year 13 Chemistry students - they were very excited about being in a blog post!) One student asks the questions and is allowed to use the textbook if they need to and the other student answers. After a minute or two you move one student from one line to the opposite end of the line and everyone else moves one place to fill the gap. Then switch sides for the students that are asking the questions.
In other news: I'm very excited about teaching lessons the 'lazy way' after our amazing inset by @thelazyteacher, will try and get the best ideas down in a blog at some point - if only there were more hours in the day!
Sunday, 29 September 2013
DKLs, planning and marking
This week brought new meaning to the term 'Door Knob Lesson' as described by @judeenright in her blog (http://ow.ly/pjpCg). I arrived at school on Thursday morning to find that none of the computers in our block were working and that all the lovely schemes of work, lesson plans, objectives, resources, etc were completely inaccessible. I had a double year 10 lesson to start the day where my planning had been reduced to a few scribblings on a bit of paper in my planner ("revise C1.5, start C1.6"). The reaction to the news in our department was varied to say the least, from loud, shared panic to others who immediately sought out a pair of 80s glasses and spent the day embracing the retro feel of being without technology (my other half, who else?) I went along the route of trying to carry on as normal without the students noticing that I now had no real plan or resources and was rewarded when one of my year 10 girls stated half way through the less "your lessons are so creative Miss" (I wish I could have recorded it...)
I'd had a lovely new title slide inspired by Zoe Elder (@fullonlearning) ready to roll out that was reduced to me writing it on the white board (I still love the 'we are learning to ... so that we can ...') alongside success criteria and key words.
I then allowed my responding to feedback starter to take longer than I normally would have done and this is something that I actually want to make sure I repeat in the future. I'd marked students books using a feedback table that was created by a colleague in our department as a result of looking at how we give feedback last year. The idea is that the teacher spends less time writing out the same few WWW and EBIs and just ticks/crosses whether the success criteria was met or not. The written feedback should be a question or a small task that helps the student to meet the remaining criteria, rather than just stating which criteria they did not meet. The LfL part (language for learning, our whole school literacy policy) is used to highlight the first three spelling mistakes and students are asked to write out the correct spelling. Students are also given 'sentence starters' to help them get going with their feedback and corrections.
We are asked to mark books twice a half term and I'm trying to make sure that I purposefully set a task that I know (and the students know) I will be marking instead of just doing work in lessons and then choosing a piece when I flick through the books before marking. Copying and pasting the graded success criteria from our Chemistry schemes of work and adding a few sentence starters means that the feedback sheet is quick and easy to create. I then print out four on a sheet of A4 and guillotine them up before sticking into students books. Ideally I'd get students to stick them in themselves but I've not managed to be organised enough yet!
Spending (nearly) a whole day without computers was definitely a challenge, but I think it was enlightening in a way to know that you don't need to spend hours and hours planning lessons or making resources in order to create a great learning environment. Coincidentally, Jim Smith (@thelazyteacher) is coming to do whole school training with us on Thursday, and I've also just submitted my tagline for the 'inspiring teachers' group I'm leading at school this year: "Investigating ways of creating high impact lessons efficiently – working smarter not harder in order to achieve a work life balance whilst ensuring high quality teaching and learning."
Blog post on my three "this week I've tried" activities to follow...
I'd had a lovely new title slide inspired by Zoe Elder (@fullonlearning) ready to roll out that was reduced to me writing it on the white board (I still love the 'we are learning to ... so that we can ...') alongside success criteria and key words.
Powerpoint should be up on TES - search 'helenlochead' in resources
I then allowed my responding to feedback starter to take longer than I normally would have done and this is something that I actually want to make sure I repeat in the future. I'd marked students books using a feedback table that was created by a colleague in our department as a result of looking at how we give feedback last year. The idea is that the teacher spends less time writing out the same few WWW and EBIs and just ticks/crosses whether the success criteria was met or not. The written feedback should be a question or a small task that helps the student to meet the remaining criteria, rather than just stating which criteria they did not meet. The LfL part (language for learning, our whole school literacy policy) is used to highlight the first three spelling mistakes and students are asked to write out the correct spelling. Students are also given 'sentence starters' to help them get going with their feedback and corrections.
We are asked to mark books twice a half term and I'm trying to make sure that I purposefully set a task that I know (and the students know) I will be marking instead of just doing work in lessons and then choosing a piece when I flick through the books before marking. Copying and pasting the graded success criteria from our Chemistry schemes of work and adding a few sentence starters means that the feedback sheet is quick and easy to create. I then print out four on a sheet of A4 and guillotine them up before sticking into students books. Ideally I'd get students to stick them in themselves but I've not managed to be organised enough yet!
Spending (nearly) a whole day without computers was definitely a challenge, but I think it was enlightening in a way to know that you don't need to spend hours and hours planning lessons or making resources in order to create a great learning environment. Coincidentally, Jim Smith (@thelazyteacher) is coming to do whole school training with us on Thursday, and I've also just submitted my tagline for the 'inspiring teachers' group I'm leading at school this year: "Investigating ways of creating high impact lessons efficiently – working smarter not harder in order to achieve a work life balance whilst ensuring high quality teaching and learning."
Blog post on my three "this week I've tried" activities to follow...
Saturday, 21 September 2013
This week I've tried...
This week I did a bit better at sticking to my three activities, but also remembered that it's ok to allow for a degree of flexibility when the activities weren't appropriate or when I found something that fit better (like the brilliant conclusion builder from magpieandtry.blogspot.com that I used in my A2 Chemistry practical lessons this week - check out this blog for loads more amazing ideas too!)
So this week I tried...
Slow writing
Students do a first draft (seen in blue below) of their work but only use every other line before going back and editing (seen in black below) in another colour to improve their work. The catch is that when they do their first draft they have to follow certain rules (e.g. the first sentence must have exactly six words, the second sentence must contain at least one verb, the third sentence must begin with the letter D, the fourth sentence must include alliteration, etc.) This activity always takes students a while to get into it but it's worth persevering and the next time will be easier!
Gallery critique
Students were asked to make notes for homework and then had to display their work for others to critique. Each student left their mini whiteboard (a4 whiteboards - single greatest investment our department has ever made in my opinion!) with their work for other students to give WWW and EBIs. I had to remind students to be kind, specific and helpful in their feedback and the quality of feedback improved when I told students their feedback had to tell the other person something to actually do to their work. I also gave students one praise sticker each to award to the piece of work they thought was best with a winner being announced at the end.
Foldables
Students used foldables to summarise their work - I always stand at the front to model/demo the folding and cutting, and even the A level students struggle to make six equal sized pieces! Just google 'foldables' for loads more ideas as well.
Tablet trick
This week my year 9 top set had their first lesson with tablets. Once we had established some ground rules (tablet time starts now, tablet time ends in 321... Thank you to my other half for coining the alliterative phrase!) we spent the lesson researching how white blood cells work. Instead of students just googling I got them to download a free qr code reader and created some static qr codes linked to useful websites that I printed off before the lesson. I used qrcode.kaywa.com which is really simple - just copy and paste the web address and click 'generate'. The students loved the treasure hunt element of the lesson (I think I originally got this idea from a tweet by @sue_cowley), although on reflection I probably should have had 10 questions for them to be answering but they're a top set and work well independently.
One last thing: This week I showed my form the news report about Daniel Pelka (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-24106823). I have had my form since year 7 (they're now year 10) and it is the first time I've seen them speechless. I then asked them to come up with one word to sum up what they thought about what they had seen and they used words like 'devastated', 'heatbreaking' and 'preventable'. I told them the reason I shared this with them was because, even though it is upsetting' I want them to know that I am always there for them and that they can come to me with any worry, big or small, even if they think it's insignificant. So on reflection the hardest part of the week for teachers isn't the three and a half hour open evening to attract new students to the school, it isn't the after school meeting that you attend to discuss behavioural concerns with a C/D borderline student and their achievement worker, it isn't even the A level exam results meeting with the Head period 6 on a Friday - it's being there for (and worrying about in so many different ways) every single child that you come across in a week.
Saturday, 14 September 2013
This week I've tried...
Returning to school this September for my third year of teaching (or fourth if you include the NQT year) I'm determined to find ways of working smarter instead of working harder. In order to keep juggling the various different responsibilities I have this year I want to carry on thinking of ways that I can (no doubt sometimes desperately!) try to maintain a work life balance.
One of the things I've started is deciding three activities a week to use with every single one of my classes. Doing this should allow me to improve my teaching of a particular activity but should also reduce the amount of planning needed. I remember starting as an NQT and feeling like I had to do different activities with every class before realising that those classes are probably never going to talk to each other, and even if they did the generic activity would have been about a different topic anyway!
So, this week I tried...
Points progress/Rapid progress by @teachertoolkit http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/-and-39-Rapid-Progress-and-39-Class-Activity-by-TeacherToolkit-6331952/
A great way of checking and showing progress. you can find more detail in the TES resource by @teachertoolkit but essentially you ask students to write down what they know already about a topic/idea (no success criteria given!) then show them the success criteria as points. They give themselves an initial score and then continue to improve their work throughout the lesson before giving themselves a (higher!) points score at the end. I used this in a lesson observation at the end of last year that was graded outstanding by a current Ofsted inspector who came in to do some work with our department so it's worth a try (and I think it works brilliantly irrespective of what Ofsted think!)
Quiz quiz trade
I described this activity at the Hounslow Teachmeet and it's still one of my favourites (thanks to our Language for Learning coordinator at school for introducing it to me a couple of years ago!) Essentially all youhave to do is write 6 questions with the answer underneath each question and print them off a cut into slips. Each student should have a slip with one question (and the answer) on it. Students circulate around the room and spontaneously pair up and in their pair ask each other their question. The activity can be used as revision (where students should know the answers and their pair is just checking) or as a way of introducing new information (where the pair tells them the answer if they can't guess it). Once each student has asked their question (Quiz, Quiz) the pair trade slips (Trade) so they have a different question before finding someone else to pair up with. With my higher ability sets I did this using bits of information instead of questions and answers so that students have to teach each other a bit of information before trading (Teach, Teach, Trade as one of my year 9 students named it).
20 second summary
At the end of the lesson students are given a few minutes individual preparation time to come up with a 20 second summary of what they have learnt today. Once the time is up you select a few students to share their summary with the class.
I'm going to be completely honest and say that I did actually struggle to remember to do all of the activities with all of my classes. Even though some of them are so simple to do (the 20 second summary for example) I still find myself getting caught up in worrying about whether I've covered all the content or whether every child is behaving and making progress... I guess I'll just have to become a bit more disciplined about sticking to my 'three activities a week' diet!
In other news... All the students at our school are getting tablets as part of a trial programme and I've been lucky enough to be given a Motorola Xoom to aid my teaching. I'm going to try and find something new to try with the tablets every week as well.
Tablet trick for this week: A colleague in my department recommended "Teacher Aide Pro 2" (£7.99 from the Google Play store) which is fantastic for keeping track of homework/assessments as well as for creating and changing seating plans. There are quite a few other features that I haven't got to grips with yet but there are helpful video tutorials and I think if you ask any of the other teachers in our department that have invested in this app they'll say it was £7.99 well spent.
One of the things I've started is deciding three activities a week to use with every single one of my classes. Doing this should allow me to improve my teaching of a particular activity but should also reduce the amount of planning needed. I remember starting as an NQT and feeling like I had to do different activities with every class before realising that those classes are probably never going to talk to each other, and even if they did the generic activity would have been about a different topic anyway!
So, this week I tried...
Points progress/Rapid progress by @teachertoolkit http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/-and-39-Rapid-Progress-and-39-Class-Activity-by-TeacherToolkit-6331952/
A great way of checking and showing progress. you can find more detail in the TES resource by @teachertoolkit but essentially you ask students to write down what they know already about a topic/idea (no success criteria given!) then show them the success criteria as points. They give themselves an initial score and then continue to improve their work throughout the lesson before giving themselves a (higher!) points score at the end. I used this in a lesson observation at the end of last year that was graded outstanding by a current Ofsted inspector who came in to do some work with our department so it's worth a try (and I think it works brilliantly irrespective of what Ofsted think!)
Quiz quiz trade
I described this activity at the Hounslow Teachmeet and it's still one of my favourites (thanks to our Language for Learning coordinator at school for introducing it to me a couple of years ago!) Essentially all youhave to do is write 6 questions with the answer underneath each question and print them off a cut into slips. Each student should have a slip with one question (and the answer) on it. Students circulate around the room and spontaneously pair up and in their pair ask each other their question. The activity can be used as revision (where students should know the answers and their pair is just checking) or as a way of introducing new information (where the pair tells them the answer if they can't guess it). Once each student has asked their question (Quiz, Quiz) the pair trade slips (Trade) so they have a different question before finding someone else to pair up with. With my higher ability sets I did this using bits of information instead of questions and answers so that students have to teach each other a bit of information before trading (Teach, Teach, Trade as one of my year 9 students named it).
20 second summary
At the end of the lesson students are given a few minutes individual preparation time to come up with a 20 second summary of what they have learnt today. Once the time is up you select a few students to share their summary with the class.
I'm going to be completely honest and say that I did actually struggle to remember to do all of the activities with all of my classes. Even though some of them are so simple to do (the 20 second summary for example) I still find myself getting caught up in worrying about whether I've covered all the content or whether every child is behaving and making progress... I guess I'll just have to become a bit more disciplined about sticking to my 'three activities a week' diet!
In other news... All the students at our school are getting tablets as part of a trial programme and I've been lucky enough to be given a Motorola Xoom to aid my teaching. I'm going to try and find something new to try with the tablets every week as well.
Tablet trick for this week: A colleague in my department recommended "Teacher Aide Pro 2" (£7.99 from the Google Play store) which is fantastic for keeping track of homework/assessments as well as for creating and changing seating plans. There are quite a few other features that I haven't got to grips with yet but there are helpful video tutorials and I think if you ask any of the other teachers in our department that have invested in this app they'll say it was £7.99 well spent.
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