does a rising tide raise all ships? raising standards in english through a focus on more able...

Does a rising tide raise all ships?

Raising standards in English through a focus on more able

studentsResearch and development project

2008-9Matthew Haynes - HIAS

What this is about:

• A desire to bring English alive for young people through stimulating, creative and challenging learning;

• A belief that effective pedagogy for more able pupils translates into effective pedagogy for all – that a rising tide can raise all ships.

The aim and the outcome

• To develop approaches to teaching English that enrich provision for more able pupils

• To produce materials, plans and/or ways of working that can be developed more widely within your school, and in other schools

The three strands

1.Inter-thinking2.The writing challenge3.Playing with language

Principles• Gifted and talented pupils need

specific educational provision to meet their learning needs;

• The development of provision for gifted and talented pupils will improve provision for pupils of all abilities;

• Provision for gifted and talented pupils should be rooted in the notion of developing expertise.

Definitions

• Able: pupils who have the potential or capacity to develop expertise in one or more areas of learning or performance;

• Gifted: pupils who are able in academic areas of learning and who are attaining highly;

• Talented: pupils who are able in Sport or the Arts and who are attaining highly.

Principles of provision • Activities and approaches designed

specifically to meet G&T needsPlus • A general climate of high expectation

and extended provision that will help other pupils find/reveal their talents, whilst continuing to cater for the needs of the G&T groupNot just ‘diagnose and treat’, therefore

What exactly is giftedness?

“Expertise should be the end product of giftedness. Abilities are expertise in development.”

Sternberg (2003)

What constitutes expertise in your subject?

Generate identification criteria

Develop intellectual learning pathways for the subject – what is the progression?

Review curricular and extra-curricular provision to ascertain current contexts for development of

expertise

Review curriculum and class content and structure

Develop learning objectives that reflect characteristics of expertise

Review planning processes and teaching and learning strategies

Entry and Developing

Developing and Exemplary

Key Actions

• Expertise statements• Identification criteria• Review curricular provision• Devise key learning objectives

Questions to work on

• What constitutes expertise at age 7, 9 and/or 11? What thinking is involved in Level 3, 4 and 5 performance?

• Devise a bullet point list• Use the resources provided to help?• How does this relate to skills/teaching

and learning objectives?

An initial activity – back in school

Look at an English unit of work• What opportunities are there to

develop provision for more able students?

• How do these relate to the expertise statements you have discussed?

• Choose one or two activities/tasks and think about how you might develop them

The research and development process

Strand 1: Inter-thinking

Developing exploratory talkexploratory talk with gifted and talented pupils

Strategies for Higher Order ThinkingUse Socratic Questions – open ended and progressive, moving from

concrete and literal to abstract and conceptual. E.g.• Ask for more information or examples• Probe reasons and evidence• Test implications and consequences• Seek the meaning of important concepts

Make a community of Enquiry• Be inclusive; all are expected to learn and contribute• Be collaborative: thinking and discussing together• Be rooted in speaking to explain and listening to learn• Be motivated through participation and challenge• Be thought provoking: emphasis on enquiry and depth

Use alternatives to teacher questions• Ask students to pose their own questions• Set challenging statement to explore & use prompt to stimulate reflection• Challenge to provide reasoned arguments• Ask for further information

Inter-thinking“…our use of language for thinking

together, for collectively making sense of experience and solving problems…is a distinctively human inheritance which each child has to learn to use effectively.We do this ‘inter-thinking’‘inter-thinking’ in ways which most of us take for granted but which are at the heart of human achievement.”

Neil Mercer, ‘Words and Minds’

‘It is an effective way of using language to think …the process of education should ensure that every child is aware of its value and be able to use it effectively …

However, observational research evidence suggests that very little of it naturally occurs in classrooms when children work together in groups.’

Mercer, N. (2000)

Reasoning is Reasoning is visiblevisible in the talk in the talk..

Exploratory talk

Activity

• Look at the transcripts of group talk. Choose one to focus on.

• What is the quality of group discussion? Is reasoning visible?

• What are the key indicators that contributed to your judgements?

Key findings from research• Cumulative talk is a consistent feature of

group talk • There is little disputational talk in

groupwork• G&T pupils are able to generate exploratory

talk of a very high level, but this depends on the task design, the introduction of the task, and the teacher’s interventions

• Where exploratory talk occurs, able pupils scaffold each other’s learning

Exploratory talk“Knowledge is made publicly accountable and reasoning is visible in the talk” (Mercer, 2000):

• participants engage critically but constructively with each other’s ideas;

• contributions build on previous ones; • there is speculation; • information is considered jointly; • ideas are justified through reasoning;• ideas are challenged when appropriate;• there is intellectual and cognitive

development.

Ground rules for exploratory talkEveryone should:

• be actively encouraged to contribute;

• offer opinions and ideas;

• provide reasons for their opinions and ideas;

• share all relevant information;

• feel free to disagree if they have a good reason;

• ask other people for information and reasons;

• treat other people’s ideas with respect;

and …

• change their minds if they are persuaded by good reasoning.

Activity – setting the ground rules

Developing a discourse culture

•Add•Develop•Contest

Resources

• Lesson plan• Handouts for lesson• Framework for English• Speaking, Listening, Learning• Strategies for developing

exploratory talk• LAC – organising group talk

Activity…back in school

Using the resources…• How could you develop

exploratory talk for a group of able pupils that you teach?

• How could you work together?• How could you evaluate it?Focus on a section of the English unit

of work

Example of a jigsaw…

The Mystery of the

Lost City

Evaluation and outcomes

• Talk tally• Evaluation of group talk• Unit of work• Impact on writing• Pupil interviews

Strand 2 – The Writing Challenge

Contemplate: Form ideas, explore, transform

Generate: Produce written text

Specify: select and organise ideas and language

Interpret: Review written material

REFLECTION

ENGAGEMENT

How we write

mhaynes0303

Adapted from Mike Sharples, ‘How we write’

Thoughts/ideas

Independent writing

Transforming thoughts/ideas into speech, then into the

grammar of writing

Metacognitive modelling

Collaboration/intervention

Scaffolding first attempts

Response partners

Oral composition

Group work

Using texts as models to develop mental schemas

Using visual tools to structure thinking and plan texts

mhaynes0703

Learning to write

As writers develop, so does their thinking

As thinkers develop, so does their writing

Expertise in writing…

• Look at the APP grid for Level 3 (Year 2), 4 (Year 4) or 5 (Year 6)

• Discuss what the key elements of expertise are in ‘expert’ groups

• Develop some expertise statements (?)

• In a ‘home group’, look for a pattern or links or route for progression

Outcomes and evaluation

• Unit of work or learning sequences• Expertise statements and progression• Quality writing which shows good

progress for pupils as a result of enriching experiences

• Use of guided work to further differentiate teaching and learning

Strand 3 – Playing with language

Expectations….

• Active engagement by pupils and teachers…

• A quality experience of Shakespeare’s stories, characters and language

• An event…but one that is prepared for in learning, and which has an impact beyond itself

‘Romeo and Juliet’ in 5 minutes (or less!)

1. Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues!

2. But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?

3. O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

4. They have made worms’ meat of me.

5. And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!

6. Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!

7. Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink – I drink to thee (she falls)

8. Here’s to my love! (Drinks) Thus with a kiss I die. (Dies)

9. O happy dagger! This is my sheath; (stabs herself) There rust and let me die.

10. For never was there a story of more woe, Than this of Juliet, and her Romeo

Suit the action to the word…

‘Macbeth’ and ‘Hamlet’

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

The handle towards my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:

I have thee not, yet I see thee still.

He took me by the wrist, and held me hard:

Then goes he to the length of all his arm,

An with his other hand thus o’er his brow

He falls to such perusal of my face As he would draw it.

More ‘Macbeth’ = more blood

1: When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning or in rain?

2: When the hurly-burly’s done, when the battle’s lost and won.

3: That be ere the set of sun.

Perform these lines, particularly the words in red.

Expectations….

• Active engagement by pupils and teachers…

• A quality experience of Shakespeare’s stories, characters and language

• An event…but one that is prepared for in learning, and which has an impact beyond itself

Discussion

• Look through the ideas and the progression for teaching Shakespeare

• Are there any links between these and Level 3, 4 and 5 reading (use the APP grids)?

• Is there a progression in learning that we can define or sketch?

Ideas

• A one-day event – with prep and follow-up

• A week long activity• ‘Finding the Will’• Collaborating with another school

or schools

Plenary session

• Initial thoughts• Questions to ask• Timeline• Initial draft plan – to present next

time• Funding• The moodle website

Thank you

Matthew Haynes023 8081 6130matthew.haynes@hants.gov.uk