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