OXBRIDGE

Support for Students

Year 11

November

Preliminary talk at SWGS for all Year 11 Students by someone from Oxford Undergraduate Admissions Office

Year 12

November

All students with 6+ A* grades invited to talk by Oxford Admissions Office

February

Oxbridge Briefing Evening with college Admissions Tutor for parents and students

March

Visit to Oxbridge Conference

Year 12 (cont.)

June

Special PSD group for Oxbridge hopefuls

July

Visits to Oxford and Cambridge Open Days

Individual interviews with all prospective applicants

Year 13

September / October• Weekly drop in help sessions at lunchtime• One to ones re personal statements• Practice interviews with “outsiders”

November• Further interview with BWS/SWGS staff if wanted• Interview workshop at SWGS with Oxford Admissions

person

ObjectivesObjectives

• To consider teaching and learning strategies for providing challenge in the class room

• To share good ideas for challenging our students

Optimising learningOptimising learning

Out of 16 factors distinguishing expertteaching, 3 accounted for 80% of findings:

1. Deep teaching and learning2. Challenge3. Monitoring and feedback

Hattie - 2003

Unpicking ChallengeUnpicking Challenge

1. T&L Activities

2. Questioning

3. How to make them think!

4. Sharing YOUR Good Ideas

Activities which :

• are appropriate for all

• open up opportunities for the most able

• let the most able fly whilst supporting the less able in developing at their own pace.

‘Low threshold high ceiling’

Challenge for All

Challenge and SkillChallenge and SkillCsikszentmihalyi: FLOWCsikszentmihalyi: FLOW

High Challenge

Low Challenge

FLOW ANXIETY

APATHYBOREDOMComfort zone

FLOW = High challenge and High skill

Pit

uncertainty confusion

cognitive conflictJames Nottingham

Northern Wisdom

Beginning End

“If I ran a school, I’d give all the average grades to the ones who gave me all the right answers, for being good parrots. I’d give the top grades to those who made lots of mistakes and told me about them and then told me what they

had learned from them.”

Buckminster Fuller, Inventor

Purposeful activityPurposeful activity

Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn;

and if the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking;

learning naturally results.John Dewey

BloomBloom

• Evaluation• Synthesis /

Creating• Analysis

• Application• Comprehension• Knowledge

In unfamiliar situations these are HOTS – deeper learning

In familiar situations these are LOTS – surface learning

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ActivityActivity

1. What is a corandic?

2. What does corandic grank from?

3. How do garkers excarp the tarances from the corite?

4. What does the slorp finally frast?

5. What is coranda?

Answer?Answer?

• You don’t have to understand to answer comprehension questions.

• No learning has to happen.

Teaching is the art of asking questions.

Socrates

‘In the middle of difficulty lies

opportunity. The important thing is not

to stop questioning.’

Albert Einstein

It’s a fact that…It’s a fact that…

§ An average teacher asks 400 questions in a day§ That’s 70,000 a year!§ One-third of all teaching time is spent asking

questions§ Most questions are answered in less than a second

Steven Hastings

TES 4 July 2003

Bloom’s Bloom’s taxonomytaxonomy

§ Knowledge – describe, identify, who, when, where

§ Comprehension – translate, predict, why

§ Application – demonstrate how, solve, try it in a new context

§ Analysis – explain, infer, analysis§ Synthesis – design, create,

compose§ Evaluation – assess,

compare/contrast, judge

Dalton’s question stemsDalton’s question stems§ Quantity questions

§ Change questions

§ Prediction questions

§ Points of view questions

§ Personal involvement questions

§ Comparative association questions

§ Valuing questions

§ How long did he wait on the ledge? What is the longest time someone could wait in these circumstances?

§ Assume Joe falls in this scene. What will the reaction of the film crew be?

§ Highlight the clues that show you how the story might end.

§ Why is Joe not enjoying his return to Peru?

§ How would you cope with re-enacting a moment in your life for a film crew?

§ Compare Joe’s expedition with one over a hundred years ago

§ What impact would re-visiting the place where he nearly lost his life have on Joe?

Thinking SkillsThinking Skills

Thinking Skills ActivitiesThinking Skills Activities

• Socratic Talk – group observation of a discussion

• Mysteries• Opinion Lines• Concept cartoons• Odd one out• ‘Fattening up’

questions

• Diamond ranking• Graphic organisers• Mapping• Fortune lines• Concept map• Venn diagrams• Sorting and

classifying• Inference grids

HOTS not MOTSHOTS not MOTSHigher Order Thinking SkillsHigher Order Thinking Skills

NotNotMore Of The SameMore Of The Same

AVOID!

• Repetitive extension work

• Time filling activities

• Additional writing

• Helping others when task completed

• Starting points that provide no challenge

Deborah Eyre – ‘Able Children’ (1997) Deborah Eyre – ‘Able Children’ (1997) 10 Good Ideas…10 Good Ideas…

1. Role play / simulation 2. Problem solving and enquiry tasks3. Choice4. Decision making5. Time restricted activities6. Developing meta-cognition7. Philosophy – helps critical thinking8. Using a range of inputs – develops evaluative skills9. No correct answer – speculative10. Recording in an unusual way

Renzulli’s Mighty Ducks!Renzulli’s Mighty Ducks!

• ‘Authentic Learning’ – Content and processes learned in an authentic, contextual situation– Meaningful use of information and problem solving

• “Mighty Duck Savers Scheme” – designed t-shirts, stamps, brochures informing the public of the dangers of feeding the ducks, strategies to Town Hall– Mayor proclaimed “Official Might Duck Savers

Day”

‘‘Stretch and Challenge in new Stretch and Challenge in new A2 assessmentsA2 assessments

• Variety of skills: analyse, evaluate, discuss, compare

• Open-ended questions

• Case studies

2004 Oxford Brookes / NACE / 2004 Oxford Brookes / NACE / Newstead Wood Girls GrammarNewstead Wood Girls Grammar

• Open-ended• Differing lengths• Varied – not repeating already-acquired skills• ‘Something we can’t do’• Are related to real life• Do not have too tightly determined outcomes• Build on previous learning• ‘Stretch the imagination’• Group work with debates, role-play and hot seating, making different

types of presentation• Offer leadership opportunities• Require more research and in-depth understanding• Offer greater freedom of choice• High expectations of teachers• Student involvement in class

G&T Speed DatingG&T Speed Dating

The Rules…

• You have 4 minutes to swap / explain your GOOD IDEA.

• When the whistle blows the person on the inside STAYS THERE, the outside person moves CLOCKWISE to the next seat.

Five ingredients that contribute Five ingredients that contribute to challenging learningto challenging learning

1. Lesson starts: low threshold, high ceiling activities

2. Creative climate and conjecturing atmosphere

3. Purposeful activity and discussion

4. Valuing expert thinking and behaviour

5. Developing expert learners

A group focussed on raising challenge in the classroom

Meeting once per mini-term

Providing:

• A forum for sharing good practice

• Mutual support in the implementation of new ideas through joint planning and peer observation

• A platform for facilitating cross-curricular projects

‘For what is the best choice for each individual is the highest it is

possible for him to achieve’

Aristotle

Open to everybody!

The wider the range of subjects and experience, the better

• New ideas to put into practice in your classroom

• Support from colleagues in experimental teaching

• A chance to work with different people

• An opportunity to challenge your thinking about learning

• An opportunity to discuss learning with the students

• Could lead to action research and accreditation

First meeting

Monday 9th November

Lunchtime

Seminar Room