1

Welcome to Philips High

School’S

Teaching and Learning Magazine

– March 2013

- Sharing ideas with teachers!

2

…And Relax!!

The Easter holidays are nearly here, two weeks of rest and

relaxation await! You certainly deserve the break, considering

it has been an odd 10 week term - starting with an Ofsted

inspection, dealing with the changes in weather, snow one

minute, rain another and snow again!!! Finally, dealing with

the relentless colds, sniffles and coughs that brighten up our

day and get passed from pupil to teacher and back to teacher

again!! This really has been a challenging term!! But we

have survived and can slowly start to see the sunshine of the

Summer term approaching.

So, here’s to a happy Easter, lots of chocolate and a few well-

earned treats!

Have an enjoyable and restful two weeks off!! You really do

deserve it.

I hope you get a chance to read the magazine this month.

There are some interesting articles in here to read whilst

devouring a Cream Egg or two maybe?!?

Happy reading!

Thanks,

EPl

3

Contents

1) Building anticipation… How to get kids to look forward to your lessons without dumbing down! Page 4

2) Marking in Perspective: Selective, Formative, Effective, Reflective. Page 6

3) Making Feedback Count: “Close the Gap” Page 9

4) Parents – You Get 7 out of 10! Page 14

5) Web-based Version of Blooms Taxonomy (30+ digital tools )

Page 16

6) Top Ten Group Work Strategies Page 19

7) How effective learning hinges on good questioning.

Page 25

8) Great Lessons: Agility Page 27

4

Building anticipation… How to get kids to

look forward to your lessons without dumbing

down!

One of the banes of every teachers’ life is that endless, whining chorus of, “Can

we do something fun today?” The correct answer to this pitiful plea is of course

that learning is always fun and that today’s lesson, along with every other

lesson, will contain the gift of knowledge. What could be more fun than that?

But this isn’t what they mean or what they want, is it? Sometimes, especially at the end of

term, they’re less subtle and straight for the jugular by asking if they can watch a film. (And

they’re not clamouring for Herzog or Kieślowski, are they? What they want, naturally

enough, is Pixar or superheroes.) Yes, I tell them, of course you can. When you get home you

may watch films to your heart’s content. Why would I waste this precious opportunity to

expand your horizons by showing you something that you have already seen?

Surely, our job, at least in part, is to expand students’ cultural capital?

A recent lesson with my Year 11 class neatly illustrates these issues.

Having sat their English Language exam earlier in the day, Year 11 felt that they deserved a

‘fun lesson’. Knowing that being allowed to watch films is utterly verboten they opted for a

somewhat more disingenuous request: ‘Can we have a quiz?’ But this isn’t what they mean

either. What they mean is, bless ‘em, “Can we have a lesson off?”

Although they groaned theatrically at having to commence studying Julius Caesar, they are,

largely, a biddable lot and were happy enough, once their complaints were duly registered to

get on with it. But it did make me think. What I should have done was to have lured them, á

la Hywel Roberts, into learning despite themselves.

Today we were looking at Caesar’s dilemma in Act 2 scene 2 where he has to decide whether

to heed Calpurnia’s warnings and stay at home or follow the advice of the devious Decius

Brutus and toddle off to the

Senate to get stabbed. Now

this wasn’t a situation I felt

that many of my students

would recognise so I decided

to focus on the familiar and

liven it all up with some

upbeat music.

So, this is what I confronted

them with:

No one asked whether they

could have a fun lesson.

5

Why? Because they were having fun.

After a couple of minutes of this I could, frankly, have followed up with pretty much

anything but, not wanting to waste all this anticipation, we moved straight into discussing the

language and structure of the scene using The Ultimate Teaching Technique and had one of

those lessons where everyone feels disappointed by the bell. Well, I did anyway. And they

were discussing Shakespeare’s language! Like it mattered!

Building anticipation is, you’ll be pleased to hear, dead easy. It really doesn’t take much

effort at all. While there are all sorts of techniques, Hywel, the master of accidental learning

suggests:

5. Change norms (move furniture or rooms)

4. Place a ‘teaser’ poster on the door e.g. Plague Here

3. Dress up

2. Music

1. Fascinators: pics/sounds/objects that stop ‘em in their tracks.

Of these I regularly use 4, 2 and 1, with music being my personal favourite. All I have to

think is, what is the sound track to today’s lesson?

And, at the end of the lesson, what is the EastEnders moment?

You see? Engagement doesn’t have to be a dirty word and there is never an argument in

favour teaching The Simpsons instead of Macbeth! All it takes is pre-empting the ‘fun lesson’

question by working out what you’ll put on your spoon to help the medicine go down.

6

Marking in Perspective: Selective,

Formative, Effective, Reflective

Posted by #headguruteacher

Marking in Perspective: Selective, Formative, Effective, Reflective

Context and Motivation

I’m feeling relieved, smug and virtuous because I’ve just marked some books. It feels good

because a) it was overdue and, hence, was having that ‘albatross’ effect; b) for a change I am

looking forward to going into my class tomorrow without feeling guilty and most importantly

c) because I feel like I’ve renewed a connection with my students’ learning in a way that is

hard to do any other way; I’ve done something worthwhile which always feels good.

To be absolutely clear, I am a Dylan Wiliam devotee; you won’t catch me doing marking

slavishly because someone tells me I should or because it looks good; I only do marking if I

think I need to – and this only if I think it will make a difference. I expect my staff to have

the same attitude. I’m convinced that a lot of marking is a waste of time and that, the best

feedback is immediate, ephemeral and in the moment and that peer and self-assessment are

every bit as important as traditional marking. (I even get my students to take the books in to

mark them as part of our co-construction process described here.) However, this blog is

written in the context that a) I’m not on the defensive having actually done some marking and

b) we’ve just had a mock-inspection where my eyes opened to the view that teacher marking

in books can play a crucial role in supplementing all that goes on during class teaching, to the

teacher’s benefit as well as the students’.

So, this is my current assessment of what marking should be like if we are to maximise its

impact:

Marking should be selective:

7

Teachers in general spend too many hours marking. I have had countless teachers come to see

me over the years, stressed out and close to tears because they feel crushed by it. Marking 25

essays or a set of maths books with 50 or 200 sums in each is a massive task. I have long felt

that this can’t be sustainable or entirely effective and was heartened to read Dylan Wiliam’s

views on this. He suggests that the total time spent by teachers on marking costs taxpayers

£billions for very little benefit, making it the most expensive PR exercise in history. Given

limited time in the space between the working day and family life, where do priorities lie?

Time spent marking is time not spent planning lessons; I’d suggest a lot of ‘slavish marking’

time would be better spent preparing better lessons – more learning options, more subtle

differentiation and so on.

To counter that, as described above and below, marking is undoubtedly important; it has its

place as one of many feedback strategies. It is the only form of feedback parents see, that

remains in the hands of students at all times and serves as a reference point for further work.

Teacher feedback helps build trust and confidence in the overarching feedback regime that

may include a high volume of peer and self assessment. It is also evident to me that, after a

too-long gap between marking events, there is a deterioration in my students’ work;

presentation slips and details become lost; they get sloppy. It is a saw-tooth effect with each

marking period giving them a fresh jolt of standard-setting.

So, clearly, there is a balance to be struck to achieve the optimum time-efficient, impact-to-

effort ratio. Regular, selective marking is the key; identify the key points of your marking

cycle so student and parents know what to expect; highlight the link to other set-piece formal

assessments and keep it in proportion.

(It is interesting to note that at Wuxi No 1 High School, our partner school in China, teachers

set and mark homework for every class they teach every single day. But here is the

difference….drum roll…they only teach two or three 45 minute lessons in a 9 hour day! The

rest is for preparation and marking! Different world. )

Marking should be formative:

For me, it almost goes without saying that ‘marking’ means giving formative comments and

no grades. However, this is in the context of a process where other assessments with specific

grades are given at intervals –eg tests, criteria-referenced assignments and so on. The issue

with grades is well-documented but I still find teachers who can’t drop the nonsense of A-

/B+, with no reference point. Numerical marks based on a clear are fine but arbitrary grading

really should have died out by now.

If Afl matters, which it does, teacher-marking is a good place to model it and deliver it. As

one element in the AfL armoury, really good formative marking is key, focusing on what is

going well and what specifically needs improving and how. So much marking is not

formative – it just does not deal with the process of how to improve. This is the key reason

why so much marking is a waste of time – it does not lead to improvement and merely seeks

to satisfy perceived demand. A few ticks will keep ‘em happy?! However, even with really

effective formative comments, again selectivity is important. Too often you might find a

piece of work covered in red pen…. Where to start? What to focus on? It is better to highlight

some key things that can be worked on and improved rather than slicing error-strewn work to

pieces. Some effective strategies include:

‘Star and a wish’ or www and ebi (what went well/even better if) / success criteria tailored to

specific tasks on pre-printed sheets/ highlighting error locations but not correcting them /

8

identifying selected spelling and grammar errors/ giving precise pointers to achieve

improvements with a requirement for the student to redraft the same work again.

Crucially, especially if any length of time has passed, any marking has to be done on the

basis that it will be acted on….which helps with selecting what and how much to mark.

Extended retrospective marking can be utterly pointless if a student is never going to act on

the comments.

Marking needs to be effective:

Once we have cracked the business of getting really good formative, grade-free comments

into students’ work, the next step is ensure that they act on the comments. The feedback loop

needs to be closed. Imagine the skateboarding scenario where a skateboarder gets tons of

feedback from his peers but then waits until the following week to try it out! It doesn’t

happen… they have another go straight away. This means that time has to be built into the

learning cycle where teacher comments are acted on, otherwise, once again, it is a waste of

time. At KEGS, in various different subject areas, we have talked about this issue. It means

re-drafting essays, doing corrections in maths and languages and re-plotting the graph; it

means putting an emphasis on securing immediate improvement rather making a to-do list for

improvements that might be made at some point in the future.

A fundamental paradox of marking – one that I find helps crystallise an efficient response – is

this: the students who need the most help and the most feedback, are those who are least able

to engage with written comments in order to secure improvement; the students who need the

least help are those best able to engage with written comments. Even with extensive written

feedback, there is a need to explain it verbally to some students – otherwise they simply

won’t know what to do. Here, the marking is really just generating the key points for a

discussion.

Marking should be a reflective process:

Aside from the specific bits of feedback I can give to my students, the main effect of marking

their books is that I feel I have sharper view of what their individual and collective strengths

and weaknesses are. I can plan ahead more effectively . After a lot of in-class peer and self

assessment, it is interesting to me to discover that some students’ work is much better or

worse as presented in their books relative to their in-class responses. In other words, the

ephemeral, in-the-now exchanges don’t always give the full picture eg. Some common

misconceptions have emerged that I hadn’t been aware of before. So, as a result of this

marking episode I have made some notes that will shape the direction of the learning journey

we are embarking on.

Finally, having been through the recent inspection process, I feel that marking is a really

good way to show what our approach to learning is all about; of showing what I am up to

with my students: that they are making progress over time, that I am individualising planning

for differentiation, trying to develop literacy skills and giving good formative feedback.

During a lesson observation by OfSTED or anyone else, it is tough to put all of this together

in a half-lesson package. However, if you can supplement what is on show in a particular

lesson segment with evidence that it is all going on in the students’ work, that is a big help.

The final reason for making an effort with marking is this: students tell us that they like it.

There is a real danger of peer-assessment fatigue; it builds resentment and presents a

challenge to our credibility. One student of ours recently complained: ‘just once in a while,

9

I’d like someone who knows more than I do to tell me how well I’m doing!’ The key reason I

am looking forward to giving my books out tomorrow is that my students will really

appreciate it. I will then make them struggle through my comments to make the

corrections…. when they will appreciate it a little less but, hey, that’s the job!

When I deliver CPD sessions about marking I often use the line that if you are only doing

marking to satisfy your head of department, stop! This does not mean that you should not do

any marking at all! It just means that your marking should be selective, effective, reflective

and formative!

* * * * * * *

Making Feedback Count: “Close the Gap”

Posted by headguruteacher

Recently I have been looking again at the issue of marking. It is a hugely important source of

feedback provided that we keep the volume of marking in proportion to the level of impact it

can have in improving learning outcomes. I’ve discussed this in a much-read earlier post:

Marking in Perspective: Selective, Formative, Effective, Reflective. At a whole school level

at KEGS and in my own department, a key objective for the year is to devise approaches to

marking that deliver maximum impact for all to see – that ‘progress over time’ issue. What

does marking look like when it is clearly securing improvement and progress in learning?

Marking time again. But will they close the gap?

To help with our search I was fortunate to be able to arrange a visit to the wonderful Saffron

Walden County High School, a thriving, dynamic school in NW Essex that recently

received an astonishing OfSTED report: Outstanding in every detail. It is a school where

teaching and learning and professional dialogue take centre stage and there is a palpable spirit

of collaborative working. I’d heard they had an excellent ‘whole school approach’ to

assessment and marking so I was delighted to be invited by the Headteacher, John Hartley, to

attend a twilight CPD session preceded by an hour spent dropping in on a few lessons. He

described the whole school approach to marking and feedback very simply: It is called

‘closing the gap’. All that is common is the concept; the theme; the mantra – that students

need to close the gap between the work they have done originally and a higher level of work

10

suggested by the feedback they receive. In other words, ‘closing the gap’ means ‘acting on

feedback’. The mechanism for doing this is open to interpretation. Sounds simple enough but

it was hugely impressive to see in action.

The cycle of learning and feedback – with a gap!

On our walkabout I dropped in on a Y9 Art lesson where the GCSE course was starting; a

couple of Y8 English lessons, a Y7 German lesson and a Y9 History lesson among others.

The phrase ‘close the gap’ was being used liberally. In Art, students were closing the gap

acting on the feedback written on post-its, both peer-marked and teacher marked; in English,

students were re-drafting sections of their work, closing the gap by trying to build in the

grammatical and stylistic content from their feedback. As a short-hand for the whole process

of acting on feedback, closing the gap seemed well understood by the students.

The twilight CPD session revealed that this initiative was still being developed. The structure

of the session was itself a model of exemplary staff CPD: one of several sessions running

across the year that staff opt into from a menu of choices; food and drink provided

beforehand, staff-led, small groups, interactive, mixing quality input with sharing and

discussion – brilliant really. The core of the session was that five tables showcased the

marking approaches used in a particular department; we then rotated around to talk to each

11

subject specialist. Here the ‘whole school approach’ came clear. Far from being some kind

of straight-jacket diktat, there was complete freedom to develop the ‘closing the gap’ concept

and the methods were all very different. What they had in common was they focused on

recording student responses to feedback; the gap-closing was as important as the marking.

Closing the gap in Art as a project progresses

In English, the teacher showed us an old exercise book – from a couple of years ago. Her

marking was thorough – page after page of comment, later developing a www/ebi approach;

comprehensive teacher feedback. But…. no student response. None – except the ephemeral

hit and hope kind. In her current students’ books the teacher comments were shorter and the

students were obliged to respond straight away. This had crystallized mini dialogues in the

books and there were re-drafted paragraphs emerging where the students had attempted to

address the issues raised in their feedback straight away. Gaps were being closed.

Comparing the two approaches, without any doubt, this new strong emphasis and insistence

that comments must be acted upon was powerful.

12

Closing the gap in Geography

Around the room, further examples followed. A grid system for Art recording teacher

feedback and student action, A4 feedback sheets stuck in books in Science with a large box

where students had to record their gap-closing work, Maths books where students were

making attempts to identify and correct errors in response to teacher feedback, Humanities

books where 6/8 mark answers had to be re-drafted taking account of teacher feedback on

previous attempts; DT projects where feedback and self assessment were recorded and dated

logging progress as the project proceeded through stages. In every case closing the

gap appeared to be making an impact and the teachers all seemed to feel that it had helped

13

them re-focus their marking so that comments were actionable and the overall volume

realistic.

For sure, this approach makes the learning more visible to an external observer and we will

be trying to emulate this approach in my own department at KEGS. Our book reviews have

14

shown us that, without doubt, the most impressive marking is marking that has been acted

upon. John and I agree that we’d rather see a few small steps of clear progress built on

simple marking rather than screes of comments that students don’t appear to have read!

UPDATE: Here is another great resource via SWCHS giving ideas for transferring

responsibility to students as part of the closing the gap process. This comes via Nathan Cole

– Deputy Head at the fabulous Wilson’s School – and the Teaching and Learning team at

Wilson’s. Nathan was formerly a History teacher at Saffron Walden. I think this is genius.

Parents – You Get 7 out of 10!

http://uksecondaryeducation.blog.com/?p=97&preview=true

When was the last time you were told how you’re doing at work? Was it during a monthly

review meeting? Perhaps it was during a performance management meeting? Maybe it was

during an annual appraisal? Either way, I’m sure you were told exactly what you’re doing

well, what you need to do to improve and by when. Hopeful you weren’t just presented with

a tick (or even worse, a cross) in a red pen. So, you’re being given every opportunity to

improve your overall performance and being told exactly how to make progress. Lucky you!

It’s interesting then that there are students ‘out there’ in our schools, nationally and

internationally, where this opportunity to improve simply isn’t being provided, or isn’t

provided consistently. Unfortunately, a significant group of our students are being kept in the

dark about their progress and frequently only given crude scores, or ticks and crosses. This

archaic approach to marking, or providing feedback as I would prefer we call it, is simply

letting our students down. Much has been written about topics like marking and the issue of

homework. It was almost debated to death in the mid to late 1990’s. At that time, there was a

groundswell of change ahead in schools and teachers across the UK in particular began to

drown in a sea of bureaucracy and red tape. Fifteen years on we’re no further forward. We’re

stuck. We’ve not made any progress.

It’s a well know and well written about fact that providing feedback to students is

intrinsically linked to pupil progress. Why then is so little made of this with parents? While

it’s true that parents rightly demand quality (and too often extremes in quantity), when it

comes to marking, more and more parents are beginning to demand more information too.

Requests about a child’s ‘ranking’ are becoming more and more common. “Her grades are

getting worse, she’s fallen behind”, “his scores aren’t as good as last terms” and “what

percentage in the next test does he need to go up a set?” all put an unbelievable pressure on

our teachers, the students and eventually the school. They also pose a very good question –

what is the purpose of marking and who should it be for?

School leaders obsess about this topic. On one hand, we demand that quality feedback is

provided to students, giving them every opportunity to improve. ‘Give them the information

they need to improve and they will’ is one of our many mantras. The problem is that parents

have become obsessed with the same words as ‘us’, but they have a very different

interpretation of these. ‘Progress’ to many parents can only take the form of a straight line

graph. Anything else simply isn’t good enough.

15

“…but that’s not what learning looks like, Mrs Thompson”

“His scores aren’t as good as last terms, what are your teachers doing?” is becoming an all

too frequently heard phrase. It wasn’t long ago that teachers were bemoaning the lack of

contact between schools and home. We seem to have the opposite problem today.

If you ask the experts – the kids (and I hope you do), they will tell you very articulately what

they want. They want their learning to be taken in regularly (but not too often), and then to be

told honestly and clearly what their teacher thought. Make no mistake, they’ll get a second

opinion from their friends (peer marking) and then finally come to their own conclusion (self

assessment). They are demanding to know what they need to do to improve!

Let me put some more questions to you. What does B+ mean? What does 17/20 mean? What

does ‘well done’ mean? What does ‘try harder’ mean? It means nothing to a child and

everything to a parent. We have on our hands an intergalactic clash of ideals. Remind me,

who are we marking books for again?

A number of schools have already taken steps to drastically alter or amend their assessment

and marking policies to try and tackle this, but they’re still missing the point. Some schools

have even banned altogether combinations of numbers and letters, liberating teachers in my

view to simply tell the students what they need to do to improve. It’s time now for a job to be

done on the parents. An ‘average’ parent today will have a completely different perspective

on all the roles and functions of modern schools. Parents struggle hugely to understand the

real meaning of ‘progress’ and of course the value and purpose of feedback or ‘marking’ as

they like to call it.

“The books haven’t been marked for weeks”

“we don’t use them very often. We use electronic files, folders and a range of online media”

“But the books haven’t been marked”

“…but formative and summative feedback has been provided regularly to Billy throughout

the term on all his learning”

“He says he doesn’t understand”

“His written, reflective evaluations suggest he does. He’s making good progress”

“…but the books haven’t been marked…”

And so the cycle continues…

It’s worth asking the question again– What is the purpose of marking?

Is it to provide feedback to parents on the amount of time teachers are

looking at children’s books? Is it to justify the salary and the 10

weeks holiday a year or is it something else?

Teachers – keep it simple. Tell the kids what they need to do to

improve and they will.

16

Web-based Version of Blooms Taxonomy (30+

digital tools ) http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/01/web-based-version-of-blooms-taxonomy-

30.html?m=1

One of the main objectives underlying our work as 21st century teachers and educators is

to use technology to create innovative, creative, and engaging learning environments for

our students.The focus now has been shifted from whether or not to use technology to

how to use this technology to improve teaching and learning. When we talk

about improvement here we mainly refer to the higher order thinking skills ( HOTS ).

Blooms Taxonomy is the first thing that comes to mind when talking about HOTS,

Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has been investing a lot of time and effort in

writing tutorials, guides and sharing infographics about this taxonomy and I am really so

glad many teachers are using my posts as a springboard from which to start in-

depth research into Bloooms Taxonomy.

To help teachers tap into the best of Blooms Taxonomy, I have started a series of posts

that cover a plethora of apps and web tools that relate to this taxonomy. Just a couple of

days ago we published The New Version of Blooms Taxonomy for iPad and today we are

providing you with another new version of Blooms Taxonomy but this time for web based

tools. Check them out below and share with us your suggestions.

1- Creating

Story Kit, Comic Life

iMovie, GoAnimate.com, SonicPics

Fotobabble

Sock Puppet.

2- Evaluating

17

Google Docs

Poll Everywhere

Socrative

BrainPOP

Today’s Meet.

3- Analyzing

Corkboard.me

Poll Everywhere

SurveyMonkey.com

Study Blue

Keynote

Stickyboard.

4- Applying

ScreenChomp

SonicPics

QuickVoice

Fotobabble

18

Keynote

Podomatic

Skype

5- Understanding

PowerPoint Google Blogs

Fotobabble

Bit.ly

Twitter neu.Annotate

6- Remembering

Pages

Google Docs

Study Blue

Bit.ly

Wordle

19

Top Ten Group Work Strategies

#HuntingEnglish

If I am continually vexed by any one question in education it is ‘how can we enhance student

motivation?‘ Of course, I do not have the answer, and if there is one it is multi-faceted,

complex and, frankly, not going to be solved in this blog post! From my position as a

classroom teacher, I am always on the look out for those strategies that create a state when

students are motivated and in their element, where they work furiously without even realising

they are doing so, without realising the clock is ticking down to the end of the lesson. There

is no better compliment than when students question how long there is left and express

genuine surprise at how fast time has passed, and that they have actually enjoyed that lesson!

My, admittedly non-scientific, observations are that many of the times students are in ‘flow‘,

or their element, in my lessons is when they are collaborating in group work. Why is this

then? I believe that we are obviously social beings and we naturally learn in such groups (not

always effectively it must be said), but that, more importantly, when working in a group we

are able to correct, support, encourage, question and develop ideas much more effectively.

The power of the group, guided by the expertise of the teacher, accelerates learning, makes it

richer and demands a learning consensus that can push people beyond their habitual

assumptions.

Don’t get me wrong, there are pitfalls and obstacles to group work. This constructivist

approach should build upon expert teacher led pedagogy – ensuring that students have a good

grounding in the relevant knowledge before undertaking in-depth group work. Group work

can also be beset by issues in many nuanced forms: whether it is subtle intellectual bullying,

where the student who shouts loudest prevails; or the encouragement of mediocrity and

laziness, as students let others do all the work; or simply by poor, distracting behaviour.

Another issue is ‘group think’ miscomprehension – indeed, how does prejudice flourish if not

in social groups? Yet, this failure is often great for learning as long as the teacher can

illuminate the error of their ways. Of course, no teaching strategy is foolproof and plain good

teaching should remedy many of the potential ills of group work, just as good teaching can

make more traditional teacher-led ‘direct instruction’ wholly engaging and effective.

I am intrigued by the idea of ‘social scaffolding‘ (Vygotsky) – the concept that most of our

learning is undertaken in group situations, where we learn through dialogue and debate with

others, not simply by listening to that voice in our head! That being said, I am not talking

20

teachers out of a classroom here. The role of the teacher in devising and planning a successful

group task takes skill, rigour and utter clarity and precision. Students need to be clear about a

whole host of things: from their role, to the purpose of the task and the parameters of

expected outcomes to name but a few. Teachers need to keep groups on track, intervene

appropriately to improve learning and regularly regain student focus. Teachers have a pivotal

role in guiding the group work at every stage. Group work certainly isn’t the lazy option: it

takes skill in the planning and the execution, and sometimes, despite our best laid plans, it

still fails. That shouldn’t put us off – aren’t all teaching and learning strategies subject to such

risks?

If I was to define a simple and straight-forward basis for the rules for group work it would be:

- Have clearly defined tasks, with sharp timings and with the appropriate tools

organised

- Have clearly defined group roles

- Have clear ground rules for talk, listening and fair allocation of workload etc.

- Target your support and interventions throughout the task, but make them

interdependent of one another, not dependent upon you

- Always be prepared to curtail group work if students don’t follow your high

expectations.

So here it is, my entirely subjective top ten strategies for group work that I believe to be

effective (ideas for which I must thank a multitude of sources):

1. ‘Think-pair-share’ and ‘Think-pair-square’.

Well, no-one said this top ten had to be original! This strategy is one of those techniques that

we employ so readily that we can almost forget about it, it is simply so automatic for most

teachers; yet, because of that we can easily forget it in our planning. We need to use it

regularly because it is the very best of scaffolded learning; it almost always facilitates better

quality feedback by allowing proper thinking time and for students to sound out their ideas

and receive instantaneous feedback from peers. ‘Think-pair-square’ adds a touch of added

flavour, involving linking two pairs together (to form the ‘square’ to share their ideas before

whole class feedback). Once more, it is about adding depth to ideas, stimulating debate and

collaborative thinking. I defer to this blog post by @headguruteacher for the skinny on

‘Think-pair-share’.

2. Snowballing or the Jigsaw method

Similar to the ‘square’ approach mentioned in ‘Think-Pair-Square’, the ‘snowballing’ activity

is another simple but very effective way of building upon ideas by starting with small groups

and expanding the groups in a structured way. As the metaphor of the snowball suggests, you

can begin with an individual response to a question; followed by then pairing up students up;

then creating a four and so on. It does allow for quick, flexible group work that doesn’t

necessarily require much planning, but does keep shaping viewpoints and challenging

‘answers’ is a constructive fashion.

The ‘jigsaw method’ is slightly more intricate. David Didau describes here how it is the

“ultimate teaching method”, but that it benefits greatly from careful planning. Put simply,

when researching a topic, like the causes of the Second World War, each member of a group

is allocated an area for which they need to become the ‘expert‘, such as ‘the impact of the

Treaty of Versailles’, or ‘issues with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary’ for example. With

21

five or six ‘Home‘ groups identified, the ‘experts‘ then leave that group to come together to

pool their expertise on the one topic; they question one another and combine research, ideas

and their knowledge. Then each ‘expert‘ returns to their ‘home‘ group to share their findings.

It is a skilful way of varying group dynamics as well as scaffolding learning.

3. Debating (using clear rules)

As you probably know, our own inspiring leader, Michael Gove, was the President of the

Oxford Union. Clearly, these ancient skills of rhetoric and debate have seen him rise to

dizzying heights. Perhaps we need to teach debating with great skill if we are to produce

citizens who can debate with the best of them…and with Michael Gove! The premise of a

debate, and its value in enriching the learning of logic, developing understanding and the

simultaneous sharpening and opening our minds, is quite obvious so I will not elaborate. If

you are ever stuck for a debate topic then this website will be of great use:

http://idebate.org/debatabase. The Oxford rules model is an essential model for the classroom

in my view. It provides a clear structure and even a level of formality which is important,

provide coherence and greater clarity to the debate. The rules, familiar steps though they are

for many, are as follows:

Four speakers in each team (for and against the motion)

First speaker introduces all the ideas that team has generated

Second speaker outlines two or three more ideas in some depth

Third speaker outlines two or three ideas in some depth

Fourth speaker criticises the points made by the other team

Each individual speaker has two minutes to speak (or more of course), with protected

time of thirty seconds at the beginning or the end

The rest of the team is the ‘Floor‘ and can interject at any time by calling out ‘Point of

Information‘ and standing. The speaker can accept or reject an interjection.

You may wish to have the other groups work as feedback observers on the debate being

undertaking (a little like Socratic circles – number 8). This has the benefit of keeping the

whole class engaged and actively listening to the debate.

4. Project Based Learning/Problem Based Learning

I have to admit I have only ever undertaken project style work on a small scale, but in the last

year I have been startled by the quality of work I have observed in project based learning

across the world. The principals of Project Based Learning are key: such as identifying real

audiences and purposes for student work (a key factor in enhancing motivation); promoting

interdependent student work, often subtly guided by the teacher at most stages; letting

students undertake roles and manage the attendant challenges that arise; learning is most

often integrated and spans subject areas; and students constructing their own questions and

knowledge. Truly the best guide is to survey these great examples:

http://www.hightechhigh.org/schools/HTHI/ The curriculum here is founded upon the PBL

model.

http://brookfieldcyclingproject.blogspot.co.uk/ A brilliant PE based PBL.

http://deeplearning.edublogs.org/2012/12/02/meet-the-ancestors/ A great Art centred project.

‘Problem based learning’ is clearly related to the project model, but it explicitly starts with a

problem to be solved. It is based primarily upon the model from medicine – think Dr House

(although he is hardly a team player!). David Didau sagely recommends that the teacher, or

22

students in collaboration, find a specifically local problem – this raises the stakes of the task.

Clearly, in Mathematics, real problem based learning can be a central way to approach

mathematical challenges in a collaborative way; in Science or Philosophy, the options to

tackle ethical and scientific problems are endless. There is criticism of this approach – that

students struggle with the ‘cognitive load’ without more of a working memory. Ideally, this

learning approach follows some high quality direct instruction, and teacher led worked

examples, to ensure that students have effective models to work from and some of the

aforementioned working memory.

5. Group Presentations

I would ideally label this strategy: ‘questions, questions, questions‘ as it is all about creating,

and modelling, a culture of enquiry by asking students questions about a given topic, rather

than didactically telling them the answer – then helping shape their research. The teacher

leads with a ‘big question‘; then it is taken on by groups who (given materials, such as books,

magazines, essays, iPads, laptops, or access to the library or an ICT suite etc.) have to

interrogate the question, forming their own sub-set of questions about the question/ topic.

They then source and research the key information, before finally agreeing to the answers to

the questions they had themselves formed. The crucial aspect about presentations is giving

students enough time to make the presentation worthwhile, as well as allocating clear roles.

High quality presentations take time to plan, research and execute. Personally, I find the

timekeeper role a waste of time (I can do that for free!), but other roles, such as leader,

designer and scribe etc. have value. Also, the teaching needs to be carefully planned so the

entire presentation is not reliant solely upon any one person or piece of technology.

Developing a shared understanding of the outcome and the different parameters of the

presentation is key: including features like banning text on PowerPoints; or making it an

expectation that there is some element of audience participation; to agreeing what subject

specific language should be included. The devil is in the detail!

6. ‘Devise the Display’

I have a troubled relationship with displays! I very rarely devise my own display as I think

displays become wallpaper far too soon considering the effort taken to provide them – like

newspapers, they become unused within days. I much prefer a ‘working wall‘, that can be

constantly changed or updated (or a ‘learning continuum’ for an entire topic when can be

periodically added to each lesson). That being said, I do think there is real high quality

learning potential in the process of students devising and creating wall displays. It is great

formative feedback to devise a wall display once you are well under way a topic. It makes the

students identify and prioritise the key elements of their knowledge and the skills they are

honing.

I find the most valuable learning is actually during the design ideas stage.You can ‘snowball’

design ideas with the students; beginning individually, before getting groups to decide

collaboratively on their design; then having a whole class vote. I do include stipulations for

what they must include, such as always including worked examples. Then, the sometimes

chaotic, but enjoyable activity it to create the display. I always aim for the ‘60 Minute

Makeover‘ approach – quick and less painful (it also makes you less precious about the finer

details)! I think they also learn a whole host of valuable skills involving team work, empathy

and not to annoy me by breaking our wall staplers! I think it is then important to not let any

display fester and waste, but to pull it down and start afresh with a new topic. I know this

strategy does put some people off, because it can be like organised chaos, but if everyone has

23

a clear role and responsibility the results can be amazing. [Warning - some designs can look

like they have been produced by Keith Richards on a spectacular acid trip!]

7. Gallery Critique

This stems from the outstanding work of on Berger. Both a teacher and a craftsman himself,

Berger explains the value of critique as rich feedback in his brilliant book ‘The Ethic of

Excellence‘. It can be used during the draft/main process or as a summative task. This

strategy does have some specific protocols students should follow. The work of the whole

group should be displayed in a gallery style for a short time. Students are expected to first

undertake a short silent viewing (making notes to reflect is also useful here). The students

make comments on the work – post it notes being ideal for this stage. Then the next step is a

group discussion of ‘what they noticed‘ in particular, with debate and discussion encouraged

– of course, the feedback should be both kind and constructive. The next step for discussion

is talking about ‘what they liked‘, evaluating the work. The final stage has the teacher

synthesise viewpoints and express their own; before ensuring students make notes and reflect

upon useful observations for making improvements.

8. Socratic Talk

I have spoken about this strategy before. What is key is that like the debating rules above, a

clear and defined structure is in place, particularly with ‘Socratic circles‘ which embeds

feedback and debate in a seamless way. It takes some skill in teaching students how to talk in

this fashion, but once taught, it can become a crucial tool in the repertoire. In my experience,

some of the most sensitive insights have emerged from this strategy and the listening skills

encouraged are paramount and have an ongoing positive impact. It also allows for every

student to have a role and quality feedback becomes an expectation.

9. Talking Triads

Another simple, but highly effective strategy. It is a strategy that gets people to explore a

chosen topic, but with a really rigorous analysis of ideas and views. The triad comprises of a

speaker, a questioner and a recorder/analyst. You can prepare questions, or you can get the

questioner and the analyst to prepare questions whilst the speaker prepares or reflects upon

potential answers. This can be done in front of the class as a gallery of sorts, or you can have

all triads working simultaneously. If they do work simultaneously, then a nice addition is to

raise your hand next to a particular triad, which signals for other groups to stop and listen

whilst that specific triad continues, allowing for some quality listening opportunities.

10. Mastery Modelling

This involves a form of formative assessment from students, whereat the teacher gives a

group a series of models, both exemplar models and lesser models, including some with

common errors that students would likely identify. The students need to do a critical appraisal

of the these models as a group and identify their summary assessment of the models first,

before then devising and presenting a ‘mastery model’ that is a composite exemplar model of

work. This strategy works in pretty much every subject, with the subject being either an

essay, a piece of art, or a mathematical problem. This presentation should include an explicit

focus upon the steps taken leading to create the ‘mastery model‘ during the feedback – this

unveils the process required for mastery for the whole class.

Useful links:

24

A great research paper that analyses group work and its importance:

‘Toward a social pedagogy of classroom group work’

By Peter Blatchford, Peter Kutnick, Ed Baines, and Maurice Galton

An excellent National Strategies booklet from back in the day when the DfE was interested in

pedagogy. I particularly like the ‘different grouping criteria’/'size of grouping’ tables:

Pedagogy and Practice: Teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools Unit 10: Group work

Nice step by step guide to the implementation and the delivery of group work

‘Implementing Group Work in the Classroom‘

25

How effective learning hinges on good

questioning.

Hands up who likes asking questions?

Questioning is an essential part of helping students to make progress but only if it causes

thinking or elicits evidence that informs our teaching. And the thing with asking questions is

that while there are some kids who know how to make the system work for them and actively

participate in lessons because that they way they’ll learn more, there are those who don’t.

Dylan Wiliam claims that the students who are sufficiently engaged to put up their hands and

answer everything we ask them are “actually getting smarter. Their IQs actually go up.”

Now, I can’t vouch for the research on this but if it’s true, by allowing some students not to

participate we’re making the achievement gap bigger. Not good.

Just in case you don’t already know how to suck eggs grandma, a solution to this is some sort

of randomised name generator. You can go low tech by writing kids’ names onto lolly sticks

á la Prof W, or you can experiment with various free web-based teaching tools like Triptico.

But the poor students’ problems aren’t over yet. Once we’ve got them to actually answer a

question we rarely give them enough time to think. We’ve known for ages that if you allow

more time for students to reply to your questions, more thoughtful answers will be proffered

up in response. Typically we only allow 1 second for students to answer a question. With this

kind of pressure it’s no wonder that 75% of students avoid risking potential humiliation.

Ideally we should allows something in the region of 4 seconds thinking time if we want give

students a real opportunity to consider and deliberate. Now that could be 4 seconds of

tumbleweed or you could give the students the chance to discuss possible answers and maybe

even jot a few possibilities down. Sometimes giving them a specific number of answers to

come up with (5 is my favourite) means that when ask students for their answer they’ll have

at least something to contribute.

But what sort of questions should we be asking? Questions like ‘What is alliteration?’ are just

playing another dreary round of Guess What’s In The Teacher’s Head. And nobody ever

learned much from that. No matter what you do, the best you can expect is for a random

sample of students to tell you what they think you want to hear while everyone else zones

out.

Now comes the point at which you’ll notice the razor sharp pun in the post title: hinge

questions are a fascinating diagnostic tool which provide data on students’ understanding and

allow you to make on the spot decisions about the direction of your teaching without wasting

anybody’s time.

Now, I’m relatively new to these hinge thingys and feel I probably should have known about

them ages ago. But, as with so many other things, I didn’t. A spot of internet research yielded

disappointing results: there’s precious little out there and what there is takes a good bit

tenacity to turn in to something readily understandable. Basically what I found was a couple

of posts from the inimitable Darren Mead and a transcript of a Dylan Wiliam speech. Happily

however, if your hinge questions are related to joinery then you’re in luck!

Here are my findings:

26

- A hinge question is based on the important concept in a lesson that is critical for students to

understand before you move on in the lesson.

- The question should fall about midway during the lesson.

- Every student must respond to the question within two minutes.

- You must be able to collect and interpret the responses from all students in 30 seconds

- You need to be clear on how many students you need to get the right answer in advance –

20-80% depending on how important the question is (thanks to Jason Buell for this).

This means you won’t have time to get kids to explain their answers. This feels unnatural for

an English teacher – we always want to know why, but the point here is to check

understanding, work out whether you need to recap or change direction and then get a move

on.

To make this work you’ll need make the questions multiple choice and have access to an

essential piece of English teaching kit: a set of mini whiteboards.

Here’s a couple of examples:

This second example highlights the importance of asking the right question. What would

happen if instead the question was: Which of these is an example of personification? I’ll tell

you what would happen: we’d end up bogged down in a teacher lead discussion in which

everyone, except for the keeners are the front, is thoroughly bored.

A good hinge question needs a lot of careful planning but I’ve gotta tell you, I’m really

impressed with the results. There’s no hiding with the mini white board there to expose every

teensy misapprehension so that I can swoop, falcon-like, and restore the beatific smile of

understanding to even the most perennially confused child.

http://learningspy.co.uk/2012/02/04/how-effective-learning-hinges-on-good-questioning/

27

Great Lessons: Agility

POSTED BY HEADGURUTEACHER ⋅ FEBRUARY 20, 2013

I spent a while thinking of one word that could capture the spirit of this post.

AGILITY. It does the job. It’s all about the ability to adapt, to change course, to

respond, to deal with multiple simultaneous demands, to keep up with all the

individual students’ journeys, to be spontaneous and flexible and to think on your

feet. ‘Thinking on your feet’ is a hugely important teacher skill and in any Great

Lesson, you are likely to see this in action.

I think it is safe to say that most of my lessons don’t go according to plan. Why?

Because, in truth, the plan is usually highly skeletal.. just a rough outline of where

we’ll start and where we are heading in general…but the details depend on what

happens next. In an environment where I am challenging my students at a high level

and trying hard to tease out their individual weak spots, I’m never exactly sure how

students will respond or what questions they might ask… But as an agile teacher, I’m

ready for anything. Sometimes, agility is needed to rescue a bad situation…like a

goalkeeper pouncing…but mostly, agility is about seeking out the most engaging,

most challenging path to keep the flow going…like an off-piste skier. This is the part

of being a teacher that I love the most.

These examples illustrate the idea of being agile in various different contexts:

1. Contingent Planning

Letting it ride: Y13 English

One of the all-time most jaw-droppingly fabulous lessons I’ve ever seen was

accompanied by the metaphorical shredding of a well-intentioned lesson plan. A Y13

28

English class had been given two weeks to read Marlowe’s Dr Faustus and their

homework task had been to prepare short graphical presentations of the play’s key

themes. Some had Good-Evil vs Time axes on a graph; others had complex mind

maps, another was a Dramatic Tension timeline. The outpouring of ideas led to

discussion and debate that showed students had progressed far further than

expected. They were learning so much from each other, the teacher input wasn’t

needed; she let it ride. The starter/ intros became the lesson.

Holding it back: Y12 Maths

Here, in a well planned lesson with a clever sequence of incrementally more

challenging operations with polynomials it became clear that a significant number of

students were not entirely secure at the early stages. I’d been given a lesson plan

but only half of it actually came off the page as the teacher opted to pause for

consolidation…all except two pairs who were urged to plough on as they were doing

well. It was an Outstanding lesson..largely because of the teacher’s agile

responsiveness.

Differentiation ‘on the fly’

Despite the best laid plans some students shoot through. “Wow! You’ve nailed this

already so….” You need something seriously challenging to throw at them. Or, in a

way that takes you by surprise, one or more students are all at sea….you need to

throw them a lifeline. Both things happened to me at the same time recently with a

lesson on electrical circuits. Some were just stuck..could not make a circuit to match

the diagram; meanwhile at the other end, I set others off to devise their own circuits

to see what happened as they could work through the standard set at astonishing

speed…who knew? I did also enlist their help to sort out the stuck people.

29

Since my lessons rarely go according to plan, it also means I don’t plan too far

ahead. I never follow a scheme of work as such…I see them as a set of possible

ideas for possible lessons, but the flow of learning is shaped by what happens and

this is often unpredictable. I used to work in a school where you could order a tray of

equipment for Unit 3, Lesson 7a. I’m sorry, but after I’d finished, those trays were a

bit of a jumble! An important lesson from this is that we need to think less about

writing schemes of work and more about planning contingencies. I’ve seen a lot of

finely timed lesson plans but really these are security blankets; stabilisers; an agile

teacher doesn’t need them. Anything you write down can only ever be one of many

possible paths; the confidence to abandon the plan is as important as the planning

itself.

2. Responding to responses

At a basic level, a routine probing Q&A session is a great test of agility. This is

pedagogical sparring. Great teachers love it, taking students’ statements and

questions and then returning more probing responses. With whole-class response

methods, this is scaled up.

Now the juggling really starts. When we invested in mini whiteboards for every

classroom a few years ago, one colleague remarked that she found it incredibly

difficult to cope with all the responses. What if there are lots of errors? This is

precisely why they are such great tools: they reveal what ALL your students are

thinking, like it or not. Here you need to be agile in selecting and sampling responses

quickly; the ones that help take the learning forward without getting bogged down,

30

avoiding turning a buzzy exchange into a thing of drudgery. The key is to focus on

key learning points with repeat questions rather than tackle each and every variation.

Something similar happens after doing any in-class peer or self assessment. What

have been the common answers and common difficulties? Are there any especially

interesting alternatives? You need to flush this all out, making sure you tackle

misconceptions, pick out a range of model answers and move everyone forward

without double checking every single response. In an RE class of 30, there are 30

different ways to answer ‘Was it morally acceptable to kill Osama Bin Laden’. Agility

sees you through….

3. Reacting to circumstances

Lights out:

My Y6 son came home from school buzzing recently. “We had the BEST lesson

EVER”. They’d had a class discussion about ghosts, told some stories, explored the

possibilities of UFOs and life on other planets….lots of engaging deep thinking on

big existential questions. Why was it so special? Because they were sitting in the

dark for over an hour after a power cut! So, no writing or reading….just talking and

listening. The teacher had capitalised brilliantly, letting their imaginations fire off in all

directions. If you have not yet read “Oops! Helping Children Learn Accidentally” by

Hywel Roberts, then you should. He tackles this area brilliantly. Of course, this agile

teacher had made the most of a real situation….but why wait when these fabulous

‘accidents’ could easily be made to happen!

Behaviour Management:

The reality for a lot of teachers is that managing behaviour is a dominant issue, but it

is a universal ever-present feature of all lessons. An agile teacher, teaching a Great

Lesson, may well have all manner of behaviour issues to address but they do two

things: Firstly, they address the issues…they don’t gloss over or ignore them.

Secondly, (in classic Bill Rogers style) they use the least intrusive strategy possible

in order to keep learning on track. In great lessons the teacher does not hope for

quiet, they insist; however, neither does the teacher stop everyone learning for a full

blown show-down… Unless this is absolutely necessary.

Current affairs

Finally, in Great Lessons an agile teacher will take any opportunity to make

connections to current developments, scrapping the planned lesson if necessary.

Venus is transiting the sun, Higgs’ boson has been discovered, it is the anniversary

31

of a publication by Darwin or Shakespeare, the biggest prime number ever has been

identified, Richard III has been found and verified with carbon dating, there has been

a tsunami, a new work by Van Gogh has been discovered…or vandalised….. All

these things are a reason to go right off at a tangent and bring learning into the real

world. In fact, when these things happen, it is unforgivable not to.

4. Choices

Sometimes the need for agility is more predictable, in situations where students are

given choices. An example is where the mode of response is made very open:

essay, video, blog, powerpoint, cartoon…. We adopt this approach for our Y7 British

Museum project with fabulous results, but the teachers need to be flexible and open-

minded.

In some subjects, students have real choices to make as part of their assessment. In

our A Level Physics course, students devise their own investigation; in our History

and Pre-U ?Global Perspectives courses they choose their own area of study for the

coursework; in Art or DT at GCSE and A level there is a high degree of student

autonomy. The teacher’s agility and confidence often determines how far they are

prepared to let the students go – which is either an enabling effect or a limiting one.

5. Going off piste

A couple of years ago some Y9 students from a partner school spent a day at KEGS

and produced a report of their observations. Some of the things they liked about our

lessons were:

The lessons tend to start straight away without lots of lining up and register taking

Students do not have to copy objectives from the board every lesson

32

The teachers often deviate from the lesson plan to tell stories or share their personal

interests. ‘Our teachers never do this’ they said.

We hadn’t anticipated the last point but it is certainly a feature of lessons at my

school. The students and teachers find great joy in the kind of spontaneity that

allows anyone in the room to express their puzzlement, their curiosity or their sheer

love of the subject. Recent diversions in my lessons have led us to consider the

James May ‘milk first’ tea-making theory based on temperature gradient and specific

heat capacity; how a bullet-proof vest works (following the input of a materials

enthusiast in my class) and what might happen in terms of g-force if we could fly

through the sun. Is it on the syllabus? Not exactly….but who cares?

Of course the very best reason to go off piste is when a student blows your mind with

their work. Sometimes you just have to down tools, get in a huddle and marvel at

what someone has done.

* * * * * * * * * * *

33