Taking Risks

Here is what my Year 9 class found as they entered English today... This was our lesson and it was theirs to take in any direction they pleased.

(Secretly, I had lots of powerpoints stored on my pen drive to refer to if all went wrong but I had challenged myself to take a risk today and was determined to see it through.)

The students were asked to write down any questions that they had about the box - after sharing them, they voted that the focus of today's lesson should be to find out what was inside. The challenge was set - they had an hour and a half to convince me to reveal my secret. (I breathed out a little - AFOREST worksheets lurking suspiciously on my desk...)

When asked what they could do to convince me a series of responses followed: stage a protest? Write a letter? Bribery? But then one student suggested that they should work it out by interviewing me - the others agreed that this would probably impress me the most. I warned them that they were only allowed ten questions and if they couldn't work it out -the box would remain locked and that was all it took.

The students (a lower ability group) spent the lesson writing, replacing and proof reading questions (I also refused to answer anything that was grammatically incorrect). Within the hour, they solved the mystery - justified their answer in full sentences and wrote a paragraph to explain what would go in their box.

When I finally revealed the contents - I asked students to explain what they had done to earn this information and was told that they had spoken using full sentences, explained their ideas and written in detail.

Today may not have worked - if it didn't we would have been an hour behind. Was it worth the risk? In the end, I didn't use a PowerPoint or worksheet for the entire lesson. the students drove themselves. The improvement in their writing speaks for itself! (They even set their own homework and are now bringing me an item of their own.)


The moral of the story? We can (and should) monitor and drive progress - but not at the expense of taking the occasional risk. The benefits are priceless...

The first extract is taken from the lesson before - the second is the work from the same student at the end of today's lesson.

Have I kept my integrity?

If I said the word 'progress' a number of possible responses may follow... excitement (I know exactly where I've taken my students today), fear (my students never seem to make enough),  or maybe even the feeling of being trapped (i'm forced to do this so I can't...)

I've been fortunate that my experiences have forced me to focus on the concept of making progress. It no longer brings me out in cold sweats and I can honestly say that so many aspects of my classroom practice have benefitted as a result: I do know where I want my students to be and I do know how I'm going to take them there. But, this week I was asked 2 questions and despite being good at my job - my reflections didn't sit easy...

1) Why did I come into teaching? I came into teaching to inspire my students. I want them to enjoy English. I want them to know that within my classroom they will learn the skills that will help them to overcome most barriers. Has this changed? No.

2) How do I keep my integrity? It was this question that caused me concern. What are my principles? Have I kept them?

My students make progress. This must contribute to my integrity. If pushed, I even think the majority of them would say that they enjoy it. Another indicator. But, do I inspire my students, that's not the same, is it? In light of the GCSE fiasco - my teaching has become so focussed on progress and the constant push forward that I realised I possibly don't always step back and facilitate opportunities to inspire.

Fortunately, this week I was reminded about the importance of creativity and now, I'm pleased to say, that I think my integrity in tact.

Joining the SOLO army!

Despite being quiet in the Twittersphere in recent months, I have kept an eye on it and have noticed increasing references to the SOLO taxonomy. If you are new to this concept then you are in good company, as I am also a newbie but inspired by tweets and blog posts from Tait Coles @totallywired77, Darren Mead @DKMead and David Didau @learningspy I figured I'd have go.

I am currently teaching Blood Brothers to a Year 9 group. We have performed the book (with some fantastic vocal talents from the students and a little help from the cd!) and I am now considering how to prepare the students for an assessment. The assessment objectives are open and my main objectives are that the students engage as much with the process of learning as they do with the content of the play.

To introduce the language of the taxonomy I began with a character investigation: the pupils were given 60 seconds to brainstorm everything that they know about the narrator. I then asked them to organise themselves into groups based on solo taxonomy. We have not covered this character before, therefore three groups formed: prestructural, unistructural, and multistructural.

Next the students were asked to organise themselves into pairs or small groups so that the multistructural learner could convey their knowledge to the others. I'm aware that at the moment, this seems to be peer teaching under fancy names, but I loved that this allowed the students to organise themselves and made the purpose of the task extremely clear.

Once all pupils were on the same page, they then worked together to pose a list of questions. Initially, they turned their facts into questions. For example - "The narrator speaks negatively about Mrs Johnstone at the beginning of the play" became "Why does the narrator speak negatively about Mrs Johnstone at the beginning of the play?" The students then looked back to their initial facts to see if they already had the answers. If not, they asked to see the facts of another group or, finally, turned back to the play to skim for more evidence.

One of the hardest challenges that I face as an English teacher, is finding ways to support students in exploring the text independently - I constantly battle with ways to convey information without telling them my own interpretation. Today I watched as 30 students set up and conducted their own investigations - during today's lesson the SOLO framework helped me to set up a process that supported the students without influencing their opinions. For the first time, the students explained to me that the narrator must engage with a middle class audience in order to be of any influence - something that I have struggled to extract from Year 11s.

I think I will enjoy experimenting with this further...any recommendations or suggestions are welcome!

My Profound Discovery!

I've been very quiet lately - i've had lessons to plan, progress to chart and observation after observation after observation. I've looked at the assessment criteria so many times that the words had blended into nonsense that simply plagued my thoughts as I tried to plan a lesson - making the process of putting pen to paper difficult nevermind adding 30 slightly less predictable students into the mix!

However, after a lot of hard work and reflection...I've come to a profound conclusion - Ofsted would like me to do what I do best. Teach. And teach well - preparing lessons that are engaging and relevant - helping student to learn and being genuinely concerned about the progress they make.

It sounds simple doesn't it? But with every different agenda, focus and gimmick it is easy to forget what's important and become lost and disheartened. Although, if your students are genuinely at the centre of what you do, then I bet you're heading in the right direction.

Miss M

Safety: A dangerous thing in the classroom?

As a teacher, the first thing that I teach is routine. As a class, we negotiate our expectations and create routines that will allow us to fulfil them: this empowers the students, gives familiarity and helps them to feel safe and confident – all essential qualities of a positive learning environment. However, even though emotional and physically safety is important in the classroom – some forms of safety can be dangerous: safety can breed comfort, it can (in extremes) breed complacency and it can prevent the creativity that of us enter the profession for.

Today, I realised that I had become comfortable with one of my classes. We had created a lovely routine that allowed: lessons to start with clear purpose and direction, students to learn with support and for students to reflect and I had felt that a large part of this was due to the routines that we had established with the Learning Support Assistant. Today, unexpectedly, she wasn’t there…

My lesson depended on the students working in two groups – intended to support one and the LSA would support the other. Each group was going to become an expert and then they would teach a partner. In a last ditch attempt to save the lesson, I quickly taught the new learning to one of the more able students and then continued the lesson as normal. The student performed much better than I would have anticipated: she delivered her learning clearly – handed out resources and checked their work as they recorded their learning in their books. She was amazing and I was suprised at her success but I should have expected it!

One of our main focuses this half term has been the development of Team Worker skills. I knew they had made progress in this area but today made me realise that I perhaps I should have anticipated this. As we complete the term, I will adapt my rotuines to make sure that they continue to challenge students as well as supporting them and I'm pleased to report that today's lesson finished with a line of students who would love to lead our learning next. :)

Other ways that I have challenged my students:

• allowing them to choose their own groups that include members with a range of abilities;
• giving students a task and asking them to change the seating plan so that they can work more effectively;
• pairing students with people that they haven’t worked with before;
• giving them new and increasing responsibility.

Consolidating the Learning

Learning objective? Check. Planned teaching? Check. Plenary to check the learning? Check:

‘What have I learned?’ ‘How did I learn it?’ What are my next steps?’

I find it funny that I have used these questions in my teaching since someone told me it was a good idea in my NQT year. Especially, now that I have realised that ‘used’ is probably the wrong verb. Now, I would more accurately report that they appeared in my lessons. The end of the lesson approached, the learning needed to be consolidated and these questions appeared to fit perfectly – a neat end to (what seemed like) well planned learning. However, theory and reality don’t always mix…in practice – they served no purpose as I never really dared myself to hear the answer.

With my activity complete and 5 minutes remaining – I would ask pupils to answer these questions, 3 seconds would drag painstakingly by then a student would take pity and throw some type of answer, in fact any type of answer into the equation. I recall one student who returned to ‘iambic pentameter’ in the plenary any time that we discussed Shakespeare. Relieved and determined to prove that the lesson was worth while, I’d take the answer and interpret it for them – giving students a summary of what I thought they should be learning – knowing that some of them wouldn’t have realised this and hoping that they would make some of the links and believe they’d had a successful lesson. They probably didn’t. The questions served no purpose.

I don’t know when this changed but today, I attended an inspiring session by Gary Pollard who made me realise that these questions now appear in my classroom with purpose. They are tools used for reflection – not only by the students but also by me. My plenary has transformed from a paper filling activity used to satisfy someone else - to a learning experience where students are reflecting for themselves and teaching me about the links between my lessons, other areas of the curriculum and even their interests outside of school. I am certain that hundreds and thousands of experienced teachers realised this a long time ago, but realising that I have realised is a lovely feeling…

What have I learned? I’m one step closer to being the type of teacher that I want to be. How did I learn it? By taking part in relevant and purposeful CPD that pushed me to reflect on my practice. What are my next steps? Reflect, reflect, reflect – it’s the most effective development tool I have come across.

Successes of the Secret Student

In my teaching career I have found that engagement and behaviour have a direct link. Once students are engaged their behaviour often improves. However, engaging students isn't always easy -particularly with lower ability groups. When I first began teaching I often planned the lesson around current events and using a variety of media such as music and videos but if the students weren't engaged in the first place we would never get there as I battled with behaviour and tore my hair out with frustration! Fortunately, this is a ghostly recollection from my first half term as an NQT but it reminded me of the progress that I have made and the small steps that I took to get there.

I remember trying to teach Dickens to a group of students - at first we were fine - they had all seen the movie at some point and understood the message. However, this wore off quickly; they became incredibly bored of the unfamiliar language and the extensive paragraphs I tried to get them to write. Lesson 1: Check previous attainment and make sure that you are setting realistic outcomes. If a student can't do it - they won't!

After seeking advice, I learned that Dickens (in the way it had been presented) had no use to these students - even though the skills I had to teach them were. Lesson 2: Consider the needs of the students. Once I had realised that the students needed to be able to explain themselves - I learned that they could practise this skill with any stimlus and, once they had mastered it, return to Dickens - setting them up for success instead of failure.

However, in order for this to be truly useful, the students had to know how to transfer their skills. Lesson 3: Make sure they know it is relevant I began linking my learning objectives to qualifications, GCSEs and the world outside of school. This worked for a large number of students - I found out their ambitions and their goals and was finally able to have sensible conversations about their behaviour and and their learning and whether they were choosing to make progress.

For some, the big picture was enticing but too far away to continue to be a detterent during a period 5 lesson after 2 litres of fizzy pop. Lesson 4: Never overlook the power of rewards - the biggest of which can be a genuine compliment. As I grew calmer and more confident, I looked for good behaviour and focussed on this - offering praise postcards and phonecalls for consistent work. To this day, I make more positive phonecalls than negative ones but I find that it is an investment worth making.

But what about the child who doesn't seem to care? The one who seemingly doesn't care if you call home and thinks the rewards box is "stupid anyway". The child who is content at never putting pen to paper just to show that they can or the child who disrupts the learning process in order to entertain his / her peers. The strategies above aided my planning and my composure but did not seem to motivate this child.

Perhaps I never 'unpicked' or 'solved' this child and that is why he wasn't engaged but on the surface he appeared defiant. He often said that he knew that he was clever and would apply himself if he felt it necessary; however, he had friends and a successful social life therefore education was unnecessary and he wouldn't take part. Hmmm... my views on myself as a successful teacher quickly unravelled. I sought advice from my superiors (head of department, head of year, buddies) but on this occasion it was to no avail. Lesson 5: Never under estimate the power of experience - teaching can seem isolated but when the doors begin to open students realise that they are part of a network. It can support you and them in the learning process.

However, after all of this- I was shattered. It is an exhausting process running around after 5 sets of 30 students throughout the day. I couldn't see it then but I was taking the responsibility for the behaviour of nearly 300 students in a working week - no wonder I was exhausted. On top of this, the more tired I became - the more difficult it was to keep up.

Now I employ a different strategy. Lesson 6: Students must take ownership of their actions so that they can be responsible for their actions and behaviour in the larger world. Although I continue to set students up for success - the I place the responsibility on them. One of the most successful strategies that has helped me to do this is the secret student (adapted from The Classroom Experiment, BBC)

The Secret Student

How does it work?

At the beginning of the year, I worked with the class to discuss what we wanted our environment to be like. However, with these particular students, it was important to be specific so we then discussed how this cold be achieved. I then summarised this into 8 statements (these included routines as well as expectations). For example:

• I come to lesson with a pen.
• I speak nicely to everyone.
• I put my hand up when I want to speak.

 Next, i wrote each student's name on a lollipop stick. At the beginning of each lesson, the smartest student is allowed to pick a stick a put it in the envelope.

The lesson then continues as normal. At the end of the lesson, I ask pupils to think about their behaviour during the lesson. They put their hand up if they think they would have earned the class a point. I use this as an opportunity to give praise some of the students - including pointing out some positive behaviour from those who don't have their hand up. Finally, if the student has earned their point they are revealed and recieve a round of applause (extremely powerful). However, if the student didn't recieve their point we discuss what we could have done as a class to support whoever the student was. So far, this has prompted students to highlight when they were distracting others or even if they struggled with the work.

It hasn't worked as a deterent every lesson but when the class recieved their reward lesson they appreciated it and continued to show the behaviour I expect of them.

I think that the success of this strategy is that it makes them realise they are partly responsible for others as they affect the learning that takes place in the classroom. It bonds them as a team giving them a reason to unite rather than bicker. But overall, it gives them (and me) a chance to reflect - what have we done to improve learning today?