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LEARNING TEAMS FINDINGS:
Day Three North Yorkshire 12 th October, 2006
RECEPTION / YRs 1 & 2 Teachers agreed that the process works well with more practical/visual tasks than with anything written down as children are not writing enough yet. It was useful with examples like ‘little robot’ and construction toys: building one at the beginning of a lesson, asking why does it or does it not work, etc. Teachers have used a product at the beginning of the lesson and asked how it could be changed. The process was used successfully in writing with YR2 higher achievers: modelling two pieces of work where one was clearly of a higher quality than the other.
KS 2a A teacher using ‘Macbeth’ showed the children two pieces of work, they identified the best one and from that developed success criteria. They wanted to be better than last year’s group so it was a good incentive. The discussion of what’s better as a whole class worked well and they could easily spot things that were not as good as they could have been. The biggest impact was when the class was stopped halfway through to discuss. One teacher looked at simile poems: the teacher made up two examples and children were given five minutes to discuss which example was best – all could easily spot the best one and say why. One was laid out like a poem, the other like a story. Another teacher had used 2 examples in maths: two addition sums set out, which is best to follow – they could see straight away which was best. One teacher had a lower literacy Yr 5 group – they could clearly see the difference between good and not so good work. Comparing two products can be done in all subjects (e.g. singing: can show a good performance and a bad performance i.e.: posture and diction and other practical skills. You can play two recordings of a composition, too.)
KS 2b The most important thing about having two pieces to compare is that it gets everyone’s attention at the beginning of a lesson. Literacy: good and bad examples were often written by the teachers to start off, followed by discussion and from that you success criteria were generated, using talking partners. Teachers had also tried using children’s work from the previous year to avoid sensitivities in the present class. Using work from this year’s class does yield more interest as it’s their work and can have a positive impact if used well. Another teacher used not just good and bad but also three examples, the third being equal in quality to one of them. Children remember this really well as they clue in on to what’s bad easily. Impact: children become more focused from the start; the objectives are reinforced; morale is higher as they feel capable of achievement; children try to achieve more; they know what to expect; it generates fantastic discussion with children now sharing ideas; there is an overall improvement in the quality of work; self esteem is higher because everyone has ‘best bits’; lower achievers believe they can.
SECONDARY The process was used in various forms at all key stages. Teachers found that the impact is that quality talk is generated; higher quality work; work done more quickly. Found that levels of achievement in exams are easy to improve by looking at previous exam attempts. One teacher of KS 3 Geography gave students examples of level 3-4 and 5-6 answers and looked at what had been done at each level that was different from the one before. Using the same context, but at different levels, they were asked ‘What could you do to make a level 7 response a level 8 response?’ Another teacher of Art, using the same context, showed two charcoal drawings of different quality. She did not tell the students how they had been judged but said that both met the success criteria. The students had different opinions of which was better and why. There was free discussion, analysing freely, and the success criteria were generated from this. Students could talk about what makes a stylistic difference. The teacher also used one model of surrealism and had some difficulty with students copying too much of it in their own work rather than being “creative.” A history teacher found it difficult to decide whether to model very high quality or mixed levels. With a lower set, should something be modelled that is at such a high level it is simply unachievable? Another teacher said maybe you show a high level model and with talking partners children will naturally bring it down to their level anyway. S: we can all analyse the Booker prize winner’s sentences and know we could never achieve that, but we can identify it, aspire to it and maybe learn something from it. Maybe use extracts rather than the whole piece – take a few key things that are examples of A-star thinking. Self esteem and thinking that you can do things well – it is quite difficult to get the whole class to believe this, so one teacher with high achievers in English at GCSE tries to get them to think about things differently, so modelled a talk presentation like ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’. They think about success as individual ideas, improving their own standard. S: the whole ethos of formative assessment is based on ipsative assessment (i.e. you are competing only with yourself and your previous performance)
2. On-the-spot modelling of Success & Improvement during the lesson
RECEPTION / Yrs 1 & 2 Felt that in many ways they’ve been doing these things for a long time –it’s the way you work with young children, especially in PE. Technology again needs to be there for projecting work, as teachers see the potential can be massive. Children were mainly asked to show their work on the whiteboard. With young children, if this is the first year for them, it takes time. Talking Partners can happen quickly, but other techniques take time to embed. There are massive implications for parents who do not understand. They need to be trained about marking as their expectations are so different. At the end of the day, teachers are convinced this is a valid way of working.
KS 2a Teachers had problems with technology which prevented them from instantly showing written work. However, the students have been refocusing and can stay on task. They all know they will be stopped in a lesson and have an opportunity to refocus. Lower achieving writers, when stopped, have their train of thought interrupted and this can be a problem. Warning them of the stop in advance can help. Establishing a routine of stopping helps and sometimes having lessons where we don’t stop. S: when looking at story writing, there is a whole process of building up the sections and elements, which lends itself to stopping and reviewing compared to longer uninterrupted writing when they get a chance to apply their knowledge and you see what they’ve learnt. One teacher said that when you stop and discuss in science lessons, you can also see physically what’s happening and check that the aim of the investigation is being followed. Independent investigations often yield different ways of doing the same thing. The impact on achievement has been huge.
KS 2b One teacher had modelled PowerPoint presentations, stopping and discussing/analysing. Another teacher had difficulty projecting the work so read out the work, using extracts. One teacher said last year she gave a piece of student work to her TA and had her copy it for the class. Not all teachers have access to the technology to do these things quickly – there might be one digital camera in a school. There was worry about the morale of lower achievers. Shirley: it works best if children know, in advance, that someone’s work will be used as a model. Children should not be afraid to have their piece shown – so they need to know that anyone’s work can be used and that we will find one success and be able to improve it. Even at the lowest level this can be done. The impact: it refocuses children and stops them going off on a tangent; it puts them back onto and reinforces the objectives; they are not afraid to ask the person next to them how to improve; they share, they do not copy; their self esteem rises as they know they can all improve.
SECONDARY We discuss ‘best bits’ on a regular basis. PE: this is generic – you see a student doing a good pass and you ask them to demonstrate it then ask the students how they can make theirs better. This teacher uses Dartfish, an expensive resource, but it gives instant feedback (e.g.: of a basketball shot). In one lesson she showed three passes and asked why was A better than B? She also asked them to decide why Michael Jordan’s shooting is even better. (A video camera linked to a data projector is just as good as a visualiser for quickly showing student work). Shirley: next step -- modelling the process of best bits and improvement with one child’s work and the whole class improving it together with the appropriate discussion.
Further Developments:
RECEPTION / Yrs 1 & 2
KS 2a
KS 2b
SECONDARY
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