Monday 31 October 2011

Pace in the lesson

Today was the first day back after half-term and was an INSET day.  I had been asked to run a session on Pace, Progress and Active Learning.  I have to admit I do enjoy delivering INSET sessions - they make me raise my game because I still get really nervous before each one but they are a great opportunity to show off what you have been doing.  I was also quite pleased to be asked to do this session as I do believe that setting and maintaining a brisk pace in lessons is something which I do quite well.  I delivered the same 50-minute session 3 times this morning to 3 different groups.  What was really interesting was the different reactions from each group - they were all positive but in different ways.  In this blog I thought I would like to put in some of the stuff I did in the session and add in some extra thoughts.
When I was putting the session together I thought about what my key principles are in planning lessons and how they help me to put together pacy, active lessons.  Here they are:
1.  Plan the lesson properly 
I have been teaching for over 20 years and I still plan every lesson I teach.  Whilst I have had the occasional good unplanned lesson and the planned lesson that went totally wrong - almost all of my terrible lessons have been because I didn't plan it properly.  Planning is the one thing I never compromise on - even if it does mean some very late nights.
2.  Concentration span
I know some esteemed educationalists have criticised this idea and I know that it is not strictly true and that lots of things affect concentration but - I like the idea that concentration span is age in minutes + 2 minutes. As a rule of thumb I think it works very well and I plan my lessons in blocks of 15-20 minutes.  If kids have been doing something for 20 minutes - there needs to be a really good reason why they haven't moved to something else.  Often I will do a quick break-state activity or simply make them move to sit somewhere else just to refocus concentration.
3.  Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic and Digital thinking styles
Again, I know it has become fashionable to ridicule learning styles and deny their existence - but I like them.  I have done a lot of research into this and I am an NLP Practitioner and I do believe that we all use these representational systems to process information.  I do believe that we all have the ability to use each of the systems but have a preference for one or more of them and, more importantly, one we are less likely to use.  I do therefore plan every lesson with these things in mind.  There is always a Visual element - a picture or image to hook some students in.  There is always an Auditory element - an opportunity for those kids who think out loud to express their thoughts.  There is always a Kinaesthetic element - an opportunity for movement but also to connect emotionally.  There is always a Digital element - time for students to make sense of information in their own heads.  Juggling all these elements helps to create pace in the lesson.  A Kinaesthetic activity is often followed by a Digital one - movement, discussion and activity followed by a period of quiet processing and reflecting.
4.  Movement in lessons
I have a general rule that no kid will finish the lesson sitting in the chair they started in.  I don't have seating plans because they are obsolete 10 minutes into the lesson.  Sometimes I will move them to help them think differently.  Having just spent some time looking at the advantages of something, move seats to look at the disadvantages.  Some kids find it easier to move mentally if it is accompanied by a physical move.
5.  Time Team Task
When I was training to be a teacher, one of my tutors was the late, great Mike Hayhoe who tried, in vain, to turn me into an English teacher.  The one thing he did drill into me was TTT - so much so that I do it without even thinking about it now.  Every instruction I give the kids is based on Time - tell them how long they have to do it exactly; Team - how they are working - individually, pairs, groups; Task - exactly what they are doing.  Like most of what Mike Hayhoe taught me - brilliantly simple.  Keep reminding them of the time - nothing helps pace quite like a countdown.

So that is me and pace - hope it was of interest.  Putting together the INSET session certainly helped me to reflect on what I do and why I do it.

This is the Learning Journey for my INSET session today:

Sunday 23 October 2011

Half Term Review

So - we got to half-term.  I have to admit I have really enjoyed this half-term.  It has been frantic at times and I can't believe where the time has gone but overall it has been great.  I really like all the groups I am working with this year and have loved the new school day with tutors delivering PSHE - I love my tutor group and it is great to work with them, and making me a little sad as they are Year 11 and I don't want them to leave.
At the beginning of term I set myself some targets and thought it might be worth having a look at how I have got on so far.

 1. Use lots of new technology. 
Lots of work with edmodo this term and got more teachers trying it out.  Just set up a new edmodo group for revision - the hope is to get all of Yr 11 onto it in the next half-term and use it as the 1st step for students to get revision advice.  Ideally they will start giving each other advice
2.  Audioboo lessons - did lesson reviews for most GCSE lessons but haven't done quite as many as I would like.  Still having a bit of a problem persuading school to unfilter audioboo.  I have used it with great effect with classes to record audio presentations.  Yr11 did some brilliant analysis of what The Fresh Prince of Bel Air has to say about civil rights, Yr 7 told some great versions of the Robin Hood legends and Yr 8 were hilarious reporting on the Shocking State of the English Church in 1540.  Recording on the iPhone was really quick and easy and helped to focus the kids and led to them raising their game.  Have a listen at http://audioboo.fm/JohnGolding

3.  Learn names quickly  - OK so not so good but probably not a few more than normally at this stage of the year

4.  Be more organised -  surprisingly yes.  My classroom -and desk- are still tidy, my folder is up to date and a couple of cool apps have really helped - Evernote has made virtually paperless in all meetings and AwesomeNote is brilliant

5.  Provide better feedback  - following OFSTED our school has been told to do more marking and provide better feedback but I wanted to do more myself anyway.  I have certainly marked far more often and more rigorously.  We have gone back to weekly homeworks and as I was one of the people pushing for that I did feel that I had to make sure I was marking it all.  The truth is that marking regularly does become easier - there is less to do each week and it does help you to get to know the kids you teach better.  It does allow you to get a glimpse into how they are thinking and whether any of the stuff you have been doing in lessons has worked.  Mind you - still marking at 9.30 at night is not fun

6.  Keep positive - been tested a few times but generally I feel much happier.  I have now realised that I am genuinely happy as a classroom teacher and that I honestly don't want to be anything else.  Yes some of the crazy decisions SLT make drive me mad and our school seems to love creating more bureaucracy - but I am trying to rise above it

7.  Take risks  - as always no problem.  Big find this term has been Learning Journeys - best idea I have come across in years

8.  And finally...blog  - and again yes - every fortnight and had a great response on Twitter and Google + from the last one

So I am really pleased so far.  Determined to have a good rest this week, recharge the batteries and get ready for next half-term.  I always think this is where the real work starts.  The groups have settled down, we have started to get used to each other and now we can focus on some great learning.

Have a brilliant half-term everyone

Sunday 9 October 2011

I hate Learning Objectives...and love Learning Journeys

At last I can come clean and say it - "I hate Learning Objectives.  I never use and I have never used them".  That was such a relief.  For years I have hated being told that unless Learning Objectives are up on the board my lessons cannot be "outstanding".  This is totally crap - and 6 of my last 7 lesson observations were graded as outstanding even though there were no Learning Objectives on display.  I hate Learning Objectives because I don't believe they do a damned thing to promote learning in the classroom - in fact I think they can actively block learning for the following reasons:
1.  It is incredibly arrogant of us to believe that simply by saying what they are going to learn - they will learn it.
2.  The Learning Objective takes away all the mystery from the lesson.  Who in their right mind gives away their biggest and best secret at the start?  Did Agatha Christie reveal the killer in the first paragraph?  Did Hitchcock show you Norman Bates' mother in the first 5 minutes of Psycho?  Did Bob Hope start a joke with the punchline?  A good stripper never starts the show naked (or so I am told).
3.  The Learning Objective can be an obstacle to learning - some kids will look at it and say "But I don't want to learn that today" or even worse "But I have already learned that" - where do you go as a teacher from there?
4.  I hate that some people tell me to use a Learning Objective solely because "OFSTED like it".  I don't even believe this is true.  I think OFSTED want to see Learning Objectives in planning - and they are the 1st thing I put in all my lesson plans - they don't need to see it on the board.  The most ridiculous thing I ever saw was a Foundation class teacher who put Learning Objectives up for her class because she was told to. Her class was made up of 4 year olds - none of them could read!

So - I have never used them.  Recently however I came across something called Learning Journeys - and I love them.  I found out about this by following a Tweet from David Didau @Learning Spy and checking out his blog http://learningspy.edublogs.org/2011/09/21/learning-journeys/.  The idea is to give students a visual map of the lesson.  Using images, arrows and keywords you can give them an outline of what is coming - but it is in the form of a puzzle.  As a visual learner - I love it and couldn't wait to try it out.  Over the last 2 weeks I have used them in every lesson from Yr7 to Yr 12.  I use Powerpoint to put up a slide with Today's Learning Journey on it and usually 4-8 images.  I also put some keywords on which relate to the specific skills which students will use during the lesson: investigate, communicate, analyse, create, visualise etc.

I deliberately do not mention the Learning Journey to students at all at the start of the lesson - it is simply up on the screen when they come in - but so many students notice it and have started to talk to each other about it.  I often take the screen away during the lesson to look at something else but bring it back often and refer to some of the images but without explicitly explaining it.  I want the kids to work it out for themselves.  I love it when at some point in the lesson someone shouts out "Oh yeah.  I get that now" and then proceeds to explain it to someone else.

I do feel as if I have only just scratched the surface with this and look forward to exploring it further and experimenting with it.  I had 2 mini-lesson observations last week and both the teachers who came in were  very interested in the Learning Journeys - so give them a try.  Do also check out David Didau's brilliant blog and also a guy called Darren Mead http://pedagogicalpurposes.blogspot.com/ - who I believe inspired David.  Thanks to both of you.

This is a Learning Journey of a Year 12 lesson on the 1905 Russian Revolution

This is a Learning Journey of a Year 11 lesson looking at media representations of black civil rights in the USA