League of Literacy- Brand new to Twitter

I love what these guys are doing, check it out!

@League_Literacy

Literacy Co-ordinators Talk Literacy

very excited about this project. Have been asked to work with Literacy Co-ordinators in my borough to develop a network, share good practice, resources and engage in joint planning, peer observations etc!

This is the first newsletter I have edited, collecting some of the thoughts, experiences and strategies of high achieving and very well regarded literacy co-ordinators in our East London borough.

The complete version can be viewed on http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/T-L-Newsletter-Literacy-Co-ordinators-Special-6358043/

Group work

http://learningspy.edublogs.org/2011/07/11/so-what-are-learning-spies/


This is a great article from @LearningSpy on effective group work. some of his comments mirror previous posts on 'Invisible Teaching' http://mrmacooley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/invisible-teaching-1_5.html

@LearningSpy is a wise follow if any Tweachers out there have yet to sign up!



http://www.learningspy.co.uk/

There's a lot of buzz on Twitter recently on Bloom's Taxonomy, infographics ahoy!...

Lots of Tweets about how this can be used for digital learning tools such as Pinterest

and how various Apps can be used to support (explained here http://www.unity.net.au/allansportfolio/edublog/?p=836) 

for a simpler, more universal image, see here

lots to explore!

The most uplifting thing I've heard today

This came from a review courtesy of the 5 minute lesson evaluation from @Jobaker9 on Twitter, filled in by a Yr 8 student (14yrs old).

We believe all learning experiences are powerful resources we can use in future situations

Quite a compliment to teachers everywhere...

Digital Learning Platform- The Future of Learning

This came from what was initially a cover lesson where I essentially asked students to design a school or classroom for the future.

Every student did that except one.

What he designed was a digital learning space that would exist within a classroom. The like of which I have yet to see. It goes so far beyond anything that my school has ever bought in. Kerboodle, Fronter. please?!

They just don't compete with the imagination, thought processes,design sense and understanding of what is really fit for purpose of this 14 year old.

I really liked it. I wanted to present this idea to other teachers, so I asked if he'd mind if I made a digital mock up of his paper designs and share his ideas. He said 'no problem', 'go ahead'.

So, I made this

I put it in a Powerpoint along with the responses to the questions I had asked about what schools, teaching and learning of the future would look like. Next time he was in my classroom I showed him what I'd done. He looked and smiled politely. 'Do you mind if I take my design home and do another version?'. I was excited, I wanted to see what else he could come up with.

It was this...

Which kind of blows mine out of the water. He's just been studying hard for SATs, but wants to design more based on these ideas.

I can't wait to see them!

small change BIG difference#3

Get students to write their own learning objective(s).

This makes a really good mid to end point review. It's not new. I found it works really well with the above success criteria as before, what I was getting tended to be more like a list of tasks. This was a pattern I had seen in some staff as well as students in the past.

So I recently used it with a class of Yr 9 students (13/14 yrs old), in an introduction to 2 point perspective, here are their learning objectives written during the end of lesson review.

'To work as a team to plan and produce a drawing in 2 point perspective to scale using 3d shapes'

'To use and observe a source, to construct our own versions to practice for our school design drawings'

'To use perspective to create a piece using teamwork and your own input, (through) observation of detail and characteristics

'To be able to draw buildings in different perspectives by using drawing techniques'


For me it was important that the students be able to verbalise completely the correlation between these new techniques and the outcomes they wanted to achieve. As with some new drawing techniques (and I'm sure this can happen in other subjects too), it can be difficult to persuade students to leave their comfort zone and try them-.as the first time they do, results may not reach the same standard as old ways of working that they developed during primary school and have practiced for years.

After this, students were very comfortable in arguing with me why these new methods were better, how each stage of working fed into the next and why they were now better, more skilled artists than before.

Small change BIG difference#2

Keywords in learning objectives, on the whole tend to relate to skills that need to be developed or acquired as a result of working towards a specific task.

Earlier on in the year I decided to look at keywords that related to personal qualities I wanted the students to consciously develop. Things that are discussed in staff meetings all the time, things that very much constitute good practice, things that we are asked to make explicit rather than implicit.

So I asked students to derive their own definition of the terms 'persistence' and 'resilience'. Job done. In an art lesson, dictionaries were used, students had to exert mastery over their use of language, little bit of group work, differentiated questioning used, literacy boxes were ticked etc

But what was so much better than that, was as the lesson progressed, one of the lads became frustrated as his work was turning out quite the way he wanted despite success the previous week on similar tasks. After turning to his talking buddy and asking him to brief his struggling partner, I stepped back and assured him that the results he saw previously would come through practice.

So I stepped back.

A few minutes later, an eruption. A pencil struck the floor.

'I can't do it!!!'

I am not normally a shouter, so I turned slowly around to apprise the situation. I looked over and there was my struggling student, frustrations having got the better of him, staring at his work. Dissatisfaction, anger written all over his face.

I walk over.

As I do this guy's talking buddy turns round. Lays a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. Looks him in the eye and says

              'O****. You've got to be persistent. Use what you learned last week to be a resilient learner'

BEAT.

              'Yeah. OK then.'

Beautiful!

Small change BIG difference

At the start of the year, this year our Year 7's were each given a dictionary. Now a typical introduction for me is to assign groups a different keyword to look up- read out and listen to as a class. Then I ask 2-3 students to think about how to re-phrase the definition in their own words.

We discuss sentence order, clarity, quality of explanation, ease of understanding etc. When we're all happy the definitions are recorded in sketchbooks.

To quote the '5 minute lesson plan', this enhances the 'stickability' of keywords more than just defining them straight out on my Powerpoint.

As an example, this is what they came up with for 'cliffhanger'-

an ending that is sudden and unclear in a story or film. It is aggravating, intense and exciting because it is uncertain. It makes you want to find out about the next part of the story.  

Finished!!! Transition Newspaper available on TES resources from mrmacooley

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Pre-Transition-Project-KS2-to-3-6338924/ 

Available on TES resources is a very special edition of The Heron, Wanstead High School’s newsletter.
This issue has been brought to you by a group of 33 Year 6 students from Aldersbrook Primary School, Highlands Primary school and Wanstead Church of England Primary School and their dedicated teachers. These future Year 7 Wanstead High School students came to visit us, spending the day with interviewing staff and students to find out and share what really goes on here.

Our visiting Year 6 students were ably supported by a crack team of Year 8 and Year 12 Learning Ambassadors, who really went out of their way to ensure that our guests felt welcome and supported in their learning. Students were assigned to a group of three, with each team member being from a different school to ensure that lots of networking and relationships were developed before the big transition day.

These Year 6 reporters have done an amazing job feedingback on life what life is like at Wanstead High School. Copies of the newspaper have been printed and distributed to our four main primary schools and will be available on transition day so that all our new Year 7 students and their families can find out about us the excellent work that goes on here.

Year 6 got to interview a whole host of students and staff members, including our Head Teacher who was both surprised and pleased by the grilling he received during an interview at the hands of some very inquisitive, budding reporters. We would like to extend our thanks to all involved and to say that we are looking forward to meeting the rest of our new Year 7 very soon.

A BIG well done to all the students and staff involved, the day was a great success- read for yourself!

Newspaper Project with Yr 6 Transition students

Pupil newspapers aim to set record straight on secondary school life in Wanstead High School project.

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/10486453.Pupil_newspapers_aim_to_set_record_straight_on_secondary_school_life/

Earlier post 'Read All About It' sees production stage! Still editing...!

'Cracking Ideas' competition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-22941684


More projects and thinking like this please!

In the words of Sugata Mitra- 'teachers create opportunities and then stand back and allow the learning to happen.

I so want that space suit...

Evidencing a variety of assessment strategies in books- self/ peer/ teacher (OFSTED friendly!)

With the recent drive in my school to evidence assessment, assessment, assessment in books, I thought I had better collate my resources into a single file. You can find this PP in full on my TES Resources pages at http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Assessment-Aspirational-Personal-Target-Setting-6341357/ under the name of mrmacooley. So far there are 5 slides that take students through a writing frame of assessment strategies.

Each slide is a separate assessment activity and can be geared according to who is writing or to the time in a lesson when it is used (starter, mid-point, plenary) within a lesson or within a scheme of work. I have tried to extend the AFL methodology of assessment into something with hopefully with a lean toward a more aspirational and wider curriculum and personal focus.

I use it with KS3,4+5 with only slight variations between age/ ability groups; normally I project it/ have photocopies to hand for completion while I'm calling the register/ giving out books.

The Life and Art of Frida Kahlo

here's a link to a PP just posted on TES Resources, I hope you art teachers out there enjoy it. I normally play it with Ave Maria on in the background, it's pretty emotional stuff, she dealt with an awful lot through her art- a really important artist for analysing visual communication. I tend to use it with Yr 10. Will post links to SOW I use after this PP introduction, shortly.

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/The-Life-and-Art-of-Frida-Kahlo-6340730/

Briefing a class

Thanks to @ASTsupportAli I tried a new method of sharing a brief with a class- envelopes taped underneath desks, randomly placed. Students have to self organise in order to give and receive correct envelope, then read and problem solve the written instructions inside. Livens up starts a treat, maybe it's the mystery, the moving around, but they sure were on task!

See more at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdR-KMR6kso 

How to give feedback KS3

I was finding that KS3 feedback given during self and peer review was too cursory, not going deep enough, despite AFL being a consistent aspect of school life.

As a class we discussed why feedback was given, why it was important. Some of my favourite answers from students were- to inspire confidence in others and help them realise when they've done a good job; to help others understand how to improve the quality of the work they have just done and the work they'll do in the future, the good thing is that everyone will have different ideas of how to help. I love that last one!

Have left this in PP format in case text needs to be edited on my TES Connect page- mrmacooley

Easing the transition Primary to Secondary Schooling- Pre-Transition Learning Project

Am v excited about this! It's a project I've wanted to run for a while now but had previously suffered due to this being one of the busiest times in an art teacher's year (KS 4+ 5 exams and coursework deadlines, marking exams and coursework, moderating internally, mounting end of year exhibition, dealing with external moderators- phew!) and then realising transition day is due in a few weeks!

So the plan is...

I have invited our main primary feeder schools to spend the day with us in high school (10 students from each school). We will split students into groups of 3.

1 student representative from each school be put in each group. The aim is to come up with ideas for and write and publish a newspaper about 'life in a secondary school'. Here's a brief description of the day:_

•       9.00-9.30- Workshop run by journalist from local paper

•       9:30-10:10- Group brainstorm of ideas and themes to write articles on and list of key questions- ‘what do you want to know about life at this high school?’ Record these ideas on post-its and stick on board.We will have prepared and stuck post its with the names and role of members of staff to be interviewed eg if someone is curious about food in the school there will be the name of the head of catering to be interviewed by the students. Split into learning groups (one student from each school). Each student must select one post-it and be responsible for writing up the article, the subject of which will be on the post it they have selected, however the interviews will be conducted with all team members present plus one of our student ambassadors to act as guide. Short session for individual time to record what interview questions they would like to ask on their subject in preparation for their article. Stop and share questions as class- scribe to record on display board to act as prompts and success criteria. Working now in their groups of 3, students must come together, pool resources and work out a set of 10 key questions to ask in preparation for each article. Each group to be assigned one of our student guides from Yr 8.

•       10:10- 11:20 Begin interviewing process, gathering info and photos for articles- groups will work as a team to interview, make notes and gather info, this will then be the responsibility of one team member to be turned into a finished article. Guides to assist groups

•       11.20- 11.35 Break time

•       11.35- 12:30- As above. Supplementary/ extension articles to be decided on and researched. Give students prepared texts (school prospecti and course descriptions from heads of departments) and access to school site to gather additional quotes to include in article Reading prepared briefings, summarising key info and then synthesising into an article, also to draw picture illustrating an aspect of their article. Yr 12 students to be used here (4-6 in total) as sub editors, moving from group to group and providing oversight and support where necessary.

•       Lunch

•       1:10-2:10- Writing articles and creating newspaper

•       2:10-2:40 Peer review and editing of articles within team- 2 rounds at 15 mins each

•       2:45- 3:05- Final review/ plenary

•       Our students throughout the day, to write their own articles and gather info along the way for blog/ article in our school newspaper about the making of this project

This newspaper will be printed and distributed to (hopefully) every primary school child attending our secondary next year in advance of transition day. It's my hope that this will de-mystify life in secondary school and put a stop to the inevitable urban legends that seem to come out ('is it true you can get detentions during the summer holiday?') and build a sense of familiarity with the school before transition day and of course, September. I also hope to put the making of this project on an online blog written by our student helpers and some generous staff members reflecting on the day to bring another set of points of view to our prospective students. 

So there it is! Due to take place a week today, will update as things progress, fingers crossed!!!

My sincere thanks to my colleagues in the English Dept, whose support and enthusiasm have been essential to this project!

Invisible Teaching #1

Invisible Teaching is just that. I guess, to paraphrase Bruce Lee, it's the art of learning without teaching. At least in the traditional sense.

The idea of the teacher as a 'transmitter of knowledge' has long been out of fashion and rightly so. There are so many ways in which people invisibly teach every day, indeed people have even made careers out of it (check out the lazy teacher). But it begins with you as a teacher. Or maybe it doesn't. It certainly begins with stimulus (provided by you), then follows opportunities for learning (at first provided by you) and then comes the blank canvas that students will fill in the most wonderful and unexpected ways as they begin to shape the course of the lesson, before leading it.

Here is a small invisible teaching task, a comfortable risk if you will(!)

A few years ago, I would have taken the students through the definitions and carefully explained it meanings, showed some examples of contrast in practice in loosely connected images of works by reputable fine artists such as Bridget Riley or Joseph Wright of Derby.

Nowadays, I would create an opportunity. Here's my first slide at the start of a new project on contrast. This starter might run something like 'What is Superman and the Joker talking about?', using the AFL recommended no hands up policy I'd select a student to have a go. Once they'd finished I might look around the room expectantly, nodding encouragement and let the responses come in. Before I know it students will start identifying examples of contrasts and sharing them with the class that I hadn't even realised I'd put in. When the ideas have run their course I might ask someone to read out the keyword/ title of our new project. Then I'd ask them to read it out. Then I'd ask them to READ it out properly, while throwing in as much drama and full body performance as possible.

And there you have it. Not big, maybe not original or new, but a small, safe, 'risk'. Invisible Teaching in action.

Now the fun starts.....

more on this later

Assessment, assessment, assessment

Vital in so many ways when used aprropriately and formatively. Here are a couple of thoughts following a brief conversation in passing, voiced by two Yr 13 students (18 years old)

'exams test your memory rather than your intelligence or how you apply skills'

'exams should take more than one form. We should have oral exams and debates. Give performances. We should be assessed on our ideas and our creativity'

what it says on the poster (via Pinterest)

Literacy and Pie- award winning combo

This one was recommended by someone on Twitter. Great visual, great acronym and useful far beyond creative writing! Would love to see the PIE elements mixed! Taken together, PIE also sounds like a powerful lesson plan mantra...

A teacher's brain

I like this!. Room for more segments..?

Self organisation of learning- part II- self differentiation

This one comes from an 11 year old lad, from the same lesson intro as in the previous post. Nothing ground breaking, but a slight twist on the Dylan Wiliam AFL strategy of names on lollipop sticks- and a good one!

I was delivering the first lesson of a brand new project and showed the following slide

I then went on to explain how information and opportunities would be presented to them- largely though a series of apparently random or at least removed from context images.

Using the 6 W's as a tool of enquiry (Who, What, When, Where, Why and hoW), I presented the images one at a time and invited questions, until students had 'discovered' or interviewed the topic, task, success criteria, skills and learning points from me. In this case the project involved exploring the synthesis of art and poetry, I showed photos of an artist and a poet, then a picture of (what is commonly known as) Big Ben.

What really struck me was at first how incurious (is this a word?!) the students were. Normally they trust what teachers tell them, they go to school so that teachers can impart knowledge- this is how school works, right? Suddenly a topic was not introduced, not handed to them, they had select and ask the right questions in order to access the lesson- they had to find a way to learn about what they were going to learn.

Not only that, but they had to choose their questions and responses carefully, as they only had 2 tokens each, only 2 verbal contributions, either comments shared or questions posed in order to further the collective understanding of the class. Any not listening or requests for repeats of information wasted token and slowed progress.

After a while they took to it well and those who had used tokens followed the conversations just as closely and even asked if they could borrow/ use the tokens of other members of the class so they could still actively contribute (a big no!). At the end of the lesson any remaining tokens bought cleaning tasks! A heartless incentive on my part to encourage increased participation the following lesson.

The checking and re-enforcing of understanding slide ran, before jumping into practical work ran as follows, again, tokens were required

For me this was a very exciting and enjoyable lesson, I think the work we did on developing curiosity, giving the students the freedom to contribute, whether by asking or answering questions and self differentiating when they wanted to and me being able to check on who was contributing through the use of the tokens provided a few surprises.

I think its impact/ benefit was best summed up by the student who wrote in the following lesson, when asked to come up with a visual definition to the phrase 'self organisation of learning' drew an image of his tokens and provided the following accompanying statement:

I done tokens because the tokens were our choice on when to speak, answer and ask questions and we were the ones who got to pick when to use them

Art HW Creative control and making contextual links

So I wanted to give some choices for the next home study task and provided students with 2 options. I need to make sure that my Yr 10 class (14-15 yrs old) bring back personal choice, creativity and develop their ability to make informed choices and identify links between their work and that of others. As we have been embarking on a new project recently our focus has been more on visual, practical and verbal analysis of the work of key artists, identifying and developing skills that would enable students to create work inspired and informed by others. Students are producing excellent results and this has allowed me to revolve my range of experts within the class who are able to model and share their good practice with others.As amazing as this prep work is, we have been itching to develop these new-found approaches and skills by sinking our creative teeth into work that is more experimental, departing from the idea of initial transcription to confident, flowing and 'designed' art work.

I hope that these two tasks will give students the opportunity to create a unique jumping off point for each individual and look forward to seeing the results that come back and how students will push their initial ideas further. I'll post work as it arrives!

'Speed Dating' teaching and learning strategy

This one comes courtesy of a colleague of mine in the French Department (the excellent Ms Mundy!). Fully adaptable across a range of subjects, themes, ideas; it runs as follows!




Speed Dating

This is one of my favourite activities for Speaking and Listening practice. I use it in French lessons but it can be adapted for any subject.

Preparation: Provide pupils with a list of questions related to a previous lesson. You could use cue cards or the whiteboard.
Timing: Set a short time limit for each round i.e. 30 seconds – 1 minute maintains a good pace.

Instructions: Pupils take it in turns to ask questions and note down the three most interesting details from their partner’s answer. It’s a good idea to give pupils a guideline i.e. Note down: key words / good examples / imaginative responses / funny answers.

The activity: When the time’s up, the teacher rings the bell and one member from each pair moves to the next partner. This can continue until everyone is back to their original seat.

Reinforcement: Ideally, pupils should get new ideas from each new partner and push themselves to extend and develop their original answers.

Plenary: Pupils give feedback in pairs / whole class about good key words / nice examples / interesting ideas etc. / and write a model answer to a question of their choice.

Analogy for learning by 14 year old student

I love conversations about learning, especially from the younger years (in my case that's 11-14 year olds), before I know it 45 minutes have passed and someone asks me 'Sir, are we gonna do some art today?'


This quote is one of my favourites from a 3 years back:-

'Imagine your education is like a journey by car and learning is your fuel. If you're not learning then you're not moving. You should never stop moving ever, because you never stop learning'

Love it!

Self organisation of learning

Following on from my last post, this is a task that I tried today with a Yr 7 class (11-12 yr olds).

In art lessons we use little sketchbooks to address literacy and record assessment- self, peer, teacher etc- this was supposed to be a 15 minute starter, but ended up taking 45 mins!- bye bye lesson plan.

The title was 'self organisation of learning'; I asked students to draw a picture or series of pictures that would define/ show an example of this term, then write a short description that described their image/s and then share. The responses I got and the discussion that ensued totally blew me away!I know it sounds like such a cliche, but it really was one of the moments when you think to yourself 'yes! That's why I love teaching'.

This was one of my favourites, I couldn't believe it as the normally quiet and sometimes shy student explained their thoughts. In case the text isn't clear-

It is a box and the box represents me/ us and in the box it has pens and pencils, paint and rulers. The lid is a book and the book and the things inside it represent knowledge and the music coming from inside the box represents the voice of me/us

Amazing! :)

Another great TED talk we could do with more of

I can't remember when I found, but it's always great to find a kindred spirit, someone who shares the importance of your beliefs. http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html

I've been looking at ways to integrate this mode of learning into my classes, particularly with the younger years as this lends itself so well to teamworking opportunities, developing problem solving intelligence, independent learning, literacy and oracy.

I was very excited to experiment with similar ideals and chose a lesson when I was due to be observed by a highly successful colleague to conduct the trial (it's call risk-taking for a reason, right?!). I'll admit, it worked but not quite to the expectations I had built up in my head for this activity- I still needed to offer a bit of support to the students (Yr 7: 11-12 year olds), but damn did it get them thinking!

It certainly took longer than if I had lead the activity myself from the front, but the benefits to the social and teamworking aspects of lessons went far beyond what any quantifiable data could reflect. I'll blog more on the activity I used and how I evolved the teaching and learning, later.

Art : Baby portrait

As teachers how do we provide accurate, meaningful assessment, that students can access, both individually and their peers, in order to self and peer assess, inspire and support each other?

I have designed many feedback and assessment forms using my old friends Word and Powerpoint and diligently kept them in a folder in my classroom, ready to be marched out to students in order that they can respond to my comments and self assess their own work and show to heads of department, SLT, OFSTED etc. BUT, nothing I have yet used can compare to this! Yes I do need to see the work in the flesh in order to be able to feedback with authority and understanding of the work handed in, but I can mark and respond to pieces anywhere, anytime with smartphone or laptop. So can the students. This is a HW I only set this week, for GCSE students to start blogging their art (indeed some have longstanding blogs I didn't know about).

I enjoy seeing the fantastic work that my students produce, but now these can be shared with staff across the entire school- form teachers, heads of year can comment and leave praise, progress can be tracked, posts can be tagged according to subject, parents and family members can also share in the work students are creating. I have only just scratched the surface, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how this will develop- very excited


Art : Baby portrait: I used black pencil to draw it instead of lead to try to shade without smudging. I then used a bright contrasting background to make the f...

Experiencing text

'So why did you feel the need to walk on the tables in your lesson today Mr Cooley?'

Well that's an interesting question. I know an English teacher, who taught me a fantastic way to get students to interact with text.

His idea is that, yes you can read it; but you can live it too.

So rewind to a training session developed with Dan Lea and Nic Hughes (2 amazing teachers- check out their blogs) for NQTs in Redbridge http://rednqt.blogspot.co.uk/ - 50 delegates packed into the teaching centre. When I say packed- they were. It works like this, but the strategy can be adapted to suit the context and format of any text with a little imagination:-

I asked 50 NQTs to all get under the conference tables and dimmed the lights. When they were good and uncomfortable, played (at high volume) the soundtrack from a Hitler speech/ rant courtesy of Youtube.

Stick with me, I'm going somewhere.

After a short pause I gave an excerpt from Anne Frank's diary to be read in a subdued voice by a 'volunteer', recording a day when she describes with horrifying suspense an occasion where her and her family where nearly discovered by a carpenter whilst hiding behind a false wall. 

Meanwhile I am clomping about on top of the tables, banging and shouting and trying to scare as many people as possible. It's hauntingly effective, a very visceral experience for all and the feedback that follows from students is wonderful.

This is just one idea for one text, but this type of immersive experience forces students to engage with texts in a very different way, in a way they won't forget.  

Raising standards of Literacy and Oracy across the curriculum with Jack Petchey's Speakout Challenge

I love this framework, I've seen some amazing results generated from these strategies, particularly from an amazing colleague of mine. Getting students to talk is one thing; but she gets them to talk with authority, passion, conviction, humour, wit, zeal, charisma. It goes beyond content- driven aspects of oracy (although this is very much the foundation of the Speakout Challenge, but what this does examine is the entire oracy package. It's a really well run project and comes with expert trainers available to visit schools and support development.

Check out the following links for more info

http://www.speakoutchallenge.com/pages/home

Speakout challenge 2012 winner

Raising engagement and results with a GCSE text

Link to local media story

This is one of my all time favourite projects-

•Brief:- to create an abridged graphic novel of Frankenstein, made by students to be used as a key learning tool for students. Engagement, excitement (particularly from boys) and accelerated learning a must.

This is one of my all-time favourite projects I have worked on- how do you get students excited about a 200 plus year old text? The answer we found was to get 30 students together for 3 days, for a full-on experimental, experiential, cross curricular, multi-modal, immersive learning experience, delivered in character, bringing the world of the text alive for students to directly experience... and a smoke machine, to produce an abridged graphic novel informed by the text, using its original language in a way that would not dumb down, but enhance, the reading experience

here are a few select highlights from the feedback we got:-

Results for English coursework Frankenstein essay rose by more than a third.

Students felt as if they had gained skills useful in the real world and felt confident that they had also gained lifelong skills that could be applied across school during KS4 and beyond.

Students felt as though they were making an important contribution to teaching and learning in KS4, behaviour, productivity and quality of responses was exceptionally high. This had a ripple effect across the year with many students requesting involvement in the project (or one similar) and copies of the work produced.

‘It’s amazing! When I was drawing it I never thought that it could come out so well. I thought it might look cheesy, but it doesn’t look like a school project at all, it looks like a real magazine.’

‘The workshop was a unique opportunity, it not only gives other students a chance to benefit by reading the comic and understanding the book, but it makes you feel good about yourself. It makes you reflect on the combination of different learning and experiences, and sums up the memory and experience of learning.’

‘I think comic books such as this are extremely beneficial to learning because they bring you closer to the story... it is a lot more interesting and visually stimulating. This will engage students who are normally put off by normal reading. The comic book format makes it more accessible to more people. It makes you want to read to the end, it makes Frankenstein fun.’

The fact that they were created by the students was a wonderful idea which really made many students feel like their work is being appreciated and valued around the school. I have heard many students asking to take them home or read them in their own time – I think it is a brilliant way of getting students interested in difficult texts.           

My students LOVED the graphic novel; they were absolutely engrossed by it and it has really helped them to engage with what is a very challenging novel. As well as giving them an overview of the book as a whole and helping them to think about themes and ideas explored in the novel, they have found it particularly helpful in terms of finding quotations to use in the Controlled Assessment. Students usually struggle to find quotations in what is a dense novel and the graphic novel makes the process more manageable, and even enjoyable! For me, the real strength of the graphic novel is that it uses the language from the novel but makes it more accessible. Students seemed genuinely to enjoy, and benefit from the graphic novel. They seemed also to feel a real sense of pride that it had been produced within the school and many of them asked if they could have a copy. 

This is only a sample of what happened; for further details, please contact me via my Linkedin page (look for Matt Cooley Advanced Skills Teacher)

Studies for Yr 13 Exam- here's where it all comes together!

Risk taking and Creativity

Stalls for education fair, designed, created and rehearsed in under two hours, performed live to a group of 30 year 5s!

30th April- Risk Taking and Creativity in the Classroom

rednqt.blogspot.com

Risk taking all round! Working with Nic Hughes and Dan Lea to present a workshop to Redbridge NQTs.

Risk number 1:- told you're providing training for 30 fellow teachers, only to have 53 sign up!- bring on the risk!