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!