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)