tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65833582478964428072024-03-28T02:21:57.022-07:00Ed-U-LikeWhere ideas and comments about teaching meet Other StuffRachael Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06865610908068882727noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583358247896442807.post-74788873313666189722016-12-28T07:13:00.001-08:002016-12-28T07:45:47.973-08:00George Michael and me<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhavrLF6RwZLC_aD90E_xuZpLBd9NIXtJLQSny236UloG8_hVTaEYcxnzqramAAE3lLGy6IHtaFBNpNS_bh53215gXpYwKAcd0rqOhiibzvCtZwp2infJJfbUEDPNe9Dzi_UPnYcuQgSuIq/s1600/George.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhavrLF6RwZLC_aD90E_xuZpLBd9NIXtJLQSny236UloG8_hVTaEYcxnzqramAAE3lLGy6IHtaFBNpNS_bh53215gXpYwKAcd0rqOhiibzvCtZwp2infJJfbUEDPNe9Dzi_UPnYcuQgSuIq/s400/George.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A couple of months ago, my friend Karen and
I were at work and discussing David Bowie’s death and how it still felt surreal
and wrong. She discussed how Bowie’s music had punctuated parts of her
formative years and how her – now adult - children had discovered his music
through her as they were growing up. They’d shed a fair few years since January
too. I nodded in agreement: Bowie’s music was always there as I grew up. I’d
texted my best friend in Australia when I heard the news, as I’d shared so much
of his music with her when we were teens especially. But, I’d said to Karen at
the time, the real killer for me would be George Michael. Not as iconic maybe;
the music not maybe cool or edgy enough for most. But, man… if he goes, I said.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And so here we are. It’s not hard to say why I’m so upset; there are lots of reasons that adequately explain my
emotional state, but mostly, like a lot of people, I feel I've lost someone I know.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My relationship with George started with me thinking I was going to
marry him when I first saw him on Top of the Pops. Wham! were a bouncy, bright revelation. They made me want to dance and snog boys’ faces off. I’ve heard their first single <b>Wham Rap!</b> being
described over the past few days as a bit of a flop. I guess I’ve never been
part of the zeitgeist then, because I rushed out and bought the 12 inch. Ditto
<b>Young Guns</b>. And <b>Bad Boys</b>. By then my friends at school had cottoned on and we
choreographed our moves to each new single on the tennis courts during our PE
lessons (this was the 80s – the PE teachers were in their office for the whole
hour or coaching the girls with an interest in trying and/or sporting talent, leaving us to the important stuff – thank God).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Imagine then my delight when on our family
holiday to Weston-super-Mare in 1983 we were introduced to an outdoor swimming
pool complex, newly christened the Tropicana (later the site of Banksy’s
Dismaland – what goes around…). I allowed myself to actually imagine it had
been named in conjunction with *the* <b>Club Tropicana</b>. In these far-from-salubrious
surrounding, </span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">even though the drinks were definitely not free,</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"> I felt a sense of glamour.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You can see why…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_IcxmqCYftQWi-JApY8AQaWCJ8UIQcgJlCcQJ7mkvIJC2HLhU6-rMoAg3V8fN-bDLwAg5QJ4mXlhzy3KhHbPMUxBudPJfDxOsSS0CGYBcPH2uDfDeXWpE-AYLKagHPbyfAnZyeUzh_mlz/s1600/Club+Trop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_IcxmqCYftQWi-JApY8AQaWCJ8UIQcgJlCcQJ7mkvIJC2HLhU6-rMoAg3V8fN-bDLwAg5QJ4mXlhzy3KhHbPMUxBudPJfDxOsSS0CGYBcPH2uDfDeXWpE-AYLKagHPbyfAnZyeUzh_mlz/s400/Club+Trop.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Club Tropicana</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZAlij9ScPQT9sH00lmOSuwSC7RVThAbys55EATA1-6nbHACBdX_jCiF-bJAaxjDUNapkkmLNQtInLVenkr_OGCD8hArt0ACjWG6UCn9vN-yZtuQwxPPsPd26Q0v29ouB0P9LfVrfov64-/s1600/George+at+Club+Trop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZAlij9ScPQT9sH00lmOSuwSC7RVThAbys55EATA1-6nbHACBdX_jCiF-bJAaxjDUNapkkmLNQtInLVenkr_OGCD8hArt0ACjWG6UCn9vN-yZtuQwxPPsPd26Q0v29ouB0P9LfVrfov64-/s400/George+at+Club+Trop.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George at the Tropicana in Weston-super-Mare</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The release of genius slowie <b>Careless
Whisper</b> coincided with my release from school, and that summer it was the
soundtrack to the failure of the majority of my O’ levels, a camping trip with
my friends and the elaborate disguising of a gigantic love-bite on my return
home.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I had buggered up my chances of staying on at the grammar school to do A’ levels and so went off to Tech for re-takes when George and I parted
company for a little while. I felt the need to get grungy, punky and
belligerent while George and Andrew were still on their upbeat pop campaign. I
never deserted George completely, though. How could I? He was like the friend
from school that I met up with when I wanted to reminisce about simpler times:
tennis courts, scratching boys’ names into wooden desks and sneaking my dad’s
apple wine out of the garage and into house parties.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Over the next few years I managed to
salvage my education, got some more O’ levels, a handful of A’ levels and headed
off up north for my degree. I met my future husband, moved back home with him
in tow, got married, did a PGCE and got my first teaching job. I hear George
did OK during this period too. Yay us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">George and I only really got back together
seriously a few years later though, when my marriage broke up. I was utterly heartbroken
after the split. I felt bleak, lonely and desperate. I didn't want to burden my dad who was widowed, even though he tried to help me. I clung onto my friends
but also knew that they had their own lives to get on with; some also had
babies at this point too and despite their kind offers of company, ears and
shoulders I eventually had to stop being the big, attention-seeking cuckoo in
their nests. I needed to try to manage on my own and the only way I was able to
get over the grief of the break-up was with George’s help. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Ladies and Gentlemen</b>, George Michael’s
greatest hits compilation was released in December 1998, two months after my
husband left me. I bought it on a whim. I hadn’t bought most of the solo albums
George had released in the years after Wham! even though I’d always enjoyed the
music, so I bought this double CD with the ballads on one disc (<b>For the Heart</b>)
and dance tunes on the second (<b>For the Feet</b>).
I thought the familiarity of his voice and the memories he stirred up
would be comforting. I knew my ex would never have bought this album either:
his tastes were far-removed from George Michael, and that suited me just fine.
I wanted something just for me, that I could indulge myself with and it turned
out to be by far the best decision I could have made at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Grief is a strange thing, especially the
grief that comes from a broken heart. Grief after a bereavement is devastating and
different to any other. That pain comes from love and having that loved one out
of your reach, and it stays with you forever but - eventually – it dulls and can even be
comforting too. But the feeling of a love rejected is hot and shameful, no
matter what you are told by your friends and family. The good thing is that it
subsides in the majority of cases; it fades into an insignificance if you allow
yourself to recover and move on. But, God, it hurts. Grown-up life demands that
you control your feelings too; that you pull yourself into the semblance of a
shape to function outside of the house and in your job. Teaching is both a
blessing and a curse in this respect. There’s nothing like a roomful of teens
to refocus your mind and distract you from your misery. It also throws
curveballs when you least expect them and situations you have always previously
been able to cope with can demolish your confidence and resilience. It’s hard
to make decisions when your brain’s not functioning properly and when even being
up and dressed is a feat in itself. But people’s sympathy only stretches so far.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Somehow, grief has to surface and has
to be dealt with if you are ever to heal. My comfort and what healed me at that
time was to carefully set aside time to be alone (often in a ball under my
duvet or in a hot bath), put <b>For the Heart</b> on very loud and just to cry myself
through the whole album. I can’t emphasise enough how much this helped. It was
a release of pressure and sadness, and I think I’d have gone mad without it. My
best friend’s (the one who’s now in Oz) marriage ended some months after mine.
She had a toddler at the time and couldn’t afford for him to see her crying the
whole time, which is what she felt like doing. So I suggested George to her too,
and it worked. We called it Having a Blart. Sometimes it was quite calculated.
We’d end phone conversations with </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>‘…So I’m going to put him to bed, sit on the
back step with a ciggy, get George on and Have a Blart.’<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>‘I’m just off to bed, but I’ll have a bath
and a Blart with George first.’</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As time wore on, and the need to Blart
lessened, it would be treated a little bit of a luxury, so in recognition of
this, the process became Having a Wallow and a Blart. I would look forward to
the time to Wallow and Blart, as it would signal time to be entirely selfish
and to focus on my feelings and no one else’s. It saved me. And I used it again
5 years ago when my dad died. Again, it comforted and allowed me to purge the
hurt, in hot showers or on long drives, when I could play the music loud and
Blart. There’s also something about an album to Blart to that helps. You
know it’s finite: you are allowed to Blart for *this* amount of time and then
you pick yourself up, allow your eyes to de-swell, and you do the next bit of
real life needed before you’re allowed another session.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">George Michael won’t be everyone’s idea of
a good Blart. But I highly recommend you have whatever it takes to allow your waterworks to burst on and, when you need to, you take yourself off to let go. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I texted
my friend in Australia again late on Christmas night, in a horrible book-end to
the text about Bowie last January. “Oh no, not George!” she replied. “He was
always there for us, wasn’t he?” It really feels like he was.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I have to be careful that I don’t have a
Pavlovian dog’s reaction to any song by George now when I hear his music
played, which has been the case for much of the past few days. </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But right now, I
don’t much care. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">There’s no doubt I’m re-living some sadness of my own when I
reflect on what George Michael has meant to me over the years, but I’m also very
sad for the loss of who we know to have been a champion for the LGBT movement;
a generous supporter of many charities; a funny, kind and gentle soul, and a beautiful
talent.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Night night, George. Thank you x</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rachael Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06865610908068882727noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583358247896442807.post-50065926707568750352016-12-06T13:15:00.000-08:002016-12-06T13:15:12.608-08:00A Marking Revolution?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwpUPOzwwVUhcnioTX_juysEUnXNX75nKkpCuYQW4JqH4JPDV3OKOMGjKYw792PeI4SQ0AwHGkuu5lLEt6-gvt1mgollw8VX6zLAvHpiuyCw3yw52pRxF0RzE9Tz-Yn9RaRQ_IvNROKooT/s1600/marking+fist.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="601" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwpUPOzwwVUhcnioTX_juysEUnXNX75nKkpCuYQW4JqH4JPDV3OKOMGjKYw792PeI4SQ0AwHGkuu5lLEt6-gvt1mgollw8VX6zLAvHpiuyCw3yw52pRxF0RzE9Tz-Yn9RaRQ_IvNROKooT/s640/marking+fist.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma;">Marking: it’s the issue that perhaps adds most to the workload of teachers and for many of us seems like painting the Forth Bridge, but harder. These days it gets paired up to make a double act: </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">marking and feedback</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma;">, but in fact these are two quite separate things. </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">We know from the work of Prof. John Hattie and the Sutton Trust that feedback has one of the highest effect sizes in all evidences teaching strategies. This alone gives us the mandate to seek to improve the quality of our feedback to students, and why so many of us spend so long doing it. But is </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 119%;">marking</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"> the same as </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 119%;">feedback</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">? It would seem not. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">As the recent report by the Education Endowment Foundation, ‘</span><a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Publications/EEF_Marking_Review_April_2016.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">A Marked Improvement</span></a><span style="color: #444444;">’ (Elliott et al., April 2016) states: “</span></span><span lang="en-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 119%;">Careless mistakes should be marked differently to errors resulting from misunderstanding</span><span lang="en-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">.” This makes the distinction that marking highlights errors: spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, carelessness through lack of effort or not proof-reading. Feedback, then, should aim to clear up misunderstandings, and if we want students to understand where they have gone wrong, we traditionally write our feedback on their work, and this takes the most time and effort. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">We often find ourselves writing the same thing over and over as we plough through student books or writing lengthy comments to re-iterate what we said in class. And it’s this that contributes to make marking such a chore. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">The EEF’s report outlines some key findings that we can learn from when we assess the impact of our marking and our feedback to students. Here are some of the main points and what they might mean for us:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">“The quality of existing evidence focused specifically on written marking is low.”</span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">This is surprising, as it makes up such a huge part of our workload. However, what little has been discovered helps us form a more flexible approach to the way we mark. What has been gleaned is detailed below:</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold; line-height: 119%;">“Careless mistakes should be marked differently to errors resulting from misunderstanding. The latter may be best addressed by providing hints or questions which lead pupils to underlying principles; the former by simply marking the mistake as incorrect, without giving the right answer.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">‘Careless mistakes’ are likely to take the form of SPaG errors, primarily. Two strategies that can help with this: </span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">1) Ensuring that work is proof-read before it is handed in. Students can either do this themselves, or swap with a peer to check against key words stipulated by the teacher or directed inclusions about workings-out and presentation. Don’t take work in unless this has been done. This would take 5 minutes tops.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">2) Any errors you spot can be pointed out by underlining the error and marking it with a © (Check and Correct). Subjects such as MFL may have a list of marking codes here to support more complex grammatical errors, although keeping codes to a minimum has more impact. Have dictionaries on desks and students can correct these errors themselves.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 119%;">“Pupils are unlikely to benefit from marking unless some time is set aside to enable pupils to consider and respond to marking” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">DIRT (Directed Improvement and Response Time) is essential: without it you can feel like a yappy dog barking at the postman from the other side of the door, as your barking, or rather, feedback will have minimal impact. Building DIRT into lessons is not time-wasted, it’s time invested. But do heed the following warning too:</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 119%;">“Some forms of marking, including acknowledgement marking, are </span><span lang="en-US"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">unlikely to enhance pupil progress. A mantra might be that schools should mark less in terms of the number of pieces of work marked, but mark better.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">DIRT is to allow the students make the work better and produce improved responses to the standard you have asked for. A comment from a teacher saying ‘</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 119%;">You need to write more for an 8 mark question’</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"> can elicit the response ‘Ok </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 119%;">thanks Miss, I will next time</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">’, which is all very polite, but has little impact. The feedback (oral or written) ‘</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 119%;">Please re-do this again, this time with more detail’ </span></span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">should be an instruction and that is what the DIRT is for.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 119%;">“There is an urgent need for more studies so that teachers have better information about the most effective marking approaches.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">We’re on it! In a bid to make feedback more meaningful but less onerous for the teacher, several subject areas at CWLC have been trialing different approaches to marking and feedback. One particular resource is being tried out in maths, MFL and English:</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold; line-height: 114%;"><span style="font-size: large;">The whole-class feedback grid</span></span></h3>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">A generic copy of a whole-class marking & feedback grid (referred to now as M&F grids) is here. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold; line-height: 119%;">Methodology</span><span lang="en-US" style="color: #444444; font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">: The idea of these sheets is that, instead of marking every book closely and writing individual comments on every book, teachers read every book and only make the minimum number of interventions: e.g. question marks, any SPaG marking codes agreed by the dept., comments for that particular student based on your knowledge of their effort, etc.</span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">As a teacher reads the books, they jot down notes using the M&F grid to highlight excellent work/effort, common problems, misconceptions, missing work, absences, common keyword issues, etc. The next lesson begins with this feedback being shared with the whole group, which can be done in a number of ways. The students then act on this feedback before moving on.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold; line-height: 119%;">Martin Goffe </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">(HoD MFL) presented to the T&L group recently how he and others in MFL had been using the M&F grids. MFL use a list of annotation codes to indicate a range of issues that commonly occur in MFL written work. The teacher annotates work with these codes in green. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">They then use the grid to make further notes. In the example Martin gave, he had typed his feedback comments onto Powerpoint slides so the whole class would see (he said this only took 5 minutes as he was simply copying from his notes). The first slides started with </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 119%;">www </span></span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">comments with students gaining individual praise for work done well, with examples of why this was excellent (shown below). This worked as a model for improvement.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;"><span style="color: #444444;">The next slides were highlighting common errors (this time with no student names/initials). This acts as a prompt so students can look to see if they made the same errors. Going through the slides took 10 minutes then the DIRT that followed was probably 15 minutes more. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">Martin’s pros: ‘</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 119%;">Marking took less time; I was able to give more specific praise and therefore felt it impacted positively on students’ self-esteem and confidence; it promoted more independence in the students.’ </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">Cons: ‘</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 119%;">None as far as marking/feedback method goes, but I think the marking codes MFL are using could be reduced as students progress, reducing the level of scaffolding and promoting even more independence in improving their own work.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold; line-height: 119%;">Tess Thomas </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">(AHT & maths) presented how the whole maths department has been using these M&F grid (below)</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">With maths being marked far more frequently (in terms of right or wrong answers) than some other subjects, Tess said she doesn’t write the feedback onto slides. Classwork is always marked there and then for instant feedback with the students doing self and peer marking. Tess only marks homework closely. She then gives the feedback orally and directs it towards individuals. Best work is highlighted first, with two ‘BBs’ (Best Books) chosen each week. The BB students then act as Learning Ambassadors to support other students during DIRT. Students needing support are told why and then paired with Learning Ambassadors to improve the work. Each maths teacher also keeps their grids and files them as a record of student progress which Iglika Gillam (maths) says is very helpful when writing reports. Although it has been adopted across the maths department, teachers are using their grids in slightly different ways. For Tess, pros</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 119%;">: ‘I feel the quality of my feedback has improved; I’m able to reflect more on what I plan for subsequent lessons more accurately; the time taken to mark is reduced.’ </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 119%;">Cons</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 119%;">: ‘None as yet!’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 114%;"><span style="color: #444444;">If departments want to try this method out, we would advise you adapt the generic form, as each department will have different needs and priorities in their marking. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 114%;"><span style="color: #444444;">Endorsed by our Head of English Karen Cunningham, a few of us have also been giving the grids a try. Here's one I tried myself for some marking for a year 7 descriptive writing task. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 114%;"><span style="color: #444444;">I later did what Martin had done and copied my notes onto slides to start the lesson off. I like to think I'm good at giving out praise but it turns out, when I compare my previous habits with using this grid, not so much. It was lovely being able to start the lesson with some specific praise for individuals and seeing how this affected the students' pride in themselves and their work. I was able to target some quite complex grammatical improvements with the whole class too, so that everyone could see and hear my comments and they weren't just aimed at particular high fliers and lost in their books. When they were doing their DIRT following this, I noticed it was much more purposeful than usual; students were comparing errors and praise, and working with one another to model best work. I was surprised at how successful the whole process had been.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 114%;"><span style="color: #444444;">It also showed me that the original grid needed to be tweaked to allow more space for praise, which I did ready for the next piece they do for me:</span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 114%;"><span style="color: #444444;">Another thing I really like about these grids and the feedback we're getting from teachers in lots of departments is just how flexible it is: each department is finding their own way with them, which surely indicates an engagement with the process looking for impact, rather than a whole-school one-size-fits-all approach.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold; line-height: 114%;"><span style="font-size: large;">The elephant in the room?</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 114%;"><span style="color: #444444;">When sharing these and other alternative feedback methods, the most commonly-heard response from teachers tends to be “But what will Ofsted and SLT say? Won’t they want to see lots of teacher comments and student/teacher dialogue?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 118%;"><span style="color: #444444;">The response to this is a resounding “</span></span><span lang="en-US" style="color: #c00000; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold; line-height: 118%;">NO!</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 118%;"><span style="color: #444444;">”, from Ofsted, and from our SLT after we discussed this recently. (My HT insisted I write this in bold. And red. In caps. I should add too that he's an Ofsted Inspector.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 118%;">Ofsted Chief Sean Harford’s recent document “</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 118%;">Marking and other myths</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 118%;">” (Nov 2016) states: ‘</span></span><span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 118%;"><span style="color: #444444;">I have asked our inspectors when reporting to not give any impression that marking needs to be undertaken in any particular format and to any particular degree of sophistication or detail; this lines up with our myth busting document and the</span> </span><span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 118%;"><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/553942/School_inspection_handbook-section_5.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple;">school inspection handbook</span></a></span><span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 118%;"> <span style="color: #444444;">deals with this.’ </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 118%;"><span style="color: #444444;">Read the whole (short) article </span><span style="color: purple;"><a href="https://educationinspection.blog.gov.uk/2016/11/28/marking-and-other-myths/" target="_blank">here</a> </span><span style="color: #444444;">for details but he is very clear on this.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 118%;"><span style="color: #444444;">And our own Headteacher Neil Morris says: </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 118%;">‘</span><span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-style: italic; line-height: 118%;">In our reviews, student work is always going to be scrutinised and will help provide evidence for student progress over time. But that progress is achieved in a variety of ways. As long as we demand high standards of literacy and presentation, and students have improved work when it is not good enough or when it shows misunderstandings, then that is evidence enough that feedback has informed this, whatever form the feedback takes. We don’t need stickers or stamps, or written conversations because that’s clearly done for me, or SLT, not the students! We do read students’ work, so we know when it reflects good teaching and high expectations.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="en-GB" style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 118%;"><span style="color: #444444;">Our action research on this continues and will help inform policy when we review our whole-school approach to both marking and feedback. Watch this space!</span></span><span lang="en-US" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 8.0pt; language: en-US; line-height: 118%; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-armenian-font-family: Tahoma; mso-ascii-font-family: Tahoma; mso-currency-font-family: Tahoma; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Tahoma; mso-default-font-family: Tahoma; mso-greek-font-family: Tahoma; mso-latin-font-family: Tahoma; mso-latinext-font-family: Tahoma; mso-ligatures: none; mso-thai-font-family: Tahoma;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rachael Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06865610908068882727noreply@blogger.com59tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583358247896442807.post-48296474258450079252016-04-17T15:04:00.002-07:002016-04-17T15:04:21.463-07:00Saving the RHINOs and PANDAs in your school<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinCRLqSnDCqlCwMuhVcU-xHnVxMhgbz91CiN0fsdbfhtCiTkgeNPstQm5J1eONscnJ7l2VGGrlTbL8QZOLzqSQla-Tz6RHCNqaX-71EIjPDCaGXg1qZYZPyWrtqrwsRENI-zY-pbdcJLak/s1600/Saving+pandas+and+rhinos.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinCRLqSnDCqlCwMuhVcU-xHnVxMhgbz91CiN0fsdbfhtCiTkgeNPstQm5J1eONscnJ7l2VGGrlTbL8QZOLzqSQla-Tz6RHCNqaX-71EIjPDCaGXg1qZYZPyWrtqrwsRENI-zY-pbdcJLak/s400/Saving+pandas+and+rhinos.png" width="371" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>(Image from onegreenplanet.org)</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">A
few years ago, when we started thinking about using growth mindset as a way
forward throughout our school, we realised that we would need to consider how
it might fit in with our particular students.</span><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Each school is unique; this is
what makes us feel our hearts belong to a particular institution. Remember how
panicked you felt as a trainee when you had to change placements? But once you’d
been at your second school for a few weeks, it was hard to even remember the
name of the first school. So even though 'kids is kids', each school works in its
peculiar bubble, ethos and culture. It can feel quite strange when you spend a
day in another school when you don’t get out much, a bit like drinking in the day and
going into the daylight – it’s like real life but slightly distorted and disorientating. For this
reason, your own students in your unique context should be a school’s starting point for any focus on
change and attempted improvement.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">I teach in a pretty leafy area, in a semi-rural shire county. However, we also
have one of the most socio-economically poor housing estates in the city on our
doorstep and our catchment is fully mixed – and fully inclusive.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Through
experience, close data analysis and anecdotal evidence and discussion, two key
types of student kept surfacing as needing our attention. We decided to pool
our evidence and identified them as belonging to two distinctive groups. We’ve
now committed to focusing on these groups in our teaching and in our pastoral
support. These are our <b>RHINOs </b>and our <b>PANDAs</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Whilst
we recognise that every student is an individual and has their own unique set
of abilities and needs, by grouping students into these two categories, we feel
might be able to share strategies and approaches that will help them to
overcome their barriers to learning. It might also be that, in doing this, we
can pinpoint strategies that could also work with students who show similar
traits but in different ways.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Who
are RHINO students?</span></span></h3>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">A RHINO is
Really Here In Name Only, a term coined in the late 1990s by the then Secretary
of State for Education, David Blunkett. He was interested in the significant
proportion of students who were disengaging from the idea of education,
typically at secondary level. Unlike the students who showed their feelings
through disruptive behaviour, low attendance and poor relationships, Blunkett
found a large number of these disengaged students attend school regularly, are
of average to high ability and capable of attaining C grades (3 levels of
progress in new money) and therefore unlikely to be the subject of
intervention. They are often adept at the social behaviour teachers like to
see: smiling, maintaining eye-contact, using affirmative body language. But
school is not engaging them actively and so they do what is necessary to get
by, hence Really Here In Name Only. We have LOTS of RHINOs and I've written about them before.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Who
are the PANDAs?</span></span></h3>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">PANDA
stands for Perfectionist AND Anxious (name created by myself and Tess Thomas @flickasforeva, my oppo in T&L). We’ve found these often higher ability
students are surfacing earlier and earlier, and they are of concern to us primarily
for their inability to switch off from work, their heavy investment in
self-criticism and sometimes even their potential to develop anxiety-related
behaviours; in the worst cases manifesting in eating disorders, self-harm and
medium to long-term mental health issues. I know we are not alone in worrying
about students with this profile, however low down the scale of concern they
might be now. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Do
you know any RHINOs and / or PANDAs? If so, and you’re interested in what we’re
doing to focus on and support them, read on…<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Who are <u>your
</u>RHINOs and PANDAs?<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Thinking of
particular students and then seeing how far they fit the profiles can help in
deciding on strategies to use and share.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'>
<span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Cooper Black","serif"'>RHINOs<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'>
<span lang=EN-GB
style='font-family:"Cooper Black","serif"'>Really Here In Name Only<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'>
<span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Segoe Print"'>are probably (but not
always)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l0 level1 lfo1'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>more likely to be boys<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l0 level1 lfo1'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>affable and easy-going<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l0 level1 lfo1'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>average to higher ability<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l0 level1 lfo1'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>know what to do to ‘get by’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l0 level1 lfo1'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>sometimes categorised by
teachers and parents as ‘lazy’<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l0 level1 lfo1'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>need lots of pushing to achieve
potential<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l0 level1 lfo1'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>easily slip under the radar as
they tend not to misbehave<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l0 level1 lfo1'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>just about attaining 3LP but
probably capable of more (may have under-performed in KS2 test) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpLast style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>
<![if !supportLists]><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:
Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>heavily influenced by peers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:18.0pt'>
<span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:18.0pt'>
<span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>We have a
number of PP students that fit this profile.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraph>
<span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'>
<span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Cooper Black","serif"'>PANDAs<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'>
<span lang=EN-GB
style='font-family:"Cooper Black","serif"'>Perfectionist and Anxious<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'>
<span lang=EN-GB
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Segoe Print"'>are probably (but not
always)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l1 level1 lfo2'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>more likely to be girls<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l1 level1 lfo2'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>people-pleasers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l1 level1 lfo2'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>high ability in a number of
areas<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l1 level1 lfo2'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>do not cope well with set-backs
and perceived failure<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l1 level1 lfo2'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>need lots of reassurance<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l1 level1 lfo2'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>tend to ‘catastrophise’
situations<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l1 level1 lfo2'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>spend hours and hours on
homework / revision<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l1 level1 lfo2'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>fixed mindset<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l1 level1 lfo2'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>stubborn<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l1 level1 lfo2'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>may find the demands of 6<sup>th</sup>
form challenging<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:
l1 level1 lfo2'>
<![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>often over-think or talk
themselves out of challenging tasks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoListParagraphCxSpLast style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'>
<![if !supportLists]><span
lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:
Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Century Gothic","sans-serif"'>highly anxious during
exam/assessment times<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>
<span lang=EN-GB><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkg0pCB0ug-ads6_LzHz4zoEkZYbAsfLmjbylB0nNBTCV-FRkaT_CWg-U1h7KFcMgmT3h3qw_EnXBjfwN-Qm0a26l9FImqPLZqZ9C_WFI5WPV1_ftd7WfZff-jT0Cg7hFwpKKPL_dQZHI/s1600/Rhino+and+Panda+pic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGkg0pCB0ug-ads6_LzHz4zoEkZYbAsfLmjbylB0nNBTCV-FRkaT_CWg-U1h7KFcMgmT3h3qw_EnXBjfwN-Qm0a26l9FImqPLZqZ9C_WFI5WPV1_ftd7WfZff-jT0Cg7hFwpKKPL_dQZHI/s640/Rhino+and+Panda+pic.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2SqSUFYyn68auEjjZjk8papIm7-TV5nlMCwNSaf0r4pGE7fWbEG7128brhw9Epktb4uaOie5HM5OxW7VB_FN-W_8V6BzYlsE2SQZXrIppqkQ3CTjP7sWsohloi9GylDPy_1rjKroadFMe/s1600/Rhinos+and+Pandas.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2SqSUFYyn68auEjjZjk8papIm7-TV5nlMCwNSaf0r4pGE7fWbEG7128brhw9Epktb4uaOie5HM5OxW7VB_FN-W_8V6BzYlsE2SQZXrIppqkQ3CTjP7sWsohloi9GylDPy_1rjKroadFMe/s640/Rhinos+and+Pandas.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i><span style="color: #444444;">(Our Headteacher says it's also interesting seeing if any of these traits apply to colleagues!)</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">In
our Teaching & Learning group, we are looking at strategies that may work
well with these two types of students using three main foci from our current
areas of interest and action research:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Marking
& Feedback<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Our
whole-school policy that focuses on quality, not quantity and that asks
teachers to consider the impact of their marking above everything else (<a href="http://www.christopherwhitehead.worcs.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Marking-Feedback-policy.png" target="_blank">copy here</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Growth
Mindset<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">A
continued area of importance at our school, that features in our school
development plan </span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">(<a href="http://edulike.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/our-year-of-growth-mindset-research.html" target="_blank">our organic approach to GM detailed here</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Learning
Ambassadors<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">A
growing range of student roles throughout the school in various subjects, which
includes student voice, modelling high standards of effort/work, and support
roles </span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">(<a href="http://www.christopherwhitehead.worcs.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/TL-Newsletter-4-Spring-2016.pdf" target="_blank">featured here in our T&L magazine</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">These
areas will form the focus on of our work and discussions in 2016, with the aim
of identifying the strategies with the highest impact, sharing them and
promoting their use across the school into 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">To
act as a starting point, we produced the following list of possible strategies,
based on feedback we’d had from staff about where they had previously had
success with particular students, and also taken from published research on growth
mindset; Pupil Premium attainment, and findings from SLT’s pilot research with
their own teaching groups.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">This
is what we shared with our Teaching & Learning group and then with our
middle leaders:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Strategies
for PANDAs and RHINOs<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Members
of the T&L group (and any other interested members of staff) can choose any of the coloured boxes and trial ONE idea for ONE group
or ONE student, for ONE
term.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">After
one term, what worked? What didn’t? Why? What can be shared?</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #548235; font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">GREEN boxes are growth mindset
strategies;<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #7030a0; font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">LILAC
is marking & feedback;<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #323e4f; font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;">BLUE is for Learning Ambassadors.<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\Rachael\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image009.jpg"
o:title="41QrvzBJ1dL._SY300_" croptop="10924f" cropbottom="10774f"
cropleft="2804f" cropright="1328f" chromakey="white"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--></span><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> RHINOs<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #B6DF89; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 244.5pt;" valign="top" width="326">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Learn more about growth mindset and apply its thinking to help PANDAs
cope with set-backs and stress more effectively. (GM)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #B6DF89; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 230.4pt;" valign="top" width="307">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">RHINOs could benefit from growth mindset meta-cognition teaching
strategies to improve exam techniques. (GM)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 244.5pt;" valign="top" width="326">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Break tasks and challenges down into small steps that can be tackled
bit-by-bit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 230.4pt;" valign="top" width="307">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Show RHINOs examples of medium and long-term gain as incentives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #B6DF89; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 244.5pt;" valign="top" width="326">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Talk about skills you now have that you didn’t have previously because
of the practice you put in. Dramatise mistakes that demonstrate solutions;
describe things you’ve struggled with yourself and that you’ve now made
progress in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 230.4pt;" valign="top" width="307">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Try to engage parents/carers: the vast majority want their children to
do well and once they see that you recognise their child’s potential, most
will support you to help them reach it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 244.5pt;" valign="top" width="326">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Try not to over-indulge PANDAs during anxious episodes: use good
relationships to be supportive but clear and decisive about expectations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #FFF2CC; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent4; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 230.4pt;" valign="top" width="307">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: 'Segoe Print'; font-size: 9pt;">Do not accept under-par work: set high standards in detail and
presentation of written work. (</span><span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">M&F)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 244.5pt;" valign="top" width="326">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Use time-planners to help PANDAs with revision timetables, including
wind-down time to help them cope with exam periods.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #FFF2CC; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent4; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 230.4pt;" valign="top" width="307">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Be consistent with <span style="color: #7030a0;">praise in feedback</span>:
RHINOs will often indicate they aren’t bothered about rewards but are in
reality. <span style="color: green;">Reward effort </span><span style="color: #7030a0;">(M&F) </span>&<span style="color: #7030a0;"> </span><span style="color: green;">(GM)</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #B6DF89; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 244.5pt;" valign="top" width="326">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Use <span style="color: green;">growth mindset </span>language in our <span style="color: #7030a0;">written and oral feedback</span> to help confidence and
attainment with our PANDAs. <span style="color: #7030a0;">(M&F) </span>&<span style="color: #7030a0;"> </span><span style="color: green;">(GM)</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #FFF2CC; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent4; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 230.4pt;" valign="top" width="307">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Use feedback strategies that encourage responsibility for improvements
and greater detail in RHINOs’ written work. (M&F)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #D5DCE4; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: text2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 244.5pt;" valign="top" width="326">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Use PANDAs to provide quality student voice on the teaching strategies
that work best for them. (LA)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #D5DCE4; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: text2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 230.4pt;" valign="top" width="307">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Give RHINOs roles as Learning Ambassadors to help them increase their
accountability and engage more in their learning. (LA)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #FFF2CC; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent4; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 244.5pt;" valign="top" width="326">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">After careful explanation, use the ‘R’ (Requires improvement) grade
for effort, if and when appropriate. Use it to encourage conciseness when PANDAs
write too much. (M&F)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 230.4pt;" valign="top" width="307">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Be very specific about revision strategies. Tick boxes and directed
class time can help RHINOs organise their revision content.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #FFF2CC; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent4; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 244.5pt;" valign="top" width="326">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Monitor DIRT carefully and be kind but firm with PANDAs when they
don’t follow up on your feedback. They may ignore advice if they think they
know better! (M&F)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #D5DCE4; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: text2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 230.4pt;" valign="top" width="307">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe Print"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sit RHINOs with Learning Ambassadors who act as models for written
standards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">This
will be added to by colleagues and built up as a bank of strategies. It will
then be added to our Staff planners this year, and will also be a feature of
the T&L focus for the rest of this year and into next.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Rachael Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06865610908068882727noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583358247896442807.post-22302220494205889022015-07-13T12:45:00.000-07:002015-07-13T13:14:35.950-07:00Our year of Growth Mindset research<div class="Body">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ZSwpbERBhqeFLn4bWrr4MEm6qDGXg8jiSwko4cEZtR864gqs9FeAc8ayzM6_jvkS9Gy2Lzub3idcySuXVbpnTf1p7b2oy21QBDEoOGU8cn8QvlU1r8ioCfCLv9HZMbZPtkp6pub6ddZt/s1600/research.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ZSwpbERBhqeFLn4bWrr4MEm6qDGXg8jiSwko4cEZtR864gqs9FeAc8ayzM6_jvkS9Gy2Lzub3idcySuXVbpnTf1p7b2oy21QBDEoOGU8cn8QvlU1r8ioCfCLv9HZMbZPtkp6pub6ddZt/s640/research.jpg" width="640" /></a><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After embracing the ideas and principles behind growth mindset, we'd decided it was definitely a road we wanted to travel down and explore. <a href="http://edulike.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/growing-mindsets-organically.html" target="_blank">This post</a> details how we decided on an organic approach to introducing it as a whole-school focus. One of the important things for us was that staff should not be asked to take on anything that we hadn't, in part at least, tried out first in our own context, with our students. </span></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Through our Teaching & Learning groups, Head of Drama Simon Beasley (@EconomySir), volunteered to run a pilot project that would trial a number of growth mindset strategies and, importantly, measure its impact.</span></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The following guest blogpost is by Simon and details the year of our first official growth mindset trial.</span></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<h2>
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Our Growth Mindset Pilot Project</span></span></span></h2>
<div class="Body">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Simon Beasley</span></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The study took place over the course of the
academic year 2014/15 and went through various stages:</span></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="margin-left: 11.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 11.0pt; text-indent: -11.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">•<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">Student questionnaire</span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="margin-left: 11.0pt; mso-list: l16 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 11.0pt; text-indent: -11.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">•<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">Lesson studies (observations of
key students in a range of subject lessons)</span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="margin-left: 11.0pt; mso-list: l11 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 11.0pt; text-indent: -11.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">•<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">Results analysis</span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="margin-left: 11.0pt; mso-list: l23 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 11.0pt; text-indent: -11.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">•<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB">Staff interviews</span><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body">
<br /></div>
<div class="Heading">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Mindset Study Group</span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje5oAs1WX87zJXBJhLXwj51NkOpzxrMm4KwVwcn177ch69FWFcBUoS4bE6H5n474-xpRcTFjy6iOPjx8K19fdRsXGUu6DQkKHBjF5TNGTqUlNQmcNi8r12B2ClNMlvKH9RsbZ8fnK5r02C/s1600/hattie+quote.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje5oAs1WX87zJXBJhLXwj51NkOpzxrMm4KwVwcn177ch69FWFcBUoS4bE6H5n474-xpRcTFjy6iOPjx8K19fdRsXGUu6DQkKHBjF5TNGTqUlNQmcNi8r12B2ClNMlvKH9RsbZ8fnK5r02C/s1600/hattie+quote.png" /></a><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After we had completed the initial school wide
questionnaires I picked out six students (4 girls and 2 boys) to work with who showed signs
of having a fixed mindset and who were high achievers. These students were
chosen as while they were doing well in school they had not yet managed to
break into the top grades. We had identified this profile of student as one that
was prominent at our school and could potentially benefit from a push towards growth mindset thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We met each week at guidance time. I delivered
seminars on mindset theory and brain development and we discussed the theories.
The students were asked to try to apply a new skill each week from what had
been discussed and this would feed into the following weeks discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Students were also asked to keep a diary of
their experiences throughout the study.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">I undertook lesson</span> observations of
the students in order to see if they were indeed exhibiting fixed mindset
traits. Finally I also interviewed the teachers of the students in order to
gauge their impressions.</span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Results</b></span></span><br />
<div class="Body3">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the lesson observations the students
exhibited very "typical" behaviour when they faced challenges. One
students actually cut out sections of spare paper in order to glue it into her
book to cover up where she had made a mistake.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Students who were on the surface quite able
switched off the moment that they had to complete a task they found difficult
and, where possible, they would simply seek out the answers from any source
rather than trying to figure it out for themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They had developed their learned helplessness
and would be very needy of the teacher exclaiming that they could not do the
task and that it was too hard.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I interviewed eight teachers overall from
Maths, English, MFL, Geography, Science and DT in order to ascertain a wide
range of opinions from a variety of subjects. Each of the teachers when
interviewed said mostly the same thing that the students were doing well but
that they were not very resilient and that they required a lot of support.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One teacher mentioned that one of the students
refused to allow her note book to be marked as there were mistakes in it and
that they would only hand in polished work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikUAVrgmi-lFxaXt2rnLEq8UMmgSGVozqxB6ayWVVUFf-qtYYhiFU0r9Xy1hNg8SkqGhCWies4U8wwvuZsFyPdR2tDISXIvJWu28zOCl37WIKN_eAk4kbGyQbRvEa_CjcH3YFDFY2VfeAi/s1600/dweck+quote.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikUAVrgmi-lFxaXt2rnLEq8UMmgSGVozqxB6ayWVVUFf-qtYYhiFU0r9Xy1hNg8SkqGhCWies4U8wwvuZsFyPdR2tDISXIvJWu28zOCl37WIKN_eAk4kbGyQbRvEa_CjcH3YFDFY2VfeAi/s1600/dweck+quote.png" /></a><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Throughout the sessions the students were very
responsive to the seminars and that they understood the thinking behind
developing a growth mindset. However, they were exceptionally resistant to
applying it to their work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The main argument being that they were doing
okay and that if they tried the ideas out they feared either getting something
wrong or being perceived as a 'try hard' by other members of the group. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Even when they were presented with articles
etc. that demonstrated to them that this is exactly the problem with being
fixed in their approach the risk was not deemed to be worth taking.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The students all agreed that the system was
right but there was also scepticism that it would be another initiative that
would be big for a while before they slipped back into the status quo. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Heading">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Student questionnaires</span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Once this study had run its course I presented
the findings to the Teaching and Learning group and it was decided to trial the
ideas in several classes with teachers adapting their language and style to
help foster a growth mindset amongst the students.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Before the trial I gave out questionnaires to
the students in order to gauge their perceptions of what makes a successful
learner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">Results</span></b><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The responses were unsurprising given the
reactions of the students from the initial group. The 93% of students answered
that hard work was more important than natural skill. They also showed that the
students realised that with the right effort the students would continue to
improve and that they would be capable of improving in all subjects.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On the surface of it this was going to be an
easy task. With the overwhelming majority of students already had a growth
mindset and knew the secret to their own success.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Heading">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Lesson Studies</span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The staff in the study were given copies of
Mindset by Dweck in order to help them to understand the theories. I also ran a
couple of sessions where resources were given out to support the staff. Each
member of staff then came up with a way of implementing the ideas and measuring
their success. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Maths the focus was to be on changing the
language of the teacher so that they spoke to the students in a manner that
helped to instil a growth mindset (see appendix)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Science the teacher focused on teaching the
neurological aspects of leaning and the importance of understanding the
neuroplasticity of the brain. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Geography the focus was on feedback and
methods the students could develop to improve their work in a more independent
manner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I undertook a series of lesson studies to
observe the impact of the teaching and the reaction of the students to the
work. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Results</b></span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This was a very interesting phase of the study.
The students who were in lower sets seemed to fully embrace the system and were
responding exceptionally well. The atmosphere in the classes that I visited was
purposeful and the students were active and thriving.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In one Maths lesson the students made an
enormous amount of progress completing work that would not be expected of them.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">However, this was starkly contrasted by the
students in the higher sets. There was a great deal of resistance to the work.
Students shied away from challenging tasks. They were still obsessed with</span><span lang="EN-GB"> making sure that they got things right and
became distressed when there was a possibility of getting it wrong. In a Drama
lesson a group of very capable but fixed mindset students completely fell apart
in their performances when expected to learn lines. This was a task that had
been completed with ease by a less able group from the year below.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In another Maths lesson students all opted for
the easier questions rather than the challenge work despite having been taught
the method well at the start of the lesson. When the students were challenged
they were capable of answering the questions they were just afraid that they
would get it wrong and therefore feel stupid.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibmbZxVHtyHzUsKxY5LuxtHAEqRuNg1pm6s1NwdXugIGXfX29Avl1kuRJd-C4ei2OTrloEMOUDvhEJmNYoFF76Ur1HEpXMdvdC4vv9LjTOdk7JC-OBj2nJMnd640oYSEszSn45ucUaKfRO/s1600/dweck+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibmbZxVHtyHzUsKxY5LuxtHAEqRuNg1pm6s1NwdXugIGXfX29Avl1kuRJd-C4ei2OTrloEMOUDvhEJmNYoFF76Ur1HEpXMdvdC4vv9LjTOdk7JC-OBj2nJMnd640oYSEszSn45ucUaKfRO/s1600/dweck+2.png" /></a><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Even though these students knew that the best
way to improve was to challenge themselves. They still felt too insecure to
take the risk of trying questions that they may get wrong. this contrasted so
much with the lower ability students. These students are used to getting things
right. When they do well in a test or in class it reaffirms their self-belief
that they are intelligent. Anything that challenges them or that risks making
them feel like they cannot achieve easily feels like it challenges this
self-belief. This then becomes a viscous cycle which makes the students
extremely wary of completing anything but that which they feel they can do
without challenge. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">These students therefore will never be able to
break through their own self imposed glass ceiling while they are too afraid of
being uncovered as a fraud who should not be in the highest set. It felt like
their position in the set was more important to them then their actual ability.
They felt like if they could stay in set 1 then they would always be
intelligent. However, the less they pushed themselves and the more comfortable
they became the less likely it becomes that they will achieve the very top
grades. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Heading">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Heading">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Data Analysis</span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Each of the teachers did a baseline test with
the groups that they were working with and in most cases a control group was
used as well in order to give comparative data. In Science the students were
tested with a mock GCSE exam in January and the test was repeated with another
paper in March and then June.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The data for Geography was taken from the
schools teacher assessments taken in November, February and June. These
assessments are based on classroom tests and homework.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Maths the results were from tests completed
in November, March and June.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All of the groups were measured against control
groups who were at a parallel ability level in the year group. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Results</b></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Science the mindset group were on average
0.4 of a grade higher and made 2.6 grades more progress than the control group.
These are impressive results but the most interesting aspect of this was that
some of the students in the control group were also in the mindset group for
Maths where they had made enormous improvements using the mindset skills. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">I think it is possible to draw the conclusion
that the teacher has a vital role to play in ensuring that the</span><span lang="EN-GB"> skills are transferred between the subjects.
While it could be argued that the students may have more of an aptitude for one
subject over another. I think that both subjects are similar enough that had
the skills been applied in both areas that the improvements would have been
different.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Geography the control group improved on
average by 1.4 sub levels whereas the mindset group improved by 2.5 that is a
difference of 1.1 sub levels over the course of a year. If this can be
maintained throughout KS3 alone the students will achieve roughly a whole grade
higher over the course of Years 7-9. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Maths the set 3 students in the mindset made
more progress than those in the control group. The control group improved by
0.9 of a grade while the mindset group improved by 1.2 grades. However, the
results in the top set were not as impressive. The mindset group improved by
0.7 and the control group by 0.9 of a grade.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This follows the pattern of what we were
expecting from the observations and the focus group that I ran in the first
half of the year. The more able students found it difficult to adapt to the
challenge. It forced them to be more cautious as they struggled to maintain
their self-theory.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">While the results are positive some factors
need to be considered in their evaluation:</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Some students had been taught
about mindset in other classes and so it is not possible to categorically state
that the students in the control group have never been taught about growth
mindset.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Also some of the teachers in
the project had already been using aspects of mindset theory in their teaching
which may have weakened the impact of the intervention.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">One of the teachers in
Geography and one in Maths had started the project at the start of the year and
so the comparative results were taken from the year before to act as a
baseline.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Each of the classes had
different teacher for the control and mindset classes.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Each of these factors I do not feel have a
negative effect on the results as a whole. The results and patterns are clear
throughout and fit in with the wealth of research carried out by other
studies. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Heading">
<br /></div>
<div class="Heading">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Interviews</span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the final phase I interviewed each of the
teachers involved in order to gauge their perceptions of what differences,
improvements and difficulties that they had faced over the course of the trial.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: blue;">Results</span></b><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>"I felt that in lifting the lid on the
students I also to a certain extent lifted the lid on my own teaching. I felt
like I had brought certain expectations to my classes that I am not proud of
and that this process forced me to re-evaluate my prejudices as it were of what
a grade E student could achieve." </i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>"Students have higher aspirations. It
hasn't worked on all but the majority are working towards achieving much more
than they usually do. While students may not be passionate about the subject
they have become much more passionate about improving"<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>"It is a much more enjoyable process and
way to teach. I have felt stuck in my ways and this process has helped me to
re-evaluate things like marking and its use. That improvement has given me a
real sense of achievement"<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>"As a consequence I have more extension
materials available and the students have become more independent. I feel more
comfortable having students working on different things rather than keeping
everybody together in a more rigid style"<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>"It feels like teaching used to feel like.
We are working towards getting better and becoming more knowledgeable for the
sake of it rather than performing for an inspector or imposing something
contrived on our teaching"<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>"It works a lot easier with the lower sets
who are naturally more open. I think that is because they have probably already
experienced failure and overcome it more that those in Higher sets. The more
able seem to find it an insult that people who are not as bright can become as
good as them through effort and time and it makes them defensive"<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>"It is a really positive approach, there
is always room to get better. The students at first are very cynical and mock
the language of it. But after time they get used to it and see that it works
and they see the value in it"</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Heading">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Changing Mindsets</span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBr3lMCMt_pUWlChWAAQFYVT6CCS_5N7IKemFkHfarnm1_BbMDXP-ef9rKCfly3HZt2Hcy9thjfjW4QKDpdt19tF25zX0d1Kz_tISeTimlM9UFDy8y7VhgvfEfS8XtnBAKyCTA97jBKLNJ/s1600/Alex+Q.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBr3lMCMt_pUWlChWAAQFYVT6CCS_5N7IKemFkHfarnm1_BbMDXP-ef9rKCfly3HZt2Hcy9thjfjW4QKDpdt19tF25zX0d1Kz_tISeTimlM9UFDy8y7VhgvfEfS8XtnBAKyCTA97jBKLNJ/s1600/Alex+Q.png" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Changing Mindsets project also ran a
project that targeted Year 5 pupils in Portsmouth, Southampton and Hampshire.
The delivery of the interventions was
led by the University of Portsmouth and took place between January and May
2013. Their key findings were...</span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Pupils who received the growth
mindset workshops made an average of two additional months' progress in English
and Maths. These findings were not statistically significant which means that
they could not be confident that they did not occur by chance. However, the
finding for English was close to statistical significance, and this suggests
evidence of promise.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Pupils whose teachers received
the professional development intervention made no</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">additional progress in Maths
compared to pupils in the control group. These pupils made </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">less progress in
English than the control group, but this finding is not statistically </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">significant and they could not be sure that it did not occur by chance.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">FSM-eligible pupils who were
involved in the professional development intervention gained a better
understanding of the malleability of intelligence.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Intervention and control school
were already using some aspects of the growth mindset approach. This may have
weakened any impact of the interventions.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Future trial could examine the
impact of a programme that combines the two interventions and runs for a longer
period of time.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="Body3">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="Heading">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"><b>Findings</b></span></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Using mindset language and
thinking makes a noticeable and measurable impact in our school</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">If the system is not
re-enforced by the teacher the students will slip back into old habits.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Students in the higher sets
feel that they have more to lose and so resist adopting the methods.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">This resistance holds them back
from achieving the best results.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">The teachers who have used this
method have really enjoyed it and all feel it is worth the effort to make the
adjustments to their own views and the way that they teach.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="Heading">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Next Steps for the new academic year</span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body3">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Some recommendations:</span></div>
<div class="Body3">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Widen the study to include more
departments and staff.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Include more higher ability
students in the studies with staff more experienced in teaching growth mindset.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Roll out a programme of mindset
activities with the higher learning potential students in order to improve
resilience.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Develop a series of lessons on
resilience with staff and tutors.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Encourage staff to change
simple language choices and expectations in order to embed mindset thinking throughout
the school.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -10pt;">Develop a programme of
challenge that stretches the more able but scaffolds their fear of failure and
develops their resilience to encourage them to take risks.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<div class="Body3">
<br /></div>
Rachael Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06865610908068882727noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583358247896442807.post-71814972183159861192015-03-28T04:09:00.001-07:002015-03-28T04:25:44.040-07:00Growing Mindsets organically<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #660000; font-size: large;">What we're doing – and NOT doing – as we move towards becoming a growth mindset school</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg89zMF1bPPlDDXaC01xpEZwNkSQa53rGH4x3E5jvhRKNg0J6r-OF0ICMeBd_TUB66aSdruKSSop-3n2GPP98Z5P8IIiHHXF4oh7XylLmohykvNqTWpwtlr3FMgipahKGvl2AFawE4H9h81/s1600/bryant-growth-mindset.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg89zMF1bPPlDDXaC01xpEZwNkSQa53rGH4x3E5jvhRKNg0J6r-OF0ICMeBd_TUB66aSdruKSSop-3n2GPP98Z5P8IIiHHXF4oh7XylLmohykvNqTWpwtlr3FMgipahKGvl2AFawE4H9h81/s1600/bryant-growth-mindset.gif" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">https://marlouswessels.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/bryant-growth-mindset.gif</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB">As a SLT and within our Teaching &
Learning group we have unanimously agreed that growth mindset is an important
way forward for us and our students. </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">We have taken on board the theory
behind mindsets and many of us have read the book 'Mindsets' by Prof Carol Dweck. </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Growth Mindset has been written into
our School Development Plan as a core aim over the next 3 years. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="color: #444444;">However, the spectres of Learning Styles and Brain Gym loom menacingly, and we are all-too-aware of the dangers of jumping aboard the Next-Big-Thing charabanc and taking everyone hurtling off towards a place that ultimately zaps our time and energy with no impact or gain for our students or for our staff. Been there, done that. So we have always been acutely aware of the need to do things well: thoroughly, steadily and with lasting effect. I will share what we've learned, what we've done and what we're going to do. I hope it's useful.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span style="color: #444444;">So far this year, then:</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; punctuation-wrap: simple; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">One member of SLT (me) has been given
overall responsibility for its implementation and I'm working with another AHT, Tess (@Flickers4Eva), to build it via the Teaching & Learning group.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">One middle leader, Simon (@economysir), is writing his
masters about its implementation and using action research to feed into the
school’s work on mindsets.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Our Straight-to-Teach trainee, Andy (@80Morrison), is
writing a research project about GM, working with Simon and
contributing to the action research project.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">We have visited Huntington School in
York and spent a fantastically useful day with @JohnTomsett and his extremely generous staff, learning how growth mindset has
been part of their school development for the past 3 years. We wrote a detailed
report about what we learned and presented it to SLT and the T&L group.
This part of the process was invaluable as we were able to see where Huntington
is now, three years down the line, and what they have done in order to achieve
this.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Students have all taken the GM questionnaire and initial scores entered onto SIMs.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">We’ve included information and tips about growth mindset in our student planners, which we design and print in-school. This has meant we can guide staff towards these sections as and when we want to introduce aspects of growth mindset as the year has gone on.</span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; punctuation-wrap: simple; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #444444;">It’s vital at this stage to consider
one’s own school. Every school is unique: it has its own history, ethos and
context. It was important for us to discuss and consider what we felt would and
would not work back at Christopher Whitehead. There are certain types of students that we feel could really do with some support into becoming more growth mindset; some schools will recognise these students, others will find they have different priority students. For us, we feel we need to address two main types of students:</span></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">our Pupil Premium students, who can lack self-esteem and faith that they can improve. They statistically are likely to be in middle to lower ability sets and, unfortunately, are more likely to be moved down sets and then stay down, despite their academic ability. With less support at home, we might be tempted to lower our expectations rather than raise them. We're hoping that a growth mindset focus will benefit both them and their teachers. Dweck's focus on improvement through effort, and intelligence NOT being fixed is essential for these students' school experience.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">The other main group are our highest ability students: fantastically motivated students who want to please; who try their very best and also find any kind of failure potentially devastating. We have an increasing number of of our high achievers finding life very difficult at times of stress and sometimes having melt-downs. As we move towards linear courses and a build-up to high-stakes exam periods, we need to safeguard the well-being of these students by making them more resilient as early as we can; teaching them that failure is part of learning. Dweck's work is absolutely key to us tackling this: these students are clear examples of a fixed mindset. </span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #444444;">We highly recommend talking to a
variety of staff at this point, if you are considering adopting growth mindset.
Our presentation and subsequent discussion at the T&L group proved to be
the key to our next steps.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #444444;">GM has been a key theme of our
T&L meetings this year and those staff that attend T&L. Our T&L
group meets on average twice per half term and consists of one rep from every department
plus anyone else interested. This gives us give us a wide range of voices from
all subject areas and levels of experience.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;">Teaching
& Learning Group discussions/findings</span><span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This
academic year, we had focused on growth mindset as one thread of our
discussions and practice. We had read a number of blogposts (@JohnTomsett and @chrishildrew in particular), viewed some videos
and many of us had read the book Mindsets. Discussion was also key, in answering questions, exploring doubts and also considering counter-arguments.</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">@ecomonysir later presented on his
own view of it and why it is forming the basis of his Masters study this year. He
has been running a study on a set of students who took the growth mindset
questionnaire and had returned low scores. They fitted one of the profiles of
some of our focus students at CWLC: bright, able and fixed mindset. His research
involved he and @80Morrison meeting with the students weekly to talk through their
learning experiences in the week; observing the students in lessons, conducting
interviews with individuals and also interviewing many of their teachers. @economysir will continue to feed back as the year continues and he will share his findings
in the summer, which will in turn inform some more of our strategies with
students that fit this profile.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As
a group we agreed unanimously that growth mindset was definitely something that
we can a) all agree as being important b) would like to share with colleagues
across school c) would now like to learn more about how we can build growth
mindset thinking and teaching into our practice. We discussed the pitfalls of
introducing initiatives whole-school and discussed how we could learn from past
experiences in using what went well and avoiding what didn’t work/what didn’t
resonate.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From
discussions in groups, we came up with the following points:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What to avoid<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Don’t
impose<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">No big
‘jazz hands’ launch heralding growth mindset as the Next Big Thing<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What to do<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sustain SLT support and belief: p</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">rove
growth mindset has longevity and can be sustained by key people
championing it</span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">‘Drip
feed’ at first – read up on it; find resources you like; trial its use;
experiment with activities, language, thinking in your classes /Learning Mentor
groups and gradually spread the word<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However,
a whole-school session to bring our thinking together later this year
would be useful. By that time we would have some of our own evidence
(Simon’s pilot and our own trials) to feedback. How it is introduced and
who shares it will be important: we would like staff from the T&L
group to help in this process.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Give
practical hands-on advice about how to use in classrooms, in LM groups, in
assemblies, across school and in our own CPD<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Make
resources easy to access on the staff Shared Area and easy to use<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Make it
realistic, considering middle leaders’ and teachers’ workloads, i.e.
small, marginal gains, ‘instead of’ rather than ‘in addition to’<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Evidence
and research to show how it will benefit staff, students, parents and the
school (<i>What’s in it for us?</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Share
with parents and invite them to come on board: <i>suggestion that we share using the same format as we introduced
our new reporting system on parents’ evenings as that worked well.</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Plans for
the rest of this year:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">We
are designing and printing our own staff planners this year, as well as the
student ones we do already. This means we can include key growth mindset
information in there that staff can regularly access and refer to.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">@economysir will continue his pilot and feed back to us in the summer.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">He
has also begun an action research project with a number of volunteers from the
T&L group who would like to try some more overt strategies in their
teaching. The findings of this pilot will be fascinating and allow us to share
with all staff at a later date, with findings that focus on our own students
and within our own context.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">‘Drip-feed’
into whole staff meetings, focusing at first on the language of growth mindset.
At our first staff meeting back after Easter, we have been given a slot to
share some ideas with staff: our initial thinking will be to share the
excellent video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWv1VdDeoRY" target="_blank">here</a> and then focus on the language of growth mindset in our
lessons.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">The
Head has generously bought 10 more copies of Mindsets for our staff T&L
library (thanks Neil!) so now we can encourage as many staff as possible to
read the theory and not just tap into soundbites or surface understanding.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">We
have a bank of posters and infographics available via T&L group,
encouraging the principles of GM thinking, for staff to choose and put up in
their classrooms.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">We will use the new T&L area of the school website to share growth mindset thinking with other interested staff and also parents. We'd really like to involve them and share our ideas and thinking as soon as possible.</span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Lastly,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">Two strategies that have had a particularly big impact so far are:</span></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;">This growth mindset language poster (adapted from a number of sources found on Pinterest, originally though from 'Mindsets'). One of our Directors of Studies (Head of House) has had this printed onto large stickers and given one to every student in her house and stuck into their planners. She's also run an assembly on it. We'll include this as part of everyone's planner next academic year now.</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #444444;"><b>Monsters University</b>! Watching this film with my kids just before Christmas, it struck me that this film is the ultimate tale in growth and fixed mindset thinking. So in the last week before we broke up, with both my top Year 10 English classes (which contained many of the students from @economysir's research project), we watched Monsters University together then they applied growth mindset thinking to a reading of the movie. The subsequent work was fantastic and showed an excellent understanding by the students. Here is a short excerpt of one review.</span></span></li>
</ul>
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Rachael Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06865610908068882727noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583358247896442807.post-53729155482168361782014-04-05T08:55:00.000-07:002014-04-19T04:04:47.247-07:00Dynamite Paragraphs - How to teach your students to analyse brilliantly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2EuGpGwI6iMn6rz5k3ejGZ8DH44WPOlZCC0M2J6tJBSobARJhvc8n3NQhagZfbEUntT0EscjjVjmbqkQcmaPVnlgGJnmPDD3Mebfarko4u0aLMQtWHGPC33a3iNFOQ2mPcu47CC-uUi9/s1600/Dynamite.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2EuGpGwI6iMn6rz5k3ejGZ8DH44WPOlZCC0M2J6tJBSobARJhvc8n3NQhagZfbEUntT0EscjjVjmbqkQcmaPVnlgGJnmPDD3Mebfarko4u0aLMQtWHGPC33a3iNFOQ2mPcu47CC-uUi9/s1600/Dynamite.png" height="257" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This method is suitable for analysing both language and literature.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This strategy comes from material that was shared by an AQA
adviser for English at a recent course attended by my super colleague Karen
Cunningham @kcquietcorner.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The adviser gave a bank of words that can be used to
construct deeper, more probing analysis of language and encourage more detailed
responses, especially under the time constraints of exams. However, as I have
found this week, this method works equally well with students in lower years.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I took the word banks and created two posters that I stuck
up in my room. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">After seeing students keen to take photos of the posters I
reckoned it would also be useful to create printable versions, which I now
have.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6eNxojWQIoyIapHPK7BAZr0LAlUBY9GJeNcvYjhyphenhyphenWvs6DIQKQznZLO5X9ori1hoyfQuAHzdyjokllwVlW47kUrT9sZ46VgJ3Tiv2PjspxLQKLR213psDM7xLA-ssBqFt8iIC3xbgHCFC8/s1600/Language+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6eNxojWQIoyIapHPK7BAZr0LAlUBY9GJeNcvYjhyphenhyphenWvs6DIQKQznZLO5X9ori1hoyfQuAHzdyjokllwVlW47kUrT9sZ46VgJ3Tiv2PjspxLQKLR213psDM7xLA-ssBqFt8iIC3xbgHCFC8/s1600/Language+1.png" height="448" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The first poster demonstrates how paragraphs might be
started, encouraging a wider range in vocabulary right from the off. I’ll use
the first class I tried this with as my initial example and I’ll replicate
actual responses from the students. It was my Year 11 set 4 (out of 5 sets) and
we had been studying the poem “Bayonet Charge” by Ted Hughes. I was trying to
teach them the old ‘write a lot about a little’ strategy and students had
picked out 3 quotations that they thought would be worth further exploration
(and hopefully would then replicate in the exam).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here’s the poem in its entirety: a brutal, powerful and
heartbreaking snapshot into what must surely be the final moments of a WWI
soldier as he goes over the top.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Bayonet Charge</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Suddenly he awoke and was running - raw</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In raw-seamed hot khaki, his sweat heavy,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stumbling across a field of clods towards a green hedge</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That dazzled with rifle fire, hearing</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bullets smacking the belly out of the air -</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm;</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest, -</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In bewilderment then he almost stopped -</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Was he the hand pointing that second? He was running</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like a man who has jumped up in the dark and runs</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Listening between his footfalls for the reason</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of his still running, and his foot hung like</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Statuary in mid-stride. Then the shot-slashed furrows</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And crawled in a threshing circle, its mouth wide</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Open silent, its eyes standing out.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He plunged past with his bayonet toward the green hedge,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">King, honour, human dignity, etcetera</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To get out of that blue crackling air</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His terror’s touchy dynamite.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">TED HUGHES</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I modeled how to create a Dynamite Paragraph with the help
of the students, as a whole class activity; the students were then expected to
do two more on their own. To start off, one of the students chose the line from
the second stanza: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“<i>In what cold clockwork of the stars and the
nations<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Was he the hand pointing that second</i>?”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It’s a complex and challenging extract: the second stanza
sees almost a slowing or a freeze-frame of the soldier charging as his final
thoughts occur and he begins to question his existence.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We first looked at what we considered to be the first two
words worthy of exploration: “<i>cold
clockwork</i>”. We discussed each word in turn. What did the word ‘cold’
connote? The students came up with suggestions such as ‘heartless’ and ‘unemotional’.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then we moved onto ‘<i>clockwork’</i>
which seemed harder for the students, but in its purest form they agreed related
to time. Therefore, the two words together gave a sense of time being uncaring.
</span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We then tried the same method to look at the words ‘<i>the stars and the nations</i>’. Through discussion
and questioning, the students deduced that this might relate to the universe
(stars) and conflict between countries (the nations), or war.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWjXY4VlfxRsYJk6drSnRNBhkCUpgREFWDB5dXgsx6DXOIa1pDak3uTJqhblmCsjabuG4zkthRC_b9R18a5OCgOlw6NtRrIQm3yxHhVBBZ6ZfiuLz33WLhDvWycgL-3pQB537N2mqHj4w/s1600/language+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWjXY4VlfxRsYJk6drSnRNBhkCUpgREFWDB5dXgsx6DXOIa1pDak3uTJqhblmCsjabuG4zkthRC_b9R18a5OCgOlw6NtRrIQm3yxHhVBBZ6ZfiuLz33WLhDvWycgL-3pQB537N2mqHj4w/s1600/language+2.png" height="141" width="200" /></span></a><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now we needed to write the paragraph so we referred to the
first poster to get a starter sentence. Students will need practice in order to
embed this type of sentence starter but it doesn’t take very long to get the
hang of it.</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the second stanza, Ted Hughes creates the impression of
the soldier questioning why he is there: “In
what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations/ Was he the hand pointing that
second?”</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvA4QtwxvA6IcVYQ2aGuaKk6TTJ0Qe1nV1OOuiFAT6qGHEGkTAeJXbwhomY_piHtW6GVXxqyO_1KGSrgkmubYkPxENhnx1zkhAoT9WpffOPM30f9WKSkpwJMIFthqTVKf4FpNyoTH_Sr-e/s1600/Lang+part+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvA4QtwxvA6IcVYQ2aGuaKk6TTJ0Qe1nV1OOuiFAT6qGHEGkTAeJXbwhomY_piHtW6GVXxqyO_1KGSrgkmubYkPxENhnx1zkhAoT9WpffOPM30f9WKSkpwJMIFthqTVKf4FpNyoTH_Sr-e/s1600/Lang+part+1.png" height="320" width="196" /></a><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We now moved to the second poster to construct our first PEA
bit of the paragraph and we chose: “<i>this
suggests</i>” from the first column and came up with our first layer of
meaning.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjms_BpGw6Q2DTcZQkkxee-TsTG0lSrWKGOf3eY2MyhBMkp2Cs-TeMd8tdms7m7ol_GwjnyVBj1jDknqw_s0jhdfCenqaGsCuA5zhKYf37O07Aw-AGlVO_6cgp73tcG0JCHlM8n2OIYS175/s1600/lang+part+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjms_BpGw6Q2DTcZQkkxee-TsTG0lSrWKGOf3eY2MyhBMkp2Cs-TeMd8tdms7m7ol_GwjnyVBj1jDknqw_s0jhdfCenqaGsCuA5zhKYf37O07Aw-AGlVO_6cgp73tcG0JCHlM8n2OIYS175/s1600/lang+part+2.png" height="320" width="186" /></a><o:p><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the second stanza, Ted Hughes creates the impression of
the soldier questioning why he is there: “In
what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations/ Was he the hand pointing that
second?” The words ‘cold clockwork’ suggest that time will move on whatever
happens to this soldier; that it is unfeeling and doesn’t care.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Many students that struggle to move from D-grade-type responses would probably end their analyses here. But, instead, you return to the second poster and choose a word or phrase from the second column in order to take the analysis a step further, e.g. '</span><i style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This could also imply that...</i><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">' or </span><i style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">'In addition to this...</i><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">' and then move onto another point about the same same quotation. This is what we came up with at this stage:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Further to this, the
mention of ‘the stars’ seems to suggest the universe, backing up the idea that time
is moving on, whatever happens on Earth at that moment. The soldier is realising
that his life is very small in comparison with the universe. The mention of ‘the
nations’ suggests the countries on Earth which are at war with one another.</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pretty good so far! But we’re not done, because we now need
to add the final layer, the piece de resistance: an interpretation of the
entire idea evoked by the quotation. This is where A* students come into their
own and the idea of interpretation might seem out of reach for many lower
ability students. However, when given a structure to work from I’ve found some
students are more than capable of coming up with some astonishing ideas: a
great example of setting the bar as high as possible and seeing what happens. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6aOMMz3gztMurmo1Y7PbYmIrc3f-AHQlVe_Sztb1r7j7lp1WPDYLdgbZx2wEC0QsmsiZI7asNkEwI2tJAs9cqrJjcr-wiuwmvhxChpMEa95dk5IYlAx9IvpvIzdaAOmx9KuiAiM3ze3BE/s1600/lang+part+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6aOMMz3gztMurmo1Y7PbYmIrc3f-AHQlVe_Sztb1r7j7lp1WPDYLdgbZx2wEC0QsmsiZI7asNkEwI2tJAs9cqrJjcr-wiuwmvhxChpMEa95dk5IYlAx9IvpvIzdaAOmx9KuiAiM3ze3BE/s1600/lang+part+3.png" height="320" width="203" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So we go back to the second poster and now choose a third
layer of analysis using the third column, one that allows some left-field
thinking and encourages imaginative thinking. “<i>Maybe</i>”, “<i>This could possibly
mean</i>”, “<i>Perhaps</i>”.</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It could be
that because the starters are suggestive rather than concrete, the students
feel confident in trying some original ideas out. Higher ability students are
much more confident about suggesting outlandish ideas; lower ability students
much less so: they fear failure and are embarrassed about getting things ‘wrong’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So we had a go at a third layer in our model paragraphs,
each student having an individual go and then we shared and discussed some of
the outcomes. They were AMAZING. Sheri’s in particular blew our minds so we
chose his answer for our model:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In
the second stanza, Ted Hughes creates the impression of the soldier questioning
why he is there: “In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations/ Was he
the hand pointing that second?” The words ‘cold clockwork’ suggest that time
will move on whatever happens to this soldier; that it is unfeeling and doesn’t
care.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Further
to this, the mention of ‘the stars’ seems to suggest the universe, backing up
the idea that time is moving on, whatever happens on Earth at that moment. The
soldier is realising that his life is very small in comparison with the
universe. The mention of ‘the nations’ suggests the countries on Earth which are
at war with one another.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hughes
may possibly be suggesting that the soldier is actually having an existential
crisis in this split-second, which is ironic as he now almost certainly is facing
death. Hughes could be emphasising here how pointless our lives really are as
humans when we are so tiny in the universe and the history of time. The fact
that war has made life even shorter is the cause of anger for Hughes, I think.</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As our fab LSA Andy commented as we were packing up, “If
someone had ever told me I’d even hear the word existential in this class, let
along used in such a powerful way, I’d never have believed them!” I agreed.
Sheri obviously has a great vocabulary, but he’s shy and often reluctant to
commit pen to paper. This simple structure actually gave students the tools
with which to construct sound analytical paragraphs but, added to that, an
opportunity to go a stage further and attempt to be creative. Other students’
work, although perhaps not in quite the same league as Sheri, surpassed
anything else they’d done in terms of analysis of language all year. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I’ve tried it with all of my classes now, including a Y8
cover class I’d never taught before in their study of The Lady of Shalott. They
lapped it up. Here are some example of the Dynamite Paragraphs written by the
year 8s in response the question: </span><i><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“How
does Tennyson create the sense that Camelot is a magical place in this part of
the poem?”</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.7pt;">
<i><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tennyson describes the appearance of Camelot
from the outside: “Four grey walls, and four grey towers/ Overlook a space of
flowers” This actually suggests that Camelot is not magical because the word ‘grey’
is repeated and we usually associate grey with something dull and quite boring.
However, the ‘space of flowers’ suggests beauty and colour as a contrast, which
might smell lovely in the air. In addition to this idea, Tennyson could even be
suggesting that, from the outside, Camelot might look ordinary, but if you are
on the inside looking out, it looks beautiful all around. Perhaps he is saying
that you only really feel the magic of Camelot when you are in there as it is
so special and surrounded by beauty.</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.7pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.7pt;">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And another
one:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.7pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.7pt;">
<i><span style="color: #660000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tennyson starts with the description: “On
either side the river lie/ Long fields of barley and rye”. This highlights what
surrounds Camelot and show how it stands out from the landscape of ordinary
crops. Although they do not seem magical described like this, if you imagine
it, it could imply that the crops’ colours of yellow and gold are beautiful. Tennyson
could even be showing the difference between the ordinary farmers and worker
and the people that live in Camelot. The farmers see the fields as part of their
normal day of work but the people living in Camelot would look out of their windows
onto the gold of the fields and the silver of the river, making it seem precious and magical.</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Dynamite Paragraphs are such a simple concept but they
highlight an area of analysis that seems such a leap for many students to make
and they’ve worked really well so far, including when practicing Paper 1
language questions that ask how writers create effects.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>I must give full credit to the lovely @kathdarliston85 who came up with the name Dynamite
Paragraphs when I shared this with her and the equally lovely @FranNantongwe when they visited the other day. Thank you both for your insights and views as we discussed this strategy. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>UPDATE:</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Just look what @JamieClark85 did with the idea of Dynamite Paragraphs!</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI3CjJzqLt-66QXIdkZk1KkZp_a5F1g5xY7OsS3W_8rE_SgMAsLX2atbMd0y6WLgvwfBIa7VVx5FlPBKkdHJNpca3aNc03B8xz2-L2D61O7pQFd9HlEQWnaPKHuhgTKPYpSjqZHijQWWrG/s1600/photo+(44).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI3CjJzqLt-66QXIdkZk1KkZp_a5F1g5xY7OsS3W_8rE_SgMAsLX2atbMd0y6WLgvwfBIa7VVx5FlPBKkdHJNpca3aNc03B8xz2-L2D61O7pQFd9HlEQWnaPKHuhgTKPYpSjqZHijQWWrG/s1600/photo+(44).JPG" height="454" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Just wow. I LOVE Twitter!</b></span></span>Rachael Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06865610908068882727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583358247896442807.post-66749256124688136402014-01-02T17:51:00.000-08:002014-01-10T04:32:58.833-08:00Love the ones you're with<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: large;">Developing lesson observations that help, not hinder</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="color: #444444;">I was
lucky enough to attend a great session hosted by Dylan Wiliam last year. Much
of what he had to say about improving teaching and learning in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region> resonated
and I’ve seen it discussed a lot in my Twitter explorations. I don’t know if
what I’ve read elsewhere is indicative generally, as I’m obviously selective to
a certain point with my blog and research reading, but the consensus seems to
have been positively in Wiliam’s favour on his keys points.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="color: #444444;">In
summary – and précising heavily - he had this to say about improving teaching
and learning:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Improvement
in student attainment requires improvement in teacher quality.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Improving
the quality of entrants takes too long so we need to ‘Love the ones we’re
with.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">The
changes that will benefit students all involve changes in teacher practice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">In
the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
as long as you go to school, it doesn’t matter very much which school you go
to, but it does matter which classrooms you are in.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Students
taught by the most effective teacher of 50 teachers learn in 6 months what they
will learn with the least effective teacher in 2 years.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">In
the classrooms of the most effective teachers students from disadvantaged
backgrounds learn at the same rate as those from advantaged backgrounds.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Good
teachers: know where students are; identify learning destinations; plan routes;
regularly check progress & adjust the course as conditions dictate. <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Students
who have a role in the assessment of their work achieve more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">All
ability students benefit from this approach but lower ability students benefit
the most.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -21.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Teachers
need to make ‘marginal gains’ through opportunities to explore and share
effective strategies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="ListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";"><span style="color: #444444;">What we can take from all this:<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span></span><i style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: 'Century Gothic';">“Teachers are at their best when they are their quirky, idiosyncratic selves”</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Century Gothic';">. </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Century Gothic'; text-indent: -21.3pt;">Some teachers’ weaknesses require
immediate attention; most students however, benefit from the development of
teachers’ strengths.</span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Telling
teachers what to do doesn’t work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Improving
practice involves changing habits which is hard.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Hardest
bit is not getting new ideas into teachers’ heads; it’s getting the old ones
out, so it takes time – but it doesn’t happen ‘naturally’.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Raising
achievement > improving teaching quality > improving CPD and basing it in
the classroom > <b>Teacher Learning
Communities </b>(model trialled in over 1000 schools)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><u><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Making
a commitment<o:p></o:p></span></u></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Teachers must commit to reflect
and aim to continually improve; focus ONLY on what makes a difference to
students<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";">o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Leaders must commit to creation
of expectations for improved practice; keeping focus on making a difference to
students; provide time, space, dispensation for innovation and improvement<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">Much of this won’t be news to many teachers and
leaders, especially those to regularly seek to reflect and improve on their
practice or who seek to support others in doing so. But there are many teachers
who can only look to Wiliam’s model and those of other commendable academics
and leaders with a wistful longing. Perhaps their school’s T&L group is not
run in the way Wiliam’s successful TLCs have done: maybe due to a lack of time?
lack of solid commitment? a lack of understanding of how teaching and learning improves?
Whatever the reason, for many teachers, their own school’s model of improvement
is not working for them: they might feel under scrutiny to teach a certain way
and the only way their teaching is measured is via the dreaded Ofsted-styley
framework. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> I’m guessing we could agree here that, in our experience, gradings
and judgements about teaching Just Don’t Work if you’re looking to
make improvements in the teachers you have and that you want to develop and
encourage, long-term. And long-term is the key. Change takes time and investment. We can't just morph our current teachers into brand spanking new and outstanding clones. Who would even want that, really? I've seen schools that try to develop a House Style in their teaching and in some cases they achieve very impressive results, as far as Ofsted are concerned. But they can also result in teachers that physically shake when a member of SLT enters the room and who find themselves on competency after more than 2 grade 3 lessons. We don't need an army of brand new teachers: we need support and nurture and investment in the staff we already have.</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Wiliam is so right when he says 'teachers are at their best when they are their quirky idiosyncratic selves'. Why on earth can't teachers who get good results be left to teach the way they do best - as share good practice with others? We should be giving our colleagues as many models of good practice as we possibly can when we seek to improve teaching.</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">Like Wiliam - and Stills - say, you need to love the ones you're with.</span></span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/HH3ruuml-R4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">A small number of school leaders are taking the brave
leap into non-graded lesson observations for their staff, in a drive to make
them developmental. But we can also agree here that this is, sadly, not the
norm, and too many school leaders still (rightly?) fear the spectre of Ofsted’s
judgements on their staff, their leadership, their schools that may result in a disastrous report. Therefore, their observations of individual
lessons are based on a framework designed to make whole-school judgements and
the results are divisive, confusing and demoralising. It’s a circle more
vicious than a sack of Siamese cats. So I’ve been thinking about how observations
can escape from judgements and gradings but at the same time invite meaningful,
ongoing and supportive improvement. No pressure then.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">I would still maintain here that the Lesson Study model
is a fabulous way to observe lessons and it certainly has a huge impact in
studying how students learn and behave in lessons. But there are certain times
when more focus is needed on the teacher and their practice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">So I’ve had a go at a record sheet; a pro-forma; a
progress starting point… I can’t quite come up with a name I’m happy with yet
without it sounding like something out of a David Brent sales seminar. But I’m
sure that will follow. For now, it’s called a Teaching Progress Observation
form. Any alternative suggestions for names will be gratefully considered.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">I’ve tried to work backwards, looking at what the key
success indicators might be in any lesson and boil it down to its simplest
form. I’ve also tried to consider how useful this form would be for trainee
teachers and teachers that aren’t used to observing lessons. Many teachers and
trainees feel very uncomfortable in judging other colleague’s lessons – and well
they might, when we consider how much a judgement can affect a person’s
self-esteem. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">The never-ending tick-boxes that go to make many observation
pro-formas strike me as particularly unhelpful in supporting and developing
practice: they are distracting in lessons and prevent the observer from seeing
what really goes into the vast part of the lesson. An inexperienced observer
can also find themselves getting a tad obsessed with making sure each box as
been ticked and, indeed, what constitutes a tick for the boxes they are least
sure about. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">So I’ve tried to keep things simple too. My belief is
that the evidence from a lesson observation should be a starting point for
discussion between the teacher and observer and an opportunity for the teacher
to begin to reflect on the lesson from another person’s viewpoint. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">These are the key questions I think might help this
process:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #444444;"><b><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">What
was the learning aim of the lesson?<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic';"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>(Either taken from the teacher’s LO; from
questioning students or from what you have gathered from observing.)</i></span></span><br />
<i style="color: purple; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: 8.65pt;"><br /></i>
<i style="color: purple; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: 8.65pt;">I don't think it necessarily matters if it's not displayed throughout the lesson, but it does need to be shared and explicit. Do students know what the point of what they're doing? If the observer isn't clear, the students probably aren't either. </i></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">To
what extent was the learning aim met?<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">How
did you/the teacher know this?</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>This is probably your AfL: a measure of what has been learned up to that point and, importantly, to what extent. It will need to be revisited if it's to stick and accumulate. It doesn't have to be an overly-conscious and arbitrary display for the observer but it's very important to gauge this before learning can move on, either in this lesson or the next.</i></span><br />
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">What
behaviour management strategies did you seeing being utilised?<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">How
successful were these from what you saw?<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Very often it's easy to ignore this, especially if there are few behaviour issues. But if there are, that's because it's well-managed and good habits have been established. By consciously looking for these habits and for signs that measures are in place when someone raises their head, it's easier to pick apart successful behaviour management. </i></span><br />
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Which
students stood out today?<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Why
was this?<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>I like this one because the teacher may not always realise that one or two students either dominate or slip off the radar. Is any one student's name used more than others? Why is this? And in the discussion afterwards, look at the students who might have needed additional support. Were they supported sufficiently in the lesson? The observer doesn't need to pass judgement on this though; it's a starting point for discussion.</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px;">These last three are taken from the developmental Learning Walk process I learned about on SLE training, detailed </span><a href="http://edulike.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/walk-on-through.html" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px;" target="_blank"><span style="color: red;">here</span></a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 15px;">. They seem on first glance a bit wishy washy, but after using them a lot in the past 2 years, I’ve seen how effective they can be.</span><br />
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Favourite<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic';"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>(What did you like about the lesson?)</i><span style="font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Who would't like being told their lesson contains something that's been favourited? Observers can include resources and displays here, as well as relationships, tasks or anything else they liked.</i></span><br />
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Feeling<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic';"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>(What feelings did you get about the lesson as
whole?)</i><span style="font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: purple; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is often the hardest to articulate. But how did the lesson feel? What was the atmosphere? Quiet and studious? Quiet and lethargic? Buzzy and exciting? Buzzy and out of control? Calm? Safe? <b>Too </b>safe? </span></i><br />
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic";">Question(s)<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic';"><span style="color: #444444;"><i>(What questions would you ask the teacher or any
of the students about today’s lesson?)</i><span style="font-size: 6pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: purple; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>This is maybe the area that would normally count as the target area, but because it relies on questions rather than judgements, it invites reflection. As I said in more detail in my Walk On Through post (linked above), this part offers the teacher the chance to justify their teaching choices. Sometimes there's an answer; it just wasn't made clearer in the lesson. And sometimes there's not, which can lead to a greater understanding of the process of teaching and learning. But it also allows explanations to be made that the observer just wouldn't have prior knowledge about, especially perhaps when thinking about differentiation (see also my post <a href="http://edulike.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/differentiation-whatever-people-say-it.html" target="_blank">here</a>). Much of the resentment that arises from classroom observations involves the teacher feeling they didn't have a voice or the chance to explain themselves. This process allows that opportunity.</i></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">I wouldn’t want this form to be any longer than a side
of A4; it’s not the story of the lesson in several chapters, it’s a starting
point for reflection.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">As I’m sure many teachers now know, there are plenty
of studies to support the use of diagnostic/formative feedback only for the
most part when assessing students’ work. Why should this be any different for
teachers? What are we if not grown-up kids? Wiliam cited one particular study
that looked at the effect of 3 control groups of middle school children who
each received a different type of feedback. The 1<sup>st</sup> group were given
tests scores only; the 2<sup>nd</sup> received scores and comments; the 3rd
received diagnostic comments only.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">When measuring improvement in attainment, the 3 groups
scored as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">1<sup>st</sup> group (s</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt;">core alone) – no improvement in achievement<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="color: #444444;">2<sup>nd</sup>
group (score & comment) – no gain. It was found that the score actually
negated the effect of the comment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="color: #444444;">3<sup>rd</sup>
group (comment alone) – 30% gain in attainment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="color: #444444;">Additionally,
when trying to raise student self-esteem, even NO feedback was better than
grades or praise without substance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">So for these lesson observation forms there are no
grades. At all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;">I’m going to give them a go with the new trainees when
they arrive in January and go through their usual round of lesson observations
across the school. And for those staff I’m currently coaching, I’ll suggest
them too. If anyone else wants to have a go as well, tweet me and I'll email you </span><span style="color: #444444;">a link to the first
draft of the form. Do let me know how you get on, and I will too.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: purple; font-size: large;"><b>Quick extra thought:</b></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: purple; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">What about if the observer didn't write anything in the lesson and just absorbed what they saw? Following the lesson, the observer and teacher could have a go at filling the progress form in themselves for 10 minutes, without consulting. Then compare and discuss. It would be very interesting to compare perceptions of the lesson from the observer's (and students' if they've been spoken to) with the teacher's. I'll definitely try this out in the next few weeks.</span></div>
Rachael Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06865610908068882727noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6583358247896442807.post-71307318140676731572013-12-28T04:41:00.001-08:002014-02-10T13:09:00.796-08:00#Nurture 1314<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here goes: a reflection of last year and a glimpse into the
next.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Last year</span></b> I think I came to terms with being an orphan,
which sounds a tad weird for a 40-somethinger, but anyone who has lost a parent
– or both - will be able to identify with the loss of roots that you feel as an adult who no longer has that tangible context. I also know that I am still a
darn sight luckier than many people who still have both parents, in that my
parents were grounded, supportive and inspirational. The fact that my mum
continues to influence my life 35 years after her death shows how important a
parent’s input is for any child. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The loss of my dad is rawer and much newer,
but it would be doing him a disservice to dwell in grief any more. His
sacrifices for my brother and me gave us opportunities that many children
simply don’t have. We did not have money, but we had resilience, aspiration and
pragmatism as models. He was an extremely easy-going, humorous and non-judgmental
man but could not countenance self-pity or excuses in himself; therefore we
learned to try not to indulge in these traits ourselves. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Leading by example
rather than direction or judgment is something I have tried to apply in the two and a half years since he died. I’m not very good at it, but I’m having a go.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Last year</b></span> I think I was a decent parent. I could always do
better, but I hate the idea that guilt is transmitted via the umbilical cord
and competitive parenting is signed up to on the first day of reception. I ain’t
buying it. Being a parent myself has shown me what my own parents gave to me. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I
could do with being a sight better-organised; life would be less stressed and
hectic; mornings would be generally less mental. So that should be a resolution
for me/us. But I won’t enter into that working mum guilt stuff that so many of
us feel that comes with being a teacher. I have made certain decisions – like the
one to work part-time – to give us a healthy work/life balance. I work locally
and I see a lot of my kids. I’m glad about that.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdXbjO_0kduP-n4r3vHhVE_vh0ecD5b71uNdcOkvU4piX14Ty6nrD4vT_cj5fkR_r74BqZfgvPFXydTatkaqhWyD6ykcKFxwuBV7M140s-m1simw0ymShDQFfxh1o3tW53pbnYCm86VWT_/s1600/not+me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdXbjO_0kduP-n4r3vHhVE_vh0ecD5b71uNdcOkvU4piX14Ty6nrD4vT_cj5fkR_r74BqZfgvPFXydTatkaqhWyD6ykcKFxwuBV7M140s-m1simw0ymShDQFfxh1o3tW53pbnYCm86VWT_/s400/not+me.jpg" height="223" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;">Sadly, not me but whaddayagunnado?</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> I recently sent my youngest
daughter into school in a Christmas jumper and her own clothes underneath. I hadn’t
noticed the bit of the letter that said school uniform must be worn underneath
the jumper. She cried for the 15 minutes it took me to go home, grab her
uniform and get back to school. ‘Naughty mummy!’ said the school receptionist,
slightly more gleefully than was necessary. Meh. No-one died and worse things
happen. I told my daughter I was sorry but she needed to stop crying and get on with
it. At the end of school that day she hadn’t forgotten about it but she had put
it into the context that it deserved.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Last year</b></span> I got too wound up with other people’s business. I
read a tweet part-way through the year that resonated beautifully: <i>“I’m much
happier since I realised that almost everything else isn’t my business”</i>. I
think my own frustration has come from a sense that I feel I would like to be
part of a SLT so that I can help shape policy and make the things I believe in
actually happen. However, SLT’s probably not going to happen at my present school, which has saddened and frustrated me for such a big part of the year, but there's just no room at the inn right now. However, I have started to realise that I’m in a job that many people
would give their eye-teeth for: it’s flexible, it’s creative and it’s starting
to have influence in a non-conventional way, not least through Twitter.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Last year</b></span>, at times, I believed my own press a bit too much. </span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq-QziUzQYjMtDmiE2OB0YQZDjn8JL6FT7vgwXF1u4DclNKwKqXZx31jdkFlm52DPgpRpfZCyHkrq9ram4MA1DsLEXCeKvsDV6jfNUulZmgrE5Xhal_3YL-538omjWZ4iyxKe5j_08oaVS/s1600/Captain_Zapp_Brannigan.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq-QziUzQYjMtDmiE2OB0YQZDjn8JL6FT7vgwXF1u4DclNKwKqXZx31jdkFlm52DPgpRpfZCyHkrq9ram4MA1DsLEXCeKvsDV6jfNUulZmgrE5Xhal_3YL-538omjWZ4iyxKe5j_08oaVS/s400/Captain_Zapp_Brannigan.png" height="400" width="227" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It’s easy when you acquire followers, re-tweets, blog-views and readers, to
think that you are All That and a Bag of Chips at times. Having a wider
audience and a forum for your ideas and views doesn’t mean you are right. It
really does help you engage with others, and I have loved the network of
contacts that has continued to develop via Twitter. Twitter is excellent CPD, but not because you become a better teacher simply by reading other people’s blogs
and tweets and opinions. Twitter creates better teachers because it encourages
reflection: it questions; it demands answers and possibilities; it widens
horizons. So none of us are the answer to all things education, but the fact
that we are discussing the shifting sands; fighting to establish a balance
between change and stability, innovation and rhetoric is very exciting indeed. I
have also found a voice and I like that some other people like what I tweet and
write. I’ll carry on reading, writing and collaborating and reflecting and
growing. It doesn’t mean that I'm better than anyone else. And it doesn't mean I’m right. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>Although don’t tell my husband that.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Next year </span></b></i>is going to be huge in terms of professional and personal
development. I, and some like-minded colleagues, have decided to create a
school-led CPD company founded on the premise that peer-led, developmental CPD
for teachers is the only way forward in achieving improvements in teaching and
learning. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There: I’ve said it. It has to happen now. </span></div>
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<o:p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I hope 2014 brings hope and happiness to everyone I know in
real life and via Twitter, and I hope the two worlds continue to overlap.</span></div>
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<span style="color: magenta; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Happy New Year!</span></div>
Rachael Stevenshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06865610908068882727noreply@blogger.com1