Blog Archives

Take Charge

11/3/2017

January's #LearningFirst conference is but a distant glimmer in the past, although new dates have recently been added! Watch this space. Today's entry reveals the second part of my workshop. If you missed the first, you can catch up here.

Under a levels culture, the process of assessment often felt like it was forced upon you; everything geared up to an 'Assessment Week' where a set of numbers would be generated, pigeon-holing both you and your children. It connoted judgement, fear and malpractice. However, by putting learning first (within the new curriculum), of which assessment is very much a necessary part, you can genuinely do a better job.

Under the old National Curriculum, and associated strategies, I would sit for hours, writing the objectives out, fitting them to the weeks I had (because we are under a strange illusion that coverage is more important than grasping anything) and then plan and teach based on the timings I had meticulously worked out.

Now, I'm not saying that coverage isn't important - you have to learn how to manage the time you have available - but I was determined to find a more efficient solution.

Strangely, I considered asking the children what they already knew, before teaching them anything! By this, I don't mean a fluffy 'KWL' grid (or whatever they're called). I decided I would sit therm with a set of questions that I would have originally planned a series of lessons on, to see what would need more attention. I call it an 'Entry Quiz', and the findings are invaluable to me as a teacher:

I have discovered, in some cases, some objectives can be completely ignored (or can be used to form other challenges that don't require teaching) because my children have shown adequate capability.
I have noticed common misconceptions through their answers, which helps me nail the input of each lesson.
I have adapted my questions to cause them to keep encountering the aspects they find most tricky, in order to get the most practice.

All in all, it's imperative that you take charge of the teaching and learning cycle, including assessment, in order to make the best progress possible. It's ludicrous that a diary date dictates 'when you assess' because you know you're formatively assessing all the time, because how else would you teach without knowing what they need to learn? Be transparent, call it Test Week.

The same is true of English; it's a total waste of time to plough through the objectives in your year group when there are many pieces of criteria that aren't embedded, especially while we are still in this transition phase, with some year groups having not completed the new curriculum from the beginning.

For this reason, I developed my own assessment system that I felt would work. There are lots of creases still to iron out, but I'm grateful for the staff in my school for taking it on board and being so patient with me.

Again, take charge. Many of the systems out there are created by people who have no idea in what capacity it will need to be used. So take a little time to think about what you actually need, and create your own!

Finally, to the lovely person who requested them after the workshop, I have compiled a collection of my Entry Quizzes, and you can download them below. I hope you find them as useful as I do!

entry_quizzes.pdf
File Size:	269 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

0 Comments

#AskMrN

4/3/2017

0 Comments

Was there ever a question you wanted to ask your teacher? Did they really live in the cupboard? Where did the class hamster go? Here are some I've been asked recently...

How did you become a teacher?
There are lots of ways to become a teacher these days, but the route I chose was to complete a teaching degree at Canterbury Christ Church University. It took 3 years and a lifetime of debt, but I wouldn't change it for the world. I made friends for life, and was given a chance to form my own opinions on how I think education should be. To be honest, newer routes certainly give you more experience before you start full-time work, but I knew this is what I wanted to do, so I wanted to study the theory of it too.

If you weren't a teacher, what would you want to be?
At secondary school, when I was looking for work experience, I was searching for design based careers. I wanted to be someone that created the staging for concerts and films; I used to build them out of Lego, trap doors and everything! However, simply looking for experience showed me how unstable it was as a profession, and I wanted to be able to support myself. I like teaching because I can still be creative, just in a different way.

Why do you give us hard work?
"Nothing worth having comes easily." If you can understand this now, your life will be changed forever. It's my job to challenge you, to make you think, and to enable you to make the best progress possible. If I only set you work that you can already do, you'll always stay in the same place. By setting you challenging work, I'm pushing you to higher goals. If you find it tricky, good! I'm also there to support you in achieving the targets I set for you; all of your trusted adults are! You'll thank us when you're older.

Who was your best friend when you were younger?
When I was your age, at primary school, there was a group of 4 of us (2 girls, 2 boys - including myself) who used to pretend we were in a band. We had a corner of the playground that we would always sit in, copying the dances of bands we saw on TV. Steps, S Club 7, look them up on YouTube. However, as we grew older, we found ourselves in different places and lost touch. The power of social media however, tells me they're all doing very well. Perhaps we will reunite one day for one last dance.

What happens if you don't know the answer?
Nothing. Although I suppose that depends on what the question was! If you mean questions that you ask in class, nothing happens. If I don't know, I will tell you I don't know, and I'll go and look it up - I would expect you to do the same! I could make the answer up I guess, but that won't be helpful to anyone. No one can be expected to know everything, and anyone that pretends to know everything is fibbing. It's always acceptable to say you don't know. Just make sure you're willing to be wrong!

0 Comments

Take Charge

#AskMrN

Teaching and
Learning
Blog

Categories

Archives

Take Charge

#AskMrN

Teaching andLearningBlog

Categories

Archives

Teaching and
Learning
Blog