Beyond Levels

The #LearningFirst conference was a fairly accurate insight into my classroom manner:

• Ramble on for far too long.
• Seek out every possible tangent.
• Give the learners next to no time to process anything.
• Wave them off to break time.

It's a winning formula, I think you'll agree, alongside my many other flaws. 

My presentation consisted of 5 points that I described as putting learning first in my classroom, and as part of the package of nerves I delivered, I want to share them here in installments too. So let's begin with the first...

Believe in Life After Levels!

Despite the new assessment regime being in action for a couple of years now (and the first round of 'the new SATs') many still struggle with the disappearance of beloved levels. In a strange way, they gave people a sense of safety. However, in order to put learning first, a life beyond levels needs to be embraced and taken full advantage of. Here's a rundown of my actions in a world where levels existed (some of this was the result of of me being an inexperienced teacher, but I strongly believe you will likely relate):

This photo shows an early page from a notebook. I have a fresh notepad every year, and it's my life from September 1st, to the end of the school year. You'll notice that a mix of inexperience and pre-decided labels gave us the license to group our children from the moment we met them. Needless to say, within a year or so in my career, this changed quickly, even with levels still in effect. 

This approach - grouping pupils by level - then led us to teach as such; for those pupils sitting at the roughly 1A table, we needed to start seeing evidence of 2C criteria across their books. Equally, those at the 3B table, needed to start showing 3A qualities.

The trouble with this system is that they'd need to be taught separate things. The idea being we couldn't teach the 'higher' stuff to the 'lower' pupils because they'd miss important stepping stones, and we couldn't stick with 'lower' kids because then we wouldn't be stretching the 'uppers.' Of course, we have ourselves and often a TA, but that would still leave 3 out of 5 tables unsupported.

So what would we do?

Simple. In a climate where we would be judged on an "average points score", if we pushed the uppers as far as they could go (moving further to the right on a grid with a similar design to below), their accelerated progress would make up for the lack of appropriate teaching the ones in the red still weren't making.

Genius! Although upon reflection, also an embarrassment. For those struggling to understand Life Without Levels, how about we swap images like above, for ones like this (for clarity, I haven't designed this because I think diagrams are a necessity. I'm hoping it could illustrate my ideals):

Within your year group, you focus on your designated programme of study.
You teach your programme of study to such a high standard that there is little way your learners can get it wrong.
As you teach, you spot those who find it difficult and you focus on them, while you supply those excelling within your standards with a variety of problem solving activities in which to apply the learning. Change the question, flip the approach, apply a real-life context. Constant revision.

Under no circumstances do you move them on to the next set of criteria, as this risks losing understanding for the sake of pace, leaving them insecure for the next teacher. It also means you're taking yourself away from the ones who need you the most.

​Don't refer to it as 'holding them back' - grow up. 

Assessment - you're looking for evidence to tell you, "To what degree are my learners able to..." and then you use this information to plan ahead, to delve deeper into the concept - which will bring me nicely onto the second point next time.