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BBC Live Lessons

17/11/2018

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A couple of months ago I received a message from the Production Team at BBC Teach; they're working hard to create a range of resources designed for teachers at all stages of their careers! The aim is to fill the gap left behind by Teachers' TV: a resource I remember vividly from my own training days.

Alongside their content geared for professionals, they also produce timely and effective lessons, broadcast LIVE, covering all manner of subject areas and events. The most recent one being Remembrance! And some silly sausage asked ME to be part of the panel discussion afterwards!

I cannot even begin to tell you how terrifyingly incredible the experience was. I spent the entire day convinced I recognised EVERYONE "off the telly" and I found myself giggling for no real reason other than at the sheer ridiculousness of it all: a real pinch yourself moment.
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Every single person I met was so kind and generous. It's fair to say - and clear to see - that I was utterly petrified, but every member of the team was so supportive and I was so grateful for their help. I always think that any adventure that makes your heart race is a good one, so this ticked all the boxes. Plus I met some truly inspirational people.

You've never seen such a well oiled machine! Travel arrangements, cameras whizzing, backstage crew, people in the gallery, assistants, make-up people...there was a specific person for every single item on the 'to-do' list. It was astounding. Check out the LIVE LESSON HERE, and catch up on the DISCUSSION PANEL with Ros, Susie and myself HERE.

​Thank you so much to BBC Teach for inviting me to take part in this. I was absolutely honoured. I learnt so much from the experience and I'm so thankful for the patience you took with me. This is easily the scariest thing I've ever done, and I'm so grateful.
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Book Look

10/11/2018

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Our first term together was full of great lessons, both for staff and pupils; learning together is so important - I'm not sure a working day goes by without coming to a new realisation!

As discussed a couple of weeks ago, our first topic was titled Darwin's Delights. You can peruse our Topic Books here. As a result, I received a few requests to browse through the rest of our learning, so here it is! I have used today's date to help me randomly choose the books to show you.

In English this term we have aimed to learn about: colons and semi-colons, layout devices, subjunctive form and passive voice, subordinate and relative clauses to name a few!

To learn about these, we applied them to writing inspired by our text (Sky Hawk, Gill Lewis) and topic (Darwin's Delights), which saw us creating: information texts on ospreys, Darwin and the Galapagos; diary entries from Iris and Darwin; and persuasive, formal letters to the Gambia. Check out the topic books to see the finished products! 
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In Maths this term, we have aimed to learn about:
Number and Place Value (including ordering numbers, comparing numbers, partitioning numbers, negative numbers in the context of money and temperature, finding the difference between positive and negative numbers, and addition and subtraction of positive and negative numbers).

The Four Operations (including formal column addition and subtraction, long multiplication, short and long division, finding common factors and multiples, prime numbers, and using the order of operations - BODMAS - to help solve longer calculations).

(Sidenote - having followed the cohort up from Year 5, I'm finding a lot of the Maths is repeated? It's providing a strong base from which to plan, because I know exactly what we covered last year, but I therefore I also worry I'm missing something? Let me know!)

We are tremendously proud of the children and everything they are achieving on this journey so far! Thoughts and feedback welcome! 
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Reward

17/6/2017

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When levels were taken away, schools were left at the mercy of large companies claiming to use teacher feedback to generate products. While I'm sure they were tried and tested, many were rushed out in a race for profit against necessity. 

Developing systems for assessing reading and maths is easy; write a set of questions and have a program that does something with the data. However, systems for assessing writing are trickier.

With a lot of my posts recently regarding teaching writing, I wanted to develop a system that reflected my ethos.

And today, it's finally ready to share with you, for free!
Why?
I found with many purchasable systems, they relied on a very basic, unfounded belief that all children make equal gains at timetabled stop-points within the year. As current teachers, we know that simply isn't true, yet in the business of proving progress, you'd be required the tick the box regardless, in order to make the algorithm give the result you needed on the analysis. I wanted a system that better reflected how children make progress in writing, while also giving leaders what they needed.
How?
Many systems work on a 3 tiered system, likely stemming from the end of Key Stage judgements. Regardless of vocabulary, they mostly work with synonyms of: below, at, above (age expectations), with a number or letter associated. And that's it. That's the bit I had a problem with. 

We have all been in the position where you have made an initial judgement on a child's attainment, but when you've come to the next assessment period, progress is abundantly clear, but you're not willing to award the next band yet. So, on paper, they've not got any better?
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My systems works on the simple idea that you can reward children for the smaller steps in progress that they make. By awarding points 0 through 10, you can always credit the children for their inevitable progress, and the overall judgement is based on what percentage of the skills (at whatever level of capability) they are completing successfully. 

But...
Don't ask, "But how do you know whether to award them a 4 or a 5?" Use the same part of your brain that decided whether they were at or above, or a 3b or 3a. It takes a few turns, but it always has done.
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(They haven't all regressed back to zero. As we approach the end of the year, I will enter my Summer data)
What?
Below, I have provided an Excel and PDF for every section of the English curriculum.

The PDFs can be used as posters, stuck in books, checklists, record keeping etc.

The Excel documents allow you to record the children's achievement for each objective. You can filter by groups, and it shows an analysis of each term, for easy comparison.
year_1_writing_targets.pdf
File Size: 66 kb
File Type: pdf
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year_2_writing_targets.pdf
File Size: 70 kb
File Type: pdf
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year_3___4_writing_targets.pdf
File Size: 78 kb
File Type: pdf
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year_5___6_writing_targets.pdf
File Size: 80 kb
File Type: pdf
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writing_assessment__year_1_.xlsx
File Size: 222 kb
File Type: xlsx
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writing_assessment__year_2_.xlsx
File Size: 226 kb
File Type: xlsx
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writing_assessment__year_3___4_.xlsx
File Size: 232 kb
File Type: xlsx
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writing_assessment__year_5___6_.xlsx
File Size: 235 kb
File Type: xlsx
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AOB:
  • You can see some specific posts about improving progress in writing HERE, HERE, and HERE (this features almost everything you need!) 
  • I learnt a tonne by doing this. I'm aware there are some big analysis questions that it might not be able to answer at the click of a single button, but I gained so much knowledge from experimenting with formulas and setups. With all the research that went into making it, it's been a brilliant development exercise for me.
  • I am extremely thankful for everyone in my school who has given it a go. Thank you so much for your time and trust. Whether we use it again or not, I'm so grateful for you testing it out for me; I've learnt a lot
  • The creation of this has been the prompt of some big revelations to me. I used to be quite fluffy with regards to assessment; why can't we just allow them to get better? However, as I mature in my teaching years, I'm starting to see the necessity of some form of data, some form of universally understood language, which undeniably needs to be numerical. More on that soon...
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One

20/5/2017

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BOOKED IS ONE YEAR OLD! I can't believe it.

This week, marks one whole year of my first ever app, and I couldn't be more proud of it. I'm also shocked, that in the year that's gone by, I've not blogged about it before!

As teachers, we often get asked by eager parents, keen to help their child progress, what they can do to help. Now, I don't know about you, but when it comes to reading, I've always talked about the importance of comprehension; understanding what's been read.

In it's simplest form, it's vital that you ask your child questions while reading. There won't always be a clean-cut answer, but the fact you're delving deeper into the text, discussing different topics and engaging further with the book will be a real benefit.
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But what sorts of questions should we ask?
And that's where I came up with Booked! I wanted to create a bank of question stems that could be used by families when reading together. Adding to that, I wanted to encourage children to read with their families more, so I wanted there to be a game element too. That's where it started.

One Year Later...
  • Booked is supporting learners and their families in several locations around the world.
  • Booked has sold in the UK, Norway, USA, United Arab Emirates and Australia!
  • Booked has been featured in the Primary Times magazine!
  • Booked has been added to various school newsletters, promoting reading together at home!
  • Booked has been renewed in the App Store, and I have plans to make it available for Android users too (thank you so much for your patience).
​...and there are bigger plans afoot.

​But for now, I wanted to share some resources.

PROMOTE BOOKED IN YOUR SCHOOL!
Available below, are some free posters that you can use to spread the message of Booked in your school. A black and white version is available too!

Also, if you'd like to add Booked to a school newsletter, contact me here, where I can send you a blurb, screenshots, anything you like! 
Poster (Colour)
File Size: 393 kb
File Type: pdf
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Poster (B&W)
File Size: 411 kb
File Type: pdf
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Booked has over 150 adaptable questions, split into Fiction and Non-Fiction, ideal for sparking discussion over every type of text! Many of them feature completed examples, to help you ask the right questions to make the best progress!

Don't worry, if the question doesn't quite fit the topic you're reading about, there is helpful Switch button that will give you a new question to use, and you can tap it as many times as you like!

Below is a sample of 20 questions available for you to download. Print them using "Multiple Per Sheet" to make handy question cards for a variety of uses:
  • In class, peer-to-peer,
  • In intervention work, adult to child,
  • In small group work, teacher to learner,
  • At home, families together
Or, alternatively, print them full page and have them as prompts in your book corner!
Booked (Questions)
File Size: 2377 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

While I'll never recover the costs of creating the app, I loved every step of the project, and I fully intend on doing it all again soon; it's an expensive hobby, but I really enjoy the process. I'm so grateful for everyone's support - the feedback has been so kind and generous. I can't believe, after making a little sketch in my notebook, that I now have something selling globally; this has been such an adventure. Thank you for everything. Mr N. x
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Pudding

14/1/2017

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In a previous setting, I remember a big debate forming part of a staff meeting; how can we change the phrase 'Book Scrutiny' to something less demonic? For many, these two words send a shock of fear down the spine. However, I fail to think of many professions that don't encompass some form of Quality Assurance, and ours is no different. Moreover, it shouldn't be. It's just, as per usual, the strategies employed have often left a bad taste in people's mouths, resulting in negative connotations of such actions: scrutiny, observation, audit...sweating yet? Don't.

The silly thing is, unsurprisingly, whatever you call the Quality Assurance in any profession, its primary objective remains the same. Therefore, it's not the idea of being scrutinised that we don't like - it's the idea of 'failing' it. Furthermore, it's the proceeding steps that cause the discomfort; what happens next? That's the bit we need to get better at. It's common sense to check the quality of a product. Your car goes for an MOT, restaurants leave you a comment card, and I know you've heard of Trip Advisor. It's a necessity. Often misconducted.

My post today comes with a couple of aims:
  • The first is to bravely (stupidly on such a global scale?) show you a sample of my English books; the beginning and end of a term. Perhaps, if we were all more open to letting people, virtually, into our classrooms, we wouldn't fear this idea of scrutiny. We all know we secretly want the feedback to push us further.
  • The second aim is an attempt to further show you the proof of many of my previous posts (the links to which will be scattered below). In recent years, based on a range of different experiences (both positive and negative) I have found myself becoming a stand for the teaching of writing. A stubborn man, I'm gently carving my practice. I believe my methods work, but I'm likely blinded by my own pride in my kids. You're impartial.

Below, you will find 2 pieces of writing, each, from a small group of children in my English class. They will be presented as a series of paired sliding photos; one pair per child.

Background Information:
  • I teach, what would be considered, the 'lower set'. Hold fire; that's a contentious concept I'll be blogging about soon.
  • The first photo in each set was from our first day; their first piece of writing for me, for which they had no support. It was useful for me to see what they're capable of as a first resort (similar to my Entry Quiz system in Maths).
  • The second photo in each set was the last piece of writing from last term for which, again, they received no support. It is, however, the product of the quality first teaching between the 2 points - I guess that's where I nervously hope I've had impact.

Here goes:
My writing process is very much based on Pie Corbett's methods. I first starting writing about him here. Check it out!
I teach writing using a three step process. I presented each step in 3 separate blogs that you can read by clicking below:
  • Part One - Immersion.
  • Part Two - Imitation.
  • Part Three - Innovation.
I was once asked how I plan English. After giving a terrible verbal answer, I wrote it down. Give that a read here and here.
All of my teaching relates to what I call the ToolBox. Whether displayed or otherwise, you can read more about that (with free resources) here.
Now I feel scared. I wonder if I'm actually brave enough to press POST.

Disclaimer. I'm more than aware we are very much 'working towards' age expectations. However, I am so proud of how far they have come in a single term, and I am really looking forward to building on our strong foundations. I am pleased to be developing a class of young writers, who are seeing themselves as such; writers. We will add further tools to our ToolBox in the coming terms. Let me know if you'd like updates!
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Plan A (Part 2)

10/12/2016

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Next, we move to start planning a class version of the finished product. We remind ourselves of the criteria we have been learning about, and I model the thought process behind planning the piece. Following a short modelling of the writing, using the plan we have made together, the children use their plans (loosely based on our class version) to write their own. Most often, the writing at this stage all reads fairly similarly, because they are working from a similar template featuring similar ideas. I walk around this lesson sharing great examples from the children.


Finally, I take away all support. Using a completely blank plan, the children write an independent piece of writing, having had experience of the Success Criteria, the planning process and using a plan to write. The writing at this stage will all be completely different from each other because they have worked on it completely independently. I stay put this lesson and twiddle my thumbs, praying for a worthwhile outcome.
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While we have been working on collecting words and phrases, constantly asking for the purpose of prepositional phrases and adverbials, I have also been reading a little bit of the book each day. We ask ourselves, what could happen next? As a class, we plan a chapter using a template, with encouragement to note down the words and phrases we have been collecting. I photocopy this half-completed template (which also gives space to include ‘other tools’, to remind ourselves that, although we are learning about prepositions and fronted adverbials, there are lots of other strategies we can include). I model my writing using the plan, the children also write theirs.

A few days have gone by and the children have had a chance to read and respond to any feedback they have been given about their writing (from myself and others). As before, I have continued to read the book and we are up to a new point. What happens next? Using a blank plan and no modelling, the children have a go at creating their own piece of writing.
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This process relies on them having paid attention at each previous stage in order for them to apply their learning of each skill at the end; the middle section is undoubtedly the most important, where we see the effect this skill has on a piece of writing. Visually, the learning process is extremely clear and the children are able to articulate the progress they have made. Each lesson starts with revision of the skills already covered, ready to add a new one to the list.
 
It does sound extremely long winded, with an easy response being, “How do you have time? There’s so much to cover!” But my equally easy reply would be that it’s important to invest time. As long as you have a rough plan about where you’ll teach each skill, and in what context, you’re safe in knowing you’ll get the coverage you need, while gently adding new learning to the ever-increasing list of features young writers are expected to exhibit.
 
I have found this method to be extremely valuable because it gives the learners more stable ground to move forward; investing time into teaching, and designing specific, purposeful practice opportunities, saves time banging on about the same missing features. The challenge as the teacher is to ensure the skills you have taught previously continue to be used, despite changing the focus to something new. For example, while I taught you about time connectives through writing instructions, there’s no reason you can’t continue to use them in your recount, when the new skill I’m teaching you is how to use conjunctions. Equally, I could teach you about using adjectives in your narrative to describe the setting, but I will still expect to see them in your non-chronological report about a creature, when I’m focussing the learning on the purpose of paragraphs.
 
Constant revision and visual clues help the children embed the learning; this is why I refer to all the skills as the ‘tools’ of writing. However, that’s nothing without you! Use personality, make jokes, anecdotes and actions for them to pin their knowledge to. For example, I always talk about using sights, sounds and feelings in writing; I point to my eye, ear and heart every time I say them. I know that when I say ‘feelings’, I can ask my children ‘Just emotions?’ and they’ll all point to their arm and reply ‘No, physical feelings too!’ I’m amazed they’ve retained so much, but I guess that's through spending time learning something, and repeating the quality we're looking for, rather than expecting sufficient competency after the first model.
 
Dear Student, I’m so sorry my explanation the other day was so poor, I hope this is a little better. I know what I mean! :)
​Dear Colleagues, I'd like to know what you think; have I overthought something so simple, or do you do something similar?
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Plan A (Part 1)

12/11/2016

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A short while ago, I was trying to explain how I plan English to a student; I found it extremely difficult. This concerned me because I felt as though my poor attempts at explaining were reflective of my approach, rendering my methods useless, yet I was also extremely aware that no idea is original, and that there must be others who plan in the same way I do (just they can articulate it in a clearer voice).

So my post today comes with two aims:
  1. The first aim is complete self-indulgence; I need to rectify the unacceptable definitions I scrabbled through the other day...although I may not do any better here.
  2. The second aim is to let you know how I plan, as it may be something you can add to, or want to try yourself.

I’m a big believer in teaching a concept before expecting the children to apply it. Many will do both at the same time; model a series of skills while applying them. Personally, I’ve found it difficult to do this. I prefer to break down a process and teach the steps, then model how to use the steps to create success. In my class, this often means that Success Criteria can be the same for a few days in a row, as we gain confidence and learn about each piece of the criteria. Over time, I have found my children more able to retain their learning through this method, as I try to make the learning more explicit before attempting the applying.

To illustrate, I’m going to give a commentary of my decision making process, alongside a fictitious sequence to demonstrate what I mean.
First of all, I choose a book as a vehicle for our learning; a book to inspire different types of writing. High quality texts allow us to use the characters, settings and situations. We spend the term enhancing our reading skills, while learning aspects of writing too!

​
Secondly, I decide what it is I want the children to learn. When first meeting them, I most often want to recover the very basics. This enables me to refer to these basics in a mutually recognisable way, adding them to our Tool Box. Once these simple metaphorical plates are spinning I begin to choose age appropriate skills to teach.

I choose a type of writing that I want them to eventually example these skills in. While I’m not teaching them the genre, I choose a text-type that would best show off the skill I’m going to teach (although once we have experience of it, I will continue to refer to the same skills across other writing too, outside of the text-type, using the Tool Box as a reference).

​
I write an example of the text type, ensuring I use lots of instances of the skills I want them to learn about. I use this in the lesson to explain what I’m going to be teaching over the next few days, before we have a go at writing our own. The children label the examples I have included, ready to begin to refer to as soon as possible.

Although they haven’t ‘learnt’ about them yet, the class are ready to tell me ‘what I’m looking for’. Now I can teach the different pieces I need them to learn. Depending on how many things I’ve chosen to teach them, and how complex they are, the next duration could be varying lengths. I try to fit in lots of chances to collect words, phrases, read extra examples…, and then have the children apply each thing separately to improve their experience of each piece of the criteria. This also gives them more variety when it comes to independent writing as they’ve had longer to think of ideas.
My favourite book is ‘Stormbreaker’ by Anthony Horowitz. It’s such a great hook and once they’re into the first one, they have a whole series to get through! I also like to use snippets of the film alongside the writing.
​


In this example, let’s say I need my Year 4 children to learn how to ‘express time, place and cause using prepositions and prepositional phrases’, and ‘use fronted adverbials to provide the reader with additional information’.

​
Lots of parts of language are best represented in various non-fiction, but for this I am going to choose narrative. I will be asking the children to write the next chapter and, alongside the other skills we have learnt so far (that I expect to see present) I will be specifically looking for prepositional phrases and fronted adverbials.


​
I have written my own version of a chapter, and I have filled it with examples of prepositions and fronted adverbials. We spend a lesson where I talk to them about my thought process as I was writing, we highlight the examples I have used, and also spot ‘other tools’, to reinforce the idea that our writing skills are transferrable.

The last lesson ended with me constantly placing my flat palm on my head every time I said ‘preposition’ and slicing my palm through the air when I spoke about a ‘fronted adverbial’ (I may also tap the back of my head when I explain these tools give the reader more information). These lessons start with me asking for the purpose of these tools, providing writing where they haven’t been used. We discuss the effect that has been lost, before adding examples of our own to see how we can change the effect the writing has; cue ample post-its as we celebrate great examples.
To be continued...
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The Sharpest Tool

15/10/2016

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If you had a penny for every time you said, "Where are your capital letters and full stops?", how much money would you have? Probably enough for a comfy retirement.

​While learning is learning, and teaching is teaching, the ways to teach and learn differ depending on the subject matter. These are my most recent thoughts:
  • ​Maths, for example, is a series of updates. It doesn't matter what age you are, addition is ALWAYS addition, you just update how you do it. Moving from a number line, to organised columns for example. The same is true for all the operations.
  • ​English, however, doesn't get updated. It gets added to. At different stages, you learn new skills, but you must retain and apply all the previous skills successfully.

In my opinion, this is the biggest challenge when teaching writing; it counts on a good grasp on all the previous teaching, in years gone by, for them to stably move forwards, otherwise the gaps get greater. (It was this thought that prompted my most successful blog to date.)

So, I needed to find a way for my children to retain all of the things they have learnt. This need became greater when I found simple mistakes in their writing that needed to be addressed, and scanned their English books from last year. I noticed (almost to the exact date) they had done a similar 'gap filling' lesson the year before; a clear sign that their previous teacher found they were missing the same simple skills that needed to feature. If I'm honest, my heart sank a little; seeing that some of these children STILL hadn't grasped the very basics, despite their teachers' best efforts year upon year, was irritating. However, this is where our supportive families and a growth mindset come in.

I had 2 options:
​Option 1 - accept these children 'just can't do it'.
​Option 2 - ask around, research, experiment, engage, involve...find a different solution, and hope that it sticks with them. If not all of them, some of them.


​Option 2 is essentially a teacher's job description; filter out those who don't understand something and find a way to help them engage with it, storing it to memory! Option 2 is it! Here was my solution:

​I decided to refer to almost every skill as a tool, and that we were adding it to our Toolbox. In order to keep a record of all the tools we were learning, I gave the children a 'Tool Box' to keep their tools in!
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A simple sheet stuck in their books provided a 'one-stop-shop' for everything they're learning, easily referred to when the focus of the lesson is different, but they still want to include a skill from before.

​It also serves as a good Assessment for Learning tool, as I can review their toolboxes to see what they have a suitable understanding of, and what definitions/uses may be slightly off.
Each child takes charge of their toolbox; they all look different, and I see them adding to it all the time!

​However, I also found they needed space for all the Magpie-ing good authors do. Cheers Pie! For this reason, I also wanted to give them another space to keep track of words and phrases, applicable to lots of writing. I used the trusty VCOP method to organise this, and provided another layer of their tool box to keep these ideas in...
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Teaching is a stream of constant modelling, examples and sharing ideas. Therefore, when completing shared writing, I also wanted my own tool boxes that I could refer to! I add to them, just like the children do, in front of them so they can see (we don't want random posters to appear, without reference, and become wallpaper). My Tool Boxes went on the display boards...
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Thus far, I have found these as extremely useful tools for teaching. The displays, twinned with their own versions, encourage independent learning; seeking answers, tweaking ideas and sharing strategies that others might want to use.

​As with everything, this won't be effective for every child (I will need to work hard to find other solutions too) but it's important that we try new things to filter out those who don't understand, in order to help them move forwards.
​
​I need to improve my own use of them, how they are organised and what order I teach the skills in, allowing for sensible opportunities for application in well-planned chances to write for a range of audiences. It can be tricky to ensure they remain relevant, but so far they're proving to be really effective. I need to find a more efficient way to integrate them into my lessons, and I would LOVE any ideas you might have? You can download your own copies of these below...
writers_tool_box.pdf
File Size: 165 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

magpie_sheet.pdf
File Size: 156 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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TeachMinisterN

12/6/2016

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A while ago, I wrote about the time I showed my class various articles, regarding teachers' requests for an extended data submission date, in light of the late receipt of the exemplification materials. I showed them the video message, from our Education Secretary, addressing teacher's concerns regarding assessment, where the MP clarified some of the surrounding myths.

​It wasn't a lesson on indoctrination, as one might think, but my hook for a unit of Poetry.  
The lesson continued with a stocking-filler I'd been given years ago; a joke present "because I'm a teacher", a book of comical exam mistakes (the most commonly seen example being the picture on the right).

​I'd spent the weekend bookmarking the other examples I wanted to show the children, and we discussed why the person might have written their answer.
  • "Are they wrong?"
  • "​Why might they think..."

​Leading to..."Who decided this was incorrect?"
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We talked about the pros and cons of exams. I explained how I use them as a teacher. They said why they think they're useful for life. We shared experiences of tests and how we feel while preparing for them, taking them and hearing our result; the downs and the ups.

​After that, we read this poem, by Michael Rosen. It's his hauntingly accurate Guide To Education.
​
Later, we read the poem "The Minister for Exams" by Brian Patten. We discussed the message behind it and I was careful to ensure they understood its apparent breaking of 'the rules'; I hadn't spent months banging on about proper use of capital letters for them to take this example as gospel. We noticed how, while punctuation was used normally, capital letters appeared at every new line, rather than new sentence.

​We read the poems, and I showed them this video too...

The Minister for Exams from Ant Tyler on Vimeo.

While Patten's is a little more sombre, Rosen's penultimate line lightened the mood a little - "Education is getting better because there is much more testing". It really struck a chord and I was very impressed with the children's ideas and responses to the poem; they had a lot to say.

​I was using the poems, video and discussion as a stimulus for children to write their own poetry inspired by Patten and Rosen, but I felt like part of it became a life lesson; a chance for them to think about their future and how to get there, beginning to understand some of the hurdles that they might need to overcome on the way; this strange idea that, sometimes (despite our own best efforts) our successes are completely down to whether someone else agrees with our answer!

​Our next lesson started with me teaching the difference between open and closed questions. We gave examples of each and talked about how an open question can have many answers, and that our answer might differ from someone else's...so who is correct? If anyone? Apples or leaves?

​Later, we started to make up our answers to open questions, thinking about how we could include our different writing tools: metaphors, similes, etc.
After our annotating of the poem, rehearsal of open and closed questions, it was time for the children to write their own. Many of them came from a real place. It was so interesting to read their final verses. Patten uses a road-sweeper as the result of his 'failure', and we took some time to discuss our own ideas of a job we would dislike. The whole point of the unit was to discuss how differing opinions are part of life, and job choice was the same. We were careful to ensure your idea of an awful job, might actually be someone's dream career (my younger brother always wanted to be a bin-man; he used to sit at the window and wave through the glass!)​
  • One girl disliked the idea of working in a shop; she didn't want to pick up all the packets that people knock off the shelves.
  • ​Another couldn't think of anything worse than being a Doctor! Too much gore.
Picture
While we 'ticked off' a few Poetry objectives, we gained so much more. We learnt that the discomfort of exam season is almost universal, but in a sense it's a rite of passage, the storm after the calm. We learnt about how people will always have different opinions to ours, but it's what we do about it that's important. We learnt how, sometimes, we can give our all, but if that key person disagrees, it might not get us where we need.

​Not fair? Ask the Minister for Exams. 
​Let's teach children the idea of a Plan B and equip them with the skills to cope with possible failure, because there are times in life when we could have done no more, at the hands of an unknown authority.
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Immerse, Imitate, Innovate - PART THREE

21/2/2016

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Note: As you will see by the dates in the photos, this entry has been a long time in the making. It is written out of overwhelming pride in my learners; I am so pleased with what they achieved in such a short space of time and I have been really looking forward to sharing it with you.

RECAP - As I have previously written, Pie Corbett's system of 'Immerse, Imitate, Innovate' when planning for writing, is one of my favourite approaches. For me as a teacher, it makes complete sense (although not the only approach - one size doesn't fit all, remember!) To present my interpretation of what he means, I am going to explain the unit of work I planned, provide photos to illustrate what the children did, and I'm hoping you'll see the learning journey they went on in the process - each set of photos shows the work of one child, throughout the whole process, in order.

​So, the children had read countless versions that I had written, experienced applying their learning surrounding expanded noun phrases and the uses of commas (required through varying our openers), and we were nearing the end of term. Needless to say, I was nervous about what this last stage would produce; had I wasted the last 2 weeks of learning time?
Innovation
Picture
Naturally, the time was coming for the children to be completely independent; the proverbial stabilisers needed to be removed. But there was one final thing I wanted them to learn; PACE. ​As teachers, we try to find ways to explain things. From the sublime to the ridiculous, it's a world of acronyms, costumes and metaphors. To explain this one, I went for the latter.

​Subtly, I had completed all of my writing in 5 paragraphs, and the notes I had made of the real ghost's plans (taken from 'The Canterville Ghost') split equally into 5 sections (funny that!) Every teacher knows where this is going; some sort of story mountain. When discussing the failed plans we had already read about, we had got into the pattern of identifying that each plan has a problem; this was my way in to help them plan their own chapter independently.

I have always called this...
S   T   R   E   T   C   H   I   N   G          I   T          O   U   T
I explained to the children that our lives are fast paced; we are constantly on the move. When we give our own anecdotes, we only ever give the actions, the movements. And, unfortunately, their writing is often the same. However, the most popular books are the ones that transport the reader somewhere. If the author only relies on actions, everything will be happening in a blank space by a stick person with a name; the reader's imagination would have very little to use. The most successful authors make use of the expanded noun phrases and the senses to bring the world on the page alive. They can even control your breathing with their punctuation. Like this. See?
To help them S-T-R-E-T-C-H their writing out, I designed a planning sheet that asked them to give the shorthand version of what would happen in their chapter, the anecdotal, spoken version, if you will; this gave me a chance to teach them what 'synopsis' meant.

Once that was out of the way, I could use the bottom section to ask them for the written version; the version that could make them millions of pounds if it were published!

​To model how I expected them to use this, I wrote my own plan, on the same template, but only filled in 3 columns. By themselves, they planned the final 2. When it came to writing, I wrote and printed the first 3 paragraphs (featuring the notes I had made on the plan) and explained that they needed to write the last 2 paragraphs (using the notes they had made on the plan). In effect, we had worked together to write a chapter.
Picture
The final stage is fairly obvious. I gave the children a blank plan and an entire lesson.

​They were well rehearsed in articulating what was expected of them; the qualities that would make their writing more engaging, with a real focus on the effect on the reader.
In conclusion...
In conclusion, I was so pleased with what my learners had achieved in just a couple of weeks. From the first piece of writing, to the last attempt at their chapter, I saw a real improvement in both content and stamina. For my class, this approach really helped; it was sensible, engaging and step-wise, leading from an enjoyable text involving lots of discussion and opportunity to imagine.

​The children were given time to think and space to share as they came up with their ideas and I tried hard to help them achieve. While these objectives will need constant revision (especially as they are designed to be mastered across 2 years) I really feel like they have made strong gains against their starting points so far! Next time we tackle narrative, I imagine expanded noun phrases will need a refresher, but my big focus will be dialogue. I am aiming to continue to drip-feed existing and new punctuation through my next non-fiction, always adding transferrable tools for them to choose from.

​Without question, the best bit is their own realisation at how much better their writing became. Doing the writing at the start, and a piece with the same brief at the end, was the perfect way for the children to see improvement.

​A great confidence builder and positive promotion of writing!
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