8/10/2019 SHS TL Newsletter 8

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Sheffield High School

Newsletter

Something to share? Email me at s.campbell@she.gdst.net . The best bits are the bits that come from you!

“It's not much of a tail, but I'm sort of attached to it.”

“

Thele st boring bookabout successful schools

I ’

ve read in a while”

Teaching & Learning

Roy Blatchford is Director of the National Education Trust and waspreviously Her Majesty’s Inspector of Schools (HMI) in England, withresponsibilities for school improvement and for the inspection ofoutstanding schools. In his book, ‘The Restless School’ , he tries toidentify the common features of great schools that ensure theirsuccess. He talks about the restless nature of excellent teachers,departments and schools: they are very secure in their systems, valuesand successes, yet simultaneously seeking to change and improve.

“ These schools look inwards to secure wise developments; theylook outwards to seize innovation which they can hew to theirown ends and, importantly, make a difference to the studentsthey serve. ”

The book is relevant to any school context; it acknowledges thecomplexity of driving school improvement and challenges the readerto reflect on what really matters. The author clearly has a passion forlearning and a great understanding of the features of high performingclassrooms. The book distils his own reflections and gathers researchand advice from other sources; it contains some useful checklists forteachers is a recommended read which may provide some food forthought.

Nina Gunson

“The things that makeme different are the

things that make me.”

I hope this is not true at SHS …

In this issue:• Book review and the Wisdom of Pooh • More teaching ideas than you can shake astick at• Year 11 reveal the wonders of level 2projects

Next time:• Heard of SOLO taxonomy? NikkiBamforth will reveal all. Let us knowif you use it too – or perhaps analternative way to structure lessonsand measure progress?

Welcome to the first T&L Newsletter of 2014-15. Sorry for the wait, but it ’s here at last. Like Christmas comeearly. Um. Anyway, we ’ve kept it short and sweet. You can browse the teaching ideas on the centre pages overa hot cuppa, find out what Nina ’s been reading in her “spare time ”, and take a few pearls of wisdom from theinimitable Pooh. If you have time to read only one thing, check out Ian ’s article on the back – makes you realise(if you didn ’t already know) what a good thing these Project Qualifications are for our girls. SC.

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I often play bingo where I give the pupils 16 key words and askthem to write them down in a 4 by 4 grid. I then read out thedefinition and if they have that key word they cross it off and thefirst person to get Bingo wins.

James Speed

Gold nuggets Here are some great ideas , old and new, to help you try something new in your Golden Lesson*.Thank you to everyone who contributed their ideas. Let us know what you try and how it goes!

*Golden what? In the week commencing 17 th November , we’reasking every teacher to pick one lesson in which to try somethingcompletely new. Anything goes. Be bold . Take a risk. Give it a go!Ideas from teachers

on Twitter… #UKedchat

Using a visualiser is brilliant – giveschildren instant feedback, shows goodexamples, boosts self- esteem… -@Educationchat

I give out Millionaire lifeline cards e.g.ask the teacher – aim is to still have it at theend of the lesson. - @ElKel99

@MykWagstaff #ukedchat hands upbanned – like to use more randomselection methods so all learners prepareanswers

Plenary: everyone has to give word linkedto lesson without repeatin g what’s alreadybeen said. Great 4 thinking & listening! -@StrictTeacher99

Couldn’t teach without mini whiteboards – instant feedback – gives all chn a voiceand a chance to show you their opinion -@teacherhut

I love using’ cogs ’. Ch sit in = numbers withinner and outer circle. They discuss withmember from other circle. Then innerrotates - @primarypete_

Been getting children to recognise when theare in the ‘comfort’ , ‘challenge ’ or ‘danger’ zone, when they are working #ukedchat -@mr_chadwick

New to Twitter? Look out for our Twitter

special edition coming out soon – in themeantime, try following @TeacherToolkit and @UKEdChat . Regular Tweeter? Let us know how you useTwitter and who you follow.

SC

When the class is starting a new text (novel, poetryetc) to help me get an idea of the students’ priorknowledge I do an A-Z starter activity. I put thetopic up and ask the students to list a word for eachletter of the alphabet that they associate with the

topic. I usually give them 5 minutes to get as many aspossible. It does focus their minds and the challenge of trying for the more difficult letters does make themthink. This can then be further developed by askingstudents a random letter e.g. what did you put for ‘g’and then get them to explain their thoughts.

Amanda Davies

I quite like using “ beat the teacher ”. Put some information up onthe board or in a hand out with intentional mistakes on. Then getthe students to spot the mistakes and correct them. Just becareful if giving out in note form that students definitely correct allmistakes before filing the work!

Stephen Coote

SPOT? SNOT? Or not…? Sarah Groombridge uses “SPOT”(self, partner, other, teacher) toscaffold her students ’ responsesto being stuck. I like “SNOT”(self, notes, other, teacher) – you can read more in my blog . These simple memory devices,like “3B4ME” also, can help tobuild good learning habits.

Stuart Campbell

2 for the price of 1… Find my partner . Half of thestudents have questions, half theanswers - move around in silenceto find their match!Call my bluff - 3 possible

definitions, students work in pairsto decide which one iscorrect. Good as a plenary tocheck understanding.

Charlotte Puddephatt

Z

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“Pooh," said Rabbit kindly,"you haven't any brain.""I know," said Pooh humbly.”

Does Pooh have a fixed or growth mindset?

To revise vocabulary , key terms or definitions – Producesmall cards with the word or expression on one side andthe definition on the other. Place these in a box orbag. As a starter or at the end of a lesson, ask a girl totake out one card and read one side to the class. Theothers have to provide the information from the other

side.This can be done in pairs or groups and girls can also use itto revise on their own. Once words are well known theycan be discarded. Meanwhile new cards can be added asnew words are encountered.

Phillipa Lockwood

Brilliant BOGOF1. Plasticine . Students have 25 minutes to summarise a whole topic (e.g. Medieval medicine)using the plasticine. Then, a photo is taken. This photo then acts as both a topic divider in theirfiles, and a revision tool. 2. Similar to above, but as a plenary, modelling balloons help to test a girl’s subject knowledgeand creativity.

I have both if teachers want to borrow. Phil Oakley Consideredmodelling?

Have a set of lolly sticks for each class, with pupils’names on. You can then choose who will answer questions give them out and have a pupil run round

collecting them, as the class answer a rapid set ofshort questions/volunteer answers. This lattergets a lot of hands up.

select random partners to come and do a task atthe front.

choose people for games (looks fairer) choose new working groups for a one-off

situation (I wouldn’t choose long -term groupsthat way) Anonymous

Me too! But also… I always have problems remembering names in new classes and using lollipop sticks is quite good. Theywrite their names on a lollipop stick, give them to me and I select them at random during class discussions /questions.However, for a little flavour , the girls write a quick phrase on the opposite side which I will read out if theycan get the question right ("I love One Direction", "You're the smartest eva", etc). Grows a little tiresomebut good for learning names at the start of the year.

Works best for Y7, just about at Y8, too cool for this silly business by Y9+.Anthony Behan

Put a little Donkey in your Evaluation … In the pursuit of effective AfL, a way to help our students understand the rules of thegame, or simply a gimmick to aid recall, mnemonics and acronyms are as good a toolas any. With Business and Economics it seems the hardest skill for students to master isevaluation . Here’s how a donkey can help students remember some of the keytechniques for writing good evaluations in this subject, and perhaps others. Whatother tricks of the trade do we use to help our girls scaffold their answers orremember key topics?

Andy Redfern Curious how Donkey can help? Click Here for more details …

2 more … Diamond 9 – nine things/statements on cards (whateverreally) order them in the shape of a diamond: 1, 2, 3, 2, 1The answer is ... what's the question? Good for thinkinglaterally / generating discussion.

Charlotte Puddephatt

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With their AQA Level 2 Projects completed, I thought it might be an opportune moment to ask our Y11 studentsabout their experiences. Eight or so kindly volunteered their time; the audio interviews can be found on the SHS‘Look Who’s Talking’ blog (shslwt.wordpress.com , or via link on the Realsmart homepage), but here I’ ll try toprovide a synopsis.

Choosing a topic was easy for some, whilst others needed a little more prompting, but the sources from which theydrew their inspiration were varied and included books; their supervisors; lessons and subjects; news and magazinearticles and the arts.

During the course of their studies they enjoyed the sense of freedom the Project provided, whether in being able tofollow a subject about which they were passionate, being able to work in a way and at a pace that suited them,being able to delve more deeply into a topic than was usually possible or having a choice about the way they couldpresent what they had learned. Even writing an essay became more fulfilling since it was on a topic about which theycared and they had carte blanche in the contents and format. Although presenting to an audience caused somemeasure of stress and induced nervousness in some, having the chance to share your findings proved particularlyrewarding, as did working with a teacher on a ‘more equal footing.’ This was summed up succinctly by one interviewee as

“...to be your own boss and learn what you wanted to learn freely and

not have to stick with the curriculum .” Certain aspects of their study came to them less easily and proved tough to overcome, like time-management , theapparent mountain of work, making sense of an abundance of information and overcoming issues with lack ofmotivation. Yet the interviewees recognised that meeting these challenges provides benefits they would carryforward eithe r into the next years of their education or across into other subjects they’re currently studying. Theyhad become more committed to managing their time, working to deadlines and more self-disciplined. They notedhow much better they had become at constructing an essay in other subjects and that the strategies they used toform an argument had improved. Their self-confidence , patience and persistence had all been boosted, reassuringthem of their capability to work independently.

Although the girls were never asked about technology , severalsuggested how integral it had been to their success, yet made nosong and dance about it. To them technology was just one of thetools they used and so perhaps provides evidence for the degree towhich it is increasingly embedded? The Internet clearly played a bigpart, providing access to information (and people!) they mightotherwise not have been able to reach so readily. We might bemoanthe ease with which students access information through theInternet, but if it is not available in their school or public libraries,then the Internet might indeed be the only option available.

I wonder then what we might take away from this? Are some of thebenefits that working towards the Level 2 Project applicable morewidely?

Ian Guest

“When you see someone putting on hisBig Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”

Ian Guest spoke to some Year 11s about theirexperiences completing their Level 2 projects …

I’ve listened to some of theseinterviews and they are

fascinating . Check them out! - Ed

What an adventure for Year 11