wellington 2016 great teaching
TRANSCRIPT
Great TeachingInformed Wisdom in the Heat of Every Day PracticeTom Sherrington
Headteacher, Highbury Grove School, Islington
@headguruteacher
#educationfest
Most lessons I ever teach…
Via @jprofNB
Teaching and Learning Priorities at HGS 2016/7
Explicit KnowledgeReading: a planned daily dietCultural CapitalQuestioningFeedback and improvementExcellence ExhibitionsRhetoric; oracy as pedagogy
Contemporary educational ideas all my staff should know aboutVisible Learning; John HattieFormative Assessment; Dylan WiliamCognitive science; Daniel T WillinghamDesirable Difficulties; Robert BjorkAn Ethic of Excellence; Ron Berger‘Below the line’ learning; Guy ClaxtonGrowth Mindset; Carol DweckPygmalion Effect; Robert Rosenthal
The basics matter
After millennia of battle the surviving G’Gugvuntt and Vl’hurg joined forces to attack the Milky Way in retaliation. They crossed vast reaches of space in a journey lasting thousands of years before reaching their target where they attacked the first planet they encountered, Earth. Due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was swallowed by a small dog.
Key findingsThe two factors with the strongest evidence of improving pupil attainment are
1. teachers’ content knowledge, including their ability to understand how students think about a subject and identify common misconceptions
2. quality of instruction, which includes using strategies like effective questioning and the use of assessment
A few key ideas from research: Memory: space and interleave content; test and
re-test and re-testMetacognition – model the thinkingGrit/ Growth mindset – applied to specific
strategies – can be developedHomework: yes it works – in specific forms and
conditions and not in othersThe Pygmalion Effect happens – students rise
or fall to meet your expectations.
Most data systems:
Grammar = Knowledge
Dialectic = Exploration
Rhetoric = Communication
Know, Explore, Communicate
Balance: Staples and DeviationsMode AYou ExplainYou ModelThey practiseCheck and give
feedbackTest them. And again
a bit later.
Mode B• Explore; Discover• Hands-on Experience• Inspire some AWE • Go off piste• Make things; do
projects; set open-ended tasks, give choices,
80% 20%
Differentiation and ChallengeMUST, SHOULD, COULD learning objectives. To a good approximation, it’s sensible to give
everyone the same diet aiming for the top but then do THE GARDENING:
Top End, SEND/EAL , Everyone else
Behaviour – It’s all about motivation and habits
Stay RAMPed: Relaxed, Alert, Motivated and Positive
Signal, pause, INSISTAffirm and follow through:
‘You establish what you establish’
Bill Rogers
Language of Choice Use the system; it’s there to support youFix the damage.
Literacy Say it again but better; set standards for speech New words: rehearse, apply, recall, reinforce Do lots of reading in class; model reading.
Hard WorkBursts of Glorious Silence; Time limits; Completion
goalsDeveloping a growth mindset requires some early
success; Reward effort and perseverance over performance
Construct opportunities for students to achieve excellence.
Homework: You’re not doing it for me, you’re doing it for yourself
QuestionsEveryone answers; use think time; use pairs or
names or whiteboards; probe and probe againGo meta – how do you know what you know?
Feedback Mark lean; feedback early Insist on responses. Only do marking at the rate it can be actioned; don’t
drownRedraft via critique: simple, powerful. (Ron Berger)
Per ardua ad astra
Thank You
@headguruteacher