Think Learning 6
SRC Learning and Teaching Newsletter
6 Steps to active learning - Meeting the new criteria and delivering progress in learning. Steps 1-3 in this edition.
Sharing the criteria for success is essential for any learning experience. If you (or your students) do not know what they are expected to strive for, how do you (or they) know that they have achieved success?
The following is a summary from Jackie Beere's latest publication.
Remember – there is no one methodology to be followed for achieving outstanding learning and teaching. There are many approaches to doing this. What counts is that learners achieve to their full potential and that the learning and teaching approaches adopted by the teacher have a real impact in raising achievement.
So here are the Ofsted criteria for an outstanding lesson
Grade Characteristics: Quality of teaching, learning and assessment (Revised Jan 14)
- Much teaching, learning and assessment for all age groups and learning programmes is outstanding and rarely less than consistently good. As a result, the very large majority of learners consistently make very good and sustained progress in learning sessions that may take place in a variety of locations, such as the classroom, workplace or wider community.
- All staff are highly adept at working with and developing skills and knowledge in learners from different backgrounds. Staff have consistently high expectations of all learners and demonstrate this in a range of learning environments.
- Drawing on excellent subject knowledge and/or industry experience, teachers, trainers, assessors and coaches plan astutely and set challenging tasks based on systematic, accurate assessment of learners’ prior skills, knowledge and understanding. They use well-judged and often imaginative teaching strategies that, together with sharply focused and timely support and intervention, match individual needs accurately. Consequently, the development of learners’ skills and understanding is exceptional. Staff generate high levels of enthusiasm for participation in, and commitment to, learning.
- Teaching and learning develop high levels of resilience, confidence and independence in learners when they tackle challenging activities. Teachers, trainers, and assessors check learners’ understanding effectively throughout learning sessions. Time is used very well and every opportunity is taken to develop crucial skills successfully, including being able to use their literacy and numeracy skills on other courses and at work.
- Appropriate and regular coursework contributes very well to learners’ progress. High quality learning materials and resources including information and communication technology (ICT) are available and are used by staff and learners during and between learning and assessment sessions.
- Marking and constructive feedback from staff are frequent and of a consistent quality, leading to high levels of engagement and interest.
- The teaching of English, mathematics and functional skills is consistently good with much outstanding. Teachers and other staff enthuse and motivate most learners to participate in a wide range of learning activities.
- Equality and diversity are integrated fully into the learning experience. Staff manage learners’ behaviour skilfully; they show great awareness of equality and diversity in teaching sessions.
- Advice, guidance and support motivate learners to secure the best possible opportunities for success in their learning and progression.
Searching for the "X" factor.
What are the magic ingredients that will elevate your lesson to outstanding?
- Much teaching, learning and assessment for all age groups and learning programmes is outstanding and rarely less than consistently good.
- The development of learners’ skills and understanding is exceptional.
Recipe for success
The following (in no particular order) are some of the other essential ingredients required for an outstanding lesson:
- Differentiating for various groups of learners.
- Engaging and motivating students.
- Developing independent and resilient learners.
- Delivering skills and content essential for passing exams.
- Assessment as part of developing progress in learning.
- Challenging the most able learners.
- Using technology and TAs to make an impact on learning.
- Effective collaborative learning and peer review.
- Effective classroom management.
- Sharing the criteria for success.
Step 1 - Be in control, right from the start
Set up the learning environment
Students should expect to start something as soon as they come into the classroom without you even directing them. This strategy should cover the time it takes for all students to arrive. It neatly shows how you are completely and effortlessly in control.
Get students in the habit of doing this every lesson by setting little challenges, questions or tasks to do on the board that they KNOW they are expected to get on with. These can be anagrams, puzzles, true or false statements, recaps of the previous lesson, unexpected questions for debate etc. Think of ways to reward effort.
Step 2 - The Starter
A starter should stimulate curiosity and open mindedness and prepare the brain for learning. These can be random or linked to a subject.
A thunk
For Example:
- If you always got what you wished for would you always be happy?
- Where does the sky begin?
- What has the most freedom - an ant or a school child?
- Is a person who has a face transplant still the same person?
- Which is heavier - an inflated or deflated balloon?
(Thunks from "The Little Book of Thunks" by Ian Gilbert)
Students can think of the next question or make up their own thunks as part of the starter.
A curiosity
- A box, which they have to guess the contents of.
- A wig or hat that someone can try on and guess the character it belongs to.
- A message in a bottle. Students have to guess the message and who sent it.
A creative challenge
For example:
- First pop song you ever heard and the one you heard most recently.
- The 3 most popular babies' names in 1999 and the three that will be most popular in 2020.
- Guess the most common and least common food that everyone in the class had for breakfast.
Step 3 - Set objectives or learning outcomes - engage them in the learning
Describe, simply and EXACTLY what you want the students to be able to do by the end of the lesson.
This is the crucial moment when you engage the students in the exciting task ahead and explain that this will make a difference to them personally. To succeed you must communicate your expectation of success and your personal excitement about what they can achieve and why it is important.
How can you convince the students that learning is a journey and that they have an amazing capacity to progress during this lesson? There are three parts to doing this:
- Explain (with passion!) what success in achieving the objectives will look and feel like. (The "brilliant outcome").
- Show them that achieving the objectives is part of a learning journey by using a continuum line.
- Set one or more personal skills objective.
Draw a continuum line that leads to the "brilliant outcome" they are heading towards in their learning journey. At the start of the activity students decide where along the line they are now. After the activity they then mark where they are now, to demonstrate what (if any) progress they have made in the lesson towards the outcome. The same is done for the PLT skill, helping the students towards self assessment regarding this skill. These are just as crucial for an outstanding lesson.