Breakfast Teachmeet
A chance to share great practice
What is it?
If there is anything you would like to offer please get in touch, likewise if there is anything specific you would lie to learn about please let me know.
You can access the form below to highlight anything you are interested in or will be happy to deliver.
Session 1
We looked at what the different stages were. Pre, Uni and multi structural being the information gathering stages. Relational being the qualitative stage where sense is made of the info. Finally extended abstract where students start to use their new knowledge to impact on other things, really taking the information and looking at it differently.
An example of use was given through a basketball session which helped some and other ideas were shared.
For more info get in touch or search for SOLO taxonomy online.
Session 2
Progression arrow
Ideas board
Traffic Lights
Session 3 (2nd December)
The strategies in this section can all link up or be used sequentially, depending on what you need to get out of a text and the ability level of your class. They can also be used in isolation.
Before reading:
‘Active reading’ is really important. This means that students do more than just decode the words on the page. Instead, they form opinions about what they’re reading, they look out for certain information and they anticipate what will come up in a text. In order for this to happen, students sometimes need to do certain things before tackling a long stretch of text (such as research on the internet using Wiki, for example).
What to look for:
Students being able to identify the main information in a text and knowing the difference between key points and finer details.
Using the layout of a text purposefully: can students use headings, bullet points, an index, a contents page etc?
Strategies to use:
Using only the title or topic of a text. How to do it:
Give either the title or key word of the text you’re going to be reading. Ask students to mind map all the ideas they associate with it. Check by asking them to tell you what they think the text is likely to be about. (E.g. ‘New year’s resolutions’ could evoke ideas about habits, health, the validity of making them etc.)
Groups/pairs should then generate a long list of vocab they would expect to find in such a text. Take ideas and put them up on the board, distilling them down to what the class feel will be the most relevant or key words. Check that they know what they all mean (could use the ‘rating vocab’ method mentioned above).
Issue the actual text and get students to scan the text for their anticipated words, highlighting where they are. Some they will find; others they won’t. Discuss what they now think they should expect to discover in the text and roughly where/at what point that information will crop up (based on the physical placement of their words!).
Generating questions. Before reading a text, tell students what they text is about (topic) and whether it’s informative or giving a viewpoint. They then decide on 3 questions they would hope to have answered by reading the text. Once they have read it, they then try to answer those questions.
Skim reading either prior to reading a text for the first time or as a way to recap a text read in a previous lesson. How to do it/explain what you want from them:
Tell the class you don’t want them to read the text properly or word for word. You will only give 3 minutes for them to look at it.
Tell them to look at: any headings and subtitles, images or diagrams, the first and last sentence of each paragraph and any words in bold or italic.
Ask them to then tell you (or each other) what they think the main gist of the text is. You don’t want small details, just key ideas.
Scanning. This is used to locate specific information. Students can use this technique either after reading a text through in detail or beforehand, depending on the nature of the learning/task. How to do it/explain it:
Make sure the students know what information they are looking for. This can be what, when, why, who and how questions.
Explain that when scanning, they are looking out for certain words or phrases and that certain things can help them to locate them:
Do the topics of subheadings help them to narrow down their search?
For ‘who’ questions, capital letters will take them to names.
For ‘when’ questions, numbers, days, months (also indicated by capital letters) will lead to this info.
For ‘why’ – words like because, due to, consequently, as a result, hence, therefore and so will help.
Explain that once they have found a seemingly key word, they must then read its whole sentence or the one before/after to see if they have found the right info.
QUADS grid. Use the grid before and during the reading of a text.
How to use it:
Before reading a text, students are to write down any questions they hope to have answered in the QU column.
They then record the answers to those questions in the A column as they come across them.
The D column is used for noting any further details about those answers.
The S column in used to note the source. This is useful if searching the web and using multiple texts. It should make the point to students that you can (and should) use different texts to locate information, rather than just copying it in chunks.
Identifying key question words in an exam task. A very standard practice of getting students to break down an exam question in to its key words. Ask them to locate:
Commands (verbs): what are they being asked to do? Once they have identified this (explain/describe/discuss etc.), you can point them towards the phrase grids containing stock phrases for articulating their ideas according to the command.
Context: what wider concepts/issues etc might they need to consider in answering the question?
Content: what is the topic? They must stay relevant.
Session 4 (9th Dec)
What is stopping the learning?
Get students observing you
Plan the questions
Session 5 (16th Dec)
Flipped learning is being used to support maths by creating instructional videos on the iPad and sharing them via a blog so that students can watch content before the session.
Session 6 (13th January)
Using Pixl to help students James Layland
Session 7 (20th January)
Setting up a blog to share work with parents Ruth Bassett