Demonstrating Learning …..in 20 minutes Yvonne Lewington

Demonstrating Learning

…..in 20 minutes

Yvonne Lewingtonwww.FromGoodToOutstanding.com

• Criteria

• Evidence

• More learning, less teaching

The amazing colour-changing card trick - Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNF8AzjC21s

The amazing colour-changing card trick – Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo7lZrJ0hmY

DECEPTIONPER

OFSTEDObserving learning When inspectors observe teaching, they observe pupils’ learning. Good teaching, which includes high levels of expertise and subject knowledge, with the expectation that pupils will achieve well, enables pupils to acquire knowledge, deepen their understanding, and develop and consolidate skills. Inspectors must consider whether:

•work is challenging enough for all pupils and meets their individual needs •pupils’ responses demonstrate sufficient gains in their knowledge, skills and understanding, including in literacy and mathematics •teachers monitor pupils’ progress in lessons and use the information well to adapt their teaching •teachers use questioning and discussion to assess the effectiveness of their teaching and promote pupils’ learning •pupils understand well how to improve their work.

Not all aspects of learning, for example pupils’ engagement, interest, concentration, determination, resilience and independence, will be seen in a single observation.

Grade descriptors – Quality of teaching in the school Outstanding (1)

• Much of the teaching in all key stages and most subjects is outstanding and never less than consistently good.

• All teachers have consistently high expectations of all pupils.

• Teachers systematically and effectively check pupils’ understanding throughout lessons

• The teaching of reading, writing, communication and mathematics is highly effective

• Teachers and other adults generate high levels of engagement and commitment to learning.

• Consistently high quality marking and constructive

• Teachers use well-judged and often inspirational teaching strategies, including setting appropriate homework .

ACTIVITY

Divide the Ofsted criteria cards into two groups:

• Those which are easy to demonstrate in a lesson

• Those which are longer term and demonstrated in other areas.

ACTIVITY

For those which are easy to demonstrate in a lesson:

Record on sticky notes what you would be looking for as evidence for them

Things you never want to say

(or hear) after a lesson observation…

They missed the best bit.They missed the best bit.

If only they’d stayed a bit

longer.

If only they’d stayed a bit

longer.

They didn’t see the start.

They didn’t see the start.

But they didn’t see

where it was going

But they didn’t see

where it was going

They didn’t see the end.They didn’t see the end.

We didn’t have time to

do the plenary…

We didn’t have time to

do the plenary…

What do observers see?

Start

Middle

End

TeacherPupils

TAs

TeacherPupils

TAs

TeacherPupils

TAs

Ofsted mythsMoving English forward: action to raise standards in English March 2012, No. 110118

Inspectors believe that the effectiveness of learning in many lessons was limited by some common misconceptions about what constitutes good teaching and learning.

These include the following.


Pace. There seems to be a belief that the faster the lesson, the better the learning. Teachers too often concentrate on the pace of activities rather than the pace of learning. Any activity, needs to last only as long as is needed to ensure effective learning.


The number of activities. Some teachers appear to believe that the more activities they can cram into the lesson, the more effective it will be. This is often counterproductive, as activities are changed so often that pupils do not complete tasks and learning is not consolidated or extended.


Over-detailed and bureaucratic lesson plans. Teachers are encouraged to plan individual lessons in considerable detail. Inspectors sometimes note that excessive detail within these plans causes teachers to lose sight of the central focus on pupils’ learning.


An inflexible approach to planning lessons. School policies sometimes insist that all lesson plans should always follow the same structure, no matter what is being taught. In addition, teachers often feel that they should not alter their plans during the lesson. Teachers need to have the confidence to depart from their plans.

The key consideration should be the development of pupils’ learning rather than sticking rigidly to a plan.


Limited time for students to work independently. A constant criticism from inspectors was that pupils rarely had extended periods to read, write or discuss issues in class. Indeed, inspectors observed lessons where pupils were asked to self- or peer-assess work before they had been able to complete more than a sentence or two. No doubt, teachers feel that they need to be actively engaged when they are being observed. However, this shows a degree of misunderstanding as inspectors’ priority is above all to evaluate the quality of pupils’ learning in lessons.


Constant review of learning. Significant periods of time were spent by teachers on getting pupils to articulate their learning, even where this limited their time to complete activities and thereby interrupted their learning! Pupils need time to complete something before they can valuably discuss and evaluate it.

It isn’t about you!

Engagement or enthrallment?

You’re the architect…

Not the builder!

What are they supposed to be learning?

What are they supposed to be learning?

Sometimes it’s like this…

R.U.D.E. objectives©

What do they need to be able to:

Remember?Understand?Do?Extrapolate?

So how do we know if they’re learning?

Input

Output

Processing?Processing?

2 16

?

To know if learning is happeningwe have to “shake” the box!

To know if learning is taking place, learners have to do or say something.

Dialogue and activities need to generate informative outcomes.

“Shaking” the box

What impact will the dialogue or activities have on the learners’ thinking?


What information about learning are the activities you’re planning going to tell you?


Activities for generating informative outcomes

• Application• Questioning• Creativity• Problem-solving• Discussion• Explanation (pupils!)• Question generation• Synthesis• Evaluation• Re-presenting



Bloom’s revised

taxonomy

Knowledge

Comprehension

Application

Analysis

Evaluation

Creativity

Activity….or learning?

Task or learning?Application or learning?

Remembering or learning?Practising or learning?

That’s a good question! ?

Discuss in pairs/groups what is it about the question that puts it into that category?

• What response could you expect?• What thinking processes will the learner have

to employ?• What would you know about their learning

from that question?

Sample questions (Bloom’s)

Your turn!

• Analysis• Evaluation• Creativity

Devise three short tasks or questions for each of these Bloom’s levels for your (or a chosen) subject area.

Ever wonder what they’d notice?

Asking the right questions

How will the questions impact on the learner?

What will you know about the learner from their response to the question?

True/False/Maybe

Activities:• Question to consider • Statements to discuss• summarise the last lesson in

140 characters• write questions based on

last lesson.• Ask a general question to

elicit prior learning – if full stops were banned, what would be the impact on the world?

• Set a problem

Activities:• Discussion• Problem-solving• Creative tasks• Explanation tasks• Collaborative tasks• Dilemmas to resolve• Evaluative tasks• Comparative tasks• Linking learning

Activities:• Students reflect on learning • Summary activity• Would you end this lesson

with ?.,! Why?• Link to other subjects.• Where might we go from

here? • Taster for the next lesson…• Would you recommend this

to a friend?• What would you add?

Documents

Demonstrating Learning …..in 20 minutes Yvonne Lewington