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#i get to learn new things and also revisit practicing maths again which i always enjoy
ceestudies · 2 years
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snippets from my first term finally back to school!
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April 26th: Talk about special interests. Do you have special interests? If not do you wish you did? What do your special interests mean to you? What are your current special interests? What are your past special interests? idk like i know i sure have & have had Interests, some more of interest than others, and it's also like, oh yeah i guess the ways i held that interest / explored it pretty intently / extensively / at length didn't always seem to be the way other people always felt about things even if we shared the interest, but yknow, at the same time it doesn't necessarily seem as extensive or major as some of the aspects of defining a Special Interest(tm) can be, i haven't been too pressed about it, but of course it's like, i have my Things lol, i.e. yeah this thing is kind of My Thing....and then i can look back on Things like. well idk when i was really little and you're just gonna like Cool Stuff, i did have the thing of like, i like dinosaurs and did sorta casually collect dinosaur stuff, easy enough b/c they make that stuff for kids, memorized a bunch of dinosaur Names so that just being asked to recite a bunch was something i was known to be able to do, a big fan of a couple semi educational computer games we had, shoutout to 3d dinosaur adventure and this magic school bus dinosaur (and ocean) game, had pajamas ft dinosaurs, rip to when i had a sick metal lunchbox with dinosaurs on it and it just broke on like week 1 of first grade or whatever and i just had to go back to default lunchboxes. well and then but anyways but from then on it was like, well, i guess it's media time......read a shit ton all the time, was into some tv series / movies, played some pc / video games, there was stuff i'd be glad to revisit over and over, and yknow, as this went on it'd be like, well now when there's A Relatable Enough Character in something i also like just in general, that's a powerful combo, though sometimes it's like, yeah i like this thing enough even in the absence of any particular [and i extra go hard about this character] element, that's not Not at play as it's like "well and i guess i will think about this quant every day for years now lmfao," and i can sure always talk about stuff At Length too, which sure is not something other people are generally interested in, but if/when they are, it's like okay great, this is a great connection point then, b/c otherwise it's like, i generally don't know what to say about myself, didn't get much practice, did pick up a sense of like, well stuff is Wrong about myself and my life so i shouldn't share it and also i'm not picking up friends so it was generally accurate that no one was exactly interested lmao. small talk is really more of a barrier / test you can just potentially fail, yet anything more personal is Oversharing, but hey i would earnestly love to talk at length about This Thing, so great when other people are into that at all lol and then if we vibe it's like, obviously that's the sort of functional "small talk" route here lol to being able to be more familiar w/each other and talk more generally, even if yknow, wuh oh, i'm kind of cagey outside those Interests i will talk about in ways that's probably "too much" by most ppl's standards, worst of both worlds when it comes to forming relationships but oh well, it is what it is and i sure don't consider it a bad thing i have plenty to say about things i Want to talk about, and it sure doesn't impede on anyone else if i'm Not Talking about other shit.
also then it's like, "idk what it is when you just determinedly Pursue something that's maybe still not the hugest deal, but i don't really feel very pressed re: figuring it out" like, does it count like how i mentioned today i'd read bird guides for fun as a kid, and watch this bird documentary and be like "hey. check out this scene in this bird documentary with this bird mimicry" to friends i now realize were probably mostly bemused by this, and really liked birds just generally (still true), and thus have like, maybe more Bird Knowledge than the average random person but also am hardly some self taught ornithological expert. or how i'm big into linguistics and etymology and, in theory, language learning, always really latching on to the little i was taught in school, also perusing some Language Guides available, and like, not really self teaching a bit re: learning some of a couple languages, just learning via teaching resources outside of [directly through any academic institution], never took any language classes, sure have no fluency in fuckall.........how about that i just decided as a kid like "hm i want to be able to draw" b/c i felt that way (and yknow, still do in a way lol) about pretty much anything, but i just also liked doodling and took some art classes and it was always this casual thing and now i use this to make fanart for the Media Interests lol, and although this is all digital drawing and drawing was always my primary thing it's like, well okay also yeah there was like, some painting / pastels / sculpting other Visual Arts stuff, and then, like, i sure enjoyed dance classes and the Performing Arts aspect of that, theatre gay adjacent b/w that and choir lol, have regular dreams about being part of impromptu dance performances, including just last night, rip to the special thwarting of "oh no i'm going around trying to get food before the show, getting stuck in traffic or lost in stores, and i've missed my whole first appearance" lol. anxiety dreams never end........and idk, i've had a love for math stuff, physics stuff, space stuff, even felt that [!] for the little i was able to get into circuitry and coding, but yknow. learning that shit is kind of involved and i only had so much experience re: taking classes, also, unfortunately, i always hated school lmao, so it's just kind of there where i'm like oh i get Into this shit in the ways that other people who are definitely Into it feel about it lmao. but yeah, idk, i do have like. well here's this sort of stuff i think about Every Day, this sort of mental home base sometimes, that i don't get tired of and reexplore / reexperience pretty intensively, but at the same time like, sometimes i can just sort of have something be that Interest for a lot more of a temporary duration, and things that were that main shit is like, well Probably when i like it that much once i like it down the line even if i haven't been that focused on it in the meantime, more just latent, but then it's like, well, but probably could and would still talk So Much about it still even if it's not like, oh yeah i'm Into This(tm) right Now lol..........idk! but i sure get really into shit and like, if anyone else is interested in me talking at length / drawing about it, that's sure probably the most successful grounds for Connection lmao cuz yknow. even people who maybe share that interest aren't guaranteed to see that and go "yeah this is someone i'm interested in actually talking to though" like yeah here's your preview of my personality i guess lol
April 27th: What is your favourite form of media? For example, do you enjoy books? What format do you prefer for books (physical, e-book, audiobook)? Did you love reading as a kid but find it challenging as you got older? How about movies, tv, or video games? Do you have a favourite series? yeah i read all the time as a kid, on the bus, if i finished shit early at school, on the bus again, also at home plenty, not so much when i was in college when it's like oh i can just do kinda whatever now (also as people point out it's like. well gotta do all this reading for classes now so) and then it was like, i'll get into other Media i can freely experience at any time, and also hang out with people Some, which i can also just do whenever now, as opposed to at any point before this......still like reading but it can sure kind of be a Whole Thing, like i either can't focus and it's like well time to read like, a paragraph or page a day, or else i'm focusing Too Much really like, if i'm at all trying to see how something ends i might burn through it in a few days (still a fairly slow reader) which is like, do i want to spend multiple days on this One Thing, even if it takes me like, multiple times the runtime to watch a movie or something, that's still probably getting done in 1 day. plus that yeah, mostly reading new shit via laptop, which is kind of a pain as opposed to physical books or like, e readers in theory, i've never actually used one. the only time i used an audiobook was a few times as a kid to read along with longer books to sort of help with that momentum, such a hot minute ago that this was via Tape Cassette.....i do listen to podcasts though, great for like, doing Something Else at the same time, which i don't know that i could split up that focus and guaranteed successfully absorb a book, Maybe So but select podcasts are my Extensive Audio of choice. never really watched that much tv, there were some stuff me and my siblings might watch as it aired, but not really Narrative Series lol, never seen shit, haven't even really watched That many movies either, still don't Really even though it's like yeah w/e in Theory i enjoy these mediums it's like oh my godddd it's a whole thing to focus on one and then plus what if i don't like it but i've had to put in all that time to know i didn't like it lmao.......i can enjoy keeping up with a tv series like, oh boy once a week a half hour to hour installment, that's a great format truly, but i'm rarely getting that experience lmao like. with billions you could stand 2 weeks between episodes b/c whew but it's v Rare like oh thank god, a series with that weekly release........but otherwise it's like ugh do i wanna have alllll this material to watch, do i wanna go through the whole process of figuring out what movie i feel like giving a try........and that i like Revisiting shit i already like pretty endlessly so it's like, i might just do that. so it's like, audio wise i'll put on podcasts, if i feel like watching something i Might be bothered to try out a movie or smthing b/c yknow, ultimately more doable to consume something that's just a few hours, all that when i'm Thinking About a tv series every day for years lmfao, shoutout to billions which sure gets to be my fave b/c tf else am i keeping up with, literally nothing else, even if i haven't gotten around to actually watching all of it yet / haven't simply sat straight through even the episodes i have watched, i Could do it but it's like god formidable when it's sure more than a movie's worth of content and plenty of "i don't care about this and/or hate this" to make me put my head through the wall lmfao thank you billions........also sometimes i remember like "oh yeah, i guess in theory i enjoy video games as well" but i didn't have That much experience w/them and sure don't now, so that's like well irrelevant ig. media
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careergrowthblog · 6 years
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The five forms of feedback I give to teachers most often…
In my work I have the privilege of being able to watch lots of teachers teach in a wide range of contexts.  I see lots of superb teachers and lots of great lessons.  Where I have constructive feedback to give, I find that there are a few common areas for improvement that come up time and time again.   Here are the main things I find I say most often under the heading of ‘even better if’:
Behaviour:  Be more assertive; establish what you want to establish
Where lessons do not have impeccable behaviour, most of the time (not all of the time) I find it is because the teacher falls short of absolutely insisting that students meet the standards they would like.  They  might continue to talk when there are clearly students talking in the room, they might allow off-task chatter to go un-challenged; they might let learning drift as students lose focus with a task without taking action to push them on; they might not sustain the level of reinforcement needed for their particular class.
There are lots of practical things teachers can do to address all of this, before needing to get into sanctions and wider school systems.  I find this can usually be summed up by the need for more assertiveness and Bill Rogers’ idea of ‘you establish what you establish’.  In detail this might require:
taking a more prominent position in the physical space of the classroom and being more conscious about using a whole-class radar to scan what is happening all the time.
reinforcing and rehearsing routines for entry, for questioning, for common practical tasks.
making more eye contact, setting up spaces so students can all be seen and looked in the eye.
using an agreed signal for attention instead of raised voices
pausing to secure attention before speaking – from absolutely everyone, always.
setting time cues for tasks and rehearsing good stop/start routines.
Sometimes it’s about communicating a stronger, more intense sense of commitment to the standards so a teacher’s disapproval for being late, not having equipment, calling out persistently, messing about in any way – is all that is needed to suggest ‘do not do this’. Or it can be about using the warnings or consequences system in a way that is consistent and proportionate.
Of course all teachers need the back-up of some form of system – but what I see is that there is a lot of mileage in improving behaviour through teachers’ actions setting higher expectations and then insisting on them being met.  It’s not about blaming teachers for students’ behaviour; it’s about saying – you have the power to engineer significant change simply through your own actions – so use it.
Questioning:  Ask more students more questions; involve everyone.
With questioning, it’s often not a black and white case of do X instead of Y – it’s about degrees of intensity.  Great teachers tend to ask lots of questions in a deep, probing fashion and consciously include everyone in the class.  The most common feedback I give where questioning needs to improve includes the following:
Use cold-calling:  Avoid letting a small number dominate by allowing them to call out answers or always taking hands-up.
Consciously include the students who are quiet, under the radar, not contributing spontaneously
Probe. For every answer, have a follow-up – or several follow-ups. Why, how did you know, is that always true, what else could you add, are you sure? (See Probing)
Check for understanding:  after any exposition or giving instructions, ask students to repeat back what they’ve understood. Can named/cold-called students explain it back?
Avoid all these Bad Question Klaxons:
Does anyone have any questions?
Is everyone ok with that?
Does everyone understand?
Do you all know what to do?
Give students more practice with the same question type so they can consolidate the skills; I often find there is not enough repetition and students are moved on prematurely.  Drills and over-learning can be very powerful – simply practising multiple examples, especially in maths but also in other areas.
Finally, it’s often not about doing this stuff or not doing it – it’s about how intense. A teacher might think ‘I do cold calling; I do probe’ – but I’m seeing that it needs to include lots more students.  You can ask the same question to lots of students to check they are following, involved, engaged in the reasoning – even if the previous student gave a good response.  It pays to keep bringing students in: Do you agree, what was your answer, say it back to me, can you explain it differently.? 
Importantly, teachers need to mix the behaviour management with the questioning. Where they are less confident with holding attention, the questioning slips with students dropping out of the whole-class sphere, losing focus. The skill needed is to continually scan, hold attention and bring students into the questioning process; often students answer one question and then drop back assuming their work is done.
Marking and Feedback:  Make all marking an instruction for action
When I see books during any lesson observation process, I’m usually looking to see how learning is mapped out over time in terms of curriculum progression, what resources students have to support their learning and the opportunities they have to improve. The ‘even better if’ feedback I give most often is this:
Don’t mark work with comments or suggestions for improvement unless your students will be given time to act on them immediately.  Try to regard all marking as an instruction for a task students will undertake as soon as they receive it.  (See this on feedback as actions.)
There is still quite a lot of ‘marking to impress the scrutineer’ or ‘marking to show I read the work’ – which is all time-consuming and ultimately pointless in terms of securing improvement unless it is responded to.   Another way to see it is this:  Marking that is not responded to looks worse than no marking at all – because it suggests that you didn’t really mean it.
I suggest using simple systems like green pen (i.e. a commonly understood signal that work is being done in response to feedback) or simply using headings: 2nd draft; DIRT activity – or whatever.  Evidence of work improving matters more than evidence of marking or the perverse idea of evidencing verbal feedback.  It IS the evidence of feedback.
Knowledge and Recall:  Specify what students should know; check that they do; give time for practice
In some lessons I find that the weaker learners can be unsure of what exactly they are meant to know as a result of an exposition or discussion.   I often give the feedback that teachers need to be much more explicit about this.  So, after reading a section of text, watching a video, hearing an extended discussion, completing a practical task or a comprehension activity – whatever it is – there is significant value in consolidating all the ideas:
The main facts to know are A,B,C,D,E,F
These are the key points in the argument:  X,Y,Z.
The sequence of events is always 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
The main advantages are A, B and C; the main disadvantage is D.
The steps in this type of problem are always  1, 2 and then 3.
These points then needed to be recorded.  This can all be supported with knowledge organisers, structured note taking or any number of resources provided that everyone, especially the least confident learners, has access.  Some students need a lot more scaffolding for note taking than others.
I often need to suggest teachers avoid the trap of assuming that students know things without checking that they do. The first and most important layer of assessment is questioning: Have you understood? This then requires numerous cold call questions checking in with students to establish whether the key points have registered.
I often feel that students needed more time for rehearsal of these key points.  For example, with learning new words – have they said them, used them, written them, pronounced them correctly? (See this on learning vocabulary) Can they run through the three key points with their partner to check they’ve understood?
Finally, crucially, students need to be quizzed on these bits of knowledge at a later point with prior learning reviews forming a routine part of lessons, revisiting knowledge systematically with all students involved in the recall process: What were the main points from yesterday, last week, the previous unit?
Setting the standards:  Define excellence for any task.
The last area of common feedback is around the issue of standards.  This can sometimes be assumed or teachers focus heavily on task completion rather than the quality of what is meant to be completed – leaving students to see ‘finishing’ as more important than doing things well.
In nearly every activity students engage in, it is possible to define what would constitute excellence.  If you have done this task extremely well, what would it look like?  I often suggest that teachers would secure much better outcomes if they have that discussion explicitly before letting student get on:
What is the expected length/scale of the work?
Which features of presentation are expected?
How many questions should you aim to complete in the time given?
Which language features must be included?
Which common errors should you avoid?
If you have examples of excellence to share in advance, that helps to set the standards in a way students can relate to. Sometimes success criteria can be rather obscure until illustrated with an example.
Finally,  I often suggest that standards setting begins in verbal exchanges.
That’s a good start, but now say it again better; add the correct terminology and try to link those ideas together. 
If teachers go through the standard-setting process routinely, expectations rise and students get used to formulating more sophisticated responses.  If you always accept one-word answers or half-formed responses, that’s what you continue to get.  If students are left to guess the pace, the depth or the quality required, then you’ll get mediocrity when excellence might have been within reach.
  Obviously all of this ‘even better if’ feedback goes hand in hand with the ‘what went well’  and there is always a subject specific context and a teaching group context where the feedback needs to focus particular aspects of the curriculum or the needs of learners.  However, I’ve been interested to see just how common improvement issues can be across disciplines that might seem radically different – from construction, to maths, to French, to barbering to history. The nature of the teaching process is basically the same so the feedback often is too.
    The five forms of feedback I give to teachers most often… published first on https://medium.com/@KDUUniversityCollege
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careergrowthblog · 6 years
Text
The five forms of feedback I give to teachers most often…
In my work I have the privilege of being able to watch lots of teachers teach in a wide range of contexts.  I see lots of superb teachers and lots of great lessons.  Where I have constructive feedback to give, I find that there are a few common areas for improvement that come up time and time again.   Here are the main things I find I say most often under the heading of ‘even better if’:
Behaviour:  Be more assertive; establish what you want to establish
Where lessons do not have impeccable behaviour, most of the time (not all of the time) I find it is because the teacher falls short of absolutely insisting that students meet the standards they would like.  They  might continue to talk when there are clearly students talking in the room, they might allow off-task chatter to go un-challenged; they might let learning drift as students lose focus with a task without taking action to push them on; they might not sustain the level of reinforcement needed for their particular class.
There are lots of practical things teachers can do to address all of this, before needing to get into sanctions and wider school systems.  I find this can usually be summed up by the need for more assertiveness and Bill Rogers’ idea of ‘you establish what you establish’.  In detail this might require:
taking a more prominent position in the physical space of the classroom and being more conscious about using a whole-class radar to scan what is happening all the time.
reinforcing and rehearsing routines for entry, for questioning, for common practical tasks.
making more eye contact, setting up spaces so students can all be seen and looked in the eye.
using an agreed signal for attention instead of raised voices
pausing to secure attention before speaking – from absolutely everyone, always.
setting time cues for tasks and rehearsing good stop/start routines.
Sometimes it’s about communicating a stronger, more intense sense of commitment to the standards so a teacher’s disapproval for being late, not having equipment, calling out persistently, messing about in any way – is all that is needed to suggest ‘do not do this’. Or it can be about using the warnings or consequences system in a way that is consistent and proportionate.
Of course all teachers need the back-up of some form of system – but what I see is that there is a lot of mileage in improving behaviour through teachers’ actions setting higher expectations and then insisting on them being met.  It’s not about blaming teachers for students’ behaviour; it’s about saying – you have the power to engineer significant change simply through your own actions – so use it.
Questioning:  Ask more students more questions; involve everyone.
With questioning, it’s often not a black and white case of do X instead of Y – it’s about degrees of intensity.  Great teachers tend to ask lots of questions in a deep, probing fashion and consciously include everyone in the class.  The most common feedback I give where questioning needs to improve includes the following:
Use cold-calling:  Avoid letting a small number dominate by allowing them to call out answers or always taking hands-up.
Consciously include the students who are quiet, under the radar, not contributing spontaneously
Probe. For every answer, have a follow-up – or several follow-ups. Why, how did you know, is that always true, what else could you add, are you sure? (See Probing)
Check for understanding:  after any exposition or giving instructions, ask students to repeat back what they’ve understood. Can named/cold-called students explain it back?
Avoid all these Bad Question Klaxons:
Does anyone have any questions?
Is everyone ok with that?
Does everyone understand?
Do you all know what to do?
Give students more practice with the same question type so they can consolidate the skills; I often find there is not enough repetition and students are moved on prematurely.  Drills and over-learning can be very powerful – simply practising multiple examples, especially in maths but also in other areas.
Finally, it’s often not about doing this stuff or not doing it – it’s about how intense. A teacher might think ‘I do cold calling; I do probe’ – but I’m seeing that it needs to include lots more students.  You can ask the same question to lots of students to check they are following, involved, engaged in the reasoning – even if the previous student gave a good response.  It pays to keep bringing students in: Do you agree, what was your answer, say it back to me, can you explain it differently.? 
Importantly, teachers need to mix the behaviour management with the questioning. Where they are less confident with holding attention, the questioning slips with students dropping out of the whole-class sphere, losing focus. The skill needed is to continually scan, hold attention and bring students into the questioning process; often students answer one question and then drop back assuming their work is done.
Marking and Feedback:  Make all marking an instruction for action
When I see books during any lesson observation process, I’m usually looking to see how learning is mapped out over time in terms of curriculum progression, what resources students have to support their learning and the opportunities they have to improve. The ‘even better if’ feedback I give most often is this:
Don’t mark work with comments or suggestions for improvement unless your students will be given time to act on them immediately.  Try to regard all marking as an instruction for a task students will undertake as soon as they receive it.  (See this on feedback as actions.)
There is still quite a lot of ‘marking to impress the scrutineer’ or ‘marking to show I read the work’ – which is all time-consuming and ultimately pointless in terms of securing improvement unless it is responded to.   Another way to see it is this:  Marking that is not responded to looks worse than no marking at all – because it suggests that you didn’t really mean it.
I suggest using simple systems like green pen (i.e. a commonly understood signal that work is being done in response to feedback) or simply using headings: 2nd draft; DIRT activity – or whatever.  Evidence of work improving matters more than evidence of marking or the perverse idea of evidencing verbal feedback.  It IS the evidence of feedback.
Knowledge and Recall:  Specify what students should know; check that they do; give time for practice
In some lessons I find that the weaker learners can be unsure of what exactly they are meant to know as a result of an exposition or discussion.   I often give the feedback that teachers need to be much more explicit about this.  So, after reading a section of text, watching a video, hearing an extended discussion, completing a practical task or a comprehension activity – whatever it is – there is significant value in consolidating all the ideas:
The main facts to know are A,B,C,D,E,F
These are the key points in the argument:  X,Y,Z.
The sequence of events is always 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
The main advantages are A, B and C; the main disadvantage is D.
The steps in this type of problem are always  1, 2 and then 3.
These points then needed to be recorded.  This can all be supported with knowledge organisers, structured note taking or any number of resources provided that everyone, especially the least confident learners, has access.  Some students need a lot more scaffolding for note taking than others.
I often need to suggest teachers avoid the trap of assuming that students know things without checking that they do. The first and most important layer of assessment is questioning: Have you understood? This then requires numerous cold call questions checking in with students to establish whether the key points have registered.
I often feel that students needed more time for rehearsal of these key points.  For example, with learning new words – have they said them, used them, written them, pronounced them correctly? (See this on learning vocabulary) Can they run through the three key points with their partner to check they’ve understood?
Finally, crucially, students need to be quizzed on these bits of knowledge at a later point with prior learning reviews forming a routine part of lessons, revisiting knowledge systematically with all students involved in the recall process: What were the main points from yesterday, last week, the previous unit?
Setting the standards:  Define excellence for any task.
The last area of common feedback is around the issue of standards.  This can sometimes be assumed or teachers focus heavily on task completion rather than the quality of what is meant to be completed – leaving students to see ‘finishing’ as more important than doing things well.
In nearly every activity students engage in, it is possible to define what would constitute excellence.  If you have done this task extremely well, what would it look like?  I often suggest that teachers would secure much better outcomes if they have that discussion explicitly before letting student get on:
What is the expected length/scale of the work?
Which features of presentation are expected?
How many questions should you aim to complete in the time given?
Which language features must be included?
Which common errors should you avoid?
If you have examples of excellence to share in advance, that helps to set the standards in a way students can relate to. Sometimes success criteria can be rather obscure until illustrated with an example.
Finally,  I often suggest that standards setting begins in verbal exchanges.
That’s a good start, but now say it again better; add the correct terminology and try to link those ideas together. 
If teachers go through the standard-setting process routinely, expectations rise and students get used to formulating more sophisticated responses.  If you always accept one-word answers or half-formed responses, that’s what you continue to get.  If students are left to guess the pace, the depth or the quality required, then you’ll get mediocrity when excellence might have been within reach.
  Obviously all of this ‘even better if’ feedback goes hand in hand with the ‘what went well’  and there is always a subject specific context and a teaching group context where the feedback needs to focus particular aspects of the curriculum or the needs of learners.  However, I’ve been interested to see just how common improvement issues can be across disciplines that might seem radically different – from construction, to maths, to French, to barbering to history. The nature of the teaching process is basically the same so the feedback often is too.
    The five forms of feedback I give to teachers most often… published first on http://ift.tt/2uVElOo
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careergrowthblog · 6 years
Text
The five forms of feedback I give to teachers most often…
In my work I have the privilege of being able to watch lots of teachers teach in a wide range of contexts.  I see lots of superb teachers and lots of great lessons.  Where I have constructive feedback to give, I find that there are a few common areas for improvement that come up time and time again.   Here are the main things I find I say most often under the heading of ‘even better if’:
Behaviour:  Be more assertive; establish what you want to establish
Where lessons do not have impeccable behaviour, most of the time (not all of the time) I find it is because the teacher falls short of absolutely insisting that students meet the standards they would like.  They  might continue to talk when there are clearly students talking in the room, they might allow off-task chatter to go un-challenged; they might let learning drift as students lose focus with a task without taking action to push them on; they might not sustain the level of reinforcement needed for their particular class.
There are lots of practical things teachers can do to address all of this, before needing to get into sanctions and wider school systems.  I find this can usually be summed up by the need for more assertiveness and Bill Rogers’ idea of ‘you establish what you establish’.  In detail this might require:
taking a more prominent position in the physical space of the classroom and being more conscious about using a whole-class radar to scan what is happening all the time.
reinforcing and rehearsing routines for entry, for questioning, for common practical tasks.
making more eye contact, setting up spaces so students can all be seen and looked in the eye.
using an agreed signal for attention instead of raised voices
pausing to secure attention before speaking – from absolutely everyone, always.
setting time cues for tasks and rehearsing good stop/start routines.
Sometimes it’s about communicating a stronger, more intense sense of commitment to the standards so a teacher’s disapproval for being late, not having equipment, calling out persistently, messing about in any way – is all that is needed to suggest ‘do not do this’. Or it can be about using the warnings or consequences system in a way that is consistent and proportionate.
Of course all teachers need the back-up of some form of system – but what I see is that there is a lot of mileage in improving behaviour through teachers’ actions setting higher expectations and then insisting on them being met.  It’s not about blaming teachers for students’ behaviour; it’s about saying – you have the power to engineer significant change simply through your own actions – so use it.
Questioning:  Ask more students more questions; involve everyone.
With questioning, it’s often not a black and white case of do X instead of Y – it’s about degrees of intensity.  Great teachers tend to ask lots of questions in a deep, probing fashion and consciously include everyone in the class.  The most common feedback I give where questioning needs to improve includes the following:
Use cold-calling:  Avoid letting a small number dominate by allowing them to call out answers or always taking hands-up.
Consciously include the students who are quiet, under the radar, not contributing spontaneously
Probe. For every answer, have a follow-up – or several follow-ups. Why, how did you know, is that always true, what else could you add, are you sure? (See Probing)
Check for understanding:  after any exposition or giving instructions, ask students to repeat back what they’ve understood. Can named/cold-called students explain it back?
Avoid all these Bad Question Klaxons:
Does anyone have any questions?
Is everyone ok with that?
Does everyone understand?
Do you all know what to do?
Give students more practice with the same question type so they can consolidate the skills; I often find there is not enough repetition and students are moved on prematurely.  Drills and over-learning can be very powerful – simply practising multiple examples, especially in maths but also in other areas.
Finally, it’s often not about doing this stuff or not doing it – it’s about how intense. A teacher might think ‘I do cold calling; I do probe’ – but I’m seeing that it needs to include lots more students.  You can ask the same question to lots of students to check they are following, involved, engaged in the reasoning – even if the previous student gave a good response.  It pays to keep bringing students in: Do you agree, what was your answer, say it back to me, can you explain it differently.? 
Importantly, teachers need to mix the behaviour management with the questioning. Where they are less confident with holding attention, the questioning slips with students dropping out of the whole-class sphere, losing focus. The skill needed is to continually scan, hold attention and bring students into the questioning process; often students answer one question and then drop back assuming their work is done.
Marking and Feedback:  Make all marking an instruction for action
When I see books during any lesson observation process, I’m usually looking to see how learning is mapped out over time in terms of curriculum progression, what resources students have to support their learning and the opportunities they have to improve. The ‘even better if’ feedback I give most often is this:
Don’t mark work with comments or suggestions for improvement unless your students will be given time to act on them immediately.  Try to regard all marking as an instruction for a task students will undertake as soon as they receive it.  (See this on feedback as actions.)
There is still quite a lot of ‘marking to impress the scrutineer’ or ‘marking to show I read the work’ – which is all time-consuming and ultimately pointless in terms of securing improvement unless it is responded to.   Another way to see it is this:  Marking that is not responded to looks worse than no marking at all – because it suggests that you didn’t really mean it.
I suggest using simple systems like green pen (i.e. a commonly understood signal that work is being done in response to feedback) or simply using headings: 2nd draft; DIRT activity – or whatever.  Evidence of work improving matters more than evidence of marking or the perverse idea of evidencing verbal feedback.  It IS the evidence of feedback.
Knowledge and Recall:  Specify what students should know; check that they do; give time for practice
In some lessons I find that the weaker learners can be unsure of what exactly they are meant to know as a result of an exposition or discussion.   I often give the feedback that teachers need to be much more explicit about this.  So, after reading a section of text, watching a video, hearing an extended discussion, completing a practical task or a comprehension activity – whatever it is – there is significant value in consolidating all the ideas:
The main facts to know are A,B,C,D,E,F
These are the key points in the argument:  X,Y,Z.
The sequence of events is always 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
The main advantages are A, B and C; the main disadvantage is D.
The steps in this type of problem are always  1, 2 and then 3.
These points then needed to be recorded.  This can all be supported with knowledge organisers, structured note taking or any number of resources provided that everyone, especially the least confident learners, has access.  Some students need a lot more scaffolding for note taking than others.
I often need to suggest teachers avoid the trap of assuming that students know things without checking that they do. The first and most important layer of assessment is questioning: Have you understood? This then requires numerous cold call questions checking in with students to establish whether the key points have registered.
I often feel that students needed more time for rehearsal of these key points.  For example, with learning new words – have they said them, used them, written them, pronounced them correctly? (See this on learning vocabulary) Can they run through the three key points with their partner to check they’ve understood?
Finally, crucially, students need to be quizzed on these bits of knowledge at a later point with prior learning reviews forming a routine part of lessons, revisiting knowledge systematically with all students involved in the recall process: What were the main points from yesterday, last week, the previous unit?
Setting the standards:  Define excellence for any task.
The last area of common feedback is around the issue of standards.  This can sometimes be assumed or teachers focus heavily on task completion rather than the quality of what is meant to be completed – leaving students to see ‘finishing’ as more important than doing things well.
In nearly every activity students engage in, it is possible to define what would constitute excellence.  If you have done this task extremely well, what would it look like?  I often suggest that teachers would secure much better outcomes if they have that discussion explicitly before letting student get on:
What is the expected length/scale of the work?
Which features of presentation are expected?
How many questions should you aim to complete in the time given?
Which language features must be included?
Which common errors should you avoid?
If you have examples of excellence to share in advance, that helps to set the standards in a way students can relate to. Sometimes success criteria can be rather obscure until illustrated with an example.
Finally,  I often suggest that standards setting begins in verbal exchanges.
That’s a good start, but now say it again better; add the correct terminology and try to link those ideas together. 
If teachers go through the standard-setting process routinely, expectations rise and students get used to formulating more sophisticated responses.  If you always accept one-word answers or half-formed responses, that’s what you continue to get.  If students are left to guess the pace, the depth or the quality required, then you’ll get mediocrity when excellence might have been within reach.
  Obviously all of this ‘even better if’ feedback goes hand in hand with the ‘what went well’  and there is always a subject specific context and a teaching group context where the feedback needs to focus particular aspects of the curriculum or the needs of learners.  However, I’ve been interested to see just how common improvement issues can be across disciplines that might seem radically different – from construction, to maths, to French, to barbering to history. The nature of the teaching process is basically the same so the feedback often is too.
    The five forms of feedback I give to teachers most often… published first on http://ift.tt/2uVElOo
0 notes