Pupil Evaluation of Teaching and Learning

ACTION RESEARCH: PUPIL EVALUATIONS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING: AUTUMN 2017
Researcher: N Moss: Minchinhampton
Context: Year 5/6 French
Desired Outcomes: Feedback from pupils that leads to a cognitive rather than an emotional response in the teacher; that has a positive impact on the way teaching and learning is delivered.

Evaluation:

Method 1: Informal discussion with pupils in lessons … ‘How do you feel about learning French this way?’…. ‘Is there any other way you would like to learn French?’

Method 2: ‘Two Stars and a Wish’ slip handed out to pupils who wanted to give an evaluation. Made clear to evaluation partners that evaluations had to be positive and build on strength (see feedback policy). Also the feedback would not be anonymous.

Results:
At both stages the feedback was constructive / instructive and led to changes in the way the French was being taught- in the first place towards more opportunities for conversational French- to culminate in a French day and in the second place towards the use of drama in French lessons. As a teacher it felt positive and also right that the pupils themselves were the ones defining how they learned.
The feedback worked especially well because careful parameters were laid down for the ‘evaluation partners’ (in line with the school’s new feedback policy) including the need for all feedback to be overwhelmingly positive in nature and where suggestions/ constructive criticism was to be offered, it was best if it built on an existing strength, rather than a flaw in the teaching. It was made clear to those doing the evaluation that they had a responsibility, as evaluation partners, to consider carefully the possible impact of their words on the person being evaluated; to ensure it led to some good thinking as opposed to anyone taking offence.
Typical feedback was carefully written and qualified. For example: ‘I like the way everyone is calm about French and if anyone lacks confidence they know no one will make fun of them…….I like the way we can work with different people and act it out and if neither of us knows how to say something, we can ask the teacher…..I think it would be great to turn our conversations/ acting into a film or a drama for younger pupils.’
There is no doubt in my mind that the pupils felt a little more empowered in their learning because someone had asked their opinion about how they would like to learn, especially when this has then been put into action- eg with the proposed French Day of conversation.

Conclusion:
1. The anxiety over asking pupils about the teaching was allayed by the positive parameters within which the evaluation partners had to work.
2. The quality of the feedback was refreshingly fair and useful.
3. Asking the pupils their opinion felt right and seemed to empower the pupils.

 

 

Action research: Teaching and Learning Communities: Jan 2017

Approach: Lesson Study in planning teams

Line of enquiry: Differentiation when teaching whole class (and without ability groups) to ensure all pupils progress.

Learning: 

● ‘Marvellous mistakes’ approach supportive of all pupils and very effective method for exploring the learning.

Use of Talk Partners , changed weekly and with well-established routines   supportive of all pupils and also promoting  greater  autonomy.

 Use of pre-teaching of key skills/ concepts to pupils who might lack confidence highly effective at setting them up for success in the lesson to come.

● Sentence starters can be very helpful scaffolding for pupils when they are attempting deeper lines of enquiry.

 ● Providing opportunities for pupils to pose their own questions from a prompt (patterns seen, puzzles, questions, ideas) can empower them / help them become more autonomous.

 ● Dynamic use of visualiser to demonstrate learning mid lesson again supportive; again involves building on mistakes (or strengths) ; again allows for in depth exploring of the learning. 

●Careful choice of low threshold high ceiling challenge very important.

 ● Importance of awareness / planning for possibilities to extend/adapt the learning mid lesson.

 ● Important of pupil understanding mathematical (or other) language and supporting pupils to understand this- as a way into learning/ as an important success criteria  for the learning.

 ● Importance of using different question types. Importance of both explicit  targeted questioning and more open ended questioning to ensure both support and autonomy.

Action Research – The Plenary

My teaching practice has changed dramatically over the last 8 months as a result of the Shirley Clarke action research project. If someone said rewind and teach the way you did before… I would leave teaching and open a bookshop (my back-up plan!). I feel invigorated, inspired, supported and excited for the next phase.

This was our final poster – we were tasked with reporting back on Effective Questioning. As part of our presentation, Alison and I got Gloucestershire heads taking part in a ‘Is cheating ever ok –  debate’ as well as a 16 x 25 mental maths number talk. If you can’t do it in under a minute…ask a KS2 Minchinhampton pupil! Top tip halving and doubling is the way to go!

action-research-poster-questioning-1-final-draft-1

Next steps: To pour our new skills into our school book project (A Portal in Time) with Patron of Reading, John Dougherty. Publication March 2017 by the History Press and book launch 10th June 2017.  See our School Book Project blog for further details.

Best reads: Outstanding Formative Assessment by Shirley Clarke, Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler and Number Talks by Sherry Parrish.

 

 

Effective questioning

Background

‘The kinds of questions teachers ask determine how far the discussion deepens children’s learning and understanding.’ (Wiliam 2008)

After embedding metacognition through learning powers, growth mindset and the learning pit, we worked on higher level questioning.

We trained ourselves using these question sets, a week at a time, until we were fluent in questioning. We team taught in lesson study groups, Japanese style,  to hone our lesson delivery.

Effective Questioning

eg. In P4C

Is cheating in the Olympics the same as cheating in tag?

  • Can you justify your opinion?
  • What would someone who disagreed with you say?
  • What is the difference between that view and your view?
  • Is there another point of view?

question-cards

Heated discussion prevailed. Opinions from the two camps included:

is-all-cheating-the-same

slide3
slide4
slide5

 

Outcomes:

Effective questioning

… guides the direction of a lesson and planning for individual needs.

… essential for good learning.

… allows us to respond to needs quickly.

… allows us to find out what they know, understand and where they make errors, and have misconceptions, when they are not engaged.

… allows learning needs to be evaluated at every stage to ensure all children are making progress and for next steps need to be informed.

… guiding questions through use of P4C can lead to deeper understanding on the part of the teacher or pupil.

As Wiliam said ‘We need to activate learners as instructional resources for one another.’. An unexpected outcome has been the children taking the questions from us and using them on each other. Pupil autonomy in action and of course they listen to each other more than they listen to adults!

… never dodge a good question…

 

 

And now the next stage!

Today was an excellent opportunity for all the participants of Shirley Clarke’s Action Research Project to celebrate what they have learned and achieved with the children over the past year.  The open sharing of findings amongst schools has been a unifying and humbling experience and has been a great source of inspiration.

We were proud to deliver our results to our guests today in such a positive and growth-mindset environment. And now we are all so excited to continue to spread the word!

Alison, Shirley, Clare and Nick
Alison, Shirley, Clare and Nick

Co-constructed Success Criteria

Background

Shirley Clarke says that: “Success criteria are internalised and used by pupils if they have had a stake in their generation“.

success criteria picture

Strategies we’ve used:

We have both tried using a number of strategies for co-constructing the open and closed success criteria (SC) for Maths and English (& other subjects).

Having compared our notes, we have found we have approached their creation in very similar ways, with the differentiation across the two cohorts being from our approach in facilitating and guiding the pupils talk.

SC maths

In Y3/4 Maths:

The model we use which has developed over the year, is to get pupils to spend time working on skill fluency and then practice applying the skill in reasoning and problem solving.  Following this period of embedding and investigation, the pupils, with the help of their Talk Partners (TP), discuss the SC they feel are important.  This is then shared amongst the class and discussed.  This is an invaluable Formative Assessment tool, as at this point, any misconceptions are able to be analysed and skill fluency revisited.  A ‘master’ SC list is agreed by the children (guided by the teacher) and typed on the IWB so that the pupils can see their ideas are used and valued.  This is sometimes printed off to put into their books, and sometimes the class one is used as a starting point for the children to edit and improve using their own words and ideas which they can write into their books. This is usually done towards the end of the unit, when they have all become familiar and confident with the skill being taught.

Sometimes, they have written the SC down on paper when discussing with TP at an earlier point in the unit, and a copy has been kept to refer back to later in the unit (or when the topic is revisited later in the year).  At this point, the pupils are able to add to the SC they originally created, in another colour, as a clear indication of the progress in their understanding.

In Y5/6 Maths:

Having spent time teaching and applying the skills needed for a unit of work, the Y5/6 class are given a blank slip of paper where they create their SC list during working through the unit, using their TP to verbalise their thinking and reasoning, and changing and updating the slip as they go.  They approach it as if they were writing to teach it themselves.  At the end of the work we share our SC with the class – the pupils adding on any criteria they feel they missed off, and I as the teacher type up a ‘master’ copy on the IWB, to save for when the topic is revisited, and for revision.  The pupils glue their own copy into their books, at the end of their unit.

In both teaching cohorts, the maths SC are generally closed criteria as they refer to the process of the skill.  Obviously, when using the skill in a problem solving activity, it is the problem solving that needs the SC. It is at this point that the criteria becomes much more open, as the children are able to ‘choose from’ a range of techniques/approaches that they have at their disposal.

SC English

In Y3/4 and Y5/6 English:

We have both taken a very similar approach here.  When writing a particular section of the story/non-fiction piece, we use our Toolkit created earlier in ‘Imitation’ week when studying the class text.  Using our TP, we remind ourselves of what we need to/want to include in the Shared Writing that day.  A continual dialogue is being had during this time and at the end of the Shared Writing, we create a ‘master’ list on the IWB together.  It is at this point that we split the SC into Open and Closed criteria.  For figurative language techniques, the pupils usually decide that these are open criteria and come under the optional “Choose From…” column.  For the key ingredients that make the writing that particular genre, or that particular section of a story, the pupils decide these need to go in the closed criteria, (“Remember to include…”) column.  This is done as a TP, then whole class, discussion.  It doesn’t take very long at this point in the lesson as it follows the continual dialogue about it during the shared writing.

This SC table is visible on the IWB throughout the lesson, but also printed off, copied and handed out to the children so that they have their own copy to stick in their books, and mark off as a kind of ‘checklist’ to support their writing.

SC Outcomes

 

 

Year 3/4

Realistically, the process has not been as seamless as the above description would suggest. The last go at co-constructed success criteria was more like the above but the first couple of attempts required much hand holding and teacher input to end up with a coherent set of skills. The children have embraced it as the year has gone on and the process is much swifter now than our early bumbling attempts.

It is an extremely useful formative assessment tool. You can see exactly what the children have understood and used.

Year 5/6

The older children were able to assimilate the idea of what I wanted them to contribute pretty much immediately.  SC coconstructedIn English, they could see from the outset that I was recording what had already been discussed by them in class and they found the print out of the SC table to put in their book extremely powerful as a tool in itself.  In maths, they have always been trained to ‘teach it’ in their explanations and to justify and clarify all the way through any explanations.  Writing up the co-constructed SC at the end of the unit and sharing our findings as a class seemed a very natural process to them.

I have found it a very powerful contribution to my Formative Assessment of the learning. The ownership they feel over it, and the talk that it generates and requires, is a very powerful thing in embedding the learning.

 

Finn for Curiosity – Learning Power #4

We have unveiled Learning Power #4 –Finn for curiosity, the 4th meta-cognitive power in our series of 8.  Great excitement rose before the big reveal – who was the character this time?  As before, we began by sharing the ‘Learning Story’ together, and with their Talk Partners, the pupils identified skills from the story that would be useful in helping them to work with others and be co-operative.

Finn for Curiosity
Finn for Curiosity

Initially, the pupils were surprised by this Learning Power, but after a quick discussion, they decided that without this power, how would they learn anything?

Once again, we identified the skills we thought necessary to help our curiosity develop and improve, as a tool for our learning.

Learning Powers - C3PO 1_Page_11

 

Key Skills for Curiosity
Key Skills for Curiosity

Outcome

The repeated thread of comment from the children on this learning power was that it it felt like it was talking about our maths class.  And how true; I’m always asking these questions and getting them to look for patterns and connections in our visual and numerical mathematics.  Obviously, it is also applicable across the curriculum, but maths does feel like its natural home to our class.  Ms McCarron says TOTES agree!

C3PO for Co-operation – Learning Power #3

Ms McCarron described the start of this journey with our Learning Powers in her blog post, “Yoda for Concentration – Learning power 1 unleashed we have,” on 28 Feb 2016.

Last week I unveiled Learning Power #3 – C3PO for Co-operation, the 3rd meta-cognitive power in our series of 8, to my Y5/6 class.  As before, we began by enthusiastically sharing the ‘Learning Story’ together, and with their Talk Partners, the pupils identified skills from the story that would be useful in helping them to work with others and be co-operative.  They know the format of the unveiling of the Learning Powers by now and are already trying to guess which power, and which character, may be next!

C3PO for Co-operation
C3PO for Co-operation

We made a class list of those skills identified and entered into a lively discussion about what makes co-operation important, why it is important, when it might be important and conversely, what might impede co-operation.  Having reflected on what might hinder co-operation, I felt that they had thought deeper about how much they indeed value this Learning Power.

Key Skills for Co-operation
Key Skills for Co-operation

Outcome

We referred back to these skills over the next few days (and of course the previous Learning Powers), particularly when working on our DT projects and in our maths investigations.  These skills of course apply across the curriculum in every lesson where pupils are together, so this Learning Power is a particularly important meta-cognitive skill.

The pupils said that this is the most important power so far for the success of their Talk Partner scheme…..commenting on how the key skills they identified were very similar to the success criteria they generated for their Talk Partners rules. (See previous blog post “Time to Talk pt 2“) 

Finally, we all decided that C3PO’s joke was OK, but he still needs some more practice……and perhaps some co-operation with inventing better ones!

Next Step

The fourth ‘Learning Power’ will be unveiled to the pupils after Easter – “Be Curious“.  Who will the character be??

Our Glorious Mistakes

Improving questioning and talk.

Background.

Previous Shirley Clarke action research teams have found that:

The impact of using more effective questioning is that children’s thinking is more creative and they have to justify their opinions. Confidence is increased and children then are more able to take risks and ask questions.

Introducing deliberate mistakes is one of the ways improving the quality of questioning in order to unpick the misconception.

What we did.

Over the last term we have used a number of deliberate mistakes to great effect and huge hilarity. My favourite was the measuring length glorious mistake where the confidence of the children had built to such a peak that they were shouting at me “Ms. McCarron not like that, can I show you how I would do it?”.

Glorious Mistake: Number Families

This first was the toughest because as a school community we are still relatively new to growth mindset and philosophy for children. It was an emotional roller coaster.

At the end of each maths lesson I ask the children who would like a session in the afternoon to go over what we have done in the morning. During this particular afternoon’s session we were addressing misconceptions which had come up in the morning to do with ‘number families’ – in particular – subtraction.

Q: What addition sum could we do using all 3 numbers? The children had chosen 6, 4 and 10 as our family.

6 + 4 = 10

What else?

4 + 6 = 10

“Now, what subtraction sums could we do with these numbers?”

Some of the children used our rubber sheep. They all had a go at writing a sum on their whiteboards. The children were asked to come up and share their solution.

6 – 4 = 2

“Does it use our family of 3 numbers?”

“Yes it’s the right answer.”

“What about the 10?”

So then we got:

6 – 4 = 10

Lots of shots of “No! That’s not right!” and several volunteers to be the teacher. The child who had written this sum up retreated slightly and looked unsure. He asked if he could sort it out on his whiteboard and sat working on his own for a bit.

There was a lot of counting rubber sheep action for the next few minutes. Lots of chat, giving and receiving advice as they sorted it out. Finally 2 of the group got very excited and said they’d got it.

Coming up to be the teacher, their delivery was very effective as the rest of their group hung on their every word in case they tripped up in their explanation. When they had finished with a very successful explanation of:

10 – 6 = 4

the boy who had retreated beamed up at me and said “I’ve got the last one.” He proudly came up and shared:

10 – 4 = 6

to much ‘ooing’ and ‘aahing’ and checking with rubber sheep.

The next bit of question and answer led the children to the conclusion that there was a rule for adding – you can do it in any order – that didn’t work with subtraction. The second thing they worked out themselves through trial and error was that they needed the biggest number first.

We concluded that we had made 2 mathematical discoveries which we then went on to share with the whole class the next morning.

All in all a very rewarding session. This was a breakthrough moment and with additional practice, these children have been confidently using number families ever since and have understood the concept of an inverse relationship.

Reflection

The children took proper ownership of the task after the first mistake. There were tricky moments for some as they felt upset at being exposed as wrong but a couple of children were so enthused with sorting out the misconception that the whole group was carried along. They were less polite to each other than they are to me and their questions were very direct and effective. They were very focused on getting it right so that they could come up and be the teacher but they were also good at making sure other people had ‘got it’. A good sense of team. I also feel that they understood it and were engaged more deeply than if I had stood at the front and explained the rules.

Next step

This culture of sharing mistakes has built during the term, so that during our measurement unit the children were able to correct my incompetent measurement of height with lots and lots of advice on how to do it correctly and offers of help. From them taking over and trouble shooting my mistakes, we were then able to write our own success criteria for measuring. This has led to some excellent work on co-constructed success criteria which has been fascinating and which Mrs. Hodges and I will share in subsequent posts.