Teaching and learning commitment

Curriculum, teaching and
learning strategy

A shared commitment to high standards

2020-2021

1

Executive summary

The Torpoint Community College teaching and learning strategy provides direction for all stake-
holders by setting out the planned actions to bring about continued school improvement. The
purpose is to bring together key elements of existing policies that impact upon the quality of
teaching and learning into one unified approach, particularly our curriculum STEAM model and whole College
priority 1. Our policy documents clearly establish our aims and intentions in a range of areas: this document fo-
cuses on implementation and identifies the specific actions that will be executed to ensure learning can flour-
ish. The strategy aims to recognise the importance of teacher autonomy and individuality whilst also fostering a
core of consistent approaches and routines that help students to think hard, work hard and be respectful.

Excellent behaviour and expert teaching:

This document unifies our behaviour policy and teaching and learning policy as we recognise that great be-
haviour is the foundation upon which great teaching can happen. This strategy is written with the overarching
belief that we have an excellent staff and we work best when we work as a team. Excellent behaviour and ex-
pert teaching is supported through:
• Lesson visits—College leaders regularly visit lessons to take an interest in the work children produce and,

when appropriate, reaffirm expectations for excellent behaviours in a manner that supports the teacher;
• Learning survey visits—College leaders sample learning with a specific focus;
• Learning visits—Colleagues arrange with each other times when they can watch each other teach;
• Lesson observation—prearranged times when CLT/MLL observe teachers and offer specific feedback

about teaching and learning.

2

Curriculum ethos

Torpoint Community College provides learners with a broad education with the intention to em-
power students with the knowledge and understanding to become “Inspired Optimistic Learners”.
The knowledge and skills achieved by students will equip them for their chosen lives ahead. Every subject is
planned through a sequenced structure in which knowledge is taught to be learned -not merely encountered.
KS3 is not considered as a conveyor belt to GCSE, but an opportunity for students to master aspects of the sub-
ject discipline through experiencing high quality explanations, plenty of time dedicated to practice and lots of
opportunities to retrieve and review.

Effective learning:

We define learning as ‘an alteration in long term memory’ and consider it to be essential that stu-
dents don’t simply encounter knowledge, but remember it in the long term. Learning is also:
• Recognising the importance of teaching domain specific knowledge and creating

knowledge schemas in the long term memory of students, allowing them to learn like experts
rather than novices
• Valuing the teaching of declarative and procedural knowledge
• Fostering knowledge dependent skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and creativity
• ·Acknowledging the importance to facilitate automaticity of core skills (for example times ta-
bles, verbs and tenses)

3

Whole College Priority 1

Curriculum Implementation— all curriculum areas implement effectively sequenced
curriculums that facilitate deep learning and respond to the unique challenges created by the
covid-19 pandemic. This is achieved by ensuring consistently high quality teaching.

Building and securing students’ ability to learn over time is developed around the key principles:

attention – understanding - memory
• Students must listen attentively in a distraction free environment in order to learn.
• Teachers need to plan highly effective explanations, questions and tasks to develop and

check understanding
• Teachers need to ensure that students are consistently required to recall previously taught

content, ideally at the point at which they are likely to forget. This remembered knowledge
should then be explicitly connected to new learning to develop flexible knowledge schema

This strategy document has been created to set out concrete plans to facilitate our College
community achieving this objective.

4

Strategy overview

Aims:

• Create an environment in which all teachers can teach and all children can learn free from distractions
• Develop expert teaching that is shared across the College and leads to excellent outcomes for all students

Actions: • Effective remote education (page 18)
• Revision (page 19)
• Shared pedagogical approach (page 6) • Subject specific assessment policies (page 20
• Behaviour curriculum (page 7) • Pupil premium (page 21)
• Consistent standards (page 8) • Focus on disciplinary literacy (page 22)
• Visible leadership (page 9) • Literacy interventions (page 23)
• Lesson visits by CLT and MLL (page 10-11) • Numeracy interventions (page 24)
• Regular conversations (page 12) • Gifted and talented (page 25)
• Parental engagement (page 13) • Lesson observations (page 26)
• Whole College lead for T&L (page 14) • Shared framework for observing and offering
• Learning survey visits (page 15)
• Learning visits by colleagues (page 16) feedback (page 27—51)
• Decentralised CPD (page 17)
5

Shared pedagogical approach

Teachers are respected as experts who work with other members of their subject team to develop
approaches that bring about strong outcomes for all students in their subjects. However, we also have a
shared approach that can be applied across contexts.

We believe that:

Teachers should have an explicit repertoire Approaches to teaching and learning have been
of well-crafted explanations, examples and developed as best practice across the College, in-
tasks for each topic they teach. Teachers cluding:
should collaborate and share knowledge • Regular retrieval tasks;
and resources within teams so that all • Teacher led instruction;
teachers have access to great materials. • Effective use of examples;
Subject areas invest time in identifying and • Live modelling new learning to others;
planning for students’ likely misconceptions • Regular and targeted questioning;
and plan lessons to explicitly address them • Lots of time dedicated to independent work;
even before they arise (e.g. through the use • Scaffolding rather than differentiation
of non-examples). Time is used meaningfully • Whole class feedback
with students expecting to work from the
first until the last minute of lesson

6

Conduct curriculum

Great learning is underpinned by good behaviour. Much like students need to be taught the
knowledge for each subject discipline, they also need to be taught how to behave in ways that create a posi-
tive College community and allow deep learning to happen. We have therefore planned what we intend our
students to know in order to ensure they behave in ways that are conducive to learning. All staff are responsi-
ble for teaching students how to behave.

3 key principles:

Intent—students need to know: Implementation:

Treating other people like they matter, Staff explicitly explain to students how they are expected to speak to
and communicating this through our lan- each other; staff consistently model using respectful language; we
guage, is a non negotiable of our Col- use concrete examples to ensure students know what we mean by
lege community. ‘respect’ and the behaviours we expect.

Concentration and focus are essential to Teachers identify times when silence will create the best conditions

thinking hard and working hard. for thinking hard and working hard and insist that students complete

these tasks in silence. Teachers regularly explain that this is because

our best thinking happens when distractions are removed.
Teachers are experts and need students

CLT/ MLL regularly visit lessons to support teachers and reinforce key
to listen attentively in order to teach them

messages.
effectively.

7

Consistent standards

It is incredibly difficult for students to concentrate if we allow background noise as a norm in our classrooms. This
is why we must insist on silence as our default position when students are listening to explanations or completing
independent practice. This supports all students but in particular our most vulnerable. Discussion is a perfectly
valid part of teaching and learning, but it must be planned and directed by the teacher.

We believe that:

• Teachers are the experts in the room Scholarship:
and children learn best when guided by
the teacher; • Students are often expected to answer questions
in full sentences using appropriate vocabulary
• Students needs to be attentive in order for the subject;
to learn. Sometimes this means sitting si-
lently and listening. • Teachers asks students to repeat answers and re-
phrase them if necessary.
• Students need to be reminded how to
demonstrate respect with concrete ex- • Students are expected to have the correct
amples (e.g. sit up straight) equipment and if they do not, teachers can in-
form their tutors;
• Students need to complete independ-
ent practice in silence so that they can • Students are expected to wear correct uniform,
think hard without distractions. but teachers don’t have to spend valuable
teaching time dealing with uniform. Issues can
be shared with BST so their parents can be con-
tacted.

8

Visible leadership

Senior leaders know that their role is to pave the way for great teaching. We know that we must not
ask staff to do things which do not benefit teaching and learning, or that we wouldn’t do ourselves. Senior
leaders have specific roles and responsibilities, but the role of every member of senior leadership is to create
conditions that make it as easy as possible for teachers to provide every student with a high quality education.

All senior leaders will:

• Maintain and communicate high expectations to all Visit lessons every day:
students;
• Senior leaders have additional time on their
• Meet with the CLoLs they LM to discuss curriculum, timetable, and will regularly visit lessons:
teaching and learning every fortnight
• This is not to check on teachers, but to sup-
• Lead by example and ensure they are visible around port them by ensuring students are working
the College every day; quietly and effectively in every lesson;

• Avoid asking staff to duplicate information shared on • Students will know that we expect to find
a central system because this distracts from teaching them working hard and respecting all adults
and learning; and students in the room;

• Develop expertise in teaching and learning which al- • We trust all teachers to uphold high stand-
lows them to coach and support other teachers; ards and have high expectations of stu-
dents, but we also know that by working as
• Prioritise responding promptly when teachers need team we can help each other.
support in the classroom;

9

Lesson visits by CLT/ MLL

Lesson visits are a supportive measure designed to communicate to the students that the staff at the College
are a team who work together to secure high standards. They show that every staff member should be afford-
ed the same level of respect from students, regardless of their position. Everyone needs to feel comfortable
and confident so it is important to have some shared principles for lesson visits.

Shared principles:

• Enter the room in a friendly but Addressing the class:
unobtrusive manner;
• If students are not working in a manner that represents the consistent
• If the teacher is in the middle of standards we expect, it is necessary to speak to the class;
an explanation, stay by the door
to minimise disruption to learning; • Always ask the permission of the class teacher first. They may prefer to
speak to the class with the additional adult in the room or might be happy
• At an appropriate time ask the for the visitor to speak to them.
teacher how the lesson is going,
use their feedback to decide how • Clearly explain that our College community has high standards because
best to support them. we know it helps students learn more effectively. Remind them that we
expect them to work silently and respect their teachers and each other.
• If appropriate, publicly recognise/
praise students who are fulfilling • Check before you leave that the teacher is happy that the students are
College expectations and be complying before leaving the room;
clear with them about exactly
what they are doing well. • If not, stand in the room while the teacher reinforces their rules and expec-
tations.

• Agree with the teacher how they can let you know if the attentiveness of
the class doesn’t improve.

10

Supportive leadership

Lesson visits are not observations of teachers; they are opportunities for senior leaders to support teach-
ers to instill high standards. It is a real pleasure to see students learning, but if students are not meeting our ex-
pectation of them to think hard, work hard and be respectful, the CLT member (in agreement with or at the re-
quest of the teacher) will remind students of how we expect them to conduct themseleves. Lesson visitors will
never undermine a teacher’s authority by entering the room and challenging students. CLT have allocated
days for lesson visits:

Year 7 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Year 8
Year 9 CLO EBE BLE CLO JPL
Year 10 CPE BLE CPE
Year 11 JPL BLE EBE MBL JGO
JGO
MBL JPL MBL

11

Regular conversations

Effective curriculum development is about ‘conversations not paperwork’. CLT meet with MLL who
they line manage at least once per fortnight to discuss subject specific development. The CLT member is re-
sponsible for maintaining the FDD as a record of conversations and developments.

Regular professional dialogue is at the heart of College improvement:

• CLT links are required to Focus for discussions:
meet with the faculty leads
they line manage once per • Curriculum intent—what is the curriculum story? What is
fortnight; taught when and why? What does excellence look like in
this subject?
• The meeting time needs to
be added to the calendar • Curriculum implementation—what blend of teaching ap-
on sims; proaches are being developed? How are excellent expla-
nations being developed and shared for this subject? How is
• CLT links will feedback to the assessment being used to ensure students are learning what
wider CLT team about devel- you intend them to?
opments in their subject are-
as at CLT meetings. • Curriculum impact—what does the quality of the work pro-
duced by students at different stages tell you about how
successful teaching and learning is in this subject? What
needs to improve?

12

Parental engagement

TCC is a community school and we take relationships with parents and carers seriously. We want
them to join us in celebrating successes; support us with teaching their children to behave in ways that facili-
tate learning, and support their children with remote learning should the need arise.

Planned provision:

• Regular reporting points
• Virtual/ telephone parent evenings
• Sims parent app to communicate messages
• College Facebook page for celebrating successes
• Parental survey biannually
• Access to remote learning portal
• Close working partnership with HOYS and Behaviour support Team
• Close working partnership with TIS practitioners

13

College lead for T&L

The College has a member of the leadership team who has oversight of teaching and learning and
is responsible for supporting teachers to implement the pedagogical approaches that are consid-
ered best practice (page 6)

The T&L lead will:

• Coordinate and deliver the whole College CPD programme;
• Develop and maintain the TCC Teaching and learning hub: https://sites.google.com/view/cpdtcc/home
• Maintain an expert knowledge of research regarding teaching and learning, and consider how this can be

implemented within our context;
• Develop knowledge of approaches used by schools that deliver excellent outcomes for learners and con-

sider how this can be applied within our context;
• Develop approaches to help us make progress towards whole College priority 1 and share these with staff;
• Visit lessons regularly to develop understanding of teaching and learning at TCC and offer support as ap-

propriate;
• Create the College remote education policy, ensuring our students experience a high quality provision

whether learning in or out of College;
• Work with subject areas to ensure that assessment is used effectively to further students’ learning;
• Work with subject areas to embed disciplinary literacy;
• Create and share fortnightly teaching and learning briefing videos for faculty teams to watch together.

14

Learning survey visits

In order to monitor and develop teaching and learning across the College, middle and senior leaders will from
time to time visit lessons. This will not form part of the formal observation of teachers, but allow them to gather
data about students’ learning and allow them offer support and training where appropriate.

Examples:

• Headteacher visits lessons to observe the progress made by students across the College;
• Head of a department or faculty visits lessons to observe implementation of a particular curric-

ulum element;
• SENCO visits a variety of lessons to observe SEND students and the strategies in place to help

them learn effectively;
• HoY visits lessons to observe the behaviour of students in their year group;
• Head of T&L visits lessons to observe use of a particular pedagogical approach;
• Literacy lead visits lessons to observe implementation of disciplinary literacy;
• G&T lead visits lessons to observe the progress of able students;
• Head of sixth form visits lessons to observe the progress of post 16 students.

Learning survey visits should be conducted in the same manner as lesson visits as set out on page 10

15

Learning visits by colleagues

Learning visits can be undertaken by any member of staff. They are a useful way to learn from each other. All
staff can organise a learning visit to a colleague’s lesson, but we ask that you observe the principles below.

Shared principles:

• Talk to the teacher before hand and let them know you would like to pop in to lesson. Agree a lesson that
is convenient for both parties.

• Enter the room in a friendly but unobtrusive manner;
• If the teacher is in the middle of an explanation, stay by the door to minimise disruption to learning;
• Do not expect the teacher to stop their teaching to hand over paperwork or any such thing. Their priority is

the students not the visitor.
• Never make critical or unfavourable comments about the lesson to the teacher or others. If the person

teaching the lesson asks for critique/ advice then it should be given—but not if it is not requested.
• Teaching is a challenging job that can make us feel vulnerable; colleague lesson visits allow us to learn

from one another, but we must be mindful of the professional feelings of those we observe.
• Always send an email after the observation to thank the colleague whose lesson you visited and identify

something that impressed you. This can of course be done in person if you prefer.
• Be mindful of the current restrictions due to covid-19. There is no reason why an adult can’t enter a col-

league’s classroom, but social distancing measures will need to be followed in line with the guidance
shared in other documents.

16

Decentralised CPD

CPD will be delivered through the CPD portal. Sessions will be delivered through video content
and subject teams given time to discuss and plan for implementation. All teachers are asked to maintain a
record of their professional learning and practice in their PD booklet. The CPD programme will: ensure all staff
are kept informed of research drawn from the fields of cognitive science and education that can improve
teaching & learning and help secure the whole College priorities; support teachers with practical techniques
and strategies that can be applied in a range of subjects and contexts. ensure all teachers are cognisant of
the needs of learners and how to adapt practice to meet their needs.

3 strands to professional development at TCC:

Individual Faculty Whole College

All teachers are responsible for Faculty leads are responsible for CLT provide research-informed
identifying a specific aspect of
their pedagogy to practise im- providing curriculum based CPD that supports all teachers
proving.
CPD that improves teachers’ to develop pedagogy.

PCK.

17

Remote education

We have a remote education plan that is adaptable to the different contexts of adults
and children, but strives to maintain a high quality of education in the event of remote learning
being implemented. We are prepared for a range of scenarios and have the plans in place to re-
spond immediately.

If whole bubbles have to learn If individuals have to learn from
from home: home:

The key ethos for remote education at TCC is to ensure We have online platforms that allow students to imme-

our students are “learning not just working”. We will diately access learning materials that reflect what chil-

provide asynchronous learning that includes: dren learn in College:

Clear explanations 1. The Remote Education Portal—direct students to

Modelled examples online learning;

Incremental layering of knowledge 2. Classes on Microsoft Teams– copies of lesson mate-
rials accessible to all;
Lots of opportunities for students to practise applying
what they have been taught 3. Teachers set additional materials if appropriate;

High quality resources 4. A bank of materials saved on the T drive that can
be posted home to students without internet ac-
Clear feedback to students about the work they sub- cess.
mit.

18

Revision

All students will be taught how to revise from year 7 so that the processes of effective learning be-
comes their normal way of working over time. Students will be taught some principles of cognitive load theory
as part of the tutor time programme to give them an understanding of how learning happens and activities
that can create the conditions for learning to be stored in the long term memory.

Tutor time: Home learning: Retrieval practice:

All students are provided with All subjects areas are asked to All teachers are asked to regu-

packs of knowledge organisers regularly set home learning that larly begin lessons with retrieval

that have been created by requires students to retrieve pre- activities that require students

subject teams to reflect the viously taught content. All sub- to remember learning from the

core knowledge (the ject areas have Quizlet sub- previous days, weeks and

knowledge we most want them scriptions so that students can months. The types of tasks will

to store in their LTM). Once per be set flashcards decks to use look different in different sub-

week, students are taught a re- at home. This is designed to jects and be designed to se-

vision strategy and given time strengthen memory and create cure automaticity of core

to practise using it alongside flexible knowledge schema. knowledge.

their Kos.

19

Subject assessment policies

We believe that assessment is different to marking. Marking has a high opportunity cost and does not
necessarily help students to learn more. Assessment is essential to learning and should either strengthen learning
(e.g. through retrieval practice) or provide information for the teacher to act on. We recognise that different
subject disciplines require different forms of assessment, and ask department teams to create their own assess-
ment policies because they are the experts when it comes to knowing the best ways to help children learn in
their subject. We advocate whole class feedback as an effective approach.

Shared principles:

Teachers are required to assess students and give them feedback as part of the on-going process of daily
teaching, but there is no specific requirement as to what teachers should write on students’ books.

Assessment and feedback do not take one format.

We expect effective questioning to be prominent in department thinking about assessment

The teacher is the expert in considering how to use assessment to plug learning gaps and facilitate opportunities
for learners to improve.

There need to be clearly defined protocols for formal assessments within departments to ensure consistency
across the subject area.

Teachers are expected to keep up to date records about student attainment (usually on sims) that can be re-
ported to parents/ carers.

Leaders in the College have a responsibility to provide training and support to teachers in order to ensure that
formal assessment is accurate and that assessments are appropriately designed for the students.

20

Pupil Premium

All children matter at TCC and we know that children from disadvantaged backgrounds require ex-
pert teaching to ensure that they have opportunities to excel. We ensure that all students are taught in ways
that research suggests yield strong outcomes (page 6), but we know that these approaches are particularly ef-
fective when teaching children eligible for PP.

Focus areas:

All teachers prioritise explicit vocabulary instruction. Research suggests that this will particularly benefit
children eligible for PP.
All teachers follow the College approach to teaching reading in every subject. Again this will benefit all
students, but disadvantaged children will benefit the most.
All teachers know who their disadvantaged learners are and ensure that they have what they need to
participate fully in home learning, including printed materials if they don’t have internet access.
We maintain up to date records of students who do not have access to the ICT that supports remote
learning, ensuring that these students have high quality printed materials.
We will deliver a year 9 project which includes students eligible for PP and students identified as G&T
working together. Depending on Covid restrictions, we will plan a visit to the Box in Plymouth as part of
the project.
We ensure that students eligible for PP are prioritised for reading interventions and career interviews.

21

Disciplinary literacy

At TCC we understand the importance of raising standards of reading and writing to benefit chil-
dren at all stages of learning. All teachers require children to read and write at some point in their lessons.
Whether they need to read something as short as an exam question or a sustained and complex piece of text,
reading is fundamental to learning; equally, the vast majority of subjects require students to write effective and
crafted answers. Literacy is not a compulsory bolt-on to lessons; it is not necessary for teachers to incongruously
force the teaching of reading and writing into every lesson they teach, but when teachers need to develop stu-
dents’ ability to read and write, it is most beneficial if we use similar approaches and language.

We expect that:

Every subject area prioritises identifying the particular literacy demands of their subject;
All teachers explicitly teach students the literacy skills needed to succeed in their subject, using the TCC Com-
mon Framework for Teaching Reading and Writing;
Every subject area identifies the high value tier 2 and 3 vocabulary that is essential to understanding their sub-
ject;
Every teacher uses explicit instruction to teach students the identified words;
Every subject area has a designated literacy lead who meets with the T&L lead;
Every teacher follows the whole College approach to teaching reading and writing;
CLoLs monitor the teaching of disciplinary literacy across their subject area.
All KS3 tutors deliver the RRR programme in tutor time once per week

22

Literacy Interventions

Some of our students join the College with reading and writing levels that preclude them from accessing the
curriculum. We therefore prioritise additional support for these students to try and catch them up with their
peers.

Planned interventions:

Phonic decoding using Piper books Aimed at students in year 7/8 with RAs below 9.
Delivered daily during tutor time.
Students will be taught to read and spell the
most frequently used 100 words in the English Teachers to identify students with illegible hand-
language writing
Handwriting Students identified by English teachers. Students
with slow writing speed/ poor fluency.
Dictation sessions Aimed at students in year 7/8 with RAs below 9.

DI programme during English lessons for lowest
ability readers.

Phonics Programme and basic comprehension Aimed at students in year 7/8/9 with low literacy
using Read Write Inc Fresh Start and Read On and who are disapplied from MFL. Delivered

during MFL lessons for disapplied students.

23

Numeracy Interventions

24

More able

At TCC, not only do we believe that our curriculum must meet the needs of all learners, but also, that
part of this process is that we have a duty to identify and offer an effective provision for our more
able learners to enable them to flourish and for their needs to be met. More Able learners are those young peo-
ple who have the ability to excel academically in one specific area of the curriculum e.g. Mathematics. Gifted
learners are those who possess a general academic learning ability which is significantly greater than their
peers. These learners will have the potential to excel academically in more than one area across the curriculum
such as English or Science. Talented describes learners who have the ability to excel in practical skills such as ar-
tistic performance, sport, and leadership or in an area of vocational skill.

The more able lead will:

Work with teachers to identify more able students in every subject, using a range of factors and drawing a clear
distinction between ability/ attainment/ achievement;

Identify the specific social and emotional needs of more able students and offer support to help them manage
stress and pressure that they may place upon themselves to excel;

Offer advice and training to teachers to support them to develop pedagogical approaches that help able stu-
dents to achieve highly;

Provide opportunities for students to learn about careers and further education;

Frequently celebrate the achievements of more able students

Deliver a year 9 project which includes students eligible for PP and students identified as G&T working to-
gether. Depending on Covid restrictions, we will plan a visit to the Box in Plymouth as part of the project.

25

Lesson observations

Lesson observations are part of our approach to supporting all teachers to develop their pedagogy and prac-
tice. Observations focus on teaching and learning and are an opportunity to offer advice to support profes-
sional development. All teachers will be observed twice during the year: in the autumn term by CLT; in the
spring or summer term by their line manager. These observations form part of the PA process.

Professional development Teacher wellbeing matters Teachers have agency

Lesson observations are an We take all reasonable All teachers can choose
integral part of continuous profes- steps to assuage stress or anxiety which class they are observed with
sional development. Teachers are associated with observation. The and what specific area of their
not judged or graded but offered teachers at TCC are highly valued pedagogy the observer focuses
specific advice that helps them to as experts and this is communicat- on during the lesson.
develop expert teaching. ed through professional dialogue
following observations.

Effective support Positive feedback leads Observers are experts

When lesson observation Observers ensure that Teachers have the right to expect
suggests any difficulties or chal- to be observed by experts who
lenges, the teacher will be offered they focus on strengths in the les- are knowledgeable of the re-
support and coaching. search and ideas presented as
son and take every opportunity to part of the CPD programme.

share these positives with the

teacher.

26

Shared framework for observing

During planned observations, the teacher sets the focus for the observation. They identify in advance of the
lesson the particular area of pedagogy they would most like feedback on.
If an observer notices something else they would like to comment on, that is fine but their primary focus for
feedback should be the area designated by the teacher.
The following pages contain notes and prompts designed to ensure a consistent approach to feedback that is
aligned with the whole College CPD programme.

27

Professor Rob Coe identified several poor proxies for learning:

·Students are busy: lots of work is done (especially written work)
·Students are engaged, interested, motivated
·Students are getting attention: feedback, explanations
·Classroom is ordered, calm, under control
·Curriculum has been ‘covered’ (i.e. presented to students in some form)
·At least some) students have supplied correct answers, even if they:
– Have not really understood them
– Could not reproduce them independently
– Will have forgotten it by next week (tomorrow?)
– Already knew how to do this anyway

These are learner behaviours that are generally positive, but in reality ‘learning happens when people have to
think hard’ rather than when they are kept busy. Learning is invisible and can’t be seen in real time.

As observers, looking beyond these factors to consider how much thought is required by students and how
much learning is being retained in the long term memory over time will allow us to offer more focused and con-
structive feedback.
The purpose of the following pages is to offer advice and guidance to observers, related to the CPD pro-
gramme that will help them to support teachers they observe.

28

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Questioning

Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

How questions are directed to stu- Use cold call as a technique to target specific students to answer questions.
dents: only students who raise their By doing this:
hands answer questions; You can elicit how well a wider range of students have understood the material.

You can manage the more dominant voices in the room and hear from students
less likely to volunteer.

Teacher uses lollipop sticks to identify You can encourage all students in the class to think carefully.
students to answer questions.
You can use your knowledge of students’ understanding to inform the next steps
of your teaching.

You control who answers specific questions rather than randomly selecting a stu-
dent.

Some students feel anxiety when put on the spot but teachers can assuage this

Question frequency: teacher asks Ask more rapid response, quick check questions. Teacher explains something
very few questions (fewer than 10) and then immediately asks a follow up question to a student. “a simile is a figure
of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different
kind”. “John what’s a simile?”. This improves attentiveness and begins a positive
feedback loop. Students can feel successful by giving correct answers.

Use flip questions so that you ask the same question but different ways to more
than one student. “a simile is a figure of speech involving the comparison of one
thing with another thing of a different kind”. “John what’s a simile?” “Kate what
do we call it when writers compare one thing to another thing?”

29

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Questioning

Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Student responses: students are able Don’t allow students to opt out. Accept their answer, but explain to them that you

to opt out by saying they don’t know will be coming back to them. Ask another student the same question. Once a

an answer; student has given the correct answer, go back to the original student and ask

them the question again. This is most appropriate if the questions are straightfor-

ward and have short answers. By doing this:

You can find out whether a student really doesn’t know the answer or whether
they don’t want to think about it.

You can use your knowledge of students’ understanding to inform the next steps
of your teaching.

questions are asked to the class Students understand there is a high expectation of them at all times and that a la-
which leads to students calling out zy response will not result in having to think less.
answers Target specific questions to students (using Cold Call). Doing this ensures that:

You can avoid a situation where students call out, or several students try to answer
at once.

Students are able to see that you are in control of the learning environment and
that you set the expectation for everyone.

You can manage class discussion more effectively and use your knowledge of in-
dividuals to identify levels of understanding.

30

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Questioning

Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Types of questions: teachers ask very Pre plan questions in advance to ensure they are clearly sequenced.

open questions that encourage stu- Don’t ask open questions about content that has not yet been taught.
dents to guess what they are thinking.

Student confidence: students lack Allow thinking time. Pose a question to the class and allow the whole
confidence to answer questions or class time to think about the answer before identifying one student to
give weak responses. offer an answer.

Establish talk partners for all students. Every time a question is asked that
is challenging, allow students time to discuss it with their partner.

Teacher expectations of students: Allow students time to think before answering complex questions that re-

Teachers accept mediocre answers; quire them to summarise or link.

Students give half correct answers Set clear expectations for when students are expected to answer in

and the teacher ‘rounds up’. They re- complete sentences

peat the answer but improve the Idenitfy subject specific vocabulary that students are expected to use

phrasing/ quality of the response; when answering

Students answer in single words If students give a poor answer ask them to repeat it but to use a whole
sentence or use a particular word

31

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Questioning

Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Depth and variety of questioning: Think about how to use different types of questioning that create differ-
questioning tends to be superficial in ent cognitive challenges:
the sense that students are asked to summary questions
simply recall knowledge; linking questions

Teachers don’t use questions effec- Use MCQs at the end of explanations to ensure that you can gather da-
tively to check student understanding ta about student understanding from every child in the class
before setting them on task

Use Show Me boards as a way for students to feedback answers to
questions at the same time so you can make inferences about the un-
derstanding of every child.

32

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Classroom management/ behaviour

Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Student attentiveness: students Insist that students are silent and attentive during teacher talk. Explain to students
talk while the teacher is talking; that silence is essential for them to learn and it is part of respectful behaviour within

your classroom community. Never let it go. If students talk, pause and wait for them

to stop. If they start again, remind them of your expectations. Use redirection to

prompt students and praise the class if they stay silent for the duration of an explana-

tion; remember not to over praise when they meet a basic expectation, but make it

clear that the way they behaved is exactly the way you want them to behave every

time you are talking.

Students talk when they have Preplan points of the lesson when students need to work silently. Consider when talk

been set an independent task is appropriate: discussion related to learning is really important, but general chatter

and are not really focusing on the distracts children from learning. Explicitly tell students when you want them to work

learning because they are en- silently and explain to them that you need them to think hard and do their best and
gaged in general chat. silence provides the optimum conditions for this. Some students will find this harder

than others: use redirection rather than warnings to teach them to be silent. Ask

them: “can you tell me what conditions I asked you to work in.” When they reply

“silence” praise them for knowing and ask them to work silently. Sometimes students
chat because they are not sure what to do; check for understanding of the task

through verbal questioning. If students persist with chatting when asked not to, issue

a detention, but be very clear with students what they have done and what you ex-
pect them to do next time. If you teach a class that struggle with working silently,

begin with small periods of time that are designated for thinking hard and gradually

increase this to help them learn the value of silence. Remember—silence is a learn-

ing strategy not a behaviour strategy so avoid using silence as a punishment.

33

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Classroom management/ behaviour

Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Teacher consistency and expec- Establish routines with students and stick to them rigidly so that you develop class-

tations: the teacher is inconsistent room norms. If you have asked students to put their hands up to answer a question,

in their application of routines/ ex- this must be stuck to—even when a student gives a good answer, you must not ac-

pectations; cept it or praise it until they have put their hand up. Creating norms that are consist-

ently applied helps children understand your expectations.

Key moments of the lessons (e.g. Plan your routines. Decide exactly how you want students to enter the room etc. Tell
the beginning, transitions, the the children explicitly what you expect. Praise them (not too excessively) when they
end) are unsettled; get it right and remind them when they get it wrong. Plan regular intervals to tell stu-
dents your routines—even if they are following them, keep reminding them so that
they don’t slip into bad habits.

Some students undermine others Consider scenarios in the lessons that arise that are challenging to manage and script

by commenting on their feedback them. Think specifically what you want to say to students when they undermine the

or try to dictate the tone of the expectations you have or are disrespectful for others. Make sure you explain why re-

room. spect is such an important principle of the College community and the specific be-

haviours that are unacceptable within your classroom. Praise students when they are

respectful and redirect them when they are not. Remind students relentlessly that

they are highly valued members of your classroom community and it is essential that

we treat each other like we matter. Identify specific behaviours that undermine this

and ensure students know they will not be accepted. If students choose to persist

despite clear explanations/ redirection, issue detention and ensure they know exactly

why the sanction has been issued.

34

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Classroom management/ behaviour

Things observers could con- Support and guidance for observers to offer advice
sider

Teacher– student relationship: Communicate kindness to your class. Explicitly tell them that they are valued and you be-

the relationship between the lieve in their ability to succeed: to be able to do their best there are some expected be-

teacher and students has haviours. Combine assertiveness with warmth: students absolutely must comply with your

started to breakdown/ is neg- instructions, but they also need to be taught why you expect certain behaviours. Beware

ative; of attribution bias: do not assume the best of some students and the worst of others. Re-

main calm even when it is hard. Plan for challenging scenarios that might arise in a lesson

based on your experience of the class, and script your response in advance. This will help

you remain calm and composed even when students are making you feel stressed. Use

positive framing; don’t narrate the negative. It is highly unlikely that the whole class are

being difficult so recognise those who are on board. If students continue to talk after you

have asked for silence, avoid “I have told you to stop talking and you haven’t” and in-

stead opt for “most of you have stopped talking, the rest of you need to do the same”.

This suggests that compliance is the norm. Don’t expect things to change instantly; some

students will need to hear the same message many times before they learn the expected

Students demonstrate a lack behaviours– that doesn’t mean it isn’t working. Think carefully about when to use redirec-
of respect for the teacher; tion and when to use warnings: reminding a student to do something relatively small like
they openly challenge their keep their pen on the desk when you are talking is enough. Giving warnings for things
authority or seek to under- they genuinely forgot or perceive as small can antagonise the relationship.
mine instructions.
If a sanction is threatened or awarded, it must be given. Empty threats undermine re-
spect. Professor Rob Coe has found that respect is far more important to great teaching

than being liked. It is nice if students like their teacher, but respecting their authority is

more important in terms of teaching and learning.

35

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Explanations and modelling

Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Overall quality of explanation: ex- The evidence in the Great Teaching toolkit supports the value of concise and precise
planations are long-winded and explanations. Spontaneous/ authentic explanations can increase cognitive load for
drawn out. Students might tell you students as they are not sequenced effectively and can include extraneous details.
that they struggle to follow every- Professor Rob Coe supports scripting explanations of complex content/ concepts to
thing the teacher says because ensure that teachers know exactly what they are going to say and in what order. A
there is a lot in one go; good explanation presents the minimum amount necessary to cover the content
and doesn’t include extraneous details. Scripting can also aid fluency of delivery.
Sometimes teachers are trying to explain something complex and it is easy to lose
flow– preparing a script before hand can ensure that doesn’t happen. Scripted in-
struction is somewhat controversial, but it is well supported by research evidence as
a highly effective approach.

Students are given independent Professor Rob Coe suggests that this is the end point aim of education. Producing
problems to work on but with lim- students who can independently solve problems and apply learning to a range of
ited pre teaching and a lack of contexts, represents academic success, but asking students/ novices to do it too of-
background knowledge. ten, and before they have sufficient foundational knowledge and skills to do so, is in-
effective. Most of students’ educational time should be spent on mastering founda-
tional skills and learning from experts.

36

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Explanations and modelling
Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Transition from explanation to task: Provide more worked examples for students: display a question or task on the board

students are set tasks but struggle and complete it. Chunk what you are doing right down and explain each part to

to start because they are not clear students. Provide a second question or task which is very similar to the first and com-

what to do plete it again, but this time ask students to help you/ guide you/ tell you specifically

what to do at each stage. Finally, offer students a third question/ task to attempt in-

dependently. It is essential that all three questions/ tasks are very similar with only

small changes so that the process for the example can be directly applied to the in-

dependent task. Remember, novices can’t learn from a single example so showing

multiple examples will improve understanding.

Quality of explanation: teachers Try dual coding. Adding lots of pictures or icons to something is not dual coding. Du-
use verbal explanation to articu- al coding is something that happens inside the brain that supports the development
late complex information; of knowledge schema. By drawing diagrams at the same time as delivering a verbal
explanation, understanding is strengthened and the constraints of working memory
are bypassed. This video provides an excellent guide to dual coding: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=16SBht2iF_k&feature=youtu.be

teachers explain abstract ideas Always use concrete examples to explain conceptual ideas. Begin with the example
that students struggle to under- rather than the explanation. Provide multiple examples to represent the same idea.
stand or explain in their own words Use examples to check for understanding: give students examples and ask them

how and why this example relates to the overall conceptual idea. Use non exam-
ples that illustrates the limitations of the concept. Use concrete examples for retriev-
al practice in the future: rather than “what is x?” “How does this example relate to
x?”

37

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Explanations and modelling
Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Use of worked examples: the Use live modelling instead. A key feature of effective instruction is that students see
teacher provides students with a the process step by step. Showing students the final product is useful so they can
prewritten example to look at; begin to understand what success looks like, but they are very unlikely to be able to
replicate this if they don’t see the steps that lead to construction. Talk through each
Students are not clear about the step, explaining how you are organizing your thinking as well as what you are doing.
expected standard for the work. Verbalise the decision making process: reflect on what you have done so far and
model thinking a loud about how to continue. Model reviewing and editing: show
students that when we are writing we have a lot to think about and we are bound to
make mistakes; reviewing what are we are writing at regular intervals is essential.
Provide tasks that emulate the model. After watching a teacher model, it is essential
that they complete guided and then independent practice.

Explicitly show students what excellence looks like. Show them two examples: one
that is mediocre; the other which is marvelous. Explain specifically what makes the
second better than the first. Or show mediocre responses, explicitly explain the limi-
tations and model improving it. Then provide students with a similar mediocre exam-
ple and ask them to improve it following the same steps as you. Consistently build
reflection and improvement time into lessons. Teach students how to check their
own work for excellence—show them specifically what should be in an excellent re-
sponse and ensure they improve their own work given specific prompts to guide
them

38

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Guiding student practice/ scaffolding
Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Students’ ability to work inde- The zone of proximal development, often abbreviated as ZPD, is the difference be-
pendently: students are asked to tween what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help. It is
complete a task independently, a concept introduced, by Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934). Scaffolding
but it is quickly apparent that at refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively to-
least some students feel anxious ward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning
and request support from the process. The term itself offers the relevant descriptive metaphor. The teacher pro-
teacher as they feel unable to at- vides successive levels of temporary support that help students reach higher levels of
tempt the work. comprehension and skill acquisition that they would not be able to achieve without
assistance. Like physical scaffolding, the supportive strategies are incrementally re-
moved when they are no longer needed, and the teacher gradually shifts more re-
sponsibility for learning to the student. With an ultimate view to the students becom-
ing unconsciously competent at the skill being taught. The teacher needs to assess
students regularly to ascertain their ZPD –what can they do for themselves and what
is going to challenge them. Scaffolding is the support that needs to be put in place
to ensure that students are often doing work that is just beyond them/ is making
them think hard, but that they have the support structures provided that enable
them to do this. The most common approach to scaffolding is guided practice: stu-
dents are taught each stage of a problem or task independently and the teacher

39

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Guiding student practice/ scaffolding
Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Ethos of high expectations: teach- Creating too much difference within a lesson undermines high expectations for all.

ers provide a great deal of Different materials/ tasks can be useful if designed to bring all learners to the same

‘differentiation’: different materials end point, but different success criteria suggests that we have low expectations of

for some students; different tasks; some. The research evidence s clear that lowering expectations for disadvantaged

different success criteria; different students perpetuates underachievement. The idea of using ‘all, most, some’ to iden-

expectations of what students will tify varied expectations for learners has the same effect. Rob Coe states that great

achieve; teachers have high expectations for all. He recognizes the challenges of this, but as

a basic aspiration, the evidence shows that this is an important principal.

Teachers have different expecta- Avoid lowering expectations of students. Differentiation by outcome– i.e. accepting

tions for some students: they are that the work some students produce won’t be very good lowers aspirations for

happy to accept that some stu- those students. Instead think about what they can be given that will give them a

dents will achieve less or produce chance to produce high quality work. This could be a vocabulary bank. Or a par-

work of a lower standard than their tially completed example that has gaps in it throughout for students to fill in.

peers. Again ,be careful not to make this so easy that students don’t have to think, but re-

duce the cognitive load so that they can focus on demonstrating their knowledge of

the topic rather than structuring the response.

40

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Guiding student practice/ scaffolding
Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Student independence: students Provide students with the structures they need to break down the task and support

are asked to complete difficult them to manage the cognitive demands. Avoid ‘differentiation’ in the sense of hav-

tasks but are unable to do so. Stu- ing lower expectations of some students and instead provide the scaffolding that

dents either don’t do a lot of work provides students supportive structures that can gradually be removed over time.

or quickly ask the teacher for help; Live modelling is often key to effective scaffolding because this is the process that al-

lows the teachers to explicitly demonstrate for students the process of completing a

complex task. When students are then asked to replicate the process by completing

a similar task, they are unlikely to be able to do so independently. They will need to

be provided with a structure to follow.

Students are asked to complete Essay writing creates huge cognitive demands on students. They have to think about
extended writing such as an essay the content of their answer and the key knowledge that needs to be included; the
or longer exam answer but they structure of their answer and how to sequence a response; the technicalities of writ-
struggle to do so; ing, including spelling punctuation and grammar. Consider which element you most
want students to think about and provide scaffolding for the other bits. If you want
students to internalise the structure or process of writing the answer, provide them
with the knowledge that needs to go into the response as a knowledge map. In
contrast, if you want them to focus on the content knowledge, provide them with
sentence stems to use so that they are following a set structure. Over time, as their
knowledge schema is built, remove the supports so that they have to think about
knowledge and construction simultaneously.

41

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Guiding student practice/ scaffolding
Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Some students in the class are una- Have support materials that can be provided to students who struggle to get started.

ble to complete a task; This could be: a word list; a diagram showing the most important knowledge; some

sentence starters; a bank of useful phrases; a plan that has been prepared for them;

a knowledge organiser.

Most or all students in the class Provide students the task already started. This could mean the first sentence has
struggle to start a task; been prewritten or the first part of a table has been completed etc. If students are
producing some writing, provide them with three potential opening sentences and
ask them to pick one: this means that they are still thinking and making choices
about their writing, but not having to generate an idea from scratch.

42

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Guiding student practice/ scaffolding

Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Creating student dependence: Scaffolding should be about managing cognitive load for novices. Think carefully

teachers provide too much sup- about the task and what different demands it creates for working memory; the aim

port for students which means that of scaffolding is to support one area. I.e. when writing a paragraph, students have

they don’t have to think hard. to think about the content and the structure. By providing a plan, students only have

to think about the structure as they have ideas for content; by providing sentence

starters, students only have to think about content because the structure is there for

them. Don’t scaffold so much that they don’t need to think about anything. Gradu-

ally take the scaffolding down: at the beginning of learning something the teacher

needs to do a lot for the students to help them understand the expert thinking re-

quired, but they should repeat the process several times, each time with less support.

Support for SEN students: students Chunk learning down into much smaller steps. Some students can only hold 3 or 4
with SEN, particularly autism or things in their working memory– when you consider that some students have not au-
poor working memory struggle to tomatised basics such as letter construction/ spelling and they are using working
process tasks/ instructions memory for those processes, they have very little capacity to process the actual
task. Avoid giving students 3 or 4 things to remember at a time: give them each spe-
cific instruction individually to help overcome the limitations of working memory.

43

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Guiding student practice/ scaffolding
Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Scaffolding reading: students are Think carefully about the literacy needs of students. Plan the best way for students to

asked to read a text and then re- engage with the text. If students have low reading ages, the most effective ap-

spond to it in some way. Many stu- proach is probably for the teacher to read the text to the students. They should fol-

dents struggle to do this or demon- low the whole College approach to teaching reading and in particular scaffold the

strate a lack of understanding of reading by breaking it down. Read one paragraph at a time before leading verbal

what they have read; questioning to ensure that all students understand. At the end of each paragraph,

model writing a summary of the content of the paragraph.

Teachers/ resources use complex Preteach vocabulary at the beginning of the teaching sequence. Identify the im-

subject specific vocabulary that at portant vocabulary that students are unlikely to know and give them a clear defini-

least some students fail to under- tion. Use the Frayer model as a way to help students not only understand what

stand. words mean, but also their use in context, Use example/ non examples and icons to

really ensure students have a good grasp of key words before using them in explana-

tions or presenting them to students in a resource.

44

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Retrieval practice

Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Delivery of retrieval: Students com- Short answer, fact check retrieval questions are really useful, but varying the style of
plete a list of questions that are questions supports building flexible knowledge schema. Vary the questions: short
very similar recall style questions; problem solving task; example/ non example spotting; find and fix error task; dia-

gram to label; quotation recitation; list of related ideas to complete.

Students don’t have enough time The goal of retrieval practice is to ensure all students know the previously taught con-
to attempt the tasks; tent. If some students are slow to work through the tasks, try revealing them one at a
time and reading them aloud. Allow students a short amount of time to attempt the
answer before reading out the next question. Be clear about how you want students
to respond i.e. in short answers. Simply displaying tasks on the board and timing 7
minutes might mean that some students don’t get beyond the second question.
Controlling the speed will help address this.

Students complete a retrieval quiz Cold call students to feedback answers. Make it clear that forgetting is normal so it
and answers are displayed on the doesn’t matter if they can’t remember something but we all need to try. When stu-
board. dents give half right answers, avoid rounding up and use questioning to draw out un-
derstanding. If a students answers wrongly or says they don’t know, ask the class to
put up their hand if they also put that answer. If a lot of students raise their hand, re-
teach that point before moving on. Go back to the original student to check they
can now answer. If students answer correctly, ask further question to extend under-
standing. Why? Can you give me an example? Are there any exceptions to that
rule? Retrieval needs to be time managed so it doesn’t dominate the lesson, but al-
so needs to be used to ascertain learning gaps.

45

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Retrieval practice
Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Variety of retrieval: retrieval tasks The ability to link concrete example to conceptual ideas is really important to learn-
don’t ask students to engage with ing. This can be reinforced in retrieval practice by either providing students with an
examples. example and asking students to explain how it relates to a concept or idea. Or,
providing them with a definition of a concept and asking them to generate an ex-
ample. Ask students to write out examples of previously learned content e.g. write a
sentence that contains an appositive. Or write a sentence on the board and ask
them to label the appositive.

Use flipped questions that ask them to recall concepts and examples. E.g question 1
‘what is homeostasis?’ Question 2 ‘Your body keeps its temperature constant. What
is this an example of?’

Use of retrieval as assessment: stu- Retrieval tasks are primarily about strengthening memory and ensuring students can
dents complete retrieval tasks but remember things they have been taught previously. However, they also represent
the teacher doesn’t use it as an an excellent low stakes assessment opportunity. Ask students how many questions
opportunity to gather data about they answered correctly “raise your hand if you scored 3 out of 5”. Folllow this up by
student understanding or reteach asking a student which question they got wrong and then how many others also got
things based on the data collect- this wrong. If a high proportion of students raise their hand, reteach the point, partic-
ed. ularly if it is going to be important to what you will teach them later in the lesson. It is
essential to reinforce with students that forgetting is normal or they may feel reluctant
to share their scores with you/ the class.

46

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Retrieval practice
Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Prioritising content for retrieval: stu- Think carefully about the essential knowledge that students will need to engage with

dents struggle to complete tasks/ the next stages of learning. Don’t assume that they will remember things they were

understand explanations as they taught previously and be able to apply this to their learning; it is much more likely

have forgotten previously taught that they will have forgotten some or most of what they have been taught. Retrieval

knowledge; practice is a great way to overcome this. Present students with questions/ tasks to

do that require them to recall the things that will best prepare them to understand

new content later in the lesson. Allow them time to recall what they have learned

and then go through the responses with them. Identify gaps in knowledge and re-

teach key concepts before introducing new content.

Retrieval activities only require stu- Try to design activities that also require students to recall procedural knowledge—
dents to recall factual knowledge. how to apply facts. Rather than asking students to recall the definition of a previous-

ly taught word, they could also be asked to use the word in a sentence. Remember
that repeated practice turns control over to the motor cortex, creating automaticity.
Overlearning ‘basics’ frees up working memory and makes learning sticky. Focus on
the things you wants students to be able to achieve unconscious recall and build this
into retrieval practice really regularly.

47

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Disciplinary literacy
Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Literacy planning: the teacher Literacy means mastery of the written code of the English language; students who

does not seem to have planned do not have this mastery are less likely to succeed in any subject. There is a strong

for the literacy needs of the stu- correlation between poor literacy and poor life outcomes so it is essential that every

dents and/or the literacy demands teacher supports our students in this area.

created by the subject content;

Teacher uses complex subject spe- Preteach vocabulary at the beginning of the teaching sequence. Identify the im-

cific words, but doesn’t teach chil- portant vocabulary that students are unlikely to know and give them a clear defini-

dren what they mean; tion. Use the Frayer model as a way to help students not only understand what

words mean, but also their use in context, Use example/ non examples and icons to

really ensure students have a good grasp of key words before using them in explana-

tions or presenting them to students in a resource. Teaching morphology and ety-

Teachers ask students to guess mology is very powerful because it helps students understand the patterns that un-
what words mean; derpin language, For example, the word ‘dyslexia’ contains two parts
‘dys’ (meaning bad) and ‘lexia’ (meaning word) - being bad with words. Teaching

students the common prefixes, roots and suffixes or your subject discipline can cre-

ate mental hooks that improve word knowledge. There are countless ways to teach

Teacher provides a word list or children vocabulary that will empower them with knowledge of the subject:

glossary. 1) Give students a prefix and ask them to generate as many words as they can

2) Work with students to create word maps that show how head words relate to
other words within a subject discipline (e.g. geothermic processes: endogenic–
exogenic in geography)

48

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Disciplinary literacy
Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Teaching reading: students are Think carefully about the reading ability of students. Plan the best way for students to

asked to read a text and then re- engage with the text. If students have low reading ages, the most effective ap-

spond to it in some way. Many stu- proach is probably for the teacher to read the text to the students. They should fol-

dents struggle to do this or demon- low the whole College approach to teaching reading and in particular scaffold the

strate a lack of understanding of reading by breaking it down. Read one paragraph at a time before leading verbal

what they have read; questioning to ensure that all students understand. At the end of each paragraph,

model writing a summary of the content of the paragraph.

Students read a text as a class: the Try using control the game. Instead of pre selecting volunteers to read, the teacher

teacher asks students to raise their should start the reading. Before starting they should be clear with students that they

hand and volunteers are selected will call out names at random and the students have to be able to pick up the read-

to read. ing immediately. This ensures that all students follow the text; all students have op-

portunities to read aloud and the teacher can control who reads what and for how

long. The teacher will need to model to students how to follow the text first (e.g. us-

ing a ruler under the line) so that they don’t get confused. This technique is most ap-

propriate for students with a reasonable reading ability. If students are struggling

readers (Ras below 9) it is more effective for the teacher to read aloud to the class

and model expert reading. Whether using control the game or teacher reading, the

teacher should pause at key points to check for understanding and ensure that stu-

dents know what they are reading. Students should be taught to mark where they

have to read to in the text, either by marking the text with pen or keeping their finger

49

Teacher’s chosen focus area: Disciplinary literacy
Things observers could consider Support and guidance for observers to offer advice

Teaching writing: students are Chunk down extended writing so that students have plenty of time to practise. Begin

asked to complete an extended with sentence level writing: provide students with sentence stems that ensure they

piece of writing, but it is quickly ap- have to write in depth and detail. The conjunction ‘because’ is a really useful tool to

parent that at least some students support students to develop their writing because it forces them to explain ‘why’. Is-

are unable to do so; sue students a simple stem sentence and ask them to use the conjunction because

to extend it. Another useful approach is to vary the position of the conjunction from

the middle of the sentence to the beginning when writing about the same subject

content. For example “King Henry the eight divorced his first wife because…” This

should be straightforward for students, but moving the conjunction to the beginning

increases the challenge “Because King Henry eight divorced his first wife, …”. Lots of

practice with sentence level writing is an excellent way to extend students’ under-

standing of subject content, but also develop an academic writing style that can

then be scaled up to paragraph level writing and eventually whole text writing.

Students are asked to produce Teaching students how to plan is essential to them becoming accomplished writers.
some extended writing (at least a Planning helps to manage cognitive load and teaches students to organise their
paragraph) but they don’t plan it thinking. The TCC Common Framework for teaching Reading and Writing offers sup-
first. port and guidance on approaches to planning at paragraph and whole text level.

50