Can I be that little bit better at.....changing the game?

Change is difficult.  It's been a running theme throughout this blog that there was a stage in my career back in 2009 where I begun to realise that what I was doing in the classroom probably wasn't as effective as it could have been.  Activities were designed before the learning or outcomes were planned.  Questions were machine gunned around the room without any care or consideration.  Feedback did little to benefit anyone but looked good on book trawls.  Differentiation became a logistical observer tick box nightmare and dented our photocopying budget.  The problem is though, as a teacher, it is very easy to fall into a routine without realising you've got there.  I had all the best intentions in the world to become the best I could be, but after a few years habits take shape.  At the 2012 SSAT conference Dylan Wiliam highlighted this issue by saying:

"Currently all teachers slow, and most actually stop, improving after two or three years in the classroom"

His point was that the environment is so challenging when we start teaching that we are forced to improve.  After we sort classroom routines and management strategies our progression begins to plateau and we can sometimes simply coast.  He stresses that it takes ten years of deliberate practice to develop expertise in our job.  This may be the case but ten years of constant refinement and improvement can be a difficult thing to keep on top of with all of the other tasks that make up the complex job of a teacher.

Naturally then we begin to develop habits.  Many of them are effective in the classroom and define who we are a teachers.  Unfortunately, there are habits that could do with refining or tweaking if we are to stay at the top of our game.  The thing is though, habits are tough to break.  To the annoyance of my wife I bite my nails.  It isn't the worst habit in the world but after a bit of reflection (or nagging) I consciously make an effort to reduce it.  In fact when I catch myself doing it I make the decision to stop.  However, after the two years that Wiliam talks about, do we realise the bad habits that we fall into and can we change them?  In his 2014 white paper 'Optimizing Talent: Closing Educational and Social Mobility Gaps Worldwide', Wiliam goes on to talk about the difficulty in changing habits:

What isn't required is an overhaul of our teaching.  We don't need to scrap everything we do and reinvent the way we approach lessons.  Not only is that unrealistic, but it is time consuming, incredibly difficult and hard.  Instead we need to be more pragmatic and identify key areas and work on them.  On the back of a number of low medal returns in track cycling, Team GB/British Cycling didn't throw the programme out of the window and start from scratch.  Instead they decided to focus on a few key principles.  One of these being that they needed to know more about their opponents than their opponents knew about themselves.  After the Athens games they went to every World Cup and World Championships and videoed the opposition and built a massive database which they used to their advantage.  It's so simple when you think about it.  So how can this apply to us in teaching?

"Great teaching cannot be achieved by following a recipe, but there are some clear pointers in the research to approaches that are most likely to be effective, and to others, sometimes quite popular, that are not.  Teachers need to understand why, when and how a particular approach is likely to enhance students' learning and be given time and support to embed it in their practice."

Professor Robert Coe from Durham University.

If we are going to change the game maybe we need to focus on core components of teaching and understand not just the what of them, but really get to grips with the why and the how.  Why is feedback effective?  How can we improve the way we approach planning?  Why is one particular questioning strategy better than another?  Asking questions like this, reflecting on what we do, and then refining our practice is a lot easier than starting from scratch.  So what have been the game changers in my own practice over the last few years?

Planning

Planning lessons is an area that has been widely talked about in education.  In fact I talked about it here.  How much is too much?  How much is too little?  Taxonomies or no taxonomies?  What makes up an outstanding lesson?  If there's one thing that has been highlighted over the years it is that planning is very personal to individual teachers.  One persons approach can be completely different to another and we shouldn't be trying too look for the 'magic formula' of what makes a perfect lesson.  In fact the varying contexts, school settings and students we work with means that a fantastically planned out lesson for one teacher may not work for another.  However, there are some key things that can make planning more effective and more efficient:

• Plan collaboratively - As Hattie states in Visible Learning, planning is at its most powerful when teachers work together.  Collaborating with others allows ideas to be bounced around, lessons to be critiqued, subject knowledge to be extended and strategies to be shared.  Although finding time may prove an issue, it is definitely worth the effort to do so.
• Keep it simple - Are we spending our time trying to teach too much and actually over-complicating things in lessons.  Trying to cram in every detail, every fact, followed by a starter, plenary and a wide range of activities can make a 60 minute lesson look very messy.  Try and refine what you teach by identifying the core principles and spend time developing students understanding of them.  What are the two or three things that must be learnt so that students can then access subsequent information.  How can we share that in a way that is accessible for our students?  Focus on this, slow down the time spent on them and remove the messiness.  
• Learning first, then activities - It can be very easy to think of a new activity to hook students in or grab their attention.  Sometimes in this instance though we focus too much on the activity and not on the learning.  What do you want students to learn?  Will doing this activity help do this or just distract them?  Will it clearly help them acquire the knowledge or skills they need?  Does it take you longer to resource the activity than students spend using it?  If so, maybe rethink what you're doing.  Keep it simple instead.
• Make them think - Daniel T. Willingham's states that memory is the residue of thought.  When designing lessons check how much real thinking is taking place.  Will students spend time really unpicking information, questioning its value and discussing their opinions.  Will they be spending time thinking about applying knowledge to real contexts or challenging problems?  
• Backward design - What is the end point or goal and plan backwards until you get there.  Such a simple yet powerful approach which ensures you identify the various stages and routes to an outcome.

Biggest impact:

• SOLO taxonomy - Love it or hate it, SOLO has really allowed me to unpick a topic and its various components before teaching it.  By doing so it has allowed me the ability to identify core knowledge that I need to spend time covering.  Used purely during the planning phase, it helps me pull apart a topic and refine what I will teach.  It helps ensure that I find larger context to fit the new knowledge in so students see where it fits into the bigger picture.  Mapping it out also lets me create a journey or story, which I don't have to stick to, but helps me explain what it is that I am teaching.

Feedback

Feedback is incredibly complex and the focus of two of my blog posts here and here.  In fact we know that if done well it can have a very high effect on students learning in the classroom.  Unfortunately we also know that if it is done badly it can have detrimental effects.  Feedback has also begun to be applied unreasonably in some schools with increasingly high expectations in marking policies.  It can make an enormous contribution to teacher workload and see little results on what really matters; student learning.  Instead of adding to the complicated world, here are my three game changers for feedback.

• Feedback should cause thinking - Taken from Dylan Wiliam, if I am going to provide feedback, it had better make students think hard about it.  Throw away comments and the token 'Really good work' are now replaced with a number of strategies such as feedback questions and critique.  Students need to have a change in thought about misconceptions and actively try to correct them if things are going to move forward.  Feedback also needs to help students identify what has gone wrong and what needs to be done to get better.  Making them think is proving to be a great way to make them do that.
• Feedback should be more work for the recipient than the donor - If you find yourself spending more time writing feedback than students do acting upon it, I'd rethink what you are doing.  Marking keys, burning questions, proof reading work before submission, critique and DIRT time are all ways in which students work harder than you and actually act upon the feedback you are giving.
• Feedback should close the gap from where students are and where they should be - Do our comments (or even peer comments) actually move the learning forward?  Do they help get students up to the level that they should be?  Would you understand your comments if you read them?  If there are no real misconceptions can we extend a student?

Biggest impact:

• Feedback questions - Such a simple strategy but ensures students engage with feedback.  When spotting misconceptions, put a number in the margin where the error took place.  At the end of the work, place a question which links to that number.  The question is a reworded variant of the original question, or simply a prompt question that forces the student to realise what mistake was made, and make them think about what the correct answer is.

Questioning

Leven and Long (1981) found that we ask around 300-400 questions a day whilst teaching.  That is a lot of opportunities to fully engage with students and assess their understanding (or effect their thinking).  It is therefore wise to reflect on how we approach questioning (as I did here and here).

• Provide thinking time - With the average gap between asking a question and asking for an answer being less than one second (Walsh and Sattes 2005), is it no surprise that sometimes the depth/quality of students answers isn't as good as it could be.  Providing wait time, or even using a strategy like snowball questions, jigsaw groups or think, pair, share can be very helpful in giving students the time to formulate a high quality answer.
• Inclusive questioning systems - Using strategies like Doug Lemov's 'Cold call' or the simple 'No Hands up (with hands up)' method ensures that every student in the class is included in the questioning that goes on.  Check whether you keep asking the same people for answers.  If you do, maybe try one of these methods (here).  Once the culture is formed and the environment is safe for students to contribute, the confidence in sharing answers increases (as does the learning).  Hinge questions are also a great way to get a whole class providing an answer.
• Modelling & constructing exceptional answers - Stepping away from 'I don't know' or poorly constructed answers is very important.  If this happens try modelling answers with students.  Scaffold their responses so they learn how to provide a well constructed answer.  Highlight exceptional answers and explain why.  Write key points from students answers on the board.  Use ABC questioning.  All of these methods help ensure students know what a good answer is and begin to share them themselves.

Biggest impact:

• 'No hands up (but with hands up) - Using a simple system where students initially refrain from putting their hands up to answer a question.  It has allowed me to create an environment where all students know a question could be posed to them at any point.  More students stay focused and answers have developed in quality over time.  I also allow hands up after a few answers are taken to allow those students who wish to add to the discussion the opportunity to do so.  From experience I would recommend staying away from random name generators or whizzy name selectors.  Although they allow questioning to be truly random, they slow down the lesson and become tiresome after a while.

Differentiation

The various abilities and needs of students in your lessons mean that we need to tailor how we teach each one.  It doesn't mean that differentiation needs to add to workload or contribute to an over-complicated lesson.  Differentiation should also be for the students we are providing it for, not observers or tick box scrutiny.  I spoke a lot about a sensible approach to differentiation here.

• Differentiation doesn't need to be visible or just for observers - Differentiation is for your students.  It shouldn't be about ticking off a component of a lesson and definitely shouldn't be pointed out purely for the benefit of an observer.  Differentiation is subtle, personal and ingrained in what we do.  It isn't a short term fix but a longer process of planning.
• Differentiation is teaching (and very responsive) - It's the conversations we have, the bespoke feedback we give, the way we differ questions between groups of students.  Differentiation is very responsive and happens regularly within the classroom without us even noticing.
• Aim high and support up - Scrap must/should/could outcomes and set high expectations for all.  Use models, examples of excellence and worked examples where possible.  Show students what they should be aiming for (and even surpassing) and help scaffold students up towards that outcome. Using graphic organisers to help map out ideas, or even dropping in a few A-level questions.  As Daniel T. Willingham said, we shouldn't make the tasks easier, instead we should make the thinking easier.

Biggest impact:

• Modelling and examples of excellence - Simply demonstrating exceptional work either through modelling or using examples (professional work, my own work or student work).  By doing so, students can see the high expectations that we are aiming for.  By modelling the process, individuals can also see the steps/thought process that was taken so that they can develop similar approaches (or not) themselves.  Modelling and using high quality examples has definitely become a prominent feature in my classroom.

Literacy

Literacy has such an importance in learning.  Establishing how to write effectively and communicate in a coherent manner is something we should all be teaching our students.  With the push for improved literacy in schools, there has become a view that 'literacy' in teaching has become a bolt on.  At it's worst it's become a tick box rather than a core component of our teaching.  I've talked extensively here about how we are all teachers of English and identified a few ways that we can help improve verbal or written communication in our lessons.  As a non-subject specialist, here are a few things that have worked well in my classroom:

• Demonstrate great writing - Showing students what great writing is has been an important element of my teaching.  Using articles or examples of excellence, students can see first hand what we are aiming for.  As a class we can deconstruct it, analyse it, critique it and discuss what has made that piece of writing great.  We can then begin to model and scaffold how the writer has created their work.  Spending time in lessons to talk through detail and process has allowed students the opportunity to learn from others and endeavor to implement similar ideas themselves.
• Build up vocabulary - Of the many ways I have found effective in improving students vocabulary it has been encouraging reading around my subject.  Many of my lessons include articles where students naturally pick up subject specific words which are used within context.  We read, we discuss and we take.  We can keep glossaries of new words and even use techniques like @TeacherTweaks vocabulary upgrade to get students to review their writing and improve its academic quality.  Spend time on words as they will benefit students writing in the long run.
• Build up confidence in structure - Showing students the fundamentals of sentence and paragraph structure is worth focusing on.  I am no English teacher so don't feel confident looking at the technicalities of writing.  What I can do though is use simple scaffolds and strategies to build a foundation with students before allowing them to be creative.  The use of Doug Lemov's 'At first glance' sentence starters helps students include a better quality of academic writing.  Using Helen Handford's 'Four Part Process' for writing excellent sentence that include definition and meaning have shown my students the fundamentals.  Even initially using an essay structure like I.D.E.A (Identify, Describe, Explain and Apply) helps get the basics right before removing the shackles and encouraging freedom.

Biggest impact:

• The four part process - A process borrowed from Lee Donaghy (who borrowed it from Helen Handford), it is a fantastic way to structure sentences with students.  It asks individuals to identify the thing being written about, add a verb, define it and then add meaning.  Like any other framework, the end result is a sentence that can be read as a complete entity.  The process isn't finished there but requires students to then go away and refine/redraft it further until as a class we have created an amazing sentence.  Co-planning, modelling and high expectations is key.

Making it stick

Remembering information so that students can use it over the long run is an important factor.  Helping students store information so that they can use it in future learning, discussions, debates, answers and exams has become increasingly more important.  The work of cognitive scientists and psychologist is extremely complex but fascinating.  Although we are still learning more about how the brain works every day, there have been some interesting strategies that could be extremely helpful within education (even if just as a starting point):

• Using desirable difficulties - Robert Bjork's term 'Desirable Difficulties' refers to a number of strategies including frequent low stakes/high impact testing, spacing out the retrieval of old information over time, and interleaving topics together.   The combination of these ensures that information is retrieved at numerous points throughout the learning process, and more importantly, over time.  Small mini tests that focus on old topics during starter activities, identifying where two topics link and spacing out when we revisit old parts of the curriculum are just some of the simple things we can embed into our curriculum, schemes or lessons.
• Helping working memory - There is still so much to learn about the brain, its functioning and capacity.  However, the discussions around working memory is one area that even though I am a complete novice in, is still an area I find is helpful to know when designing lessons.  With its limited capacity, do we make lessons to fussy or distract students from what we really want them to understand?  Does making them design a powerpoint about the 'principles of training' make them think more about what clip art/animation/font to use rather than really learning the content?  Do our explanations confuse students or overload their working memory?  Keep things clear, simple and focused has been my biggest lesson learnt.
• Make them think - Daniel T. Willingham talks about memory being the residue of thought.  So how much of my old approach to lessons really got students thinking, and thinking hard?  Check back through your planning.  Instead of copying a definition from a book, could they not answer an exam question which forces them to use the definition in context?
• Three is the magic number - Although in lower school settings, Nuthal's research of student learning in the classroom brought out a point that really stuck out for me.  In it he found that for a student to really learn, understand and remember a concept, they would need to encounter it on at least three different occasions when being taught it.  I now ensure that I check through my plans and groups of lessons to see if I am asking students to use this information in a variety of ways numerous times.

Biggest impact:

• Cumulative tests - We use cumulative tests in a variety of ways now.  All of our unit exams and assessments used to be block tests which just focused on what was just taught.  We now include questions from every topic so that students retrieve information from units that were taught 2 months, 6 months or even a year prior.  Although we have yet to see the full impact of this, students are more able to recall topics that would previously have been forgotten.

Data

Data can become one of those time consuming tasks that adds to our ever increasing workload if we are not careful.  For a long time a created spreadsheets and did very little with them.  Data can have great impact on teaching and learning if we use it correctly.  So what have I learnt about data?

• Are we collecting data just to say we have collected data? - If it's not going to change teaching and learning or help move your students learning forward then don't waste your time.  To often we keep records for 'others' to check.  Follow school guidelines, refine what you do and create a system that helps you make a real impact.
• Does data improve T&L? - Compare data with your colleagues and department.  Talk about what others are doing in certain topics to get great results.  Borrow ideas from them or co-plan.  Look at what areas your classes have struggled in and evaluate whether the way you taught it was the problem.  Make data be a part of your professional improvement.

Biggest impact:

• Data to make a difference - Still very much in its early days, we have begun to share data across the department.  Now at meetings we fully scrutinise key areas and talk about what we did, how we taught it, what exactly students got confused with (with exams and tests on the table in front of us to do so) and how we can teach it better next time.  It's about using data to make teaching and learning better, and to help improving us collaboratively.

And so?

I started the 'Can I be that little bit better...?' series as a way to talk openly about my professional development.  Cultures are changing, errors have been made, practice has improved and a lot of thinking has happened on my part.  There is still a long way to go and improvement can always be made.  What I have done though is decided that good teaching is more than just adding strategies to your game.  It's a lot more than that.  It's an understanding of our craft.  Part of this is knowing the fundamentals that underpin effective learning and consciously trying to refine them.  It's then about trying to be a little bit better at using them in the classroom.

Can I be that little bit better at.....improving the quality of students writing in my lessons?

Last month I wrote a guest blog post for Subject Support (which can be found here).  It looked at ways that as a PE teacher I can improve the quality of students written work in theory lessons.  Since then I have had a number of very unrelated conversations about this topic and worked with a number of colleagues on this same problem.  Although I am not a specialist in this field, I am still a huge advocate that I have as much of a duty to develop students reading, writing and general literacy skills as any other colleague.  Simply because I am a PE teacher should not be an excuse or reason why I should see this as the work of other departments (more often than not the English Department).  I feel it unfair that I should feel the benefit of their hard work and do nothing with my students to help support, reinforce or move students competence in this skill forward.  At our school we have a number of whole school literacy strategies that, as individual teachers or departments, we should be following to help develop students literacy.  This is a positive set of strategies and ones which are designed to raise standards.  They work and provide clarity for staff and students.  There is the worry though within my own thoughts that if we are not careful, ensuring we are incorporating such strategies, we make the process a bit of a 'bolt on'.

For a long time (since the Literacy in PE project found here) I have always thought that improving the standards of literacy within students should be something at the heart of teaching.  As a colleague of mine once said (and undoubtedly borrowed from elsewhere), "We are all teachers of English".  And he is right!  Almost everything I do in my theory lessons involves students either verbalising their ideas in a coherent manner or providing a written response to a task, question, problem or challenge.  Using sources, articles and various texts of varying complexities and varying length is also part and parcel of what I do.  With this much need for students to clearly communicate or interpret literature, I have ample opportunity to drive the standards of literacy forward within my teaching without the need to run for a whole school writing mat or PEED poster.  Now there are clearly limits to my expertise (as you will probably spot in the various grammar mistakes in this post!).  I am not even on the same scale as English teachers or literacy coordinators.  What I am able to do though is make how I design my lessons have a coherent message that literacy, particularly written responses, is of huge importance and something that I will strive my hardest to develop over time.  So with this specific focus in mind, can I be that little bit better at developing the quality of students writing in my lessons?  Hopefully the following ways might just be the first step in doing that.

Demonstrating great writing

Articles and texts

I am a huge fan of introducing various depths of reading in lesson.  I find the traditional use of texts books a great starting point for information, but ultimately find them limiting on what they offer in terms a broader spectrum of writing.  As a PE teacher I actively seek out various newspaper/media articles, scientific articles, extracts from books or even the odd research paper.  The amount of literature that is freely available for my subject is extremely vast and very rewarding.  Using, for instance, a scientific paper explaining how the use of carbon fibre as a material for making track bikes in cycling is a much richer source of information than using the generic text book.  The use of specific or key terminology is much more beneficial and models a much higher level of academic writing which I ultimately hope my students can aspire to reproduce.  As a teacher it is vital that students are exposed to such vocabulary so that they can then develop confidence in using them in the future.  They also contextualise the content that I am delivering and allow students to make meaning of some very technical information.  Articles are a fantastic way to stimulate discussion with students and can be unpicked very easily with the class.  Looking at how sentence structure and various tones are used can be as important to highlight with students as the content itself.  Choosing the correct text for students is incredibly important though.  Using tools such as the Google Reading Level Filter (see here) can help select user friendly material that is pitched at the various reading levels.  Taking the time to search, read and share such materials is excellent time well spent and has the potential to reward students writing immensely.  

Examples of excellence

If you have never read Ron Berger's 'An ethic of excellence' I would urge you to do so.  The book is an absolute gem of a read and clearly explains various steps to help develop the quality of students work.  Throughout the book Ron talks about his use of exemplar material with his current students.  The vast majority of this work is produced by students from earlier years.  The remaining materials are sourced from the field of work in which his class are studying (an actual scientific paper if his students are producing work within a science topic).  Ron uses these high quality exemplars as examples of excellence.  He uses them for many reasons but the one that resonates with me the most is how he uses them to help his students develop their writing.  Analysing these excellent pieces of work with his class allows them to be opened up to a world of high quality writing.  By sharing them with his class he is exposing them to a level of literacy and a variety of styles that they might not have ever seen before.  It's this level of inspiration that can help provide clarity for students when embarking on extended writing tasks.  The process of sourcing these examples is relatively easy and one that I encourage all of us to do.  Scan your students books and pick out brilliant pieces of work.  Look through assessment tasks and find high quality answers.  Revisit homework's or projects from previous years and pick out the best that students have submitted.  If not, look to industry to find relevant exemplars which can be used with students and provide sufficient challenge which they can aspire to.  If we aren't sharing high quality writing, do students actually know what it looks like?

Modelling......

Using the various texts, examples of excellence or your own written responses, we can model particular styles of writing or structure that would help our students.  Modelling work allows our classes to visualise and understand the high standard of work that we expect.  It can give students that clear example of what we are aiming for.  Models also provide an opportunity for us to demonstrate excellent structure, vocabulary use, styles of writing and use of grammar (among other things).  As a teacher I aim to model work as much as possible.  Using the white board to project an example or simply sharing copies as handouts allows me to talk through what makes this particular pieces of writing high quality.  The exemplar can also be a great tool and allow students to discuss, analyse and even rewrite some of its sections.  The model itself then becomes 'live' and evolves.  Where it is applicable, I also use a camera (or visualiser) to quickly take photos of students work as it happens.  Displaying this on the screen with students allows me to show high quality work being produced by one of their peers.  Doug Lemov talks about a similar technique called 'Show call' which involves a teacher randomly selecting students work to model via a visualiser during lessons.  The process shows how work is achievable and increases the quality as any piece of work can be selected.  Finally, some of the best models I have seen have been those produced by teachers themselves.  I'll talk more about this later in the next paragraph.

...deconstructing examples....

Although modelling work can be an extremely effective tool, it can also be seen as a step too far for a number of our students.  Occasionally students see these models and fear that this level of work is unobtainable.  They worry that the progression from their own style to this is too big a jump.  This is where a teacher can use their skill to deconstruct it with students and scaffold the process of achieving writing of this level.  At the lesson planning phase think about the model you will be sharing.  What stages did the writer take to get it to this level?  How did they plan this piece of writing?  What key features enable the writer to produce work of this standard?  How would you go about trying to emulate this quality?  Why did they use terminology or vocabulary the way they did?  How big a step is it between your classes current writing the model exemplar?   The key is to look at the model through the eyes of a student you teach.  If the answers to the various questions above result in too many problems or too high a level of challenge, it may require you to rethink your model.  Once the model is suitably challenging, the process of deconstructing it is very helpful.  Show them the process of how writing of this level was achieved.  Break down various sections of the text and build them back up.  Construct examples with your class on the board using the various stages so students see how the process works in action.  These phases of a lesson can produce the biggest lightbulb moments.  If you are brave enough, answer the question yourself in lesson.  Gather students around and show them what your thought process and technique was to construct your opening sentence, or your second paragraph, or your conclusion......  The list of options is endless.  Having such a live demonstration unwinding right there in front of them is a perfect opportunity for developing standards.  The process after that is how to scaffold.

...and scaffolding work

In my eyes, scaffolding should be used up unto the point where the writer is ready to be set free.  The use of writing frames, PEED, success criteria and other techniques are a great to get the process initiated.  When scaffolding how to answer long answer questions (8 marks) in my lesson, I will frequently use IDEA as a way to structure their writing.  The process, supported by modelling and deconstructing examples, allows students to begin their writing.  It allows them to have a plan and thought process behind how they tackle the answer.  It also encourages students to think and plan in a way that they might not have initially thought of.  In a cognitive science role, it minimises cognitive overload and allows students to map out their thinking.  It makes the initial process clear.  The goal though is not to have the scaffold left on forever.  Nor is it to make the process of writing 'easy'.  My aim is to allow students to become competent enough before finally releasing them to create writing that is fluent, academic and rich in character.

Developing specific terminology

Many of the students that I teach in GCSE PE can clearly verbalise what they are thinking. The detail in their answers and explanation of meaning is really quite good when spoken to me.  They may waffle on or taper off but their ideas are generally sound.  Unfortunately a number of students I work with find it difficult to get this on paper in a coherent manner.  They struggle to produce academic writing and frequently use generic language or write how they speak.  As a GCSE subject we need to work hard with students to develop their vocabulary and use of specific terminology.  We then need to introduce them to a breadth of subject specific words that help develop the strength of their writing.  Apart from the various use of texts and modelling outlined above, how can I begin to do this?

Planning to introduce key terms with meanings throughout lessons or scheme

Some students have a limited range of vocabulary compared to peers and this gap can continue to grow throughout life.  Specifically identifying key words and technical terminology that is not only shared but explained and then used in context can be a simple way to increase the range of word use.  In our department we identify key vocabulary throughout the course and ensure that these are shared with students.

Keeping a glossary of terminology 

A simple idea in which a spare few pages at the back of an exercise book can be transformed into glossary of key words.  The key though is to ensure meaning is understood.  Too many times I have seen students misinterpret a word and confuse its meaning in written responses.  Once this glossary is populated, we then need to ensure students use them.

Focusing on these key words

Sharing them and even getting students to write new vocabulary in a glossary or similar format is fine.  As the teacher we need to not think of that as a job done but more importantly design opportunities for students to focus on using key words.  This can come in the form of specifying words that ‘must be included in your sentences’ or even as simple as underlining/highlight these new words in use.  The more frequently that students use this academic vocabulary the better.  The aim is for this level of language to become habit and for students to use it wherever suitable to support their written work.

Expanding general vocabulary 

Bringing in new subject specific terminology is high on most teachers’ minds (especially in subjects like PE or Science) but do we sometimes focus on this subject specific element and forget standard vocabulary?  Working with students to create ‘alternate words’ or synonyms for general language is very important and should be encouraged by us all.  Making lists that students can select from can be a great way to expand their range of vocabulary.  Simple things such as instead of using a word like ‘happened’, students select from a list including ‘transpired, occurred, ensued, materialised’.  Many teachers have shared examples using paint colour cards or 'juicy words' which students are encouraged to use.

Vocabulary Upgrade 

A great idea borrowed from @TeacherTweaks where students check their work before submission and look to upgrade the depth of vocabulary they have used.  A teacher may prompt students to improve 5 words used in a particular piece of writing.  Students may look to replace generic words with specific terminology or even expand general vocabulary as explained above.  The process can also be done in pairs or even through a wider forum such as gallery critique.

Redundant words

When working with journalists last year on a PE project, they were excellent at informing students to focus on 'redundant words'.  In their industry column inch space is extremely valuable.  When going through the editing phase, journalists will cut out words that simply aren't needed.  Many of these are common words such as 'the' or 'that' or 'and'.  Getting students to work similarly when writing is a great way to cut out the random waffling that occasionally takes pace.  After students have written out their answers/essays, have them re-read it and spot opportunities to take the word count down.  Can they restructure a long sentence into something move succinct by removing redundant words and reordering the order? 

Constructing sentences

Once students have begun to develop their vocabulary it is essential that they can use them in a coherent manner.  Constructing sentences for some can be a challenge in itself.  Our subject requires students to explain their understanding of specific topics very clearly. It also requires them to support their understanding with application and meaning.  We also have numerous definitions and key words that are required to be defined before contextualised within a sporting example.  Before the level of modelling and deconstructing working examples, are there any methods I can use to get students to begin to formulate high quality sentences?

Sentence starters – with a difference!

For a while now I have been very adverse to sentence starters.  I always felt the ‘generic’ ones that were shared around were too flat and uninspiring.  Essentially they provide a starting point for developing written responses, but I always felt they lacked challenge or freedom to be creative.  Do they really make students think about what they are writing?  Doug Lemov completely reversed my thinking with his post 'At First Glance: A Sentence Starter Adds Unexpected Rigor to Writing'.  In the post, Doug explains that taking the time to create challenging yet thought provoking sentence starters such as 'At first glance....' is a simple but powerful tool.  The unusual three word prompt, chosen specifically to challenge students, allowed them to articulate some very high responses.  What is the topic you are covering?  What response do you want students to write?  Can you create an interesting three word starter?

Four part process– defining words and creating beautiful sentences

Getting students to define and then craft beautiful sentences is a great skill.  There are a number of fantastic methods to help students structure and support students in the process.  One way that I have found incredibly effective is the four part process borrowed from Lee Donaghy (who in turn borrowed it from Helen Handford).  The process is excellent for defining a key term, idea or piece of terminology.  It forces students to take this point and create a structured sentence from it, incorporating the definition and meaning.  Students pick out the information being defined.  They then select a verb or process that will help link it to the definition.  The important element of the meaning is then added so that a full sentence can be read across the framework.  The process isn’t just finished there though.  The teacher models how to redraft it, constantly refining it so that the sentence becomes more academic in nature.  The process of co-planning and coaching the students helps them understand the requirements needed to build this definition into a response of very high quality.

Live writing

As I mentioned earlier, this involves the process of the teacher taking examples of writing as it happens in the lesson.  This can come from either students or from the teacher.  As students begin to compose their sentences, the teacher can take examples of these and share them with the rest of the class.  Through discussion, analysis and feedback, the sentence can be restructured and improved in front of the class.  The process involves all students via the co-construction of new writing.  It also clearly demonstrates the process of writing excellent sentences.

Excellent sentences

Share examples of sentences that answer a particular question or essay title.  Ask students (either individually or in pairs/groups) to rework these sentences until they are refined enough to become high quality.  Discuss the process of the redrafting and get students to explain why they changed the various components that they did.  The teacher could specify exactly what the students should focus on whilst reworking them (use of key terminology, redundant words etc) or simply allow them the freedom to adapt them independently.

Extended writing

There has become an increasing need for students within GCSE PE to produce extended writing.  The various 8 mark questions within the AQA paper require students to pool together a variety of topics or pieces of information and relate them back to a scenario character.  This requirement happens twice within the exam and requires a lot of thought from students.  Even if this wasn't the case, helping students develop their extended writing is such an important skill to learn.  As non specialists, are there ways in which we can support and teach students how to write longer pieces of work?

Make extended writing the norm

Our GCSE curriculum model has a strong core literacy strand.  As the terms go on, we ask our students to develop their writing piece by piece.  When they get into the third unit we ask focus on exposing our students to as many opportunities for writing longer pieces as possible.  The use of 6-8 mark questions within lessons or even open ended driving questions allows us to create opportunities for focused writing to take place.  The use of higher mark questions can also be an excellent tool for driving content and checking student understanding.

I.D.E.A – Writing longer responses

In the past, many of the students who answered long answer questions in our subject simply listed 6-8 points and believed this sufficient.  The requirements of the exam actually asks students to refine their ideas into a few points and explain them in detail.  It involves students seeing connections between various topics and comparing, analysing, evaluating and explaining relationships between them.  Writing frames can be incredibly beneficial to help structure this process.  Many people are familiar with PEED, but we use IDEA instead.  The process asks students to following the following steps:

I – Identify – The piece of information or aspect that they would like to talk about.

D – Define/Describe – State the definition or describe the thing you are focusing on.

E - Explain – In your own words, demonstrate that you understand the meaning.

A – Apply - Relate it to an example or put it into context.

Students plan out their written response using the framework as a guide.  When you combine the four elements, it produces the basis of a well thought out paragraph.  For longer answer questions (like the AQA GCSE PE 8 mark questions), this process can be repeated a number of times to explore different points. 

It is important to stress though that IDEA is the beginning of developing improved written responses.  After students have sufficient skill in various techniques, the framework should be removed to allow students more creative freedom in their writing.

So where now?

This is just the beginning and hopefully a step away from having literacy as a bolt on to our subject.  What we feel is that literacy is now a core component of our subject and the need for students to write has become common place.  We are still a million miles off and developing our own understanding of writing is high up on our priorities.  There are still elements of grammar, sentence structures and advanced things like nominalisation which are well above my understanding.  They are however areas that we are working hard to develop in order to make the way we support our students writing that little bit better.

Creating a culture of Critique

A while ago I wrote a post reflecting on how I probably don't structure sequences in my practice to allow students the opportunity to properly act upon feedback.  I then put a plan into action and wrote a post about how I would therefore create dedicated times in my lessons for students to do something with the comments that I or their peers had given them.  As a PE teacher I'm not the best at remembering to do these sorts of things so I came up with a few ideas to ensure I did.  The one idea that shone through was using a process called 'Critique'.  This method of getting work analysed and unpicked sounds very similar to traditional peer or self assessment.  And there are similarities.  What critique does differently though is develop the process by getting the feedback and feedforward more specific and refined.  It forces the feedback that is given to be more focused on specific features or elements.  All of the comments are designed to allow the writer/author/artist to take away that particular draft and know exactly what elements need focusing on.  The feedback becomes similar to that of a set of instructions, all with the purpose of driving forward the quality of a piece of work.

Critique also goes beyond an end of lesson activity and with simple protocols, makes the giving and receiving of feedback the culture of the classroom.  It pushes you to deliver a dedicated lesson which involves only the process of critiquing work, rather than "Right, swap books with your partner and give them two stars and a wish.  You have 5 minutes to do this".  It requires the teacher to model the method of critique using actual student drafts or exemplars, and can be done in a number of ways including an 'In depth class critique' or 'Gallery critique'.  The end result of doing this process over time is students critique each others work naturally and seek feedback independently of teacher instruction.  Here is where the culture is developed.

So why do I love the idea of critique?  Well, based on the various sources of research, evidence, blog posts, discussions of Twitter and so on, feedback is a big deal.  In my eyes, quality written/verbal feedback ranks higher than the giving of grades and levels although it is often the other way around with students.  Effective feedback that specifically highlights exactly what is good about a piece of work (so can be repeated and become habitual) and what exactly needs to be improved (to drive this piece of work towards excellence) is such an important component of the learning process (much more so than knowing a grade or level).  But so often in my own practice, there have been times when the feedback I have written is never followed up.  There are also still those fixed mindset students who are grade focused (as excellently explained here by @joe__kirby) .  This is where the process of critique is different.

As a number of teachers are increasingly engaging students to peer or self assess pieces of work, we need to first teach them how to do this.  The research from G. Nuthall talks roughly about how 80% of feedback students receive is from their peers.  But 80% of this student-student feedback is wrong  ties into this.  The rules, protocols, modelling, dedicated time and culture surrounding critique is therefore a great method for avoiding this low return rate.  So what is it that makes critique different?  Well, if you haven't already, I would highly recommend that you buy and read Ron Berger's 'An Ethic of Excellence'.  In this book, Berger exemplifies the process and breaks down the structure for forming effective critique sessions.  He is driven towards getting students to value their work and create pieces of excellence.  The mantra of 'If it's not perfect it isn't finished' echoes some of his values.  There are a number of additional factors (such as publicly displaying work, having an authentic element to the work and so on that add to this) but the core foundation of critique is key to producing excellent work and ensures that feedback is given and acted upon.  And as I said before, make critique part of your classroom culture rather than an activity or task.

So how do you do this?  There are a number of methods but the core principles stay the same.  I would recommend reading Berger's book or read this guide from the Innovation Unit.  The following tips are how I adapted and implemented the critique process during my PBL project.

Before you even start the critique process, it's important to establish the following steps:

1 - Examples of excellence: Introduce a piece of exemplary work similar to what students will need to complete (an example of excellence).  Critique it with the class.  Draw out what it is that makes this piece such a high standard including key terminology.  Create a success criteria for the piece of work which students use to complete it.  You will use this in your first critique session.

2 - Drafts: Call the work students create 'drafts'.  This may seem irrelevant but it actually gets students into the mindset that the work they are completing will be critiqued and it will be redrafted.  By calling it a draft it explains that work is not finished and that improvements can always be made until you do get to a finished product (providing your success criteria is strong enough).

Then

Infographic by @saidthemac

1 - Give critique time!  Usually a whole lesson should be set aside for a critique session.  Time is needed to model the process, allow for detailed analysis, the giving of feedback and acting upon it.  Don't rush it!  What about the time element though?  If I have only 6 weeks to cover the content of a unit/module/scheme, I don't have time to review work.  Well actually, critique improves the quality of the work and reinforces the content if you ask students to focus on this.  By actively seeking out errors in content, it develops the level of their understanding.  Once again, set aside time!  It really will benefit the process.

2 - Establish the rules:  Berger uses three very simple rules when using critique.  These rules ensure that the quality of the feedback is improved.  They are:

Be kind:  All comments should focus entirely on the work.  No personal comments at all. No sarcasm or put downs.  The comments can be challenging but the creator of the work should feel that the feedback is work orientated and happy to receive it.  Hard on content, soft on people.  

Be specific: Refined and precise dialogue with detailed explanations on positives and steps to improve.  Comments should explain exactly what needs to be worked on (like a set of instructions) which the writer can simply take away and use.

Be helpful: If the comments don't benefit the work, the learning, the learners or the class, don't share it.  Everything you provide feedback on is there to help make the work better.

3 - Model the process: Using a piece of work or exemplar, model the process of critique to your students.  Show them exactly the how to critique work.  This is normally done by the teacher and in the form of an 'In depth critique' to the whole class.  Share terminology that you are using.  Refer to the success criteria from when you first set the work.  Demonstrate exactly how you are focusing on key details.  Scaffold what good feedback/feedforward comments actually are.  Get students involved in this and see if you can refine the comments further.

4 - Banned words:  Promote the use of specific terminology that you drew out of the initial exemplar piece of work.  Promote the use of these words and the success criteria whilst critiquing the work.  We are trying to develop students vocabulary and make the feedback they give specific and helpful.  Also encourage any topic specific terminology.  For instance, if you are creating a piece of music, use actual words that the industry and composers use.  Create a list of banned words.  Get rid of 'It's good' and 'I like it'.  They are not specific and definitely not helpful.

5 - Allow students to critique:  Using what you have just modelled, allow students to critique each others work.  Use the success criteria to structure what it is students focus on.  Focus on one element at a time.  This may be asking students to look at the opening paragraph in an article they have written and see if it answers the Kipling's questions (who, where, what, when, how, why - basic guidance from local journalists that all articles should start with).  You may simply ask students to critique the spelling, punctuation and grammar.  Maybe ask them to focus on the shape of the wings (as shown in Berger's video above).  The important thing is to make the elements you want critiqued to be clear.  Ask students to critique too much and the specific nature of their feedback/feedforward gets confused.  Critique sessions can also take on two forms:

Formal in depth critique:  This is similar to the process that you have just modelled.  Students look at each other work and focus on an element at a time.  They identify good points that match the success criteria, and pick out specific parts that need improving (or if tweaked, could make the work better).  A copy of the critique sheet I use (which is differentiated) can be found here.

In depth critique - from my Year 11 GCSE lesson

Gallery critique:  This is where work is displayed in a gallery style (on a wall, laid out on tables, on presentation boards).  Ask students to individually walk around and look at one or two pieces of work.  Ask them to focus on one specific element.  Students write feedback on a post it note or feedback slip and place it below the work.  Snowball this and ask them to discuss their comments with a peer.  Move on and repeat the process on another piece of work, either with the same or different focus.

Gallery Critique: Picture courtesy of Jamie Portman.

6 - Critique the critique:  Particularly in the early days of introducing critique, get students to review the comments that have been given to them.  Are they refined enough?  Are they specific enough?  Do they pinpoint exactly what needs improving?  If anything is unclear, model how to develop it with the class.  Use examples of good and bad critique comments with the class.  This is taking peer assessment to the next level so knowing how to give effective critique comments needs support.

For the more able students in your class, get them to use questions in the feedback they give to the recipient.  Comments such as 'Could you eliminate the number of redundant words in your final paragraph to conclude your argument....' make those individuals who are able to, really think about amending their work.


6 - Redraft:  This is the vital element!  Dedicate actual time, in that session, for students to begin redrafting their work.  They need the guidance, the support, the ability to question those who gave them the feedback, the teachers careful eye.....all to help structure the redraft process.  Don't simply let this be done for homework.  It can be but initiate the redrafting section in your class.  Students need to get into the mindset that work needs reworking if it is to become something of beauty.  As Berger states, you wouldn't put on a school production without practising it over and over again, making improvements after improvements, until it was perfect.  Unfortunately some students will not initially see the benefit of redrafting.  To combat this, get students to keep every copy of their drafts.  Get them to number them and point out the improvements and developments they have made as the go through their multiple drafts.  This is where keeping portfolio's for students makes sense.

7 - Culture:  It takes time but creating a culture with your students is so important.  We need to make students value feedback.  We need to get students to want to seek it out.  We need to make students want to make the work they are producing better and better.  We need to help them develop their content knowledge and actually look at the feedback given to them.  We need to help them actively read the feedback they are given and make the improvements identified.  We need them to see the benefit of this effort and hard work improves work vastly (providing the feedback is good).  It does take time, and there will be some reluctant students, but creating beautiful work and developing content knowledge is important.  And it is from structured feedback, not necessarily grades, that ensures this happens.  Incorporate this regularly into your practice and maybe the quality of feedback in your classroom will increase.

Resources
The following links may help you develop your understanding further about the process of critique.  They may also help you understand the difference between critique and traditional peer assessment.  Please look through them and see the benefits that dedicated critique time can have.  The first presentation are quotes from teachers using critique.  The video is from a session where I delivered a critique introduction to all staff. The final presentation is what I referred to during that presentation.

Critique - Quotes, perspectives and useful links from davidfawcett27

Video of the T&L briefing I gave to all staff on critique.

Critique presentation from davidfawcett27


David Didau blog on critique: http://learningspy.co.uk/2013/02/08/improving-peer-feedback-with-public-critique/

Darren Mead numerous posts on critique: http://pedagogicalpurposes.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/critique

Darren Mead additional posts on critique: http://pedagogicalpurposes.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/critiques

Tait Coles on critique: http://taitcoles.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/public-critique/

Tait Coles post and videos from #TMClevedon on critique: http://taitcoles.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/critique-its-a-culture-thing/

Ron Berger on critique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1znB1ox0_EI

Ron Berger (part 2) on critique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2K75WO7a70

Alex Quigley post on gallery critique: http://huntingenglish.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/motivating-students-using-gallery-critique-blogsync/

Russell Hall numerous posts on critique and work of Berger: http://rug62.edublogs.org/

Martin Said blog link to the amazing Infographic from above: http://teachingandlearningmusic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/critique-infographic-bookmark-non.html

David Price OBE blog post on creating multiple drafts and using critique: http://engagedlearning.co.uk/the-learning-power-of-multiple-drafts-and-critique/

Engaging students with texts

During my recent Cycling project (my first attempt at PBL), I really tried to consciously drive literacy through everything I did.  I've recently seen the benefit of stepping away from my reliance of text books and using alternative resources instead.  I've also tried to include extended writing tasks wherever I can and make the move away from short ended and sometimes meaningless 'activities'.  I have to be honest and say that using a wider range of sources and getting my students to challenge themselves with a piece of writing has truly seen the benefits.  Examples and answers in lessons have become contextualised and more authentic, and the level of their answers for long answer exam questions (essay style) has come on leaps and bounds.

One of the simplest things I did when working on that project was carefully select a number of articles and texts for students to read.  The idea behind these sources was to allow my students to learn the content I was covering, but at the same time use something more current and relevant than excerpts from our standard text book.  I spent hours tracking down articles and news reports from various news media websites.  I delved into the deeper world of cycling and found reports and texts on various technological developments or political debates within the sport.  Now some of these texts went into far more depth than needed, but what they did with a Year 11 GCSE class, was give them authentic examples and stories to support their knowledge.  The fact that many of them used what they had read in their own work and in discussions was amazing to see.

But then I had a conversation with a colleague that made me think.  At our recent INSET day we had the second part of our Literacy seminars.  I signed up for 'Accessing and engaging with texts' with our amazing English teachers Sarah Paige and Polly Williams.  The first question they asked us was along the lines of 'Before you even analyse a piece of text, or even get students to answer questions on it, what is it that you do to get your students to engage with it?'.  I was stumped and the only thing that came to mind was a conversation with one of my students who (when we looked at these text during the project) said that he hated reading.  As he was the only one that actually said this I worked with him one to one but never considered the way I had introduced the text to him.  Did I have a strategy up my sleeve to help him read it?  Did I sell the text to him to make him motivated to read it?  The answer is probably no and mainly because as a PE teacher these questions had never crossed my mind.  I took the word of the majority of my students (who happily got on and read) and forgot those who may need extra support.  In fact, the only strategy I could think of at the time was to 'silently read it' as a way to engage with the text.

The seminar really inspired me and as a group we came up with a number of ideas to first and foremost get students to read texts in your class.  What is about to follow is a list of ideas that was created on the day and some additional ideas from my project.  I will apologise now.  I am sure some of these ideas will have a few teachers shouting at their screen, considering whether they are gimmicks or devalue the process of reading.  I am sure some of them are but the aim is to share ideas.  What they are though are ideas to get students to initially engage with a text (before setting analysis or comprehension tasks) and get them reading it.

Finding interesting texts:  So obvious.  Now I know some people will say that unfortunately, sometimes students just have to get on and read something even if it isn't interesting.  I agree.  Some of the most insightful and educationally beneficial text can sometimes be a bit tedious.  But as a hook to the project  I tried very hard to find a number of very interesting texts to use with my students.  I looked for articles that talked about the most fantastic technological developments, insights into the workings of a cycling team, scandals regarding sponsorship and role models in the sport.....  In fact I tried to find as many different perspectives about the topics I would be covering in order to enthuse students about the topics and then engage with the content that was within them.  Maybe to initiate the reading process, some lead in articles with high interest levels could be the way forward.  The 'heavy' stuff can come later.

Differentiating texts:  This is something I was doing clumsily and will do more consciously in the future.  I now realise that my class is full of different reading abilities as well as comprehension levels.  It would therefore be beneficial to seek out similar articles for your students that vary in language use, vocabulary and depth of content.  Allow students to choose the article of their choice and move up or down difficult reading as they require.  Another way is to simply assign different levels of texts with the different sets of students in your class.  Those that need extending can work on the detailed and technical text, whereas those that need support can use a similar text which is pitched at a lower reading level.  If using the Internet, Google advanced search has a 'reading level filter' which can help distinguish the difficulty of texts.

Google reading level filter:  Google has for some time had a 'reading level/age' tool.  Simply use the search bar to find sources of a particular topic.  Then using the search tools drop down menu, click on 'all results' and then 'reading level'.  This will then allow you to select advanced, intermediate and basic texts on the subject you were searching.  Teach students how to use this and they can differentiate the texts for themselves.  A link to Google's support centre explaining this tool can be found here.




Varying texts:  When searching for my cycling project articles I tried very hard to find a variety of different writing styles to share with my students.  I found some very technical articles, some that came from tabloid press, some that came from cycling enthusiast blogs, some from cycling teams own webpages (Team Sky).  The idea for this was to allow students to experience reading a variety of different styles, but also obtain similar information from a type of writing that they preferred.  In the background this type of selection allowed students to experience different viewpoints and perspectives but that's another post!  By finding a medium that engaged them and allowed them to access the information, students could happily read the text given to them.  Had I given everyone the same text, some students may not have been captivated by it and the opportunity might have been wasted.


Finding their own texts (which they want to read):  Teaching your students how to find texts and articles is a great thing.  After I used my 'lead in' articles, students could see the standard of writing that I was looking for.  I then explained what content needed to be found and students went off a searched for a similar standard of text.  By bringing articles back to the class, we had a new bank of resources, selected by students, meeting the criteria I required and would ultimately appeal to other students in the class.  This ownership of a text engaged them with reading and fulfilled the purpose.  It also led to new reading when peers recommended an article.

Silent reading: Obvious as it is, sometimes asking the class to silently read a text is a simple process.  By asking individuals to read in silence, distractions are minimised and the students attention should be fully focused on what is in front of them.  It also comes with some obvious pitfalls when students with low attention and inability to manage distractions means that the task becomes pointless for a few.  It is also worth considering how you would cater for those who struggle with reading without bringing attention to them from the whole class.

Paired reading:  Reading a text in pairs can help break up the challenge of reading from some.  It offers a chance for an individual to be supported by a peer.  It also allows the opportunity for a student to break up a challenging text into sub sections with a partner.  Taking it in turns also allows good reading to be modelled providing the process is taken seriously.  It also actively engages with the words as they are verbally spoken (and not skimmed or glazed over which is normally followed by re-reading what has already been covered). Obviously the pairing up process and expectations of this task must be well structured otherwise distractions can occur and the reading element is lost.

Whole class reading:  Organised by the teacher, students are delegated elements of a text to be read.  The students take it in turns to read their section and then the next follows on.  The whole class listen to the reading and take their turn when ready.  This process usually requires those not reading out aloud to follow the text and therefore engages them as well.  There does come a problem with reluctant readers, those who struggle, those who lack confidence with public speaking and those fixed learners in your class.  These individuals may not welcome the pressure of whole class reading so involving these may need to have a safe and supportive environment set up.

Reading an excerpt (teacher):  A text may be introduced by the class teacher.  Carefully choosing an excerpt and using this as the 'hook' with your class may compel them to read the rest of the text in front of them.  Choose your excerpt carefully and leave the text on a cliffhanger if possible.  By doing this you have modelled good reading and given the students a taste of the book which should hopefully motivate them to carry on.

Dram it up!:  As students enter the room, create an atmosphere.  If the text you want students to read has a dark undertone or element of horror, dim the lights, have some atmospheric music playing, take on a character and really 'dram it up'.  Read the first excerpt of the text and hopefully this will enthuse students to engage with the text and read the rest for themselves.  By creating a sense of excitement towards reading, the engagement should increase.  As a pitfall, it does take the right group and confidence to do this.  It could also detract from the process of reading if done poorly.

React to the text:  Have the text read out by individuals or yourself.  The remainder of the class will follow the text from their books.  Set up a structure where students interact with the text as it is being read out.  The interaction could be for a particular character, a theme that occurs, an opinion that comes up frequently, taking sides with characters or whatever your text requires.  You could also have students interact when the writer uses a particular style of writing or grammar.  At these times, students can boo, cheer, keep a tally, heckle and so on.  By getting them involved in the text, they will need to be actively engaged in it and read it as it goes.

Characters assignment:  Obvious but a classic.  In small groups or in a whole class set up, students take on the role of a character or narrator.  Students will all need to follow the text and read it in order to know when their section is coming up.  By actively reading out aloud, students are again engaging with the text.  The difficult process of reading is supported by the ability to hear the words (from your peers doing their sections) as you read them for yourself.

"Pass to":  Have students read in pairs or small groups.  Each student has a "pass to" choice which they use only if they are really struggling (can't be used for laziness).  Students have to read a section or specified amount out aloud.  If they find it incredibly difficult they can use a "pass to" where they literally pass the responsibility of reading that section to another peer.  This will allow that reader to be supported.  Because that student used a "pass to" they will have to finish their reading allocation elsewhere in the text.  Be vigilant and stop lazy readers (who are more than capable) of using the "pass to" as a get out option.

Hackasaurus:  Introduced to me by @JOHNSAYERS and @janeyb222.  A great web tool.  Simply go to the website and install the Hackasaurus 'X-Ray Goggles' into your bookmarks bar.  You are then able to go to any website and edit what is on there.  Don't worry, you aren't actually editing the real web page.  All you are doing is changing what you see in your browser.  So why would you do this?  Well there are a number of reasons.  You may wish to edit a particularly difficult article or text found on the web into something more accessible to your students. You can simply read the article yourself and change some of wording or terminology into something simpler.  The article still has its authentic element.  Just make sure you don't lose the core of the article.  You may also wish to create a 'spoof' piece of text but using an authentic website such a the BBC.  This allows you to get your content across but with the trick of it looking authentic.  This could be an effective way to engage a normally uninteresting piece of text.  It really is a versatile tool.


If there are any other ideas that people are using in their lessons, simply for the purpose of starting the process of reading texts (without having to look for key points or answering comprehension questions or so on - this is the next post) then please let me know.