EXCELLENT TEACHING

The EEF toolkit of advice for excellent teaching has the following key pillars:

Quality Teaching First

Prior knowledge influences new learning

• Completing ‘do now’ as part of spaced retrieval practice
• Activate prior knowledge using small whiteboards / quick question tasks for spaced retrieval
• Explain, with clarity, how retrieved knowledge links to the day’s learning

We learn what we think about

• Plan the learning you want to happen in the lesson and use set routines to help enable this and be clear with the expectations for learning in the classroom
• Focus students’ attention before you give instructions / explain knowledge
• Front load expectations on attention
• Be warm with students and correct non-compliance immediately 

Working memory is limited when learning new knowledge

• Sequence the knowledge to be taught in the day’s lesson in the order it is to be taught
• Pre-teach vocabulary before explanation of knowledge (great as prior independent learning tasks)
• For each step in a sequence have lots of questions to check for understanding (and stretching those who have mastered)
• Faded guidance should be used to cognitively support students to take their first steps after modelling

Fluency arises through practice over time

• Have students practiced the new knowledge more than once?
• Have students practiced the variation of questions they are likely to encounter?
• Have you implemented independent learning to supported extended practice away from your classroom?
• Do the students know about effective revision strategies for the subject?
• Have students been given guidance and support, over time, with the above?

Assessment Principles

Purpose of assessment

• To know how well students are learning
• To know how well subject curriculums are being implements and to support subject improvement and progressions
• To support whole school improvement

What should be measured in subjects?

• Subject assessment should measure progress against the substantive and disciplinary knowledge / skill endpoints 
• All subjects should state how marks will be awarded against the endpoints through each year
• Data from assessments should be kept with teacher / departmental markbooks and be reflected in the whole school data drops

Validity of assessment and data

• All subjects should ensure that the curriculum is knowledge-rich
• Assessment should build on knowledge covered through the year (leading to mastery of a subject) and this is what should be tested on, both formative and summative

Assessment schedule

• Effective retrieval practice should be demonstrated in lessons with regularity
• There should be at least 2 low-stakes assessments each ½ term as well as more formal summative assessments termly

Post-assessment 

• If evidence from assessments show that all students have learned the specific endpoints required, then the curriculum pathway should continue
• If a small number of students have not demonstrated sufficient knowledge learnt / skills shown, then the curriculum should be tailored for those students and specific interventions put into place
• If the majority of students have not demonstrated sufficient knowledge learnt / skills shown, then the curriculum model should include how this content will be revisited and further assessments completed

 

Feedback

Purpose of feedback

• The purpose of feedback is to improve learning for individuals students – the only important thing about feedback is what students do with it – if it doesn’t change the student in some way, it has probably been a waste of time
• The above is the purpose of feedback in all subjects
• Feedback takes many forms – do you have to mark books to give feedback in your subject?

Workload

• The method by which teachers give feedback should not create unnecessary marking workloads / reduce the time that teachers have to plan learning for their students
• Does the work need to be marked (or marked by the teacher) for feedback to be given? Are there points where students can mark their own work / have this automated?

Methods of feedback

• Verbal feedback
• Live marking in lessons
• Whole class feedback – ideally the same template used across the subject
• Delayed marking, response by students and assessment of learning
• Peer feedback using success criteria
• It is expected that summative assessments will be marked by teachers in all subjects (and the above methods should be considered to which work for your subject)

Frequency

• If the purpose of feedback is to improve learning, then the frequency matters and this depends on both method and workload
• How often should feedback be given in your subject (and what is the rationale for this?)

Literacy

Intent

• All teachers are teachers of literacy through their subjects and teaching of subject literacy supports students through the planned curriculum. A collective approach of responsibility develops students’ ability to speak confidently, read fluently and write well in subjects
• Literacy is teaching students to decode (read words) and encode (write words). It is also developing students’ speaking and listening to practice new vocabulary before they write
• Literacy develops students’ background knowledge to make meaning of text

Sequence

• Vocabulary – teaching the words needed to access learning in the subject
• Speaking – modelling speaking and planning for students to practice
• Reading – modelling fluent reading with opportunities for students to practice
• Writing – modelling of writing like an expert, giving students practice opportunities

Vocabulary

• Teachers should write subject specific words and help to pronounce them (broken down into syllables, prefix and suffix – teaching the parts)
• Students should then write the word themselves – the subject specific words should come up in teacher-student conversations
• Subject specific words should occur with frequency during retrieval tasks

Reading fluency

• Subject specific words should be reminded of with frequency and fluent reading modelled
• Students should be given opportunities to use strategies such as echo read; repeated reading; choral reading; and paired reading

Strategies

• Skimming with a quick read and identifying main ideas and themes
• Scanning with a slower look for particular words or phrases
• Intensive reading / close reading which is slow and careful
• Wider reading around given topics or subjects

YOUNG PEOPLE FIRST, PHILOSOPHY

RAISE-AP, at our heart is:

• knowing our young people
• how best to support them
• our high expectations
• our compassion
• our ability to help them build social skills
• how we strive to equip them for wider social contexts
• how we put our young people front and centre of everything we do…

Amongst all these incredibly important points is the role of the teacher and support staff, academically – we owe our young people the best education we can, and for many of our young people we need to strive to close the educational and attainment gaps as best we can, so we give them the best chance in their next steps. 

To do this, we require, amongst other key aspects of support, excellent teaching.

CURRICULUM

We consider how do you teach the specific subject content to the specific cohort. This needs to be considered! Adaptive teaching is very dependent on short cycle formative assessment, giving knowledge of the students’ learning which informs next steps (adapting to what is needed).

Adaptive teaching is all about noticing (who is finding it easy / difficult) and then taking the time and effort to adapt what is being done to assist students with their particular need…

Assessment can be summarised as follows:

At RAISE-AP we follow Dylan Williams four quarters marking guidance: