A question of pace and differentiation

In all my time in teaching, there are words that are bounded about in meetings, discussions and lesson observations and those are ‘pace’ and ‘differentiation’. There is, however, much more to pace than a timer on a PowerPoint and there is more to differentiation than a selection of multi-coloured sheets all will varying levels of complexity. Personally, for me, the secret to the two is questioning.

Questioning makes a lesson pacey.

Questioning is a form of differentiation.

The problem with questioning is that we get so loaded with the types of question, we simply forget the function of a question in any given context. Yes, knowing a closed and open is helpful. So too is blooming ‘Bloom’s Taxonomy’ handy. Oh and you mustn’t forget your high-order questioning. But, understanding why you are using questions is vital.

A question can be used to check, remind, push, challenge and many more things. Take these following questions.  What is their function?

Jamie, what did we say last lesson was the way to approach this question?

Polly, what are we supposed to be doing now?

Zoe, why am I asking you a question now instead of Victoria?

Liz, how does this approach used by the writer link to ‘Great Expectation’ we studied in Year 8?

Jo, how much is Mr Curtis’ expecting from you?

Sarah-Jane, what is the mistake you need to keep avoiding?

Harry, do you think there would be a better approach to answering this question?

Leela, what have you done in RE that links to this aspect?

Romana, that answer’s fine for the class, but how would you rephrase that for the exam?

Adric, what’s a more formal way of saying ‘bloke’?

Tegan, what did I say was really important for you to remember?

We all know that ‘no hands up’ approach is favoured in some circumstances, because it stops some students from being passive in lessons. It is occasionally not helpful when you are exploring existing knowledge of a topic or for quick recall of knowledge. However, the teacher has an integral role in the classroom and that is to orchestrate the learning. The delivery of the task alone is not learning alone. You have to point your baton at the wind instruments. Tell the percussion instruments to quieten it down. Ultimately, the teacher is responsible for the learning and, like music, its flow in the classroom. So, what does each of those questions do? What is its function as side for improving learning, duh?

Jamie, what did we say last lesson was the way to approach this question?

Recalling knowledge from a previous lesson.

Polly, what are we supposed to be doing now?

Putting a student back on track or making a student start the task who usually takes time to get started.

Zoe, why am I asking you a question now instead of Victoria?

Modelling go behaviour and addressing students not following expectations

Liz, how does this approach used by the writer link to ‘Great Expectation’ we studied in Year 8?

Generating links across the subject and knowledge recall over time

Jo, how much is Mr Curtis’ expecting from you?

Reminding the class of expectations and reasserting a student isn’t or hasn’t been meeting my expectations

Sarah-Jane, what is the mistake you need to keep avoiding?

Ensuring the student doesn’t forget the changes she needs to do to her work

Harry, do you think there would be a better approach to answering this question?

Getting an able student to explore alternatives and developing their thoughts

Leela, what have you done in RE that links to this aspect?

Developing cross-curricular connections and extending their thinking   

Romana, that answer’s fine for the class, but how would you rephrase that for the exam?

Identifying mistakes and errors and promoting self-correction

Adric, what’s a more formal way of saying ‘bloke’?

Exploring language choices and promoting self-correction

Tegan, what did I say was really important for you to remember?

Recalling knowledge from a previous lesson and building in differentiation

Each question is a specific level of differentiation and identifies the level of needs and intervention the teacher needs to give.

There might be Nyssa who will need some support from the TA and Turlough will need me to support him with some of the writing, but the majority of the class are addressed in terms of differentiation and needs. Of course, some students might need more differentiation, but the lesson has been tailored to the students’ needs.

Whether you see the classroom as ‘whack-a-mole’ or ‘plate spinning’, you still have to address what each and every student is doing. You can’t look at thirty students books in a short space of time, but you can select a wide spread and address some of the things about the learning.

·         Questions about expectations

·         Questions about behaviour

·         Questions about knowledge on the topic or task

·         Questions about knowledge from previous lessons / topics  

·         Questions about knowledge in other subject areas

·         Questions about feedback given

·         Questions about recurring errors

Some of these questions might be rhetorical. We both know the answer. Some of them might need an answer, so they whole class or a specific groups of students need reminding. The questions form the narrative of the lesson. All too often, our focus of questions tends to focus on the content and learning – usually what we want them to learn. Rarely, do we look at the questions to develop how they learn.

Repeat these types of questions again and again and you’ll find that the classroom environment has momentum.

Question, question and question and leave no stone unturned. We assume far too much in the classroom. That’s why a teacher should be asking lots of small questions throughout a whole lesson. A teacher that doesn’t ask questions is assuming too much.

Thanks for reading,

Xris

Pinstriped Intervention

There’s a new swearword in schools. Sorry, I mean buzzword. Often, I get the two things confused. It is intervention. Intervention this. Intervention that. I have heard how other schools intervene. I have read what other counties are doing for intervention. In fact, I have intervened in my interest in intervention and actually blanked parts of Twitter.

Yesterday, I attended a conference and the brilliant Geoff Barton was there talking. In his talk, he mentioned about this incessant wave of invention obsession that seems to be spilling into our schools. He described it as being ‘men in pinstriped suits taking students out of lessons to discuss with them how to improve in lessons’. I have to say: I wore a pinstriped suit to that conference. Aside from the pinstriped suit comment, I think he is right. We have an obsession on meetings. We meet for this. We meet for that. We identify students for intervention in a meeting. We discuss the issues with the student in a meeting. We track the progress of the student in a meeting. We review the progress in another meeting. For good luck, we invite parents to a meeting to discuss those meetings.  

As I progress in schools, I have noticed the amount of meetings have increased. In the first few years of teaching, I only had one meeting a term and that was generally to see how things were going. Now, I have meeting after meeting. With great power comes lots of meetings. I do sympathise with headteachers. The amount of meetings they must have to deal with daily puts them closer to sainthood.

Of course, meetings are about communicating information. They can be very important, but they can also be very futile. A simple answer to the question what. Or, the solving of a problem. Mostly they simply focus on a lot of whats.

What is the problem in the subject?

What is it you need to do to improve?

What are you going to do?   

Those questions can be applied to both a general meeting in education and to a meeting with a student for intervention. Or, the questions are asked of the teacher - wrongly in most cases.

What if we spent more time on acting on things rather than discussing things? This was something Geoff alluded to. Acting rather than meeting. He has a very good point. My frustration with a lot of interventions is that they focus too much on the teacher. What has the teacher got to do to for intervention? I don’t mean to sound silly but isn’t the word teaching just another way of saying constant intervention? Yes, I think there should be a dialogue about what we can do to help improve a student, but the emphasis of intervention tends to focus heavily on how the teacher should modify their behaviour. The modifying of a student’s behaviour almost seems an afterthought.

I understand that a student’s needs are very complex and there are lots of variables to explore, consider and ponder. However, I worry that teachers are working harder for students who are working the same they did before any intervention.

So what am I doing? For each year group I have identified several students to track. Instead of meeting them I am going to do some work. I am going to request the student’s exercise book. I am going to see what story it tells me. I have faith in the teachers in my department; I know that they will have interventions in place. I will analyse the student’s work. As HOD, I want to see what the story is from the exercise books and assessment. Then, I am going to write a comment, describing my observations and what I expect the student to do. I will also put a sticker saying: 'Big Brother is watching you!'. Maybe not that, but something along the same lines.  At the end of the term, I will request the books again and I will expect to see changes. There might be a need to meet, but that will be up to me and I will not do it for every student. A meeting is good to tell a student that we care or that we have noticed they are not pulling their weight. But, my starting and ending point will be the work they produce in their exercise books. I will be expecting to see them acting on my direction. I have intervened in a quiet and subtle way, but it is to be hoped that it is more effective than the loud and, clearly, visual for SLT approach of a meeting.

Plus, I will not be taking any students out of lessons.

I now have to organise a meeting to discuss the meeting about what to do with my pinstriped suit.

Thanks for reading,

Xris