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DVD HandbookEssential guidelines, commentary, summaries
and advice to accompany the DVD
OUTSTANDINGFormative Assessment
A ‘Lesson Study’ focus on one outstanding teacher inchallenging circumstances, Seamus Gibbons
Pages 1-6 1. Outline of the different aspects of formative assessment.
Pages 7-10 2. Summary of the DVD, for each part, with clip lengths.
Pages 11-15 3. Shirley’s commentary throughout the DVD, including what to look out for in each clip.
Page 15 4. Discussion suggestions.
Pages 16-24 5. Shirley’s observations of the lessons, to supplement teachers’ own observations.
Page 25 6. Resources from Seamus’s lessons:
Page 26 The level 3 and level 5 versions of a balanced argument.
Page 27 The 2 Level 5 ghost story openings.
Pages 28-32 The top secret lists of information about the teachers for calculating range and mode.
Pages 33-35 The mild, spicy and hot challenges given to the class for the finding percentages lesson.
Page 36 The displayed success criteria for what makes good writing.
Page 37 The slant poster.
Page 37 The growth mindset poster.
Page 38 The peer assessment poster.
H A N D B O O K C O N T E N T S
1
Formative assessment became high profile in the UKafter Paul Black and Dylan William were commissionedby The Assessment Reform Group (a group of academicsdissatisfied with the focus on summative assessment atthe time) to review the literature and present theirfindings to policy makers. The aim was that it would beclear that it is a focus on formative assessment thatraises standards, rather than copious summativemeasures. They focused on 300 studies, wrote a 60 pagearticle and published a summary of their findings called‘Inside the Black Box’. Their conclusion, that formativeassessment raises standards but also creates lifelonglearners could not be ignored, and formative assessmentbegan its journey.
Very soon it also became known as ‘Assessment forLearning’. Over the years there has been a great deal ofconfusion about what formative assessment actually is,with some people, even countries, seeing it as any kindof assessment that helps the learning. So a test, forinstance might be seen by some as formative if theinformation is used to move children on. This muddlehas not been helpful and it is a pity the wordassessment was used at all to describe this vital learningprocess. The true conceptual framework was outlined by
Black and William as a process of learning which takesplace minute by minute during the learning. Here arethe key elements, a combination of their findings andmy own ongoing findings drawn from my actionresearch teams:
• A learning culture, where pupils have self-belief andknow how to learn and teachers have highexpectations and belief that all pupils can succeed
• Pupil involvement at the planning stage
• Pupils knowing learning objectives and generatingsuccess criteria
• Discussion about what excellence looks like
• Effective questioning
• Talk partners and classroom discussion
• Effective self, peer and teacher feedback
The following pages outline these elements. These willbe particularly helpful if you are new to formativeassessment and want to get the most out of watchingthe lessons.
1. Outline of the different aspects of formative assessment
A learning culture
I have drawn on the work of Carol Dweck who is themain authority on self-esteem. She established a simpleframework (2000) which has given us access to the yearsof research about how children feel about themselvesand their learning. What matters the most, in terms ofmotivation, is whether we see ability as ‘fixed’ (an entitylearner) or ‘growth’ (an incremental learner). In short,
people with a ‘fixed’ mindset will only tackle tasks whichthey know, in advance, they will succeed at. People witha ‘growth’ mindset not only willingly tackle difficult tasks,but thrive on them. I have given examples of the twomindsets below in terms of their characteristics and therepercussions. Our aim, of course, must be to develop agrowth mindset for ourselves, for all adults involved inworking with children, for parents and all our pupils.
My intelligence is a fixed trait – I have a certain amount of it and that’s that.
I feel clever when things are easy, where I put in littleeffort and I outperform my peers.
I need easy successes to feel clever.
I don’t want to have my inadequacies and errors revealed.
Even if I’m doing well initially, I won’t be able to cope with a problem or obstacle.
I worry about how much intelligence I have and it makes meinterested in looking and feeling as if I have enough.I must look clever and, at all costs, not look stupid.
Effort, difficulty, setbacks or higher performing peers call myintelligence into question, even if I have high confidence inmy intelligence, so I feel stupid.
Challenges are a threat to my self-esteem so I won’t engagewith them.
I will withdraw from valuable learning opportunities if I think this might happen.
I readily disengage from tasks when obstacles occur.
Characteristics of a ‘fixed’ mindset
The ‘fixed’ mindsetRepercussions
2
Intelligence is something I can increase through my own efforts.
I acknowledge that there are differences between people in how much they know and how quickly they master things.
I love to learn something new.
I am excited by challenge.
I feel clever when...
I am keen to work hard and learn as much as I can.
I believe that everyone, with effort and guidance, canincrease their intellectual abilities.
I will readily sacrifice opportunities to look clever in favour ofopportunities to learn something new.
Even if I have low confidence in my intelligence, I throwmyself into difficult tasks – and stick with them. I set myselfgoals and make sure I have strategies to reach them.
I am fully engaged with a new task, exerting effort to mastersomething, stretching my skills and putting my knowledge togood use (e.g. helping other pupils learn).
Characteristics of a ‘growth’ mindset
The ‘growth’ mindsetRepercussions
People with a fixed mindset need to constantly provetheir ability, proving that they are special or evensuperior, whereas people with a growth mindset believethat intelligence can be developed through learning,something which brain research has proved to be true.
Strategies for developing a growthmindset - for teachers, parents and allinvolved in education
Modelling a growth mindsetWe need to model our own growth mindset and love oflearning by emphasising processes of learning, theimportance and excitement of meeting challenges,putting in effort and using strategies which help uslearn. We need to teach children that intelligence can bedeveloped. We need to transform ‘difficulty’ into ‘new ordeeper learning’ and avoid sympathy when childrenencounter failure or difficulty. We need to showenthusiasm about challenging tasks and ensure thatfailure is followed up by celebration of what has beenlearnt by the experience in terms of new strategiesneeded. By doing this we help ensure that challengeand effort are things that enhance self-esteem ratherthan threaten it.
Teachers with a fixed mindset often give lower achieversless demanding work in order to preserve their self-esteem, making sure they succeed, telling them howclever they are and dooming them to fall further behind.This approach also ensures that they will only feelsuccessful when they can do things easily.
With a growth mindset, you tell pupils the truth. If theydon’t have skills or knowledge or they areunderachieving, this is not a sign of something
shameful, but a sign that they need to work harder or behelped to find new strategies. By giving children greateraccess to tasks (i.e. increasing the level of support withinthe task itself ), for instance, children instantly havegreater access to the success criteria used in formativeassessment.
Praising effort and achievement ratherthan ability or personal attributes
Praising children’s intelligence harms their motivationand their performance. Children love to be praised fortheir intelligence and talent, but if this is the norm, theminute they encounter an obstacle their confidencedrops. If success means they are clever, than failure canonly mean they are not. This hooks them neatly into afixed mindset. Examples of praise comments whichfocus on effort and achievement rather than ability andhelp create a ‘growth mindset’ culture are as follows:
Well done! You are learning to…..
Fantastic! If it makes you think it means you arelearning.
Mistakes help us learn.
Remember –you don’t know yet!
Every time you work hard you are growing your braina little more
There is a copy of the growth mindset poster onSeamus’s classroom wall towards the end of thishandbook, which gives child friendly characteristics of a growth mindset.
3
Pupil involvement at the planning stageThe tradition has been that teachers plan lessons awayfrom the children, sometimes asking them what theyalready know about the subject matter but paying lipservice to their involvement. By involving children at theplanning stage, their interest and motivation is increasedand their achievement is greater because of thisownership.
The key elements necessary for quality involvement are:
1. What they already know/can do
2. Immersion in the subject matter
3. Presenting them with the skills coverage
4. What they would like to learn
Successful strategies for establishing prior knowledgeinclude:
• Breaking down the topic into various headings andasking what they already know about each part (e.g.for a study of minibeasts what do they know about thelifecycle of a butterfly, the habitat of ants, whatdifferent minibeasts there are, what insects eat etc. etc.)
• Giving children resources to explore to see what theyknow (e.g. electrical components/magnets and metals)
• Showing a picture with a statement (e.g. a picture of aStone Age house and a statement ‘This is a Victorianhouse’ Do you agree or disagree? Give reasons)
• Children’s discussions and responses should give aclear idea of prior knowledge and impact on not onlycontent but also pitch.
Immersion is usually an afternoon of various input, oftenlaid out in the hall, for children to get a broad idea of thecontent, giving them greater chance to think about whatthey would like to learn (e.g. for a topic on India: video,food tasting, saris, music etc. For a science topic theymight be given materials to explore or a difficult task,which will lead to them seeing what skills they need tobe taught (e.g. can you make a plant grow sideways?)
Presenting skills coverage is an important stage, becauseotherwise you can end up with lots of random ideasrather than links with the skills you want to cover. Oncechildren have these, either in child speak or learningobjective form, they can match their ideas, co-constructing activity ideas with the teacher.
Learning objectivesAll learners need to know learning objectives in order tohave a chance of succeeding. Two things seem tomatter: learning objectives should be decontextualised(e.g. write an account rather than write an account of anunderwater world) and authentic (what you really wantthem to learn). Teachers often stick to the NationalCurriculum language when maybe their real learningintention for a lesson is slightly different. Once thelearning objective is clear, success criteria andeverything else follow much more easily. An unclearlearning objective, for instance, might be ‘to learn how tomake a cake’ if what is really intended is ‘to be able towrite instructions’.
As learning objectives became the norm in the UK thereappeared a myth that the first words uttered should bethe words of the learning objective and it should alwaysbe written on the whiteboard before the lesson starts.Although the learning objective might be appropriate atthe beginning of the lesson (often in mathematics), itsappearance before children’s interest is captured can killtheir interest. What matters is that children know thelearning objective at the point at which they are goingto be judged.
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Success CriteriaSuccess criteria are a breakdown of or ingredients of thelearning objective. For closed learning objectives theyare often chronological and are always compulsory (e.g.the steps in a mathematics algorithm or the ingredientsneeded for instructional writing). For open learningobjectives they can be compulsory elements, such as the
aspects needed in a science conclusion or they might bethings that you could include (e.g. the possible elementsin a good characterisation). Using success criteria hashad a major impact on both teaching and learning, butmainly in equipping pupils with the tools to be able toself and peer assess.
In order to have maximum impact,success criteria:
• Need to be known, in a basic form, by teachers first.
• Should be the same set for all learners in a class –differentiation by access should be sought via theamount of support provided within the activity.
• Must be generated by pupils, or they have littlemeaning and less impact on learning.
• Can be used across the curriculum, including socialskills, thinking skills etc.
• Need to be constantly referred to by pupils and tickedoff for closed skills.
• One success criterion can be used as the focus for alesson, broken down into further success criteria.
Pupil generation of success criteria:
We have learnt that success criteria must be generatedby pupils to have maximum impact. There are nowseveral very high quality techniques for not only gettingchildren to generate success criteria, but also to helpthem understand what excellence looks like for thelearning objective in focus.
Effective techniques
• Doing it wrong at the visualiser – they will want tocorrect you!
• Presenting something incomplete (e.g. an incomplete invitation).
• Presenting something incorrect (e.g. a mistake in acalculation) for children to discuss
• Presenting one excellent product and asking childrento identify the features (in writing not secretarial features).
• Presenting one good and one not so good product forchildren to compare. Vital to show more than oneexcellent example to avoid children being constrainedto one style.
• Eavesdropping their discussions about what should beincluded in a …. and writing them up as you listen.
To write a persuasiveargument
Letter to local MP • A statement of your viewpoint
• A number of reasons for this with evidence
• A number of reasons from an alternative standpoint
• Attempts at striking up empathy with the recipient
• Recommended alternative action
• A summary
• Reasoning connectives
Broad key skills produce broad success criteria so it can often be necessary to take each of the success criteria in turnand make those the focus of a lesson or series of lessons. ‘Persuasive writing’ would be a good example of this, whereeach element is worthy of a number of lessons:
We could take ‘striking up empathy’ for instance, present pupils with two contrasting examples of persuasive letters, onewhich empathises well and one which doesn’t and get them to analyse the pieces in order to generate success criteriafor empathy. We might find ‘flattery’, ‘mentioning something the recipient is personally connected with’‘appealing tohis/her better nature’ and so on.
Once success criteria have been generated by pupils,they can be made into A5 cards, A4 sheets in folders,posters on walls, stored on Interactive Whiteboards/inSMART notebooks etc. and used whenever that skillrecurs. Pure, decontextualised learning objectives lead togeneric success criteria, which can be used in anycontext, so this should be the aim when generatingthem, otherwise their shelf life is too short and pupils donot see the vital link between and within subjects whenskills are transferred.
In writing, success criteria provide a basic framework, butshould not detract from what good writing consists of.Looking beyond the wow words and similes is the routeto children understanding what makes a good piece of writing.
In mathematics, some teachers have found that gettingchildren to create their own individual success criteriafor a skill once they feel they know it has been extremelysuccessful. Random examples can be discussed at thevisualiser and children asked to improve their successcriteria. This has led to us seeing that the mostimportant time for feedback in mathematics is at theindividual pupil generation stage, where theirmisconceptions can be clearly visible and able to bediscussed and improved.
By comparing two contrasting examples, and furtherexcellent examples for close analysis, children get to seewhat a good one looks like, another essentialcomponent of formative assessment. Excellence isshared before the children work independently,enhancing their own chances of success. Magpieingideas and words is encouraged.
Talk and discussion
The emergence of talk partners was a direct result of thestudies which showed that not enough ‘wait time’(Rowe, 1974) was given for children to answer questionsand that ‘dialogic talk’ (Alexander, 2004) was a missingcomponent in the classroom. The ‘hands up’ culture wasalso excluding many children from thinking. Let aloneanswering. With random talk partners changing everyweek, teachers have also been able to move towardsmixed ability learning, with children learning from eachother, linking with 20 years of research which shows thatgrouping children has very little impact on their learningand causes damage to children’s self-esteem (SuttonTrust and Hattie, J. 2009).
To ensure quality talk in the classroom:
• Pupils need to have thinking time to answer aquestion but discussing with a talk partner during thattime or using mini whiteboards makes the thinkingtime more productive.
• Talk partner discussions need to be very focused andnot too long (e.g. 30 seconds to come up with onething you can see in this writing/ 1 minute to think of agood simile for a cat/ 2 minutes to decide what hasgone wrong in this calculation) to avoid pupils losingmomentum and going off task..
• Teachers need to avoid asking for ‘hands up’ becausethe same few children are always first with their handsup, do most of the answering and most of the class optout of listening and thinking as a consequence.
• Random talk partners is the most effectiveorganisational device (techniques follow in thefeedback section) which need to change either weeklyor fortnightly. Pupils appreciate the fairness factor andget to appreciate the rich variety of social and learningexperiences they encounter because of the frequentchange.
• Strategies need to be put in place to ensure qualitytalk, such as sharing of the rationale and surveyingopinion regularly about the impact of talk partnersfrom pupils’ point of view; using ice breaking activitieswhen partners change; generating success criteria forgood talk and good listening; using these to discusshow well pupil talk is developing and finding ways forpupils to self and peer evaluate their paired talk.
• Teachers need to avoid asking too many closed recallquestions and ask more worthwhile questions whichwill extend pupil understanding and begin lessons in amore productive way, also revealing misconceptionswhich can then be taken account of.
• Responses to children’s responses need to be sensitiveand respectful to establish an ethos of confidence togive one’s opinion, whether that is right or wrong.
5
6
Effective questioning
An effective start to a lesson is a feature of goodformative assessment: capturing interest and immersingchildren immediately in the subject matter, oftenestablishing how much they know at the beginning ofeach lesson. A range of questioning templates hasemerged as teachers have experimented with this,including:
• The range of answers (What does a plant need togrow? Soil, light, chocolate, sand, water, coke. Discuss).
• The statement (Goldilocks was a burglar.Agree or disagree? Say why).
• Right and wrong (Why does this bulb light up and thisone not?).
• Odd one out (Which of these shapes is the odd one out?).
We need to plan worthwhile questions which willdeepen and further pupil understanding, rather than askthem to recall a simple fact.
Questioning of childrenSeamus has a very powerful way of questioningindividual children throughout a lesson, making themrepeatedly articulate their understanding. He organisesthe classroom so that he can position himself directly infront of children when he questions them, holding eyecontact and making them feel he is really listening tothem. He uses a number of probing questions, even if heknows what the child means, forcing them to thinkabout how to articulate their answers and thus deepentheir understanding. His questions include:
• What are you going to include?
• What do you mean by...
• Tell me more about that...
• Give me one example...
Feedback
We have moved a long way since the days of teacherstaking children’s work away and marking it. We nowknow that the more immediate the feedback the better,and that most marking has very little impact onchildren’s progress.
We are now aiming for continual review during lessons,stopping lessons at intervals to take one random child’s
learning so far and show it under the visualiser for all tosee. Children look for the successes and where animprovement can be made, then use this modelling tohelp them make their own improvements in their workas they go along.
Instead of children swapping work, cooperativeimprovement is more effective, with two childrenfocusing on one book between them, discussingtogether, with the author holding the pen and readingtheir work aloud and penning the discussedimprovements.
All the elements of formative assessment come into playas the feedback happens. The learning culture of agrowth mindset is vital for children to want to strive forimprovement and look forward to their work beingcritiqued by the whole class. The success criteria are thekey focus for discussing best bits and improvementneeds. Talk partners discuss the visualiser work and theirown work cooperatively, articulating their thoughts andlearning from each other.
References
Alexander, R. (2004) Towards Dialogic Teaching, Dialogos UK
Black, P. and William, D. (1998) Inside the Black Box: Raising Standardsthrough Classroom Assessment, London: King’s College School of Education.
Clarke, S (2008) Active Learning through Formative Assessment,Hodder Education.
Dweck, C. (2006) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,Random House.
Dweck, C. (2000) Self-theories: their role in motivation, personality anddevelopment, Psychology Press.
Hattie, J (2009) Visible Learning, Routledge.
Rowe, M.B. (1974) Relation oif wait-time and rewards to the developmentof language, logic and fate control’, Journal of Research in ScienceTeaching, 11, 4, 292.
The Sutton Trust (2011) Toolkit of Strategies to Improve Learning,CEM and Durham University.
7
2. Summary of the DVD
Introduction
9 mins 34 secs
Length of clip
Shirley introduces the DVD and Seamus Gibbons,explaining purposes and suggested use, using a ‘lessonstudy’ approach.
Summary
Part 1: clarifying success criteria.
Part 2: comparing examples todiscuss excellence.
Part 3: summarising the learning.
Seamus reflects.
Parts
Literacy: Balanced argument
7 mins 5 secs
10 mins 28 secs
2 mins 27 secs
4 mins 7 secs
Length of clip
Overview of the day and lesson, then success criteriabingo game in which children revise the criteria for abalanced argument, explaining and giving examples.
Seamus compares his own piece, written when he was11, with a Level 5 piece from last year’s class. Childrendiscuss the differences.
Children give Seamus improvement suggestions forhis balanced argument.
Growth mindset, success criteria, discussing examplesof excellence.
Summary
Part 1: question starter.
Part 2: comparing excellentexamples.
Part 3: mid-lesson learning stop.
Part 4: cooperative success andimprovement.
Seamus reflects.
Parts
Literacy: Ghost story opening
2 mins 33 secs
5 mins 27 secs
4 mins 45 secs
5 mins 43 secs
6 mins 21 secs
Length of clip
Children discuss what makes them want to read on in a book.
Children compare 2 excellent openings, decidingwhich is better, looking beyond the success criteria
A randomly chosen child’s opening is discussed at the visualiser.
Children, in pairs, give feedback to each other, andthen make improvements.
Raising expectations, looking at excellence,cooperative feedback, marking.
Summary
8
Part 1: Revising success criteria and SPIQ: summarise, predict,identify and question.
Part 2: Vocabulary andpredications.
Part 3: Seamus as teacher.
Part 4: Pupils as teacher andreflection.
Seamus reflects.
Parts
Literacy: Guided reading
5 mins 41 secs
2 mins 7 secs
6 mins 24 secs
5 mins 21 secs
2 mins 28 secs
Length of clip
The children revisit and modify their success criteria forguided reading. They explain the meaning of SPIQ,giving examples.
Children discuss the meaning of some words.They then look at a text and make predictions.
Following the SPIQ format, S directs the reading,identification of new words and questioning of the text.
This time the SPIQ format is pupil led. The group reflectson how well the success criteria were met.
The impact of formative assessment in test results andattitude to learning, learning from each other.
Summary
Part 1: Recap previous lesson.
Part 2: Comparing examples todiscuss excellence.
Part 3: Pupil generation of success criteria.
Part 4: Beginning the collage.
Part 5: Mid – lesson learning stop.
Part 6: Improvement suggestions.
Seamus reflects.
Parts
Art: Collage
1 min 42 secs
4 mins 3 secs
5 mins 21 secs
2 mins 9 secs
2 mins 1 sec
2 mins 18 secs
2 mins 38 secs
Length of clip
They revisit their previously drawn personal valuesymbols, which will be the basis of their collages.
Miss Nicole, the student, and Seamus present their owncollages for the class to compare.
Children co-construct the success criteria. S helps themsee the difference between what makes a collage andindividual creativity.
Seamus gives each child a pack of collage materials.Children use the success criteria to begin their collages.
Several collages are brought to the visualiser for feedback.
Children write improvements for Seamus’s collage.
Peer cooperative improvements, talk partners, mixedability, effective questioning.
Summary
Part 1: Question starter andincorrect example.
Part 2: Teaching the skills.
Part 3: Pupil generation of success criteria.
Part 4: Practising the skills.
Part 5: Summarising the learning.
Seamus reflects.
Parts
Mathematics: Range and mode
4 mins 21 secs
4 mins 58 secs
7 mins 17 secs
2 mins 23 secs
2 mins 12 secs
4 mins 8 secs
Length of clip
To see current understanding, children discuss: ‘Theaverage of 6,7 and 8 is a prime number. Agree ordisagree?’ An incorrect calculation from last year’s class is discussed.
Seamus explains the range and mode and childrenwork on some examples.
Children write individual success criteria then randomlychosen children show these at the visualiser.Improvements are suggested then all children reviewtheir success criteria.
Secret envelopes under chairs contain more lists of datato calculate the range and mode.
Children are given an ‘exit card’ on which they do onefinal calculation, which will get them out to play.
Growth mindset, pupil – generated success criteria, theeffect of ability grouping, learning from each other, useof the visualiser.
Summary
Part 1: Recap and question starter.
Part 2: Teaching the skill.
Part 3: Generation andimprovement of success criteria.
Part 4: Challenge choice andlearning stops.
Part 5: Summarising the learning.
Parts
Mathematics: Finding percentages (first lesson)
4 mins 21 secs
3 mins 10 secs
10 mins 4 secs
5 mins 39 secs
1 min 58 secs
Length of clip
Seamus gives an overview of the learning so far, thenchildren discuss ‘70% of 800 is greater than 60% of 900.Agree or disagree?’
Seamus links fractions with percentages.
After more practice, children write their own successcriteria for finding percentages, then makeimprovements after one child’s criteria has beendiscussed at the visualiser.
Children choose to do either ‘mild’, ‘spicy’ or ‘hot’maths challenges.
Children decide ‘top tips’ improvement advice given an incorrect calculation.
Summary
Review of lesson between Seamus and Shirley.
Parts
Mathematics: Lesson review
6 mins 56 secs
Length of clip
Watching the video footage, we discuss whether thechildren have real understanding and what could bedone to improve this.
Summary
9
10
Part 1: Question start.
Part 2: Reteaching the skill.
Part 3: Improving success criteria.
Part 4: Challenge choice andsummary.
Seamus reflects.
Parts
Mathematics: Retaught findings percentages
1 min 5 secs
6 mins 55 secs
5 mins 16 secs
2 mins 31 secs
Length of clip
Children find 7% of 500 on whiteboards to verify competence.
After explaining that he watched the footage andwants to ensure their understanding, S focuses onfinding 1% first and children knowing the purpose ofeach step.
Children edit their previous success criteria.
Children choose a differentiated challenge. They endthe lesson by writing a text message to Seamus explainhow to find percentages of whole numbers.
Questioning, the impact of formative assessment,introducing formative assessment.
Summary
Conclusion
2 mins 16 secs
Length of clip
Shirley shows this year’s results for Seamus’s class andlists the key aspects of the teaching and learning in hisclassroom to reflect on.
Summary
11
Introduction
My first DVD, The Power of Formative Assessment,featured ten teachers from my action research teamsdemonstrating a range of strategies –lots of clips, lots ofspecifics. This new DVD is quite different: it focuses onone outstanding inner London teacher of 11 year olds,Seamus Gibbons, bringing all the elements of formativeassessment together over a range of lessons.
The main purpose of this DVD is to provoke discussion,and video is the next best thing to watching a goodteacher teaching.‘Lesson study’, in its pure form, consistsof 2 teachers planning a lesson, the staff watching andcritiquing the lesson at a micro level, then the lessonbeing replanned and retaught. The focus should be thelearning. For the purposes of this DVD, however, I amfocusing on how the teaching impacts the learning. Wetraditionally spend a great deal of time talking togetherabout education away from the classroom. Lesson studywe know has a significant effect on pupil achievement–teachers watching and discussing someone teaching.
The second purpose of the DVD is to show howformative assessment, with all the elements broughttogether, looks in the hands of a very successful teacherover Literacy, maths and an art lesson. The way Seamusteaches is not the only way to do it, of course, but agreat deal can be learnt from analysing any teacher’slessons, more so from an exceptional teacher.
The handbook, containing summaries of the lessons,copies of the slides and posters from Seamus’sclassroom accompanies the DVD and can bedownloaded from my website:www.shirleyclarke-education.org
Formative assessment consists of the followingelements, which we know not only raise standards butmake children into lifelong learners:
• A learning culture: a growth mindset and learningfrom each other.
• Involving pupils in planning.
• Sharing learning objectives, often after capturinginterest first.
• Pupil generated success criteria.
• Effective questioning and talk partners.
• Self-peer-teacher feedback: aiming for continualreview and on-the-spot improvement making.
The first DVD and my book ‘Active Learning throughFormative Assessment’ give more detail and can beordered on my website. The website also has pages ofpractical feedback from teachers in my learning teamsas well as links to other resources.
So, how did I find Seamus? I received this email fromhim on September 11th 2011...
Dear Shirley
I thought you might be interested to know about ourrecent Year 6 S.A.T's results from my Year 6 class. I haveadopted a lot of strategies from your book (especially thequality assurance) and it has had a huge impact.
Working in an Inner London school in Westminster (over90% EAL) we got:
• 93% L4 and above writing. We got 44% the previous year.
• 29% L5 writing, compared to 0% the previous year.
• 93% L4 and above reading, compared to 66% the previous year.
• 90% L4 and above maths, compared to 85% the previous year.
• 59% L5 maths, compared to 22% the previous year.
These results, in a class with a high percentage of EAL, 2/3male (a lot of whom struggled with behaviour andconcentration) and a high percentage of S.E.N exceeded alltargets set by the local authority.
By the children breaking their learning down into smallersteps and using W.M.G (success criteria), developing growthmindsets and knowing what 'excellence' looks like; theyhave been able to make outstanding progress (as well asquality marking and other strategies). They left asconfident learners and ready to tackle the challenges theywill face in secondary school.
I was astonished by these results, and I know SAT resultsare certainly not the only measure of successfullearning, simply a by-product of it, but I wanted to seehim teach. I videoed him for a day in the classroom anddecided within minutes of watching him that this wouldbe practice many teachers would find useful to watch. Iknow this means that we only see 11 year olds learning,but formative assessment applies to all ages and byfocusing very closely on one teacher with one set ofchildren, a great deal can be learnt which can be appliedor modified for younger or older children.
3. Shirley’s commentary throughout the DVD
12
The school is St.Stephen’s School in Westminster, in anarea of social deprivation. There are 29 children in theclass, with all but 3 children having English as a secondlanguage and a total of 11 different first languages.There are 12 children identified with special educationalneeds and the range of achievement in Literacy andMathematics by the end of their last class was from level1 to level 5, level 4 being the government expectationfor most 11 year olds.
The lessons we see are minimally edited, with all thechildren involved. There are 2 extra people in theclassroom –Miss Nicole, a GTP student who hadpreviously been a learning support assistant in the class,who spent 3 and a half days in the room and Mr. Jones,the class teaching assistant for one and a half days aweek –by coincidence all the filming happened on theirdays! The children change their seating every week, asthey change talk partners, and you will see the 2 extraadults always sitting in the corners of the room, workingwith whoever is sitting there that week. This meant thatall children were either supported or stretched at sometime with those adults.
There are 2 Literacy lessons: a balanced argument andghost story openings, as well as a guided readingsession in which we see the children leading the session.There is an art lesson which focuses on using theirpersonal chosen values to create a collage, with all theaspects of formative assessment evident. And finallythere are 3 maths lessons: range and mode and then aninteresting sequence of lessons for finding percentages.You see the first percentages lesson, then a discussionbetween Seamus and I about how the learning went,then his reteaching of that lesson, based on ourthinking. This shows the benefits of ‘lesson study’although the best scenario is of course that more thanone teacher plans and teaches the lesson and that moreteachers get involved in the discussion.
The structure of the DVD is organised to help withprofessional development meetings and I’ve used thesame ‘lesson study’ style format that I use on my oneday courses, after people have seen clips of Seamusteaching, which teachers have found useful. Each lessonon the DVD is preceded by some comments from me tohelp you to focus because each lesson is different fromand complimentary to the others. I’ve split the lessonsinto parts and before each part I’ll give you somepointers on what in particular to look out for. After eachlesson there is a slide of my observations of the lessonthen some thoughts from Seamus about the key issues.
To get the most out of watching the lessons I suggestthe following:
1. Listen to my pointers before each part.
2. Watch part 1, jotting down everything you see whichmakes the learning successful.
3. At the end of that part, make groups and pool your findings.
4. Look at my observations of it via the menu and seehow they compare with yours. Do they match up? Did we both miss things?
5. Open up the discussion to the whole group,articulating all the key elements and any implicationsfor your own practice.
6. Continue in this way with each part of the lesson,following the same pattern.
7. Finally, listen to Seamus talking about his journey informative assessment.
Literacy
Balanced argumentAs this is the first time you see Seamus teach, you will beinundated with strategies which you then get to seerepeated and developed in subsequent lessons.However, now is the time to jot down everything yousee which makes the learning successful so you cantrack the strategies through the lessons.
Part 1 Look out for the elements of formativeassessment: the growth mindset culture, how hereinforces success criteria in the bingo game, hisquestioning to the class and to individuals. Also otherthings: how he starts the day and the lesson, how theseating is organised to enable his questioning, how hekeeps them focused, how he keeps them motivated.
Part 2 New things to look for: how he helps themunderstand exactly what excellence looks like, theimportance of context, his relationship with thechildren, the significance of his displays around thewalls, his tracking strategies.
Part 3 Finally, Seamus often ends lessons with a taskwhich helps him see what they have learnt. What are thesuccessful elements of this final task?
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Ghost story openingsComparing excellent and not so good old pieces of workis a great way to get children to see what a good onelooks like. In this instance, Seamus compares 2 Level 5openings. Look for the benefits in looking beyondfeatures which merely satisfy standard test criteria.
Part 1 How lessons begin is an important part offormative assessment. What does Seamus gain fromstarting with this question and hearing what they haveto say? How important is humour and context in hisapproach?
Part 2 Keep track of the questioning of individual andpairs of children which run throughout his lessons. Howsignificant do you think this is in what makes thesechildren achieve such a high level? Is there a pattern inhis questioning?
Part 3 Feedback is at its best when it is immediate. Howdoes Seamus achieve that here? Jot down all theelements that make up a successful mid lesson learningstop at the visualiser. Notice his emphasis on identifyinggood writing, not necessarily test criteria.
Part 4 Cooperative improvement is more effective thanswapping books. Improvements are made there andthen, by both children together, rather than writingadvice which has to be followed up later by a child ontheir own.
Literacy
Guided readingSeamus uses a format for guided reading that hediscovered is widely used in New Zealand: S P I Qpronounced spike, which stands for summarise, predict,identify and question. He devised the clicking or noisesignal for unison reading of words and he also decidedon the role change, where the pupils become theteacher and he becomes a pupil.
Although this group is in the library to help the audio forthe video, they are usually in the classroom, with thefurniture rearranged into groups. Now that all childrenare trained in the SPIQ format, Seamus is able to have allgroups running their own tables at the same time in theway you see here, while he sits with just one.
This is the only time that Seamus has ability grouping,although sometimes he groups them according tointerest in the content of the book.
Part 1 How necessary do you think pupil generatedsuccess criteria are for guided reading? Decide how farthe success criteria influence the success of the session.
Part 2 Notice how Seamus gives children control andhow and when he intervenes.
Part 3 How far is the continual repetition of thestructure of the session allowing children to beconfident in their learning? How important is this?
Part 4 What factors need to be in place for all childrento be able to lead a session as you see happening next?What qualities do you see between the children? How pleased does Seamus look knowing that he is nolonger needed?
Art
CollageFormative assessment is first and foremost about thelearning process, relevant for all subjects. Here we see alesson on collage, in which children use their previouslydesigned value symbols. Some key messages are givenabout the fact that success criteria for art can only focuson skills, not the quality of the creation.
Part 1 Notice how Seamus often gets children todiscuss previous learning but recaps himself rather thanasking them to articulate. What is the advantage of this?How does he use the interactive whiteboard to enhancethe learning? Here and elsewhere?
Part 2 Discuss why you think Seamus shows them moreexamples of good collages.
Part 3 Watch how he gets the children to generate thesuccess criteria. Notice the separation of art skills andcreativity and how that appears in the success criteria.
Part 4 The classroom is full of chairs and children soresource preparation is key. Seamus gives out bags ofcollage materials. Would you still do this if the classroomwas bigger and allowed for more movement?
Part 5 How do the mid lesson learning stops influencewhat children do next or what they learn?
Part 6 Too often work is left unfinished, but herechildren are reassured that they will be able to continue.Keep a note of all the techniques Seamus uses tointegrate summative assessment into the plenary.
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Mathematics
Range and ModeThe breakthrough for me in watching Seamus’s mathslessons was the realisation that the most beneficialfeedback in maths is during the pupil generation of theirown personal success criteria after they have practicedthe skill. Their level of understanding is revealed throughthe way they write the success criteria so that is theobvious time to look for success and makeimprovements. Once the maths has been completed it’sdifficult to make the feedback go beyond right orwrong, but at the success criteria stage there is a realchance of picking up misconceptions and working onthe understanding. Watch feedback at the successcriteria stage happen in this lesson and in thepercentages lessons.
Part 1 What is gained at the beginning of this lessonfrom giving children a quick calculation at the start?
Part 2 Before children can write their own successcriteria in maths, they need to know the steps involved.What are the important elements of Seamus’s teaching here?
Part 3 Look for significant moments as childrencompose and improve their own success criteria,especially in his interaction with individuals. Notice theuse of the visualiser and random choosing during thelesson. What is the advantage of random choosing forwho comes out to share their work?
Part 4 Preparation of context is as important as theskills being taught and applied. Imagine the impact ifthe children were now just given more lists of numbersfrom which to calculate the range and mode.
Part 5 Here’s another technique for summarising the learning and providing recorded summativeassessment information for the teacher in a quick andinnovative format.
Finding percentagesNow we have 2 lessons following a ‘lesson study’approach. Although it appears that children know howto find percentages in the first lesson, Seamus and I werenot convinced that they would be able to remember thesteps long term. On watching the footage of thistogether, we looked carefully at children’s expressions,where there was confusion and where they didn’t alwaysanswer his ‘does everyone understand?’ questions. Ourdiscussion led to thinking that, for every step in thesuccess criteria, children need to be able to say why youhave to make that step and maybe there didn’t need tobe so many steps anyway.
After this discussion Seamus retaught the lesson, withnow added insight after watching and discussing it: thevalue of lesson study.
Watch lesson 1 first, noting the good things, as before,but also any indications of shaky understanding. Thenlisten to key excerpts from mine and Seamus’sdiscussion. Then watch the reteaching of the lesson andnote the improved understanding.
Lesson 1Part 1 Note the instant engagement as before, and thequality of discussion between the children.
Part 2 Throughout this lesson, how far do you thinkthere is real understanding? Where do children seemunclear? Notice the continued reference to ‘SLANT’(sit up, listen, ask questions, nod your head, track the speaker).
Part 3 Notice the importance of children sharing theirideas about their success criteria. Decide which aspectsof the success criteria are perhaps unnecessary.
Part 4 Seamus has mixed ability throughout his lessons,with excellent results. Notice how the challenges arestructured and what they have in common. Also look forhow he checks children’s choices and gives themflexibility to change. What other factors do you thinkwould need to be in place for this system to work really well?
Part 5 Demonstrated here, giving children an incorrectcalculation or incorrect success criteria to put right is agood strategy for beginnings or ends of lessons, togauge current understanding.
Review of the lesson
You now hear Seamus and I discussing the key pointsabout this lesson, accompanied by the footage we referto. Think about how you would go about reteaching thelesson after such a discussion.
Retaught percentages lessonNow we have Seamus’s reteaching of the findingpercentages lesson. Jot down the main differences andlook for increased understanding.
Part 1 Seamus begins with a question again in order toestablish that the children know how to findpercentages of whole numbers.
Part 2 What are the key points in his reteaching thatyou feel help the children develop deeperunderstanding?
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Part 3 Look especially at Devon’s editing of his successcriteria and Seamus’s questioning. Notice how oftenSeamus asks for children to be entirely explicit, eventhough we know what they mean by what they say orwrite.
Part 4 We now see another device for gettingsummative assessment in a recorded form, but also witha meaningful context. Keep a list of these devices andadd to them from your own ideas.
Conclusion: final discussions
I suggest that after watching and discussing all of theselessons and listening to Seamus’s commentary therecould be a general discussion about the factors whichyou believe make Seamus’s children exceedexpectations to an exceptional level. The SAT results forthis class were even higher than Seamus’s last class: forwriting 96% L4 and 44% L5, for reading 96%L4 and 63%L5 and for mathematics 93% L4 and 56% L5.
Think about:
• The learning culture and how it manifests itself.
• The way in which children talk to each other.
• His questioning of individuals and pairs – what are theexact questions he uses?
• Talk partners: how often the children are asked to talkand what he does during that time.
• The seating arrangement and its significance in hisquestioning routine.
• The use of success criteria.
• The use of the visualiser.
• The discussion about excellence.
• Cooperative feedback: children in pairs looking forexcellence and making improvements there and then.
• The beginnings and ends of lessons.
• The messages on the walls and how they are used.
• Pace and focus.
• His relationship with the children and his expectationsof them.
• How children feel in his lessons.
• Mixed ability.
• Use of adult support.
• Preparation of resources and choice of contexts for learning.
• Seamus is passionate about children’s learning,especially for those children who might not be in thebest circumstances – how do you know this?
The structure of the DVD is organised to help withprofessional development meetings and I’ve used thesame ‘lesson study’ style format that I use on my oneday courses, after people have seen clips of Seamusteaching, which teachers have found useful. Each lessonon the DVD is preceded by some comments from me tohelp you to focus because each lesson is different fromand complimentary to the others. I’ve split the lessonsinto parts and before each part I’ll give you somepointers on what in particular to look out for. After eachlesson there is a slide of my observations of the lessonthen some thoughts from Seamus about the key issues.
To get the most out of watching the lessons I suggestthe following:
1. Listen to my pointers before each part.
2. Watch part 1, jotting down everything you see whichmakes the learning successful.
3. At the end of that part, make groups and pool yourfindings.
4. Look at my observations of it via the menu and seehow they compare with yours. Do they match up? Didwe both miss things?
5. Open up the discussion to the whole group,articulating all the key elements and any implicationsfor your own practice.
6. Continue in this way with each part of the lesson,following the same pattern.
7. Finally, listen to Seamus talking about his journey informative assessment.
4. Discussion suggestions
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5. Shirley’s observations of the lessons
Part 1: Clarifying success criteria
1. Balanced argument
Formative Assessment General teaching
• Gives overview of the day for big picture.
• Reviews learning journey for a balanced argument tomake today’s learning clear.
• Effective questioning of individuals which makes themhave to explain fully:
What do you mean by...
Tell me more...
Give me an example...
• Refers to the growth mindset (learning culture).
• Use of 3 ways of randomly choosing who speaks:
Lollysticks.
Numbers on backs of chairs.
Computer randomiser.
• Repeated use of talk partners.
• Asks children to say what their partner said, whichfocuses their listening.
• ‘Track the speaker’ asks that everyone face the personspeaking at the time.
Part 2: Comparing examples to discuss excellence
• Compares excellent with not so good as a way ofanalysing excellence.
• Returns to the success criteria repeatedly.
• Makes sure he talks to the children equally.
• Makes levels transparent.
• ‘Can anyone develop on Alice’s point? ‘ is a respectfulway of getting all he wants to hear.
• Gets children to summarise their learning in differentways to reinforce what excellence looks like.
• Is very specific when asking children to explain thedifference ‘Show me exactly where a connective couldgo in this piece’.
• Arrangement of the room means he can face childrenwhen he speaks to them individually, holding eye contactand making them feel he is only listening to them.
• Good control ‘I can see Samir’s ready’ etc.
• Good pace.
• Repeats what children say so everyone can hear.
• Displays around the room are mostly concerned withlearning: at front is big display of What Makes Good – thesuccess criteria for the lesson.
• Uses meaningful context of his own writing as a child.
• Use of humour.
• Clicking fingers for all to say the next word – good focusing device.
• Exemplary use of the interactive white board.
• ‘You told me..’ hands back responsibility to the children.
• Great relationship with the children, seen in ‘Your mum’s justyour mum’ moment.
• ‘Don’t go for the first thing –it’s going to be the most OBVIOUS’(this mantra is repeated in most lessons).
Part 3: Comparing examples to discuss excellence
• Gets children to offer improvements on his piece to help them see how to improve their own.
• Motivating context of commenting on the teacher’s work.
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Part 1: Question starter
2. Ghost story opening
Formative Assessment General teaching
• Focuses on what makes good writing beyond technical features.
• Talk partners used for every question.
Part 2: Comparing excellent examples
• Compares 2 Level 5 openings, so that excellence can behighlighted for aspects beyond test criteria.
• Asks talk partners to say why they chose the piece sothey need to extend their thinking.
• Underlines excellent sections of the preferred piece on the whiteboard as a model for children’s own paired marking.
• Compares phrases from both pieces (e.g. the differencebetween how the night is described in both) rather thansimply picking out all the best things in one opening.
• Waits several seconds for a child to think and answer –doesn’t jump in.
• Use of humour in his introduction.
• Use of clicks for all to join in keeps them focused.
• Returns to Michel’s point - doesn’t forget him.
• Emphasises the difference between showing and telling in writing.
• Reinforces hands down.
Part 3: Mid-lesson learning stop
• He reminds them of the purpose and function of pinkand green marking: best bits and improvement points.
• He models the marking strategy by having randomchildren at the visualiser with the class analysing their work.
• Seamus talks to children at the visualiser while the classis discussing the work, so that that child gets feedback.
• He summarises the lesson so far to keep them clear about the purpose.
• Repeat of ‘most obvious’ mantra.
Part 4: Cooperative success and improvement
• Children are asked to make improvements on the spotrather than simply giving advice to be followed up later.
• Seamus allows a child to start her opening again, but asks her to keep the best bits: respects her decision.
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Part 1: Revising success criteria and SPIQ
3. Guided reading
Formative Assessment General teaching
• There are success criteria for guided reading.
• Children are invited to extend and qualify the success criteria.
• Seamus asks ‘What do you mean by?’ To make children’s explanations even clearer.
Part 2: Vocabulary and predictions
• Use of the word ‘magpie’ to show that excellence isshared and anything good can be borrowed.
• Asks children to say what their partner said – aids listening.
• They revisit the SPIQ structure of guided reading(summarise, predict, identify and question).
• Good vocab starter given jumbled meanings to join.
Part 3: Seamus as teacher
• Reminds children they need to be alert as they might be asked to continue at any time.
• Control is given to children as they ask a question of the text and can choose who answers it.
• Use of talk partners.
• Clicks fingers for unison next word – keeps focus.
• Children are encouraged not to ask a question which is‘the most obvious’ (a repeated phrase in his lessons), sothey have to think more deeply.
• Subtly helps Devon look up a word.
• Uses the SPIQ format to give a clear repeating structureto the guided reading sessions.
Part 4: Pupils as teacher and reflection
• Transfer of control made possible because of the clearstructure of the sessions.
• Polite conduct within the group.
• Children take over clicking or noise making.
• Children clearly enjoy being the teacher and casting Seamus as the pupil.
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Part 1: Recap previous lesson
4. Collage
Formative Assessment General teaching
• Recaps on their learning journey for making the collage.
Part 2: Comparing examples to discuss excellence
• Compares excellent with not so good examples ofcollages to enable pupils to see what excellence lookslike and to generate their own success criteria.
• Reminds them of their definition of a collage: handsresponsibility to them, so they will be now deciding whethertheir definitions are good enough.
• ‘Track the speaker’ to keep them listening.
Part 3: Pupil generation of success criteria
• Uses more than one example of excellence for them todecide success criteria, to help them see what thecollages have in common and how there is more thanone way of achieving excellence.
• Children write their own individual success criteria.
• He snowballs pairs into 4s to compare success criteria.
• Group improvements are made on the success criteria.
• Emphasises and repeats the important point thatcreativity in art is key and needs to be individual – thesuccess criteria will be only those things that make acollage a collage rather than to dictate content.
• Has another class mantra:
‘Do we want to be just as good as these?No!’‘What do we want to be?’‘Better!
Part 4: Beginning the collage
• Tells them their timescale so they are not rushing.
• Each child has a pack of collage materials, so they will havechoice but not waste time: well prepared.
Part 5: Mid-lesson learning stop
• Has random children sharing their work at the visualiserand in pairs. By stopping they will be able to be inspiredby others and think about improving their collage asthey go.
• Seamus corrects the child who says ‘sticked’ by repeating hersentence but using the word ‘stuck’ in its place. Good EAL support.
Part 6: Improvement suggestions
• Post –it note technique to get children to summarisetheir understanding of the success criteria.
• Meaningful context of giving suggestions to the teacher’s collage.
• Post-it notes are already stuck on their tables ready for them to write so no time is wasted.
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Part 1: Question starter + incorrect example
5. Range and mode
5. Range and mode continued...
Formative Assessment General teaching
• Question starter instantly engages children, tunes themin to the subject matter and gives Seamus an indicationof current understanding.
• Uses incorrect pupil example alongside its successcriteria for children to analyse.
• ‘We learn from our mistakes’ reinforces growth mindset.
• Takes time to let children explain their thinking.
Part 2: Teaching the skills
• Keeps asking talk partners to summarise the meaningsof the key mathematical terms to keep them focused.
• Use of whiteboards for indication of their understanding.
• Fast pace.
• ‘Messy maths’ encourages them to show their workingwithout worrying about the set out.
• Well planned examples on interactive white board.
• Explains the coincidence of both answers being the sameto avoid confusion.
• Use of humour: often uses children’s names from the classin examples on the screen and the sprouts list makesthem laugh: keeps them motivated.
Part 3: Pupil generation of success criteria
• Children write their own individual success criteria.
• Encourages children to use their own wording (‘popped up’).
• Has random success criteria at the visualiser to share,asking the class to discuss and suggest an improvement.
• Gives the child whose work has been shared an example to help her see her error.
• Repeats the same example to the whole class then asksthe child in question to give the improvement: he hasempowered her to correct her own mistakes publicly.
• Emphasises that cooperative improvement is 2 peoplelooking at 1 book and talking not writing.
• Blank success criteria sheets are on their tables already.
• ‘Track me’ keep them listening.
• ‘Eyes up here so you can learn’ reinforces theirresponsibility for learning.
• Friendly approach with all children seen in his individualdiscussions.
• Encourages children to use an illustrative example intheir success criteria.
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Part 4: Practising the skills
5. Range and mode continued...
Formative Assessment General teaching
• Reinforces that success criteria need to be checkedthroughout their work.
Part 5: Summarising the learning
• Keeps focus by having ‘exit cards’ to do one finalcalculation which will give Seamus recordedsummative assessment.
• Gives more examples in an exciting meaningful context(secret letter) to keep motivation high.
• Use of humour ‘calm down’ and going with the flow asthey can’t wait to open the envelopes. Waits until they’veopened them before he explains the task.
• Motivating context as the exit card is their pass to go outto play.
• Reinforces good manners as they leave.
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6a. Finding percentages first lesson
Formative Assessment General teaching
Part 1: Recap and question starter
• Asks talk partners to recap previous learning.
• Instead of asking individuals to tell class what they’ve been learning so far, he summarises the learning journey for them, thus saving time andavoiding confusion.
• Good question starter: given a statement to agree ordisagree with.
• Talk partners share their thinking throughout the lesson.
• Children have been trained in explaining to each other,using appropriate language (e.g.‘I disagree’).
Part 2: Teaching the skill
• Good focusing task where they have to spot the mistake.
• Use of SLANT (sit up, listen, ask and answer questions,nod your head, track the speaker).
• Children often don’t reply when he asks if theyunderstand.
• Good use of whiteboards to summarise learning andinform Seamus of their thinking.
Part 3: Generation and improvement of success criteria
• Makes sure they know the steps involved before theywrite the success criteria.
• Use of different ways of randomly choosing who answers.
• Use of 4s where children share thinking.
• Gets children to summarise key facts often (e.g. what are we learning).
• Child chosen randomly to come to visualiser to sharesuccess criteria to identify successes and make themeven clearer.
• Returns to Devon (who gave a wrong answer) so he cannow give the right answer, demonstrating his learning.
• Use of whiteboards for children to do their calculationsmeans it’s easier for children to discuss their work.
• Tells them to have the success criteria on the left page of thebook with the work on the right side, so they can refer moreeasily to the success criteria as they are working.
• When a child is unsure he suggests an example to help her explain.
• Emphasises that it is their thinking that counts rather than his.
• Children have been trained to cooperatively discuss theirwork, using one book at a time and making improvementsthere and then.
• Most children seem to know the steps, but will theyremember them? Do they know why the steps happen?
6a. Finding percentages first lesson continued...
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6a. Finding percentages first lesson continued...
Formative Assessment General teaching
Part 4: Challenge choice and learning stops
• Reinforces that success criteria work for all challenge levels.
• Randomly chosen child shares work at the visualiser.
• Seamus encourages talk partners to explain their thinking.
• Has mixed ability with differentiated challenges,which children can choose.
• He encourages flexibility between the choices.
• Talks to individuals about their choice of challenge.
Part 5: Summarising the learning
• Gives and incorrect calculation for children to analyse asa device for them summarising their learning.
Part 1: Question starter
6b. Retaught percentages lesson
Formative Assessment General teaching
• Question at start to see whether children know how tofind percentages: current understanding isdemonstrated to make sure the lesson is going to be appropriate.
Part 2: Reteaching the skill
• Talk partners are used throughout the lesson.
• Has introduced a ‘why’ column for the success criteria.
• Talks to individuals to gauge their level ofunderstanding of the steps.
• Shares his lesson study experience of analysing the first lesson, involving them in the process of learning and development. Important that they see he can also improve.
• He uses a whiteboard alongside the interactive white board.
• Repeats ‘She doesn’t know yet’ to emphasise the ‘yet’ toreinforce a growth mindset.
6b. Retaught percentages lesson continued...
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6b. Retaught percentages lesson continued...
Formative Assessment General teaching
Part 3: Improving success criteria
• Randomly chosen child at the visualiser shares hersuccess criteria.
• Reinforces that cooperative improvement has 2 children with only one book to discuss.
• Randomly chosen child shares his improved successcriteria at the visualiser. Seamus asks him for furtherclarification even though we know what he means.
• Admits that there are too many steps in the success criteria,which he helped them generate.
• Seamus praises children’s achievements without mentioning ability.
Part 4: Pupils as teacher and reflection
• Final text message task is designed to get children tosummarise their learning in a recorded form and intheir own chosen form of words rather than ‘school language’.
• Has mixed ability and choice of three differentiatedchallenges which children do sitting next to their talkpartner.
• Meaningful, motivating context of writing a text messageto their teacher.
• Phone templates are already on the tables.
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The Level 3 and Level 5 versions of a balanced argument
6. Resources from Seamus’s lessons:
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27
The 2 Level 5 ghost story openings
Story 1
A sheet of darkness took over the sky. Quivering, Paul lay
awake in bed. If he dared to sleep, would it come
back again?
He sat up in his bed to try and calm the rapid beating of
his heart. “It’s just my imagination,” he whispered to
himself. Just as he finally began to relax, he felt a chilling
drop in the temperature of the room. The hair on the back
of his neck rose. It was back.
Story 2
Night time had finally come.
Paul knew he now had to do his dare! It was time to walk
through the crumbling graveyard. “Why did I agree to do
this stupid dare?” wondered Paul. He was petrified!
He opened the rusty gates and slowly stepped in. Paul was
desperate to turn around, but knew Christian and his gang
would never let him forget. He had to brave the graveyard.
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The ‘top secret’ lists of information about the teachers for calculating range and mode
Names ..................................................................................................................
This is top secret data...You cannot show
ANYONE!
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Data Set 1
Teachers’ ages
Mr Gibbons 27
Ms Nicole 27
Mr Jones 27
Ms Greaves 24
Caroline 30
Ms Cohen 42
Ms Mulvey 26
Ms Dingle 28
Mrs Barclay- 29
Mrs Henderson 48
What is the range?
What is the mode?
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Data Set 2
Teachers’ house numbers
Mr Gibbons 91
Ms Nicole 85
Mrs Barclay 50
Caroline 75
Ms Cohen 90
Ms Dingle 90
Mr Jones 110
Ms Greaves 94
Ms Mulvey 90
What is the range?
What is the mode?
31
Data Set 3
Teachers’ heights
Mr Gibbons 187cm
Ms Greaves 169cm
Mrs Barclay 158cm
Ms Whitehouse 163cm
Caroline 163cm
Ms Mulvey 170cm
Ms Nicole 175cm
Mr Jones 200cm
What is the range?
What is the mode?
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Data Set 4
The last 3 digits of a teachers’phone number
Mr Gibbons 512
Ms Nicole 550
Ms Mulvey 250
Mr Jones 512
Mrs Barclay 550
Ms Whitehouse 300
M. Dingle 450
What is the range?
What is the mode?
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The mild, spicy and hot challenges for the finding percentages lesson
Mild
Find percentages of these number:
a) 4% of 400
b) 9% of 500
c) 8% of 800
d) 23% of 500
e) 37% of £900
f ) 64% of £300
g) 39% of £1,300
h) 53% of 5,200
i) 18% of 540
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Spicy
Find these percentages:
a) 22% of 700
b) 69% of 1,400
c) 57% of 520
d) 18% of 66
e) 46% of £70
f ) 78% of 64
g) 49% of 1.2kg
Which is greater? How do you know?
a) 34% of 500 or 41% of 600
b) 67% of 210 or 72% of 220
c) 92% of 640 or 84% of 790
d) 95% of 570m or 81% of 610m
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Hot
Are the following statements true or false?
a) 34% of 500 is greater than 42% of 600
b) 69% of 390 is less than 71% of 450
c) 93% of £2,400 is more than 87% of £2,900
d) 79% of 39 is less than 69% of 46
e) 49% of 46 is the same as 51% of 48
Answer the following:
1. A coat is on sale.The original price of the coat is £450.
It has a 34% reduction. What is the new cost?
2. A puppy costs £220.The owner has said if you buy two, you can have 28% discount.
How much will two puppies cost?
3. Entrance to Chessington is £22.Masum has a voucher which will get him a 61% discount.
How much does Masum pay?
4. Year 6 go to a restaurant for a meal.The meal costs £162.
The waiter adds 17.5% service charge to the bill.How much is the service charge?
How much money does the bill now cost?
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‘What makes good’writing success criteria
• If you do not know how to spell a word, sound it out...never dodge a good word.
• Your first idea is the most obvious.
• Every piece of writing has an opening and closing.
• Use a variety of connectives (e.g. on the other hand).
• A range of different sentence openers.
• Play on words (pun).
• Personification (e.g. chattering of machine guns).
• Rhetorical questions help to draw the reader in.
• Alliteration (e.g. knees knocking).
• Choose one idea per paragraph and develop on it.
• Use complex sentences and remember to use a commabetween clauses.
• Suitable ‘wow’ words for the genre.
• Combine ‘what makes good’ writing with ‘what makes good’for that genre.
• Magpie words or ideas from somewhere else.
• A range of punctuation, when suitable.
• Similes and metaphors make your writing more interesting (e.g. the wind was like icy spears piercing my skin).
• Decide what makes good for that genre.
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The ‘SLANT’ posterS Sit upL ListenA Ask and answer questionsN Nod your headT Track the speaker
‘Growth mindset’ poster
• Shares learning.
• Is not afraid to stand up for what they believe in.
• Makes links in their learning.
• Works with their partners.
• Puts in 110% effort ineverything they do.
• Thinks before they act.
• Takes risks and nevergives up.
• Is resilient.
• Is not afraid of getting awrong answer.
• Is not afraid to askquestions.
• Enjoys and looks forwardto learning.
• Is truthful.
• Has a positive attitude.
• Never says ‘I can’t do it’, butinstead ‘I can’t do it yet’.
• Focuses on what they aredoing and does notdistract others.
Someone who:
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‘Peer assessment’ poster
Analyse one piece of work at a time with your partner.
While discussing the work, stop and say what you like and what could be improved.
Continue with your work and make any necessary changes.
Shirley Clarke 2013
With thanks and a great deal of admiration to Seamus Gibbons
