ACL Teaching and Learning Conference September 2013

How to write an outstandingly useful Scheme of Work with ease!

Welcome to this session for Staffordshire ACL tutors. Im Clare Roberts, Teaching and Learning Advisor. This session ran in March 2014 with a group of Community Learning Providers and we hope this web broadcast will be of use to other providers and tutors in future.1Aims of todays sessionTo write a great scheme of workThe SoW - What is it for? Who is it for?Aims and objectivesThe prompts for good planning

The aims of todays session are to explore approaches to writing schemes of work, including what formats are suitable for different providers especially providers who are not delivering standard classroom based sessions.Well look at the purpose of having a scheme of work; how to record the main aims and objevtives and the other sections of the standard scheme of work. Wed like you to leave with a complete scheme of work that you can use in future, so if you keep in mind one particular course that you will be teaching that would be useful.2This symbol means discuss with your colleague

This symbol means make some written notesACL Tutor Induction 2012/13

Scheme of workWhat is it for?Who is it for?

So the first questions are: what is the purpose of the scheme of work and who is it for? My answer would be that is is a working document that provides a kind of map for the tutor. It is something that is likely to change as the course progresses. It is obviously something that should be drawn up by the tutor, with the learners in mind. It needs to be accessible by managers as part of the quality assurance procedures or the service.4AimsThis course is for people who want to.

Complete this sentence on the back of a postcard!

When drawing up your scheme of work the most important question to consider first is what are the aims of the course. Have a go at completing this sentence: this course is for people who want to..

5Objectives

What alternative terms are used for objectives?What do we mean by these terms?What considerations do you need to take into account when listing your objectives?

There are different terms used in different organisation (objectives or outcomes, or sometimes goals or targets) but were basically talking about what the learner will be able to do by the end of the course.6ObjectivesTopicsSkillsIndividual needsPersonal goalsAssessment/accreditationEquality Diversity and Inclusion

You will want to consider various things when youre making a list of objectives for example whatever topics come to mind as working towards your aim. Dont forget the skills involved which might be less concrete than the topics, but important nontheless. It is also useful at this stage to think about the individual needs or any personal goals that you can anticipate your learners might have. If you are doing an accredited course you will find a list of objectives in the assessment documentation but you may well want to add to it. One of your outcomes at least should relate to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion. Think about naturally arising contexts for this rather than making it an add-on.7A3 paper and post-itsBrainstorm all the topics/skills including learners priorities on post-itsPut post-its in a logical time order

It may be useful to brainstorm all the objectives/outcomes you can think of and jot them down. Personally I find it useful not to think of the order just yet. If you make your notes on post-its you can easily re-order the items afterwards.The aims and objectives of your course may be listed clearly on your course information sheet or other publicity so you can easily attach that to the rest of the scheme of work, rather than writing it all out again. You might also share these with your learners in more innovative ways, using a blog or Google+ group, or on a poster in the classroom.

8Topics/outcomes/teaching and learning activitiesRemember to write your outcomes in a SMART way:Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-related

Once you have a list of outcome/objectives in a sensible chronological order it might be helpful to number them. Then you can start to add more detail. You may want to refer to particular resources that will be useful. You may want to note down particular teaching and learning activities for each outcome or topic. When you are thinking about learning activities it can be useful to do it from the learner perspective, ie think about what the learners will be doing, rather than what the tutor will be doing. It will help make sure that learners are fully engaged with the session at all times. Again, by all means think of different ways to record this infomration that might be more suitable to your way of working.9Assessment vocabulary

In any course, accredited or otherwise it is important to monitor your learners progress, so that you know how much they have understood, if they could work independently on a task, and if they are ready to move on. It is useful to think in advance how you are going to be assessing the learning, how you can give feedback and what stage of the teaching-assessment cycle you are at. Have a think about what type of vocabulary will be useful for recording what kind of assessment you are doing. 10Assessment vocabularyAssessment FOR learning formativeAssessment OF learning summativeProduct / photos / videoMarked written work / learning journals / case studiesOral Q&ATutor observation of classwork / witness statement

Assessment for learning is what you do on an on-going basis, usually with oral feedback to the learners, that will help them improve as they work. Assessment of learning is what happens at the end of a topic or course, when you are assessing how far a learning has come. The balance that you have in your course will vary depending on what your are teaching and the type of learners that you have. Some other useful words to use in this section might be product ie looking at something that the learners have made or produced; marked wirtten work will be applicable in some subject areas, oral q&a will be a very frequent type of formative assessment, and tutor observation of classwork is also one that we frequently see.11Group ProfileWhy?How?When?

The Group Profile section of the session plan is designed to prompt the tutor to think about the individual needs of the learners, once they have enrolled, and perhaps after initial assessment, when you have got to know them a bit better. It may be that you continue to add information as the course progresses and you get to know learners better. It could be recorded as part of the scheme of work document, or you could record it separately if this is more convenient. The important thing is that you consider the individual learners and make any necessary changes in terms of the activities you will be doing, getting any individual support that might be needed, or even amending the objectives or outcomes to ones that are more appropriate for the individuals. Although you might deliver the same course again and again, it is this info from the group profile that will inform the particular scheme of work for a particular group of leaerners.12Issues to embedUse Scheme of work with supporting questions (and functional skills criteria if necessary)Tell your partner your answersPartner to make brief notes then swopWhat is the best way to record this info?

The standard Scheme of work template has a section asking for information on 4 topics that should be embedded in every course. Ive added some questions to the grid to make it easier for tutors to see the type of information that is required here. Many tutors embed these topics almost without thinking about it, so explaining what you do can be hard. But it you answer the questions on the sheet you should find it easier. Have a conversation with a colleague based on these questions. You might find it useful to ask your colleague to take notes, or even to record the conversation. Think about how you embed these issues. Does it very from one course to another? If not you might be able to use the same information for all your courses. In which case, what is the best way to record the information? It may not be on the individual schemes of work but somewhere else, more centrally.13ReviewWhat has been difficult?What has been easy?What needs to be changed for each new group?What can remain the same?

OK, were nearly finished. Weve covered all the sections of the scheme of work and seen how they fit together to make an individualised course for a particular group of learners. You may have differnet ideas about where the information is best recorded or kept. Look back at the activities weve done today and discuss how you found them. What was difficult? What did you find easy? What sections will you need to change for each group? What areas can you keep pretty much intact for every group who follows this course? In future you will need to be aware of what needs changing for a new group, and focus on the areas that you found difficult, to make sure youve got them right.14ConclusionUseful?Follow-up?

We hope youve found this session useful. Please get in touch with any feedback you have. It would be great if you could review your scheme of work and the work you have done on it, when you have finished teaching your course and consider how effective the scheme was, if the format was useful, and if it helped you plan your individual sessions.All the best for your teaching.15