Teaching to the A*

A*

Student Voice Feedback: Academic Scholar Questionnaires

General findings from the academic scholar questionnaires:o 66% of students across all year groups strongly

agreed/agreed that they felt academically challenged in their lessons.

o 76% of students strongly agreed/agreed that their teachers had high academic expectations of them.

Use of data to as an indicatorof ability – with Gary Ekins

• What do you think about using data to understand your classes?

Discussion points

• What are the pros and cons of teaching to the A*?

• What are the pros and cons of teaching to the middle and providing support for the most/least able?

• What are the barriers to teaching to the A* in your subject?

Activities for ‘Teaching to the A*’

There are six possible activities for teaching to the A* available on your tables.

For each activity:• How could you use or tailor it for use in your

subject (if applicable)?• What are each of the activities designed to

do?

Critiquing the expertsWhat was the key turning point in the failure of constitutional monarchy in France? Louis’ flight to Varennes, or the oath of loyalty to the clergy?

‘The French Revolution had many turning points; but the oath of the clergy was, if not the greatest, unquestionably one of them. It was certainly the Constituent Assembly’s most serious mistake. For the first time revolutionaries forced fellow citizens to choose; to declare themselves publicly for or against the new order.’William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution

‘Louis XVI started to die on 21 June 1791 (the flight to Varennes). He was not yet a hostage, but he was already little more than a stake in the game. For his flight tore away the veil of that false constitutional monarchy and once more confronted the patriot party with the whole problem of the revolution’s failure.’Francois Furet, The French Revolution

• Upon introduction to a topic, present an expert’s view.

• Ask the students to critique the interpretation of the experts as they learn more about the topic in question

• Ask students to challenge or support the experts, resulting in a debate.

Flipping the classroom – making use of the online resources available

• Set a homework as preparation for the next lesson, with a twist.

• Ask students to watch/listen to a lecture or documentary online, or read provided handouts.

• Ask all students are to complete a set of accompanying questions.

• Next lesson, ask the more able to lead the discussion about the homework, with careful monitoring and limited intervention from the teacher.

Working backwards• Predict and present the weather for our town

on a given day.

Creating exam questions or classroom activities

Initially, ask students to produce exam questions for the topic they are studying, or the lesson that they are in.

Students go on to create model answers to the questions they have set.

Students swap questions with one another and then answer these.

Questions are taken in by the teacher and redistributed at random. After writing answers students meet up with the question author to mark the work.

This could also apply to an end-of-topic or end-of-lesson task, where students can write questions or create activities for their classmates to complete.

AmbiguitySet students deliberately ambiguous tasks or questions and offer them only limited help in completing them.

The vague nature of what is going on may lead students into difficulties, however it is here that they will be forced to apply problem-solving skills, try different approaches and develop a response they feel to be appropriate.

Give students the confidence to experiment by:

-Telling them it is good to fail as they can then explain what they have learnt by it.

- That answers are valid as long as they can be justified by the student.

Playing ‘Devil’s Advocate’

• After a student has completed a piece of work, or put forward an argument in class, ask them, or another student, to critique their work and deliberately put forward an alternative point of view, or question their decisions.

What final thoughts about Teaching to the A* would you like to contribute to this session?

Any Questions?