My scheme of work principles
- 1. My Scheme of Work Use Hyperlink Buttons on Next Slide to View Notes FOR NAS ENGLISH DEPARTMENT INTERVIEW
- 2. Click on a point to see those ideas. What are the principles underpinning this scheme of work? What are the types of lesson planned? How is homework integrated into this scheme of work? How is assessment integrated into this scheme of work? How would teachers plan with this scheme of work? What considerations (particular to the UK) should I be aware of with this scheme of work? How does this scheme of work empower meaningful differentiation? What is an overview of how this scheme of work functions? How do starters and plenaries function?
- 3. Principles of my Teaching and this SoW (slide 1 of 3) Students need to be inspired to aim for the very best. They need to raise their internal bar of what is ‘acceptable’ Ron Berger. Students need to develop their internal frameworks of language manipulation, and to connect this to the world outside the classroom, including the social world of family and friends. The scheme of work needs to be responsive: it needs to present language learning as a ‘messy journey’, not the illusion that a linear, generic scheme of work creates (that expertise is achieved after a set number of lessons.
- 4. Issues arising from the Principles (slide 2 of 3) Students need to be inspired to aim for the very best – public performance and personal achievement are universally inspiring; teacher direction is not. Students need to develop their internal frameworks of language manipulation, and to connect this to the world outside the classroom, including the social world of family and friends – the profession has vastly different foci on what is most effective in language learning. The scheme of work needs to be responsive: it needs to present language learning as a ‘messy journey’, not the illusion that a linear, generic scheme of work creates (that expertise is achieved after a set number of lessons – teachers still require some linearity and content to plan comfortably.
- 5. What do all my students require? (slide 3 of 3) Access to a framework of language use developed with NAU and NATE that presents the mechanics of language in ten tangible techniques for reading/analysing, and eleven tangible techniques for writing/creating. This in the form of desk mats, displays, and sheets in books. Personalised rubric booklets based on prior achievement: students use these to personally track formative achievement, and to set realistic weekly targets. Rolling spelling and vocabulary sheets that are fully checked on a monthly basis, and used on a lesson-by-lesson basis. ‘Achieving Outstanding Progress’ Booklets that allow students to record where they have returned to work to improve it based on previous targets and marking in addition to time allocated. Various extra sheets indicating advanced techniques in writing that all students are expected to attempt.
- 6. What are the types of lesson planned? (Slide 1 of 5) 4 lessons a week at KS3; 5 at KS4. Four types of lesson planned into the scheme of work: 1) Routine lesson – i.e. library lesson; grammar lesson; project lesson. 2) DARTs (Direct Activities related to texts)/ content lesson – i.e. analysing a text. 3) Full English Lesson – i.e. a lesson manipulating a text or language in a non- written academic way, such as a debate, storyboard, drama. 4) Principle Lesson – i.e. teaching a distinctive technique of language such as metaphor, sentence length etc.
- 7. Routine Lesson (Slide 2 of 5) 1) Routine lesson – i.e. library lesson; grammar lesson; project lesson. Library Lesson: students read fiction with either a personal or a class focus. Reading is monitored and progress shared and celebrated with parents, tutors and students, ideally with Accelerated Reader. Grammar Lesson: two facets. Firstly students receive a dictionary of personalised grammar learning videos based upon my website. From marking, or personal recommendation, or personal choice, students study, consolidate, and then teach the class a grammatical point. Secondly, students receive a series of sentence types based upon the 1970s (to modern) American work, ‘Sentence Styling’. They work academically upon these, and return to these types to use in work elsewhere. Project Lesson: Students take a technique from our framework. They select a principle of that technique. They take three steps – demonstrate how the principle of that technique works outside of language (e.g. football passing and sentence length). The second step is to apply that principle to language examples that they personally source. The third step is to recreate that principle using language examples that they create themselves. The project is then taught to the class, occasionally with parents in audience.
- 8. DARTs Lesson (Slide 3 of 5) Content is printed in an attractive way onto an A4/A5 folded sheet of paper. Students are taught to respond to all texts, including ‘zero draft’ texts where an initial response is often confusion, fear, and/or ‘boredom’. Students will have a focus on what to analyse from these texts, but will not be able to respond to all aspects. As the students become skilled, all students are expected to return to this content to analyse for skills learned later. Content is both sourced and created by the students themselves, and this forms DARTs lessons where the students analyse these texts according to personalised targets, too. My ‘content library’ consists of extracts from all major authors, and the ability to source content from any contemporary author.
- 9. Full English Lesson (Slide 4 of 5) Once a half-term, or every 6-8 weeks or so, students choose from a literal menu a series of ‘Full English’ lesson types under the headings of ‘VAK’ and ‘Craft’. These lessons are used to adjust the rhythm of learning for that class, and respond to the learning in the DARTs lessons. Often, Full English lessons develop speaking and listening skills in real audiences. These lesson types are comprehensively sourced from NATE and the TES and NAU communities.
- 10. Project Lesson (Slide 5 of 5) The purpose is for students to develop an aspect of our language framework that becomes internalised forever. The project is integrated in such a way that it is not a bolt-on, and nor that it compromises the academic integrity of the outcome. It is not just ‘doing a poster/shoebox/model’. The students create their own criteria for the ‘presenting’ and ‘team work’ rubrics, and are expected to use software and time management principles when organising themselves. Teams are chosen based upon personal interests rather than friendship groups. Presenting to a real audience is essential.
- 11. How do Starters and Plenaries Function? (Slide 1 of 3) Starters: Routines established by starter type occurring very often on the same day. Plenaries: Mostly either a modified KWL chart to consolidate learning and connect to next lesson, or questions that are recorded as audio to be responded to in a future lesson.
- 12. What is the content of the lessons? – Starters (Slide 2 of 3) Starters 1) Maintenance Starter: students have 10 minutes to maintain one or more of their rolling spelling or vocabulary sheets, and 2) Inference Starter: comprehension based starter focusing on the skills needed to infer accurately and creatively. 3) Question Starter: a speaking and listening starter involving thunks (philosophy activity) or the solo taxonomy. This type of starter is essential to develop the speaking and listening skills of students. 4) Grammar starter: a focused series of grammatical questions as part of a programme
- 13. What is the content of the lessons – plenaries (Slide 3 of 3) KWL chart – know as ‘Today I Learned’. Questions recorded in audio time using Evernote to be used at a later time. Reference to criteria and self or peer-assessement
- 14. How is Homework integrated? (Slide 1 of 2) Needs to be integrated – it is set at the start of a lesson and received as part of a routine in which the students respond to it. Needs to inspire. Needs to be linked to academic progress. Needs to connect to our communities.
- 15. Four types of homework. (Slide 2 of 2) Improving work via marking and criteria – after students have produced analysis that has been marked according to our criteria, they are expected to improve it, and to indicate how they have used the criteria to do so. Note that this is the ‘extra’ homework that the ‘Achieving Outstanding Progress’ sheets require. Responding to all previous marking – In addition to the 10-15 minutes students have to respond to marking in the maintenance starters every four weeks, students are expected to respond to all dialogue, and update all rolling sheets in this homework. This is a painful lesson in time management for some! Producing something – students are expected to create a text to be shared with the class. Often this is linked to the project lesson. Speaking to family/friends – students are expected to bring evidence of a conversation with family and friends, and often to source texts based upon this conversation.
- 16. How is Assessment integrated? (Slide 1 of 2) Summative Assessment is completed via SATs papers or the APP assessments (perhaps modified slightly). These have been peer-created by credible sources. Students need to receive an overall grade, and a grade in relation to each of the main AFs for the skills in writing. Reading assessments are almost always marked on a number basis with the final number equating a final grade. This is especially the case in primary school. This inflates reading grades, especially in primary. Reading should be assessed by question types, with the ‘quality’ of the answer indicating a final grade (like with KS4 assessment). This raises the issue of consistency across teachers, but increases the validity.
- 17. Assessment – what types? (Slide 2 of 2) The writing tasks need to cover all the text types that the students will encounter later. The writing task text type needs to address something that the students would have encountered earlier in the module. Too often students encounter a text type in the assessment of which they have not had sufficient exposure to, and are graded on their ability to replicate it. The reading task needs to consist of AF2 and AF3 (identify tasks and basic inference), and more sophisticated AF5 and AF6 tasks requiring more sophisticated answers. AF4 responses should be more detailed, too.
- 18. How Teachers would Plan using this SoW? (Slide 1 of 2) Content for the scheme of work would be planned ahead of time from the DARTs library (which can be added to by anyone). About 1.5 times more content is needed to allow legitimate choice. Assessment times will be planned into the scheme of work, along with other school events. A week/fortnight ahead, teachers will plan (via their judgement) a series of lessons for the rhythm of learning of that class. Marking of all books needs to take place on a weekly/fortnightly basis to legitimise this. This initial planning is contained on a ‘Planning for Teachers’ scheme of work that allows responsive changes within routines. This allows cohesiveness amongst the class-by-class planning. A week before, this initial planning is placed into the ‘Planning for Students’ PowerPoint that contains the learning objectives, instructions, and resources for each student. This PowerPoint also contains key documents such as personalised and exam criteria, copies of all the key rolling sheets, and links to our plenary and article examples. On each morning, the day’s lessons are reviewed, and any tweaks to what the students need or will do is made in response to the previous lesson.
- 19. Issues with this type of planning (Slide 2 of 2) It is not suitable for NQTs or teachers without experience planning schemes of work or curriculum. It requires judgement of the achievement of the students to work successfully. It requires the ‘framework of language’ sheet and the ‘personalised rubric booklets’ to be integrated into the practice of the teacher: they may have different ideas of how to prioritise language acquisition and manipulation. However, critiques of the framework can still place every possible language technique within the categories of this framework, and the criteria is vague enough to include them. In addition, the framework is based upon students developing their own framework, not teachers developing their favourite ways to teach it. It can be time-consuming for teachers to use this when they are used to paper planning where they plan a week ahead, and for teachers who are used to just following created schemes of work, and believe in the illusion that linear lessons lead to progress. Teachers need to embrace the concept of liminality, and thrive on challenging their students. To do this, they need to be able to: - teach to challenge students, not just to manage their behaviour. - teach all students as if they capable of achieving at the highest levels given the right time and support. - teach with built-in consolidation where you return in a systematic and responsive way to the requirements of that particular class.
- 20. Planning the Scheme of Work What is the final assessment? What content do you require to enrich the students and increase knowledge? What is the rhythm of learning? Includes Homework Type: Includes Connections to other subjects and Global Classroom What is the type of Lesson? DARTs; Routine; Project; Full English What is the type of homework: Improve; Maintain; Create; Discuss. Routine includes: Library; Grammar; Project Students to refer to Personalised Rubric Booklets in order to manage targets What does the lesson consist of? Type of Starter: Maintenance; Question; Inference; Grammar; Quizlet Starters aim to connect to the content of the lesson where appropriate Plenaries are mostly a modified KWL chart, or a questions recorded for later consolidation.
- 21. Other Considerations – Different types of scheme of work. (Slide 1 of 2) Non-fiction schemes of work (should be linked to key text types on KS4 exams). Poetry schemes of work (Poems should be linked with a focus for each, rather than teaching ‘everything’ in ‘all). Creative writing schemes of work – should be linked to a real audience (e.g. NA Global Classroom Creative Writing Competition). Studying a novel schemes of work – to study a novel in depth requires longer units.
- 22. Other Considerations (Slide 2 of 2) Students should take surveys on a termly basis, and at the start of the year in order to establish learning attitudes. Speaking and listening should be embedded in the question starters, and in the Full English lessons. Also, student observations and sharing criteria should act to empower students so they know what good learning is (not just what is ‘engaging’). Students should be able to study an author and their work in depth over a period of time while still retaining a skills-based focus.
- 23. How does this SoW differentiate? (Slide 1 of 1) The main differentiation comes from the personalised rubric booklets: students can access the same content and respond to it at different levels academically. Students ultimately choose, with guidance, their own targets that develop in DARTs-based lessons. Differentiation is about inclusion in the lesson, which means inspiring all students to be receptive. This is aided by the rhythm of learning in which the learning judges the composition of Full English and DARTs-based lessons.