Stretch and Challenge
- 1. Stretch and Challenge Developing Deeper Understanding
- 2. What do we mean by ‘stretch and challenge’? • Discuss ideas with the people on your table. – Compose a definition of ‘stretch and challenge’. and/or – Use the Post-it notes to record words that show ‘stretch and challenge’ means to you.
- 3. • How has our idea of ‘stretch and challenge’ changed over time? • How has our idea of learning changed over time? • What might learning and ‘stretch and challenge’ look like in the future?
- 4. What makes learning ‘stretching and challenging’? • A Year 9 class were working on the techniques of persuasive writing. The lesson objectives were explained and a starter activity involved students completing a card sort. • In the next phase of the lesson students worked on whiteboards and identified persuasive devices. The teacher them took them quickly through the criteria for a level 5, 6 and 7 piece of writing. Students were given extracts from pieces of writing and were asked to choose which was best and why. They then had to write one paragraph on the topic of capital punishment, using persuasive devices. • In the final part of the lesson, students were asked to peer-mark two other students’ work, then look at and review their own work and check comments. • One further activity was introduced before students had to say what they had learnt in the lesson. • The lesson closed with students revising persuasive techniques on the board.
- 5. • The person working the hardest in the lesson was the teacher. • It contained seven or eight activities which were conducted at speed. • The sheer number of tasks did not allow student to consolidate their understanding, or even complete the tasks. • Attempting to understand and apply three sets of level criteria in 5 minutes is unrealistic.
- 6. Factors that commonly limit learning: • • • • Excessive pace Overloading of activities Inflexible planning Limited time for independent work • Concentrating too much, or too early on a narrow range of test or communication skills Over-reliance have Pupilsteacherson be Teachers sometimes More need to can Train activities to structuresperiods to extendedtosuchpace of feel that the as counterproductive. respond they should PEE: write fromthan read, is thisor discuss not deviate always learning, rather their appropriate? rush issues in class. plans. However, Students will the pace of the teachers or not activities,in the lesson activities need to have Need about theto Think to provide the confidence complete them. students with validity form their last depart of asking Activities should plans opportunities to orare, students tothey need if early as peer as longindications provide a personal self/assess pieces of for example, that to to ensure that response.are very work thatis taking students learning know less short, or incomplete. than the place. teacher had There is an overanticipated. emphasis on the to Pupils need time skills of analysis at the complete something expense of can before they personal response. valuably discuss and evaluate it.
- 7. Activities for ‘stretch and challenge’ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Plan questioning – questions that you ask and time for students to ask questions Use Bloom’s verbs in your lesson objectives Use images to generate discussion or challenge assumptions – including Wordle Use on-line tolls to promote discussion – such as Blogs, Edmodo or Lino-it Plan sequences of lesson that allow students to develop and refine their skills – no need to rush through meeting exam criteria When choosing grade criteria, use the optimum grade for that class – so use A* criteria to challenge students, some will make it others will try Modelling – this needs to be talked through and explored explicitly Mentor texts – examples that students can refer to – these could be differentiated When teaching up to A*, avoid the term PEE – use different terminology and break down the expectation of what the analysis will be Students should be taught to create arguments/opinions – rather than structuring their responses thematically Encourage students to be challenging of the text, of you, of themselves Peer assessment – what are they doing, how is it working – sharing ideas, collaborating Encouraging them to be reactive to the questions/arguments, form their own opinions and argument Shorten quotations – take them from across the text, make links, embed them into argument Give students a ‘choice’ of activity, a ‘choice’ of how to present their ideas – ‘choice’ is really important
- 8. Setting up constructive talk Wertsch (1991) In Voices of the Mind, James Wertsch outlines an approach to mental functioning that stresses its inherent cultural, historical, and institutional context. A critical aspect of this approach is the cultural tools or "mediational means" that shape both social and individual processes. In considering how these mediational means--in particular, language-emerge in social history and the role they play in organizing the settings in which human beings are socialised
- 9. Would Ludwig and Lev have been friends?
- 11. Set up situations for students to form their own opinions, discuss and debate ideas • Socratic Dialogue – Thunks – Text interrogation Listeners Discussion
- 13. AText Interrogation - Poetry wordle is a pictorial representation of words. The larger the word, the more times it appeared in the original text. Thunks the same number of If words are the same size, it means they appeared times. IsCan a justified? • war ever fly cause an aeroplane to crash? 1. Discuss the content of the wordle you have been given? 2. Which words from the poem do you feel are more significant and why? 3. What message do you think this poem is sending to the reader? What do we mean by justification? 4. Can you tell which literary period this poem is from – which conflict it What exactly are we defining as „war‟? may be in relation to? Do we have a duty to employed? 5. What poetic techniques do you think this poet protect our country? How do we decide what we fight for? Feedback Who decides if we should go to war?of this Socratic Dialogue: Does the writer poem believe that war is justified?
- 14. Do any of your answers/opinions change if I tell you that this poem: Is called Charge of the Light Brigade? Was written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the poet Laureate from 1850 until 1892? Was written to honour the dead cavalry men from a battle on the 25th October 1854, in the Crimean War? And that… Of the 637 men, 247 were killed (38%) and that the suicidal charge was the fault of miscommunication among the officers in the British Army?
- 15. Embedding ‘stretch and challenge’ • Planning for ‘stretch and challenge’ should begin in KS3. • Consider making links with primary colleagues: – Visiting children in their primary setting – Moderating work – particularly reading and writing – Joined up trips/enrichment activities
- 16. Ways of ‘stretching and challenging’ learning – could you find places for these in your curriculum? • Inquisitive Wondering & questioning Exploring & investigating Challenging assumptions • Resilient Co-operating appropriately Giving & receiving feedback Sharing the product • Persistent Sticking with difficulty Daring to be different Tolerating uncertainty • Disciplined Crafting & improving Reflecting critically Developing techniques • Imaginative Using intuition Making connections Playing with possibilities
- 17. • Encouraging a love of reading – develop policies across the school to promote reading for enjoyment. • Don’t begin test preparation too early – ensure the curriculum allows time for embedding learning and creative opportunities for students. • Improve transition between KS2 and 3. • Encourage teachers to be flexible when responding to pupil progress as the lesson develops.
- 18. Ofsted – ‘Excellence in English’ • Schools in this survey ensured that pupils’ experience in English extended beyond the classroom. They did this first through the provision of rich extra-curricular experiences outside school, such as reading groups, theatre trips and working with creative practitioners. They also ensured that classroom activities, wherever possible, involved real tasks, purposes, audiences and issues related to the local or wider community. In this way, the curriculum matched pupils’ needs and interests.
- 19. Ofsted – Excellence in English • Good-quality oral work engages pupils, including boys and pupils who might otherwise take little interest, and yields benefits in all areas of English. Talk happens in all English lessons but it is not always well-structured or taught explicitly. The survey schools planned carefully for pupils’ speaking and listening, making good use of drama and group activities. This had a significant impact on pupils’ enjoyment of English and more effective provision for speaking and listening improved pupils’ work in reading and writing. Group work was often particularly well planned and effective
- 20. Useful links • www.tallisminibites.tumblr.com • http://www.slideshare.net/mikegershon/discussion-toolkit • http://www.slideshare.net/jorawlings/challenge-toolkit127954159?from_search=4 • Ofsted – Moving English Forward: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/moving-english-forward • Ofsted – Excellence in English: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/excellence-english
- 21. Excessive pace • Train teachers to respond to the pace of learning, rather than the pace of the activities in the lesson • Activities should last as long as they need to to ensure that learning is taking place.
- 22. Overloading of Activities • More activities can be counterproductive. • Students will rush activities, or not complete them.
- 23. Inflexible planning • Teachers sometimes feel that they should not deviate from their plans. However, teachers need to have the confidence to depart form their plans if early indications are, for example, that students know less than the teacher had anticipated.
- 24. Limited time for independent work • Pupils need to have extended periods to read, write or discuss issues in class. Or to complete the work that has been set, such as making something. • Think about the validity of asking students to peer or self/assess pieces of work that are very short, or incomplete. • Pupils need time to complete something before they can valuably discuss and evaluate it.
- 25. Concentrating too much, or too early on a narrow range of test or communication skills • Over-reliance on structures such as PEE: is this always appropriate? • Need to provide students with opportunities to provide a personal response. • There is an over-emphasis on the skills of analysis at the expense of personal response.
- 26. Listening focuses for thunks • Choose someone to observe. What did they do well? How could they improve their speaking and listening? • Who is the leader of the discussion? • Who keep the discussion going and how did they do it? • Who made the most interesting point? Why did it appeal to you? • Did anyone change your mind? How did they do it?
- 27. Listening focuses for poetry • Who referred to the text to support their ideas? • Did anyone make reference to poetic language/terms – how did this help their argument? • Who made connections between the writer and the reader? How did this support what they were saying?
- 28. The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. (Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889-1951) Ludwig’s father was an industrial tycoon, and by the late 1880s was one of the richest men in Europe, with an effective monopoly on Austria's steel cartel. Wittgenstein and Hitler were born just six days apart, they ended up two grades apart at the Realschule a small state school with 300 pupils. In January 1917, he was sent as a member of a howitzer regiment to the Russian front, where he won several more medals for bravery including the Silver Medal for Valour, First Class He gave away his entire inheritance. He left academia several times teaching in schools in remote Austrian villages, where he encountered controversy for hitting children when they made mistakes in mathematics.
- 29. “Thought undergoes many changes as it turns into speech, it does not merely find expression; it finds reality and form” (Lev Vygotsky 1896 – 1934) Lev Vygotsky was born in Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus) into a nonreligious middle class Jewish family. His father was a banker. He was raised in the city of Gomel, where he obtained both public and private education. In 1913 Vygotsky was admitted to the Moscow State University where he graduated with a degree in law in 1917. Upon graduation Vygotsky returned to Gomel, There is virtually no information about his life during the years of the German occupation He studied a range of topics white attending university, including sociology, linguistics, psychology and philosophy.
Editor's Notes
- #3: Rank these at the end
- #5: What would they say about this lesson?
- #9: Read this through with them
- #10: Discuss the two men – using handout
- #11: On Post-its – what can you remember about each man?Make the point about their own talk being more challenging, but also more memorable
- #14: Discuss the questions in pairs - feedback