“Didn’t we do that in Year 7?” Using reflection and our big thinking skills to get pupils to improve their thinking

1. “Didn’t we do that in Year 7?”Using reflection and our big thinking skills to get pupils to improve their thinking Phil Smith FS Consultant Bury LEA

2. Transferring information and the role of understanding Cayard forced America to the left, filling its sails with “dirty” air, then tacked into a right hand shift…That proved to be the wrong side. America, flying its carbon fibre/liquid crystal main and head sails, found more pressure on the left. Cayard did not initiate a tacking duel until Il Morgo got headed nearly a mile down the leg…Cayard did not initiate a jibing duel to improve his position heading downwind and instead opted for a more straight-line approach to the finish.” • Who forced America to the left? • What kind of air filled America’s sail? • Which boat had carbon fibre liquid crystal main and head sail?

3. Transferring information and the role of understanding • Does answering the question successfully mean you understand what the paragraph is saying? • “If we continue to transfer information without checking for understanding, without relating it to the existing mental models which allow or disallow the pupil to integrate the new information, without relating the new information to their world, then we build in failure from the outset.” A. Smith

4. Connecting learning and your brain • Connecting the learning to what the pupil already knows and understands is essential for raising achievement and motivation • “Teaching has never been and never will be about the transfer of information.” A. Smith

5. Pre-course warning! • This is a longer-term module that should be implemented

6. By the end of this session • See the vital role of getting pupils to reflect on their learning • Start to create a useful way of speaking about thinking and learning

7. Thinking..what do we mean? • “Thinking” has lots of meanings • Thinking relates to cognitive activity triggered by challenging tasks and problems • Thinking about how we think is called “metacognition”

8. Why is reflection so important? • Getting pupils to reflect on their learning helps them become more aware of their thinking and learning • Metacognition is particularly important when pupils are doing difficult tasks and reviewing their strategies and progress

9. Why is reflection so important? • Doing this is really hard without words! • It gives teachers an insight into skills, knowledge and understanding

10. Getting pupils to reflect..some practical strategies “Three things” “I’d like you to describe three things that you remember as significant about the last lesson. Then swap your three things in pairs. Try to get at least five significant things between you.” Variations on this might include • Three most important/three most useful/three things to teach someone else • Three important questions which someone should be able to answer • Agree what the keywords were-use them in a sentence to show understanding

11. Getting pupils to reflect..some practical strategies “One, Two, Four, Eight.” “Think of one significant piece of information from the work we did last time. Now take your one thing and swap it with someone else so that you have two pieces of significant information. Now swap your two again so that you are left with four. Finally go for eight or as near eight as you can manage!”

12. Getting pupils to reflect..some practical strategies “Interview mapping” “Interview at least three others and from each find out what three things they considered most important about the work we did last time. Then review your findings in pairs.”

13. The use or lack of “mysteries” at Key Stage 3 • Sorting relevant information from irrelevant

14. Geography Year 8 “Why is Dai Williams involved in the building of a new Japanese restaurant in Bridgend?”

15. Pupils’ reflections on learning in lessons • What do you think you learned during that lesson? MP. We learned about assumptions, like you shouldn’t just rush into deciding something without thinking carefully. MP2 Yeah, you thought you were right and then you had to think about it and you weren’t so sure especially when you listened to other groups Int. How did the teacher help you? FP1 The teacher kept saying, “Do you really know that? Is it a fact?” Usually we were wrong, well sort of MP2 You had to have evidence to back it up, like in a court..like a trial

16. Pupils’ reflections on learning in lessons FP1 At the end you could see how lots of fights start. People think they are right, but they don’t think, not really. It was funny when the teacher talked about fights he used to have with his brother, just like me and my sister Read the rest of Handout 13.1 and consider what benefits pupils get from the awareness they are expressing. Do pupils in your class have this level of awareness of strategies and learning?

17. Developing a vocabulary about thinking and learning • TASK The wardrobe example (An analogy for reflection at Key Stage 3) • See handout 13.2

18. Wardrobe challenge and Key Stage 3…what’s the link? • The need to set challenging problems/enquiries at Key Stage 3 • The need to allow pupils time to check and refine their thinking (possible issues related to writing vs. card sorts etc) • The need to use existing knowledge (Joined up whirly planning) • What are your thinking words/concepts?

19. How would this Art and Design department develop a language for learning? • In groups of three suggest 6 words that you think the pupils might find useful in reviewing their work at the end of the unit. • Remember you want them to talk about processes as much as final product. You may choose words from the unit

20. Possible answers might include

21. But what are the big concepts in your subject that help pupils reflect?

22. Ready for more? • As a department identify the words for your subject, which are appropriate for your pupils (see Handout 13.7 to help get you started) • Display some thinking words on A4 pieces of paper, complete with definitions and, after a suitable activity, allow pupils to choose words which match the mental processes they have been through • Plan opportunities to develop the use of these words in plenaries

23. Coffee Break

24. How can we use big concepts and skills to create more motivating and challenging lessons?

25. By the end of this session we will • Highlight some of the principle concepts and skills in your subject • Understand how these concepts and skills can be used to improve pupil motivation and understanding

26. Connecting the learning “We have got to do a lot fewer things in school. The greatest enemy of understanding is coverage. As long as you are determined to cover everything, you actually ensure that most kids are not going to understand. You’ve got to take enough time to get kids deeply involved in something so they can think about it in lots of different ways, and apply it-not just at school, but at home and on the street and so on.” Howard Gardner (1993)

27. Providing the BIG picture “I begin first by becoming aware of the overall length of the work, then of how it will divide itself into sections (perhaps movements), and then of the kind of texture or instruments that will perform it. I prefer not to look for the actual notes of the composition until this process has gone as far as possible. Finally the notes appear.” Michael Tippet 1963

28. Can pupils see the BIG picture? • Many lessons focus on the detailed content of a unit of work • It is less common for there to be an emphasis on the larger patterns that characterise the distinctiveness of learning in a subject • Without explicit attention to the skills and concepts of a subject, the transfer of learning from one context to another is less likely

29. Teachers are really “similarity spotters”

30. Big concepts and skills • “Long term planning is a way of making learning bigger than the sum of its parts. Its goal is surely the creation of truly independent learners. This is a popular but rarely realised mantra. Perhaps a better way of putting it, one that captures something of the professional effort required, is to say that the goal of long-term planning is the TRANSFORMATION of those pupils who are reluctant or afraid to take responsibility for their own learning.”

31. What are the big concepts and skills in your subject?

32. What are the big concepts and skills in your subject?

33. What are the big concepts and skills in your subject?

34. What are the big concepts and skills in your subject?

35. Important cognitive skills • 5 sense visual tool

36. Mexican migration and developing thinking skill strategies • Record the meaning of this account by drawing • You can use one or two word annotations but do not take notes • Draw symbols and stick people to represent the meaning of the story • This is NOT an art lesson so don’t worry about artistic ability

37. What does metacognition look like in a Year 9 Geography lesson? USA The border Mexico

38. Thinking processes during the drawing task: questions to reflect upon • Did you draw as you listened or did you wait for pauses? • Which of your symbols represent concrete phenomena and which represent abstract ones? • Did you get visual images in your head? Where did they come from? • What happened when you did not have to draw? • What parts were difficult to make sense of? • Did drawing the border and labelling the two countries provide a useful structure?

39. Pupils’ comments on the task • “Doing this made me understand more what listening is about. Listening is more than having your ears open…your brain has to work as well.” • “The pictures in your head. I get a lot of those and now I try and use them, like try to see things in pictures. You remember them better.”

40. Pupils’ comments on the task • “It made me realise why I don’t understand teachers sometimes. When you hear a load of hard words, you switch off because it’s too hard. But it’s not your fault, it’s more the teacher, so I do ask more questions when I don’t understand. • “Drawing the symbols was really good. We kept thinking “How do you draw that?” and made you think what it was about. We compared symbols and I could see how my partner had got different things out of it.”

41. Task 2 • Do any of these skills have relevance in my subject at Key Stage 3? • Do the skills developed and practised in the first task have relevance in my subject? • Is enough attention given to developing them? • How can they be developed further?

42. Pupils need to “know how” as well as “know that”, if they are to become more independent learners • Reflection is the key to developing greater awareness and precision in such skills

43. Task 3 Back to the USA/Mexican example • Using annotation of longer texts to improve the level of thinking • Return to your map/drawing of the Mexican migrants’ story • Underline or highlight anything that represents an EFFECT in RED • For the underlined effects, underline in YELLOW if it is a LONG-TERM effect and in GREEN if it is a SHORT-TERM effect

44. Classifying learning outcomes • Modular outcomes related to the specific content of a unit of work, which is taught and assessed within or at the end of the unit. Typically, facts and knowledge that can be tested in short answers

45. Classifying learning outcomes • Longitudinal outcomes related to a number of units of work, which therefore can be taught and assessed over a number of units. Typically recurring skills.

46. For example…. • Regular and progressive work with causal reasoning, with framing enquiry questions to do with change, evidential understanding, with using visual sources critically (PROCESS)

47. For example… • Regular and progressive work on words such as “political” or “power” or “parliament” again and again building up really sophisticated meanings. (KNOWLEDGE)

48. For example • Regular and progressive work on “frame of reference” in which teachers help pupil make sense of a new period in the light of references to Social/Political/Cultural structures and values from the earlier period. (KNOWLEDGE and PROCESS)

49. Classifying learning outcomes • Background outcomes that permeate the subject and represent its essential characteristics (skills of discussion etc)

50. Ready for more? • See “Practical teaching strategies for helping pupils review and recall” in order for them to transfer their learning