Year 9 Poetry - Final Week of Term AKA..."Assessment Week"

Right... Assessment Week... Way to finish the year!

In fact, it worked out fine.
GCSE link unit, poetry exploration climaxing in group exploration of an unseen poem and presentation to class: a reading of it and  'teach' the poem. Higher ability groups told to link to other poems (studied together) and level 7 students told to compare / contrast with at least 1 other poem.

I clearly went for ability groups there. Each group had to explore and analyse a different poem.

I used some of the poems from the old NEAB specs (though most feature in the AQA Anthology it seems) as the unit also focuses on language use.

I also went for the whole SOLO thing this time.

PREVIOUSLY: Discussed meaning of culture, identity etc...
We looked at immigrants from the 40's onwards (the vast majority of students would have immigrant parents and I am one too) watching old news reel, listened to extract from The Arrival of Bright Eye (LOVE IT),  studied Island Man (in detail as they had to write a last essay for Progress Check 6...) and  Search for My Tongue.

The latter poem was used to create this model to show SOLO levels of understanding and act as a model.

SOLO Model (adapted from existing resource)

Search for my tongue solo model from hgaldinoshea

Poems included, in order of "ability" (vaguely):
Mum, Dad and Me 
Unrelated Incidents extract... Not the 6 O'Clock News
Night of The Scorpion
Not my Business
Presents from My Aunts in Pakistan
Limbo
Blessing
An Old Woman

Group exploration[1] from hgaldinoshea

Groups were directed to sit as per the seating plan. Groups were given a folder each with a range of resources including some of the slides from the ppt, including the SOLO progression/differentiated LOs, a loose grid for those who are stuck with what to do with a poem, some more specific questions on their respective poems (mostly used in lesson 2 for most groups), a copy of the 5 Learning Stages model (see above) and clear copies of the poems of course. I added a couple of post-its for the starter and plenary=exit ticket showing progression).

At the end of the first session, each group set themselves homework, such as memorizing some of the lines doing further reading on the poem or the poet, or annotations/answering specific questions.

Before the 2nd session, I added more specific questions on themes in each folder. Students could also have access to GCSE notes for part of the lesson but because it was limited, they had to choose WHEN it was most needed to support and stretch their understanding.

Buzzing for 2 lessons...

Extra support was given to the first group: I had prepared picture cards to help them visualise the images in the poem Mum, Dad and Me and to split them in 2 to see the contrast between Jamaica and London. I DID HAVE TO EXPLAIN THE WORD CONTRAST but it was great as it was THE word they needed at that point (they were using 'opposites'). They then used some questions I provided at that point to dig deeper and finally a writing frame to analyse the poem more closely, particularly some language features.
The group with the Scottish poem were given a recording of it and of Leonard talking about his poem.

All groups were asked after a while to decide which pictures from the pack cover was/were relevant to their poem as a quick understanding check.

Great presentations in the last 2 lessons, filmed, with my 2 level 6/7 groups delivering a magnificent lesson on their assigned poems, the most able group (studying An Old Woman) drawing interesting and detailed comparisons and contrasts with Blessing (I did provide a frame to help them with that).

Happy teacher - Brilliant progress for all.

Talking to the staff - 10 minutes of hell

Well, it had to happen at some point. My colleague and I were asked to talk about something we worked on this year in front of the whole staff in a 10 min slot on Wednesday morning.

We decided to talk about hexagons having used them in several lessons and in different ways, and having read many great blogs from fantastic tweachers. We also both experimented with SOLO and some of the lessons were delivered in that context... but neither of us feels expert enough on SOLO and a 10 minute-slot calls for 1 main idea.

So we pulled together several pictures we took in lessons and decided to simply talk through some of the things we'd done. I added a few pictures borrowed/stolen from other teachers' blogs to suggest that hexagons can be used in other subjects beyond English and Media. They can be used to encourage rich discussion and to allow students to make links between different bits of content/knowledge. The focus was also to make students work and test ideas more independently of the teacher and to rehearse ideas / try out vocabulary before an extended written response.

We have both felt that classes responded REALLY well and produced good written work. We also loved circulating and listening to some fab contributions, challenging and stretching as we went...

I hated talking to the whole staff though. It took me a whole hour afterwards to go back to a normal heartbeat. Can't stand the idea that anyone would think I am arrogant enough to dare to lecture them on anything...

Hexagon heavenfinal from hgaldinoshea

Useful resource for planning LOs / progression

Someone brought this into the office today. It's another way of planning for progression / planning LOs.

In comparison, this is the SOLO verbs (as found on Tait's Prezi @Totallywired77) and very similar to David's grid in his book (@LearningSpy):

Finally, this is another slide from tait's Prezi where SOLO and Bloom's taxonomies are compared (useful to keep)

Gothic - Exploring author's craft

Year 9 - Gothic Unit: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

It looks like a bit of a boring one this one but it works so well every time!
This is a follow up lesson to reading/discussing/hot-seating characters from the extract in Ch.4 when the Creature awakes.
The overall objective is to analyse the author's craft and explain the ways in which Shelley manipulates our feelings, makes us empathise with the characters.
This comes afterwards to consolidate and stretch students' understanding of narrative techniques and to encourage them to deploy similar tricks in their own writing. It can lead to a Reading piece as well though we did it more informally this year, having done a BIG piece recently. (PPT from previous year)

We'll also keep doing the next piece in which the events are re-told from the creature's perspective (minutely re-told following the structure of the original - great for inference as well!). It also allows me to distribute a copy of the chapter in which the creature takes over the narration to all who want to read it (usually quite a few!)

Here, the idea is simply to focus on matching narrative techniques to parts of text - in pairs, armed with scissors, glue and pens to annotate further once it's all stuck down. Straightforward lesson, straightforward plenary, much discussion generated by the different examples the students find, how they justify their choices, how effective the techniques are, and also how old-fashioned... Some always argue that today's authors wouldn't use some of the really long sentences that are found in the extract for instance.

Frankenstein reading assess narrative techniques from hgaldinoshea

Teacher Spectrum/ iPad

Home Learning - Investigating the Gothic genre

Thoughts and Crosses Home Learning

First I came across this from http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/

I was looking for something in order to set homework that would allow a certain degree of choice. I also wanted to see a range of writing and research. Looked interesting...



Then I came across this:

So I came up with this thing below.

BUT: done too quickly, needs a re-think of some of the tasks for next year. It also needs quality control all the way through and a lovely sharing / celebration session at the end. I wanted to do something much better such as a gallery where students would present their work. We settled for merits, a bit of feedback of what was learnt, particularly about conventions and words such as 'macabre'.
Some students read extracts from tasks plus a wonderful, shiver-inducing poem.

I'm not sure the lower ability students really stretched themselves on all tasks but it was partly my fault as there was so much going on with A'Level revision that I wasn't on the ball enough to check quality. The higher end completely blew me away. They really enjoyed (or so they say) the freedom to choose some of the tasks.

I should have made better use of Fronter as well. Many decided to submit work through Fronter on the interim deadlines - Had I had more time, I would have written comments there and then to encourage them further. Actually, it works out really well as they don't have to print until it is improved. As it happened, it was oral feedback in class most often (brutal on a very few occasions in the 'Are you kidding me?' vein) but it worked anyway. The high ability students produced written work mostly - interestingly...
  Thoughts and Crosses Gothic Research Project-1

Getting to the end of the novel...Revising themes.

Straightforward but challenging as we're revising the novel before the exam.

MY AIMS:
-  Revise and stretch understanding of themes in LOTF
- Grapple with challenging vocabulary and points
- Sum up and teach the rest of the class about your sub-topic/theme
- (and working collaboratively, independently of me)

I used some online notes (was it Sparksnotes?) then pasted them and cut them up in domino-style cards.

One card per student on arrival to classroom (differentiated then as the sub-topics are written on the back of the cards. All cards are difficult but some more so than others).

Used the Effect of Fear set of cards to demonstrate. Two students quickly worked out who had to read first (=who had the opening sentence), shared the reading aloud, then aimed to explain what could be learnt from the cards/the main points.

I did have to ask a few questions to help them clarify for themselves what the cards were saying. Then others joined in to ask questions and clarify.

 Now rest of the activity: I HAD WRITTEN THE TOPIC AT THE BACK OF THE RELEVANT CARDS SO STUDENTS STARTED BY FINDING THE OTHERS IN THEIR 'GROUP'

I then witnessed some very different strategies being used by different groups to find the right sequence but they were absolutely determined to get it right. As predicted, many spent time reading and trying to explain as they went what the main points were.

 Chuffed with the quality of the discussion. Students did ask me for key vocabulary that none of them knew (but they did seek to clarify amongst themselves first)

 The second part was more challenging - students attempting to sum up and clarify the main messages in their group to share with the class. Had to speed up the last 2 groups to get them to stick to most important points.

They did struggle with some of the language - no doubt about it - but that was part of the challenge in the first place.
VERDICT: They liked the challenge
They liked the sophisticated language
They liked having to clarify amongst themselves what the main points were
They did not like having to explain it to the rest of the class - partly because it was hard to be clear and we were rushed for time. After their focused group discussion, they felt disappointed at their own lack of clarity at that point. I do believe they were a bit hard on themselves... They did a good job and i'm particularly pleased at the language they have picked up.

Cards Match Up I have also put together a quick wordcloud to have on desks as a mat (and one to take home for exam practice responses and revision)

Asking the right questions... And airing the hexagons...

Year 11 - Chapter 11 and 12 - LOTF

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS: Always a favourite lesson - Always works a treat.

Students are asked to ask questions about the text, plot, characters and relationships, themes... Well, not in so many words initially.
Initially: Jot down any questions (groups of 2 or 3) - I did show them some examples of interesting questions after a couple of minutes.
Then: Rank them / group them
And: Choose most important/ relevant ones...
OR  which questions is most likely to be asked to test your knowledge and understanding...

We had a bit of reading to do.

Then easy questions addressed first. Time to discuss some of their big questions. Some initial feedback and class discussion, stretching ideas.
Back to their big questions and extended responses in note form on the sugar paper.
Final plenary:
One question /group is answered/presented to class.

Note taken of any question that might have been too hard to answer fully or that we feel has not been done justice --> to be tackled in next lesson.

Below is a mix of slides and photos (taken at an early stage of lesson 1 for the questions... as usual, forgot to take more pictures... Doh. The other photos are from lesson 2). It's all a bit mixed up for now...

NEXT LESSON: AIRING THE HEXAGONS

Starter was easy: looking at our question (there was only one) to be revisited and after a few min of Think, Pair, Share, some good class discussion.
Reminded us of what makes a good answer.

But first, we have abandoned the SOLO levels for now and refocused on GCSE grades, but at least they understand the progression better between one grade and the next.
Most of the revision books focus on C grade and A* grade answers so it made sense...

I also reworked David's grade ladder as spotted in one of his posts about Zooming in and Zooming Out (@LearningSpy) (I should tell him)

Anyway, this time, they had to write one or 2 'good' questions in pair on a post-it on the final chapter; should be a question they would be happy to answer in an exam as they would have plenty to say.
The twist was that instead of answering their own selected question, they swapped questions with another pair (they actually loved that).

Cue good look at the ladder (by now, the vocab is fairly familiar but at least the focus is firmly on the fact that ALL can progress further)
Hand out envelopes with hexagons to pairs, some with prompts, some blank. Back to question we started with to demonstrate how the hexagons could help build the answer. To be honest, that was quick as they felt they 'got' the idea straight away.
They then build their points and fleshed them out.

I remembered to take pictures as they were needed for plenary (no visualiser in department).
Plenary: Pop memory card in USB and into computer. Pairs came up to present their work and some of 'richest' connections they'd made.

We watched a few more more the next day after they had been given time to add to their initial work, improve, analyse further.

I'm happy with that.

chp 11 and 12

Simon's Character - Classic jigsaw

Always a winner - hard to fail this one.

My aims: To keep working on cutting down spoon feeding. They are getting better, certainly in terms of confidence and practice in articulating ideas in increasingly sophisticated ways.

Well, really doesn't need explaining.
Resources - see below.
A4: BOXES WITH PROMPTS/QUESTIONS
A3: EMPTY BOXES TO TAKE NOTES - 1 PER STUDENT
1. Expert groups focus on 1 box
2. Home groups to teach the rest and learn from them.

After the first 10 min in expert groups collating ideas and quotations, they could access extra notes (from a selection, including printed online notes and revision booklets) to allow them to become real experts.

I made notes available again for the last 10 min of the lesson with students in home groups to clarify anything needed.

Verdict: As successful as usual. They've learnt much and feel ready to write about the character of Simon having rehearsed much of what to write orally.

FOLLOW UP: REALLY GOOD WRITTEN WORK ON SIMON'S CHARACTER. (Really happy with them)
Simon

Working on making year 11 a bit more "independent" and interdependent

Lord of the Flies - Consolidating understanding of key chapter

Mission: To keep going trying to make them less spoon-fed/ dependent on me.

My aims:
- To get students to consolidate their understanding of the events and of characterisation in this chapter. - To have students able to discuss key linguistic features as well as analysing the structure of the chapter and its function within the novel so far.
- To have students able to discuss, prioritise, agree and divide tasks.
- To have them show their learning visually - producing a resource that can be used for revision.

So I found this picture online (WHERE FROM????? I cannot remember. Even asked Twitter but got no response.) summarising and analysing chapter 7 of Of Mice and Men.

It looks great and I wanted my students to be able to produce something just as good.

I had to make do with a last minute room change (a DT Textiles room). Anyway, I ended up printing a number of resources, including simple and more detailed summaries, revision notes from different sources and some notes on characters. All aimed to support and extend the discussion we'd had as we read the chapter in the previous lessons. I knew the simple summaries would come in handy for the least able and the few students who'd missed the previous lesson.

I quickly organised groups of 3 or 4 across these massive tables, handed out a set of notes to each group, some sugar paper and felt tips. I projected the image above and we briefly discussed why it was successful and a useful revision tool.... Quick list of Success Criteria then they were away.

I honestly couldn't believe how motivated they were to produce something as good. It was an afternoon lesson in a strange room and the level of engagement was astounding.

Groups swapped notes as and when. Not all had finished before the end but all had contributed, including those who had been away as they focused on tracing events whilst others discussed how best to sum up how themes were developed, what imagery was significant in the chapter and what the key quotations were.

It's a weird experience to feel redundant but I had ample time to circulate and support, as well as check students' learning.
I would repeat the lesson although it does involve doing a fair bit of photocopying and I couldn't help feeling like a bit of a fraud - it's hard to step back and not "teach".
The other positive was that we had great revision tool and groups were able to peer-assess and critique each others' work.

Pictures of some of the work at different stages: