Wednesday, 27 April 2016

Differentiation for Challenge - Eddie Fu

How do you accelerate the progress of learning / thinking across a lesson and a scheme of work?


Eddie Fu - SLE (Specialist Leader of Education) and Head of Faculty at Holmes Chapel School


Strategies to work smarter.

 Differentiation for Challenge

 Engagement only gets you so far, we have to challenge students.

 Objectives:
  • Close the progress gap between LA and peers
  • Engage and support the disengaged and underachieving
  • Raise attainment of the middle attainers
  • Challenge all levels of ability in preparation for the next level
Techniques outlined have been great for value added measures at Holmes Chapel.

Moved away from classic linear lessons.
Classic Differentiation Strategies:

  • Questioning
  • Task
  • Resources
  • Roles within groups
  • Skills ladder
  • VAK
  • Quantity speed
  • Time
  • Seating

Moved away from 'All / Most / Some' to 'Good' / 'Even better' / 'Excellent' or 'Essential' / 'Expert' / 'Advanced'

 Q: How do you stop students not covering the 'Good' and 'Even Better' if they go for the 'Excellent' task? 

 A: They regulate themselves. "EBI task was too hard so I moved down to the good one."

 Slides are text heavy but students become used to looking at the category that they find best suits them.

 Whole menu lessons - everything on one slide.

 Change of mind set more than physical changes - resources can be easily adapted when you get your head around it.

 Make student choice explicit

 Why change?

  • Caters better for learning preferences
  • Closing the gap
  • Targeted learning for sub-groups
  • Stretch and challenge
eddie.fu@hccs.info

 Our low prior attainers are not making the progress they should.
Ideas:

 Key question is a typical question from the exam - tasks are then based on levels of the mark scheme.
A resource I adapted in light of the techniques outlined: 

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Sunday, 17 April 2016

Angela Lee Duckworth – Ex-teacher and psychologist on 'Grit'



After several years in teaching I’ve come to the conclusion that intelligence is not the only difference between the best and worst students. Researching this lead me to find the work of Angela Lee Duckworth, an ex-teacher and psychologist.




 Below are her findings:

Some of the strongest performers do not have stratospheric IQ scores.

Some of the smartest kids aren’t doing so well.

Concepts [in English] are hard, but not impossible. I’m firmly convinced every one of you can learn these things if you work hard and long enough.

Doing well in school, and life, depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and easily.

Studied which people were successful and why in schools, the military and private companies. In all contexts there was one constant: grit.

It wasn’t social intelligence, it wasn’t good looks, physical health or IQ, it was grit.

Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in and day-out. Not just for the week, not just for the month but for years. It is working hard to make the future you want a reality.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint.

Studied Grit in Chicago public schools, she asked thousands of high school students to take grit questionnaires, waited a year and then saw who graduated. It turns out ‘grittier’ kids were significantly more likely to graduate, even when matched on things like family income, standardised test scores and how safe they felt at school.

So how do we build grit? How do we instil a solid work ethic? How do we keep them motivated for the long run?

Data shows natural talent doesn’t make you ‘gritty’. In fact, data shows ‘grit’ is usually unrelated or inversely related to measures of talent.

The best way to build ‘grit’ in students is something called ‘growth mindset’. This is an idea developed at Stanford University by Dr Carol Dweck.

This the belief that the ability to learn is not fixed; it can change with your effort.

Dr Dweck has shown that when kids learn that the brain grows in response to challenge, they are much more likely to persevere when they fail because they don’t believe that failure is a permanent condition.



Some things other things I'll look into: 





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