On Monday we meet our students in the classroom for the first time since December. That's quite a long time ago. Now, it will be easy for us to focus on the negatives when they return. We could conduct an audit of who completed their remote learning and who did not, we could give daunting lectures about the lost learning that has taken place and how we need to catch up as quickly as possible. We could dwell on the doom and gloom and have a wonderfully gloomy time doing it.
This is not what we should do.
Instead, we need to resist this understandable desire and remember that the times we are living through are extraordinary. No one can be blamed for the disruption that has taken place, particularly the students, and although some of them may have been lazy, the fact that they were given the opporuntiy to be so, by a global pandemic, is not really their fault - just think how you would have responded to a lockdown when you were thirteen! I know I would have struggled, and that would have been in a world with only 5 TV channels and dial up internet. We also cannot discount the reality that many of our students have had a terrible time during this lockdown and have genuine reasons for struggling to engage.
We must show understanding and forgiveness.
On March 8th we are starting anew together, what has happened has happened and although it has been tough, we will recover and like a phoenix from the ashes, we will come back stronger.
Use the right language
To start anew we have we have to use the right language. At the moment there is a lot of concerning phrases being bandied about by politicians and 'tsars' with regards to education and, as was so neatly summed up by our inspirational headteacher Donna Neely-Hayes, a lot of this waffle needs to be ignored and filtered out - “our students are not damaged”.
Instead we should see that our students have been through an experience that will define their childhood and scorch an indelible mark on their identity, where they can rightly be proud of their resilience, discipline and independence. I would argue that these students are not damaged, they have been tempered and made stronger whether they realise this yet or not. Let's reinforce that message by making sure we use the right language on their return and not perpetuate a story of loss that can only serve to damage their well-being, rather lets tell a story of growth.
Below is a table of some of the not so useful language that has been floating around with an equivalent positive language replacement which you can use in your classrooms, note how it encourages growth - credit to @MrAWGordon
Move forward with great teaching
Finally some thoughts on teaching, this is a teaching and learning blog after all. My key message - let's not panic, we have done this before. When we returned in September after the first lockdown, we managed just fine. In fact I seem to remember all of us getting so much better at using technology for learning - it was inspirational. I also know that each department has already spent a lot of time planning for the return particularly with a focus on the curriculum, so we are ready.
However, as a guide, for those first few lessons on our return the following basics can be adhered to:
Retreive: Start of with a stimulus of what may have been covered over lockdown then assess with some low stakes retrieval and questioing to identify gaps in knowledge on small, key parts of the curriculum.
Re-teach: Once gaps are identified, using direct instruction re-teach topics with an emphasis on the gaps - providing models and scaffolding where necessary.
Regardless of this, for now you should have faith in your ability to be what you already are - amazing teachers. No doubt in the near future we will be doing lots more to improve and get even better at supporting our students, that's just what we do. However, that is for the future, on Monday let's just get back to it.
At Denbigh we do not do 'live' lessons in the way they are portrayed in the media. Rather we take a synchronous approach were we post resources on Google Classroom, including pre-records, set tasks and then watch the work come in to give feedback on. During this time we are available to answer questions submitted via email or through the Classroom comments section. This approach has the advantage of allowing students to get the work done at their own pace and even go asynchronous if needed.
However, the issue with this approach can be the lack of peer interaction. This is quite a concern as the EEF found that during remote learning periods, peer interactions helped to improve motivation and led to better outcomes. This probably makes a lot of sense after all for many subjects peer interaction, though debate and discussion, is often the lifeblood of a lesson that characterizes deep learning and understanding.
The loss of peer interaction is inherently de-motivating and can limit pupil progress.
The question is how can we bring back some of this peer interaction into our current model of remote learning? In this blog we will look at a few ways that teachers have been attempting to do this using Google Classroom. If you have any other ideas please get in touch and let me know!
1. Using the 'Announcement' feature to encourage discussion in History In this example Sana Tariq encouraged peer interaction by using an announcement to pose an open question assessing prior knowledge about the Crusades. Students responded rapidly through the lesson hour. During this time Sana responded to comments, checked misconceptions, issued praise and asked further developmental questions which encouraged students to conduct their own research on the topic.
In total 41 comments were made and students certainly got a good feel for other students being present in the classroom working toward the same learning goals.
2. Using the 'Question' feature to encourage debate in RE When setting assignments Google Classroom offers a 'question' feature. It is a wonderful way to encourage general discussion and debate in an online setting.
An example of how to set up a debate question on Google Classroom.
When you set a question it creates what is essentially a message board, where students can answer the question and also reply to other student's answers. It also places the teacher as a moderator who can equally engage with discussion, adding comments, responding to comment and adding further questions and so on, as well as have the ability to delete comments and mute students if needed (this feature is available throughout the Google Classroom - just click on the 3 dots next to any comment).
Last week the whole RE department used this approach in a year 7 debate about the nature of evil and suffering. This generated some passionate arguments and top quality work, largely due to the genuine peer interaction that was offered.
3. Sharing documents to enable peer marking in English Finally, in English they have been using peer marking as a way of encouraging student interaction. Using the sharing settings on any document, a student can give access rights to one of their peers allowing them to make comments and suggestions which can be reviewed by the class teacher.
An example of peer marking in year 11 English.
Considering the benefits of encouraging peer interaction I hope you give one of these strategies a go. You could possibly do it as a review activity for the learning students have engaged in so far, I know that's what I am going to.
Thanks to all the teachers who have contributed to this week's blog!
At Denbigh there are some amazing remote learning practices; Loom videos, Mote feedback, Rubrics in assignments and more. But each of these in isolation does not guarantee that our remote learning is delivering the best results. In this blog post we will look at 6 practices that are common in some of the best remote learning at Denbigh. I am sure it will help you recognise your own good habits and also enable you to reflect on how you can further develop your practice.
1 - The quantity of learning is achievable
Too often one of the barriers to learning is knowledge overload. In a remote learning episode we have to be clear and specific on what we expect our students to learn by the end of it. This also has to be achievable and pose the right level of challenge. Great practice would be to include a small number of key takeaways in our pre-records and keep our videos relatively short especially if what they are learning is new. In last weeks blog the example from Tom Davies demonstrates this well.
Look! Here is a relevant visual metaphor.
2 - The curriculum pace is kept slow
Many of us may be concerned about not covering the content in our curriculums or specifications, because of this we may feel the need to move through the curriculum as quickly as we would do when students are in the classroom. This could be a recipe for disaster. We have probably all noticed that student engagement is not at 100% and that many students are finding it more difficult to learn at home independently. As such, we need to give students more time to consolidate knowledge through regular review and rehearsal. We should build this into our remote learning curriculum. Furthermore, by slowing down the pace, students will feel less overwhelmed, feel secure in the knowledge they are acquiring and ultimately be more confident. Going slow also has the added bonus of giving students who have found it difficult to engage the chance and time to catch up.
"Slow and steady wins the race" said the tortoise to the hare.
Obviously, slowing down the pace of a curriculum is a topic for discussion in subject areas. You could consider how year groups may need to be treated differently. For example a year 9 group starting a GCSE may benefit from going slow now, building a secure knowledge base, and then speeding up later when they come back into school. After all there is no point rushing through a curriculum now (during a lockdown) then in year 11 finding you have to teach it all again because they have forgotten it. In KS3 some subjects may even consider reducing the content in their curriculums to ensure what they do learn - they learn well.
For example Maishah Khan has reduced her Year 9 Psychology curriculum considerably to only teach one key theory this term (only four pages of the GCSE textbook). The first three weeks of term students have engaged in small chunks of new knowledge where understanding was assessed using quizzes and short questions. Then, in the upcoming three weeks students are due to consolidate this knowledge into revision resources, exam style questions and a mini-assessment that finally culminates into an evaluation of the theory.
An overview of the remote learning curriculum in Year 9 Psychology.
3 - Only tasks that effectively support and check learning are set
Many of the tasks that we set in the classroom do not translate effectively to the remote learning digital environment. Let's consider a word search or crossword activity. In the classroom it's a reasonable little starter that can settle students and get them to retrieve some keywords with some good questioning. However, set as a remote learning task it can be a nightmare... lots of emails and comments "how do you fill in the word search? How can I highlight the words? I can't do the word search sir! Help!" All of a sudden you may have a large number of students stuck on a task that at the end of the day is pretty meaningless when it comes to assessing the learning. The task can actually become a barrier to learning.
Do this word search digitally and hand it in to me. Then tell me what you learnt.
We cannot recreate remote lessons as a facsimile of how we delivered them in the classroom, it does not work. The best remote learning ruthlessly cuts tasks that will create barriers to student learning and only sets tasks which will support learning and enable it to be assessed efficiently.
4 - Tasks are modelled effectively
Sometimes the tasks we want students to complete are complex and necessary. If this is the case, we must model them. If a student cannot understand the process of a task, they will not engage and they will feel demotivated. How can you avoid this in a remote learning context? Model tasks to students explicitly through video tutorials - and it MUST be in videos. Students respond far better to practical demonstrations of tasks rather than written instructions (NEWSFLASH - they often don't even read them!). We know that when we are in the classroom live modelling is one of the most effective methods that a teacher employs to support students to engage in a task; we can't just replace this with written instruction and expect the same results.
In MFL the team have been superb in sharing a video for every lesson explaining how to complete tasks along with written instructions. You can also look at this example from Eric Adjei's Year 11 History where he models an essay question in his own unique style that is the only task for completion that lesson.
5 - Regular feedback is given
Doing work and getting no feedback is almost the same as doing no work at all. A lack of feedback and acknowledgement of the work completed is intrinsically de-motivating. As teachers, we need to avoid this by offering feedback as soon as we possibly can. This need not be onerous. With self-marking quizzes, rubrics and now the amazing mote, we have several time-saving ways to give feedback. The video below is an example of how you can use google forms to provide automatic feedback that has been developed in RE. You can also check this post here about the use of rubrics.
Whole class feedback is also a great time saving way to keep students motivated. Take a look at this example from Taslima Hannan in English where she gives some group feedback on a poetry task her year 8's have completed.
6 - The human touch is not lost
The saddest part of the remote learning experience is that the relationship between teacher and students can often be lost. In this lockdown the formulaic, almost robotic like routine of plan lesson, post lesson, mark work and repeat, has removed the humanity from being a teacher. The jokes, the smiles, the equally enjoyable nagging and telling offs, the motivational speeches... all the things that make teaching and learning a fulfilling human experience have disappeared!
Well there are ways to keep the human touch going. Why not send a motivational video of yourself to your classes? Do some positive name dropping and bigging up (the students that aren't mentioned might get the hint). Have a watch of my little pep talk to my year 11s this week and see what you think.
We need to remember that these are extraordinary times and that for many of us it is a difficult time too. We need to show understanding and encouragement.
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Thanks to all the teachers who have contributed to this week's blog. There will be more examples of good practice coming next week. Leave a comment if you have found this useful or interesting - it'll make my day! 😊
In this week's blog take a look at this superb pre-recorded video lesson from Tom Davies in year 8 production studies. Once you've had a watch have a read of some of the key takeaways and considerations and see if you agree.
Thanks to Tom for being a top level legend for sharing! 💪
Key Takeaways:
In this example there are clear expectations of the desired learning outcomes including the process of how the students can meet them.
Students are encouraged to review previous learning before engaging in new learning.
Task modelling - the task is clearly modelled and scaffolded giving students the best chance of completing the final task well.
The use of 'PAUSE, REPEAT, REVISE' - what a great practice that we could all add to our pre-recorded lessons!
Feel free to copy and paste this image into your pre-recorded lessons.
Further considerations for all based upon this example:
Avoid overload - particularly the setting of extraneous tasks. The requirement for note taking in this example is an extraneous task as it does not add to the learning, it just adds a process. The only task that really matters is the final worksheet where valid assessment can take place - as such, in this remote learning environment it may be better to remove the note taking element. We should all consider what tasks we may be asking students to complete that are actually not really contributing to learning and consider removing them.
Streamline the quantity of new knowledge delivered. In this example both celebrity endorsements and shocking images are discussed. It may be wise to consider focusing only on one area to avoid overload and maximise the chances of longer term memory and recall.
Remote learning is the new norm. For staff at Denbigh and across the country, classrooms have gone online. The challenge is now how we can engage, enthuse and support all students to continue learning despite this virus' best efforts to disrupt us. We have to believe that this is possible.
The challenge of delivering effective remote learning Often teachers may feel that with remote learning we have to think about teaching and learning differently. Well that is not the case, the process of learning works in exactly the same way online as it does in the classroom - students need to have some form of instruction (linked to prior learning); create some evidence of learning; and then receive some feedback - this cycle is as effective online as it is in the classroom. However, we have to acknowledge that students are in a new learning environment - their homes - which can create significant barriers to their engagement.
High impact teaching is the same inside the classroom as it is online. Credit @ImpactWales
Avoid overload, engage through feedback and monitor engagement
To overcome these barriers one of the first considerations is to make sure that the work we set is achievable by avoiding overloading students with either too much new learning or too many tasks. If there is sure way to discourage students, it is to swamp them, which will lead to cognitive overload and ultimately very little learning. To do this, we as teachers and subject leaders need to consider how we can break down our curriculums into smaller bitesize chunks of key learning and provide resources that students can review and repeat in good time. In addition to considering what work we set, we also need to consider our expectations on completion - students' lives at home are varied and unknown to teachers, this means when setting deadlines we have to have a degree of flexibility in our expectations. There is nothing worse than an email inbox full of demands for incomplete work to make anyone feel stressed overwhelmed.
Another consideration is feedback. A key reason why students disengage is because they may feel that their own teachers are not engaging with them in their learning. A regular dialogue needs to exist. This could be as simple as ensuring work is acknowledged and marked where relevant, and that a teacher is also available to support. Regular feedback makes doing the work worth it and will encourage students to engage further.
Finally we need to monitor engagement. At Denbigh we are introducing a whole school approach involving the taking of online registers as well as individual subject teachers monitoring engagement using a centralized system. This in turn can support a coordinated approach to promoting engagement by identifying disengaged students and supporting them to get into the learning routines they need to be successful.
What should a typical remote learning experience look like? At Denbigh students can typically expect the following:
Teacher instruction: A pre-recorded video summarising the desired learning outcome followed by the delivery of content. This could include other resources such as a GCSEPod or web based reading etc. (5-20 minutes)
A task to elicit evidence of learning: This could be a Google assignment or quiz, or another online activity set through an approved VLE. During this time the teacher is 'live' on the Google Classroom to respond to questions. (10-30 minutes)
Feedback. Students should have work acknowledged and marked accordingly. Feedback can be given individually or as a class. At Denbigh we are also able to give verbal feedback through Google Classroom using mote.
To demonstrate this further have a look at my example of remote learning from year 9 Psychology where hopefully you may see some of these principles in action.
Conclusion
Although subjects may approach remote learning differently and not all remote learning will look exactly like this, we should all stick to the basic principles of teaching and learning. We must also see this current situation as a great opportunity as, if we get this right, when our students return they will be self sufficient, resilient, independent learners, who will prosper in the classroom. Let's get it right.
At any point in these winter months we may be told to self-isolate. A positive test in our household, a notification from the NHS Covid-19 app or a call from test and trace could result in the instruction to self-isolate. If this happens to us, and we are otherwise healthy, the expectation for teachers is to continue to work from home and also deliver live lessons.
What is a live lesson?
A live lesson is delivered online by a teacher who is self-isolating to students who are in school. For a lesson period the teacher should be available to deliver parts of the lesson through Google Meet or a pre-recorded video and be available to communicate with a cover supervisor and students through Google Classroom.
Setting up a live lesson
The day before you teach a live lesson you should be informed by the cover supervisors who will be taking your lesson (if this does not happen you should set cover as normal - see FAQ). Once you know who is going to cover your lesson it is your responsibility to invite them to a Google Meet.
To do this you need to create a calendar event. Go to your Google Calendar, click create, then set the time and date of the meeting, invite the relevant cover supervisor and then make sure you click 'Add Google Meet video conferencing'. Save this and then you meeting is arranged.
You should also ensure that you invite the cover supervisor into the relevant Google Classroom were you can set the instructions for cover as well as any work that you want your class to complete. Please note you should still send in a cover lesson template to provide a back up.
What should a live lesson look like?
A live lesson does not require the self-isolating teacher to be visible for the entire lesson. Below is a simple infographic on what a good live lesson can look like:
The first part of the lesson does require the self-isolating teacher to be visible. At this point the lesson objectives should be shared and direct instruction can take place. This could be reviewing previous learning followed by delivering new knowledge or modelling a skill. Please note that this can be done live or through a pre-recorded video.
Once direct instruction has taken place students can then engage in an activity. Ideally this would be set up as an assignment in Google Classroom, however it could be a task set that students can complete in exercise books or using another online resource. During the activity the cover supervisor will monitor the behavior for learning and the self-isolating teacher need not be visible.
If the task has been set on Google Classroom, the teacher can monitor the activity and if desired can provide live feedback and respond to student questions or enquiries from the cover supervisor.
Once the task is completed the teacher can then provide feedback. This feedback could be based on work completed in the Google Classroom or through a pre-prepared exemplar. Either way, the feedback should summarize the desired learning outcome.
Depending on the length of the task set you may want to set up a follow up activity following a similar method.
Summary
Evidently there will be a great deal of variation between live lessons delivered in different subject areas, the key thing is to make it simple and achievable for both you as a teacher, the cover supervisor and the students. Following this guidance will help you deliver a successful live lesson if ever you are required to self-isolate. Below are some FAQs that may also support in your delivery of live lessons. If there are further questions please do not hesitate to email me.
FAQs
Why do I need to be seen in a live lesson? Can't I just set an Oak academy lesson?
Evidence suggest that students engage with their class teacher far more effectively than with people they are unfamiliar with. A live lesson with you at the helm will support students make progress and as such would be the ideal way to deliver lessons whilst self-isolating.
Can I speak to students?
No. When you deliver a live lesson you will not be able to see or hear students. Behavior for learning will be in the hands of the cover supervisor. You can communicate with students through the Google Classroom and also instruct the cover supervisor to ask questions on your behalf through e-mail or the Google Classroom.
What if I have childcare issues whilst self isolating which prevent me from delivering a live session?
If you are unable to deliver a session live you can pre-record any direct instruction in advance using software such as Screencastify or Loom and share this with the cover supervisor. You should still be contactable by the cover supervisor through Google Classroom or e-mail.
What if I become ill when I am self-isolating?
If you become ill whilst self-isolating you should inform cover of your illness and set cover as normal. You are not expected to deliver a live lesson.
What if I am self-isolating but have not been informed by cover who is covering my lesson?
This may happen for a variety of reasons that are beyond the control of the cover supervisor. In this case set cover as normal. As an ideal you can still share recordings of direct instruction and set and monitor work through Google Classroom. You should still be available during that lesson hour in case any communication comes your way from a cover supervisor.
What about Chromebooks?
Ideally you would want to use Google Classroom to deliver a live lesson - In year 8, 9, 10 and soon to be 7, the majority of students have chromebooks. If you require additional chromebooks they should be booked in the normal way and the cover supervisor should be informed of this when you submit a cover template. In year 11 where students may not have chromebooks the work you set through the Google Classroom may have to reflect that limitation.
