Monday 23 November 2015

Visible Learning - Hattie’s 8 Mind Frames



Tests for seven-year-olds to be “robust and rigorous” says Nicky Morgan

Testing times for primary school teachers as more assessment changes could be on the horizon
Robust and rigorous. What exactly does that mean? Sturdy, yes, and well thought through, sure. But what does it mean in terms of primary school testing? Nicky Morgan announced at the recent Policy Exchange that the government will be looking at the assessment of pupils at age seven “to make sure it is as robust and rigorous as it needs to be”. Morgan said: “I want to make sure that primary schools and their headteachers are being held to account in the right way. In a way that is fair, and rewards those who take on a challenge”.
In response, Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said: “We support the government’s commitments to help schools enable more children to achieve expected standards of English and maths at primary school. But continual testing is not the answer, and nor is changing the goalposts every time a minister speaks. Primary schools are already under immense pressure from having to introduce an untried baseline assessment scheme this year alongside a new primary curriculum, and new tests at the end of Key Stage 2. Yet more changes to testing will not improve children’s English or maths.”

Using Films in Primary School


Using Films in Primary School

Ever put a film on in class to catch up on marking or pass the time on the last day of term? Cinema should be a creative and exciting tool that will have you directing the action in your classroom, says Lloyd Burgess...

http://www.teachprimary.com/learning_resources/view/using-films-in-primary-school

ClassDojo


ClassDojo is a way of rewarding behaviours such as participation, teamwork, perseverance, or something else?. It could be used as part of our school behaviour system or we could use it to encourage Growth Mindset (Agents) within Windhill21. If you have not signed up for free yet, why not give it a go and experiment in your own classroom?

 https://www.classdojo.com/

Wednesday 18 November 2015

P4C

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  1. Developments in cognitive ability. ‘The results suggest that even one hour’s use of an enquiry-based teaching methodology each week can have a significant impact on children’s reasoning ability. There was anecdotal evidence from both teachers and pupils that the use of enquiry-based methods extended well beyond the ‘Philosophy hour’. Also, those pupils who had been involved in the Philosophy programme improved their self-esteem (as learners) scores over this period. There was no significant difference between the pre- and post-test results of the control pupils. These results suggest that enquiry-based approaches are conducive to promoting self-esteem in learning situations.’
  2. Developments in critical reasoning skills and dialogue in the classroom. ‘The rate of pupils supporting their views with reasons doubled in the experimental group over a six-month period. Teachers doubled their use of an open-ended follow-up question in response to pupil comments. The percentage of time that pupils were speaking (compared to the percentage of time that the teacher was speaking) increased from 41% to 66%. The length of pupil utterances in the experimental classes increased on average by 58%. There were no significant changes in the discussions taking place in the control classes.’
  3. Emotional and social developments. 'The study provided evidence of improvements in pupil’s communication skills, confidence and concentration. It also suggested that the process of community of enquiry helped pupils learn to self-manage their feelings/impulsivity more appropriately.'

IRIS