ENFIELD PS TERM 2, 2019
How well are we challenging our students to learn?
How well are we challenging our students to learn?
There are some good readings and viewings on our page, "Explicit Instruction". Foremost amongst these is the video of Jann Farmer Hailey and the extract from John Hattie's book "Visible Learning for Teachers" Another good reading is "Looking for a Worthwhile Lesson" , chapter 4 in a book by Moss and Brookhart. It's found on our page "Are we Challenging and Supporting the Range of Learners in our School" This short article, "Stretch and Challenge in your classroom" provides ideas about the steps teachers could take to increase challenge. "Challenge": Below is a fabulous summary created by the Instructional Rounds team at Old Guildford PS. Click here to download |
The video by Jim Nottingham demonstrates the importance of challenge for learning. It also emphasises that good questioning and planned student-to student talk are essential components of the process. Nottingham uses the metaphor of "the learning pit" to illustrate learning. To view, click on the link in the black box above.
Are the tasks that students engage in rigorous?
What is a rigorous task?: Fantastic two-page summary prepared by the Granville East IR team. Click here to download
The Granville East PS Powerful Learning Framework is a great place to start when looking at the essential qualities of the task.
One way to ensure that the task is rigorous for all students is to engineer one that has both a low floor and a high ceiling. Documents that show us how to do this for the important learning area of Mathematics can be found on our page, "Catering for All Students in Maths" |
Does our questioning make student thinking visible?
From our round at Burwood PS in Term 4, 2019 and our page "Curiosity and Deep Thinking" come two readings: "Classroom Interactions" (an except from Creating Cultures of Thinking") and the "Classroom Observation Guide"
At an earlier round, on our page "English" our focus was on classroom talk. The Edwards-Groves summary gives a good overview of the talk moves essential for making student thinking visible and ensuring learning. Click on the image below to view the Prezi about Questioning created by the Burwood PS IR team 
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What might we expect to observe if our questioning made student thinking visible? Great handout developed by the Burwood PS IR team
This observation checklist is from Project Zero's "Cultures of Thinking". It is also a wonderful reflection tool for teachers.
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