Audience for Writing

Improving writing, is high on my agenda at the moment and I've been looking at several tweaks.

The first of which is adding an 'audience' section to our planning. This fits in alongside the usual learning objective but importantly adds purpose. I've changed the way I work by also including an outcome in my planning. 

What is the final outcome of the block or sequence of lessons? My planning includes a skill objective linked to the new curriculum to ensure I'm covering the new stuff. Alongside this, is the work outcome that I expect the children to produce to evidence this. I then work backwards planning in the skills and knowledge the children need to achieve the work outcome. @alanpeat sentences are great for this as they can be linked to certain genres of writing.

Now, I have started adding an audience. Next week, we are looking at Avatar and writing non-chronological reports about Pandora courtesy of @literacyshed but the final output will be a podcast. This can then be shared via the class blog, school website and Twitter-audience. The following week, we have a school poetry competition so there is again a purpose. 

Last week, we made our own books based on the surreal book, Tuesday by David Wiesner. These books have been shared with Year 2. 

My class can write: they are creative and expressive with their language. However, they aren't always careful or absorbed in their work, hopefully, an audience will support this. I'm sure many teachers have an audience in mind when they plan or children work but making it explicit has certainly changed my mindset. #marginalgains

The Changing Face of Assessment

Assessment is changing, this much we know. How? Is a very good question. We know that it is unlikely to follow a number and letter format and we know that it will reflect the new curriculum. 

We have decided to embrace the new language of assessment and from September we have been using; Working Towards, Expected and Working Above to assess children in each year group. We have also borrowed the measure from EYFS of a Good Level of Development to reflect the proportion of children achieving expected or more in Reading, Writing and Maths.

Autumn Term

Autumn assessment was very much a learning curve. Reading was assessed using Benchmarking using the school reading scheme, guided reading notes and reading tests. Writing was assessed using our writing assessment documents and moderation. Maths was assessed using old SATs papers and other test materials. All of which were then triangulated with teacher assessment based on daily work.

This worked well and we had assessment that was in line with previous assessment which had a wide evidence base. However, teachers still didn't feel secure in their judgments.

Spring Term

As we are moving towards our spring assessment periods, it is time to move things forward. As a staff we are working with the national curriculum objectives on a 'best fit' basis similar to EYFS. The challenge now is to move from old assessment materials which is no longer fit for purpose.

By using curriculum objectives, assessment should get back to its main role, to inform teaching and learning. 

Moving from 'old' assessment to 'new' materials will take time and adjustment, spring may not reflect progress as well as it did in the past. Until further guidelines are produced, I still feel that going through this process over the year will enable a mindset change before we get the finer details. Watch this space.

Staff Wellbeing

Staff Wellbeing has been getting a lot of Twitter attention of late through #teacher5aday via the great work of @martynreah and collaborators. At a recent leadership meeting an afternoon INSET session was mooted with the theme of Wellbeing.

Today, we had our first planning meeting. 

It was great to have input from a group of six, four TAs, two teachers and the bursar. I was really pleased to have staff coverage from both key stages with a wide variety of interests. Later, I spoke to all the kitchen spans cleaning staff to check that they could be available to attend too. Wellbeing is about the whole school not just teachers.

First of all, I shared the wellbeing rhetoric of #connect #excerise #learn #volunteer #notice

We decided to start our session with some challenges of kindness. Using the idea of #wellbeingbags we are planning to organise a 'secret Santa' style wellbeing bags where different year group teams put together a wellbeing bag for another year group. We then added a mystery compliment  challenge where staff thank other staff anonymously to be put on a notice board around the school.

We planned that the session should include 3 half an hour 'taster' sessions that focus on #connect #exercise and #learn. This idea is that staff will choose three sessions to join for the afternoon with the aim of mixing up staff so that they are interacting with people they wouldn't normally do. 

The activities, so far, include: 

T-ball, gardening, relaxation, watercolours, cooking, badminton, book club, African drumming and maintenance projects around the school. The cooking element will provide staff with a cream tea which we will share outside together at the end of the session.

The sessions are designed to give people ideas and create a good team spirit. At the end of the session, staff will have the opportunity to make their own personal pledge for their own #teacher5aday.

Hopefully, this session will kickstart staff wellbeing and lead to regular activities and events being setup.

#teacher5aday

 

The Fear of Leading

As part of an aspiring head programme, I have been keeping a journal of my learning. This post is part of a series based on my observations.
I have been teaching for a relatively short time (6 years) but I have found that volunteering for things and being keen to learn more can quickly give you more whole school responsibility and set you apart. Many teachers are happy in their work, teaching their class and leading a subject.
Already, there is a conflict; leading.
How many subjects at your school are being led? Often in schools, everyone is aware of the key issues or which subjects are in need of a revamp but what happens?

Key issues are often uncomfortable and could take a long time to revolutionise a whole school approach. As a result, issues are managed and monitored but with no real improvement, just a list of things to improve. Why is leading so hard?
A quick look on Twitter will show you that education is awash with leaders. Teachers all over the Twitter-sphere are constantly changing their ideas, practice and more importantly sharing these with others.
Teachers are famously modest and find it difficult to take criticism or praise so leading is taking a risk. One of the things we ask children to do regularly.
I think leading is difficult for several reasons:
- Time, leading needs time to reflect, plan and improve, especially when you have to manage at the same time.
- Believing in your own ideas. You need to convince yourself before convincing others. Pilots and action research projects are important but need to be credible.
- Standing Out. Change can cause lots of extra work and other staff may be happy following the old system, especially if their workload is unaffected. Convincing people then becomes even harder.
- Other Initiatives. Some things are just easier, instantly get agreed and then are introduced. These may be improvements but could mask the real development issues a school faces.
Across education there are many leaders but should they be managers? Does the subject simply tick over or are you being challenged to reflect upon practices and raise standards?