Transcript Good to Outstanding updated

From Good to Outstanding in English
Geoff Barton
Download free at www.geoffbarton.co.uk
(Presentation number 60)
Saturday, July 18, 2015
What
How
+ G&T
+ Grammar
+ Functional skills
+ Starters
+ 5*A-C(EM)
+ ???
• Where have we come from?
• Where are we now?
• Where are we going?
Parse the italicised words:
“The lady protests too much, methinks”
“Sit thee down”
“I saw him taken”
Rewrite these sentences correctly:
“Louis was in some respects a good man, but being a
bad ruler his subjects rebelled”
“Vainly endeavouring to suppress his emotion, the
service was abruptly brought to an end”
Alfred S West, The Elements of
English Grammar
For each of the following write a sentence
containing the word or clause indicated:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
That used as a subordinating conjunction
That used as a relative pronoun
An adjective used in the comparative degree
A pronoun used as a direct object
An adverbial clause of concession
A noun clause in apposition
A collective noun
JMB O-level English Language,
1967
Autonomy
16+
NC
Coursework
GCSE
Framework
Performance tables
5A*C+EM
Disempowerment
Next …?
•
Primacy of subject knowledge?
•
Mix of freedom and conscription?
•
IGCSE?
•
Increased emphasis on cultural heritage: “the best that has been
thought and said”?
Subject Reviews 2005 & 2009
“English at the Crossroads”
English 2005:
1
2
3
Myhill and Fisher: ‘spoken language forms a
constraint, a ceiling not only on the ability to
comprehend but also on the ability to write,
beyond which literacy cannot progress’.
Although the reading skills of 10 year old pupils
in England compared well with those of pupils in
other countries, they read less frequently for
pleasure and were less interested in reading
than those elsewhere.
Pupils’ writing does not improve solely by doing
more of it.
English 2009:
1
All the English departments visited had
schemes of work for KS3 but, since they rarely
showed them to the students, students could
not see how individual elements linked
together and supported each other.
To many students, the KS3 programme
seemed a random sequence of activities …
English 2009:
2
Some schools persevered with ‘library lessons’
where the students read silently. These
sessions rarely included time to discuss or
promote books and other written material and
therefore did not help to develop a reading
community within the school.
English 2009:
3
Many of the lessons seen during the survey
showed there was a clear need to reinvigorate
the teaching of writing. Students were not
motivated by the writing tasks they were given
and saw no real purpose to them.
English 2009:
4
Ofsted’s previous report on English found that
schools put too little emphasis on developing
speaking and listening. Since then, the
teaching of speaking and listening has
improved.
English 2009:
5
The last English report identified a wide gap
between the best practice and the rest in using
ICT. This gap remains; indeed, some of the
evidence suggests that it has widened.
Whole-school literacy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Every teacher in English …
Teach reading, not FOFO …
Demystify spelling …
Model writing …
Emphasise quality talk …
CASE STUDIES
Implications for you …?
S&L: Does it happen systematically
anywhere to develop thinking and to
model writing?
Writing: is there an understanding
across any teams of how to develop
writing - eg how to get better
evaluations, better essays, better
scientific writing?
Reading: Who is teaching reading? Has
reading for pleasure slipped from your
radar?
Leadership: Has your leadership team
lost interest in whole-school literacy?
How will you reignite interest?
What’s
the
latest
news?
What we know about Writing …
•
The standard of writing has improved in recent years but still
lags 20% behind reading at all key stages (eg around 60% of
students get level 4 at KS2 in writing, compared to 80% in
reading).
•
Writing has improved as a result of the National Strategy.
•
S&L has a big role in writing - it allows students to rehearse
ideas and structures and builds confidence.
•
But S&L has lower status because of assessment weightings.
•
In teaching writing we tend to focus too much on end-products
rather than process (eg frames). We should think more about
composition - how ideas are found and framed, how choices
are made, how to decide about the medium, how to draft and
edit.
•
We are still stuck with a narrow range of writing forms and
need to emphasise creativity in non-fiction forms.
•
We need to rediscover the excitement of writing.
With thanks to Professor Richard Andrews,
London Institute
What we know about vocabulary …
•
Aged 7: children in the top quartile have 7100 words; children in the
lowest have around 3000. The main influence in parents.
•
Using and explaining high-level words is a key to expanding
vocabulary. A low vocabulary has a negative effect throughout
schooling.
•
Declining reading comprehension from 8 onwards is largely a result
of low vocabulary. Vocabulary aged 6 accounts for 30% of reading
variance aged 16.
•
Catching up becomes very difficult. Children with low vocabularies
would have to learn faster than their peers (4-5 roots words a day) to
catch up within 5-6 years.
•
Vocabulary is built via reading to children, getting children to read
themselves, engaging in rich oral language, encouraging reading
and talking at home
•
In the classroom it involves: defining and explaining word meanings,
arranging frequent encounters with new words in different contexts,
creating a word-rich environment, addressing vocabulary learning
explicitly, selecting appropriate words for systematic
instruction/reinforcement, teaching word-learning strategies
With thanks to DCSF Research Unit
What we know about students who
make slow progress …
Characteristics: 2/3 boys. Generally well-behaved. Positive in outlook.
“Invisible” to teachers. Keen to respond but unlikely to think first.
Persevere with tasks, especially with tasks that are routine. Lack selfhelp strategies. Stoical, patient, resigned.
Reading: they over-rely on a limited range of strategies and lack higher
order reading skills
Writing: struggle to combine different skills simultaneously. Don’t get
much chance for oral rehearsal, guided writing, precise feedback
S&L: don’t see it as a key tool in thinking and writing
Targets: set low-level targets; overstate functional skills; infrequently
review progress
With thanks to DCFS
The Matthew Effect
(Robert K Merton)
“For whosoever hath, to him shall be
given and he shall have more
abundance: but whosoever hath not,
from him shall be taken away even
that he hath”.
Matthew 13:12
The rich shall get richer and
the poor shall get poorer
Matthew 13:12
“the word-rich get richer while
the word-poor get poorer” in
their reading skills
(CASL)
“While good readers gain new skills very
rapidly, and quickly move from learning
to read to reading to learn, poor readers
become increasingly frustrated with the
act of reading, and try to avoid reading
where possible”
(SEDL 2001)
“Students who begin with high verbal
aptitudes and find themselves in verbally
enriched social environments are at a
double advantage.”
The Matthew Effect
Daniel Rigney
Poor readers more likely to drop out of school
and less likely to find rewarding employment
… “good readers may choose friends who
also read avidly while poor readers seek
friends with whom they share other
enjoyments”
The Matthew Effect
Daniel Rigney
Stricht’s Law: “reading ability in children
cannot exceed their listening ability …”
E.D. Hirsch
The Schools We Need
“Spoken language forms a constraint, a
ceiling not only on the ability to comprehend
but also on the ability to write, beyond which
literacy cannot progress”
Myhill and Fisher
“The children who possess intellectual capital
when they first arrive at school have the
mental scaffolding and Velcro to catch hold of
what is going on, and they can turn the new
knowledge into still more Velcro to gain still
more knowledge”.
E.D. Hirsch
The Schools We Need
Aged 7:
Children in the top quartile have 7100
words; children in the lowest have around
3000.
The main influence is parents.
DCSF Research Unit
The Matthew Effect:
The rich will get richer &
the poor will get poorer
Key conventions
Demonstrate writing.
Link to speech
Teach composition
Importance of
reading
Sentence variety
Connectives
Know your connectives
Adding: and, also, as well as, moreover, too
Cause & effect: because, so, therefore, thus, consequently
Sequencing: next, then, first, finally, meanwhile, before, after
Qualifying: however, although, unless, except, if, as long as, apart from,
yet
Emphasising: above all, in particular, especially, significantly, indeed,
notably
Illustrating: for example, such as, for instance, as revealed by, in the
case of
Comparing: equally, in the same way, similarly, likewise, as with, like
Contrasting: whereas, instead of, alternatively, otherwise, unlike, on the
other hand
Read aloud.
Reading needs
teaching: skimming,
scanning, analysis
Demystify spelling
Teach and display subjectspecific vocabulary
Teach research skills,
not FOFO
Use DARTs:
prediction, jumbled
texts, pictures and
graphs
Presentation and
framing can make
texts more accessible
Break tyranny of
Q&A
No hands up
Thinking time
Key words /
connectives
Reflective
groupings
Rehearsing responses
Get teachers watching
teachers who manage
S&L well
Post-SATs challenge
Improvement happens in
the classroom.
Integration plus explicit
skills
Remember the
“disappeared”
Use student feedback
Consistency is an
equal opportunities
issue
Make being G&T sexy
Make Assessment for
Learning happen
From Good to Outstanding in English
Geoff Barton
Download free at www.geoffbarton.co.uk
(Presentation number 60)
Saturday, July 18, 2015
English Teacher
Petite, white-haired Miss Cartwright
Knew Shakespeare off by heart,
Or so we pupils thought.
Once in the stalls at the Old Vic
She prompted Lear when he forgot his part.
Ignorant of Scrutiny and Leavis,
She taught Romantic poetry,
Dreamt of gossip with dead poets.
To an amazed sixth form once said:
‘How good to spend a night with Shelley.’
In long war years she fed us plays,
Sophocles to Shaw’s St Joan.
Her reading nights we named our Courting Club,
Yet always through the blacked-out streets
One boy left the girls and saw her home.
When she closed her eyes and chanted
‘Ode to a Nightingale’
We laughed yet honoured her devotion.
We knew the man she should have married
Was killed at Passchendaele.
Brian Cox
From Collected Poems, Carcanet Press 1993.
And finally …
From Good to Outstanding in English
Geoff Barton
Download free at www.geoffbarton.co.uk
(Presentation number 60)
Saturday, July 18, 2015