Transcript Associate Inspectors supporting evaluation work

Effective literacy and
numeracy practices in DEIS
schools
Presentation to
Children’s Rights Alliance
Harold Hislop
Chief Inspector
Department of Education and Science
15 March 2010
Overview
• Background to the review of good practice
•
in literacy and numeracy
The themes that
emerged
– At whole-school level
– In the teaching of
literacy and numeracy
BACKGROUND TO THE REVIEW OF
GOOD PRACTICE IN
LITERACY AND NUMERACY
Background to the
review of good practice
•
•
•
DEIS action plan required Inspectorate to follow-up on its
report Literacy and Numeracy in Disadvantaged
Schools: Challenges for Teachers and Learners,
(Inspectorate, 2005)
The Inspectorate was asked to identify
examples of best practice in literacy
and numeracy development in
DEIS schools
This good practice study describes a range of
approaches that teachers and school communities have
taken to the teaching of literacy and numeracy in eight
schools participating in the DEIS action plan
Schools
 Eight schools included in final publication
 Schools selected using a range of sources of information
 Not the best eight schools but the efforts and insights of the
teachers and school communities involved are stimulating
and inspiring
Schools named in appendix but individual chapters to not
identify schools
 Large urban areas, large towns and rural settings
 Boys / Girls / Mixed - All in DEIS Band 1

 New style of publication
 not a formal report – contains the stories of the schools, the
teachers, pupils and parents
 Summary chapter discussing general lessons to be learned
THEMES THAT EMERGED
School features



Strong, decisive leadership which is not confined to
principals alone. There is a culture of change for
improvement.
The teachers have positive expectations about levels of
achievement and behaviour for all pupils.
The teachers realise that it is the school and their
approaches that must adapt to meet the pupils’ learning
needs rather than expecting the pupils to change to
match the school’s needs….
We needed to
change…..
• “What works for one school doesn’t always work for
another. We have to start from where our pupils are at.”
– Teacher
• “Just over two years ago….the management and
teachers examined why the pupils were not achieving as
well as they might in Mathematics. The teachers
considered their own confidence in teaching the subject
and looked at what were the areas of greatest weakness
in whole-school practice. They identified that their own
ability and skills in teaching Mathematics could have the
greatest impact on the pupils’ learning and they
determined to be better teachers of Mathematics.”
– Inspector
School features


There is a commitment to strategic planning and review.
Teachers make the time to plan together on a regular basis
at class level, as part of special education teams or as
whole-school planning teams.
Teachers cooperate in their teaching – a high degree of
team teaching
“Learning to work with others wasn’t that easy but it has
been a real pleasure. I don’t feel so alone anymore as it has
become much easier to seek help and advice from others
when I need it. It’s good for pupils to see teachers learning
too.” – Class teacher
Schools involving
parents….
 The schools are committed to involving parents in their
children’s learning – focussed on how parents can improve
the learning experienced by their own children….
 “In this school, the teachers always plan a home-learning
strand for any innovation that they develop. They believe
that parents want and need guidance in order to be able to
support their children’s learning at home.” - Inspector
 “The children get a great kick out of showing their parents
how to play these games and the parents really enjoy the
experience,” remarked a teacher.
 “Mammy now knows the story really well and she can help
me when I do my impressions and predictions.”
- Sixth class pupil
And the parents’ view
 One parent told me how her daughter’s pre-school
brother was copying the reading process at home from
her reading stories with his older sibling.
“He was already pretending to read picture books,
putting his own words to the pictures and texts and
guessing what will happen next,” she said.
 “Some parents don’t know how to help their child,”
explained one mother. “Here the teacher shows you how
to do it and you get to become confident in helping your
child.”
Common strengths
LITERACY AND NUMERACY
LITERACY AND NUMERACY APPROACHES


There is explicit prioritisation of literacy and/or numeracy
education in each school.
They have developed or are using a range of specific
programmes and teaching strategies
o Reading Recovery
o Literacy work station model/Intensive literacy lessons
o Phonological Awareness Training (PAT)
o Jolly Phonics
o First Steps
o Mata, Maths Recovery
o The Newell Literacy Programme
o Maths for Fun
o Book Start
o Language towards Literacy
Common strengths
LITERACY AND NUMERACY





Some of these programmes have been devised by staff
members; others are commercially produced and are to
be found in many schools around the country
Implementation is consistent throughout the school –
spearheaded by one or more teachers
Teachers are concerned with creating learning and
teaching opportunities for varied groups or individuals –
differentiation of lesson content, process or outcome
The teachers use a variety of teaching methods for
example whole-class teaching, group-work individual
teaching, paired work and co-operative learning
There are high levels of collaboration and team teaching
Common strengths
LITERACY AND NUMERACY
Cooperative teaching
 Used to make small group work, circle-ofactivities and intensive literacy intervention
possible
 Requires visionary
leadership and a focus
on learning outcomes
 Requires flexibility of
practice: teachers, special needs assistants
Common strengths
ASSESSMENT
 Teachers use assessment data to inform their

planning and teaching before/during/after any
new intervention programme
Teachers use a range of assessment
approaches
 for example anecdotal notes, checklists, retention of pupils’
completed work, summative and formative statements,
photographs and video
 Following any intervention programme, the final
assessment data informs the next stages in
teaching and learning and determines the
continued viability of the intervention
OUR HOPE FOR THE PUBLICATION
From teacher to
teacher….
Through the publication, one teacher says to another ……
 “It’s up to us to make a difference,” one teacher told me.
“We need to find a way to improve things.” – Class
teacher

“We had to go back to the drawing board,” recounted
one teacher, “some of these children had never even
held a book before they came to school. We knew we
had to do something substantial as a team to address
these challenges.” – Resource teacher

“This is definitely the way forward”, one teacher told me,
“these books engage the children’s imagination and they
just love them.” – Class teacher
And children can say…
 One pupil asked if I was the inspector and whether I
would be visiting her class. When I told her that most
likely I would, she responded: “That’s cool, We have
some good stuff to show you.”
- Pupil
 One senior infant to told me confidently that she had
read lots of books and was getting better at reading.
- Senior infant
 “I never knew that I was this good at Mathematics.”
- Fifth class child
 “We do a lot of reading and writing in this school. It
makes us smarter.”
- Pupil