Teaching Able Geographers

Teaching Able Geographers

 What is meant by ‘gifted’?

 Why is it important?

 How can gifted pupils be identified?

 Why is it important we identify our most gifted pupils?  How can we maximise our teaching of gifted pupils?

Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

What is meant by ‘gifted’?

E = MC² Gifted

does not mean

Genius

The ‘Excellence in Cities’ programme describes gifted as the top 10% of the school’s population

All Schools have ‘Gifted’ Pupils

Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

Ofsted’s view of G&T

“One of the major strengths of this high achieving school is the quality of its gifted and talented programme”.

“The schools G&T programme is having a positive impact on teaching and learning throughout the school”.

“The ethos of the school has improved considerably, one of the key reasons for this progress has been the G&T programme”.

“Pupils and staff have benefited from the G&T programme”.

Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

Why is it important we identify our ‘gifted’ students?

In a review by HMI inspectors into the education of able children in maintained schools concluded that such pupils were often ‘insufficiently challenged by the work they are set’ “The gifted have as much right as any others - both legally and morally - to an appropriate education”- Education Secretary Research has shown that Gifted children do not necessarily become gifted adults Gifted pupils rarely achieve their full potential without consistent hard work.

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What is meant by intelligence?

Intelligence is not homogenous ‘Gardner’ has identified 8 different types of intelligence.

Gifted Pupils are likely to vary between subjects.

Linguistic Mathematical Naturalistic Musical Kinaesthetic Intrapersonal Visual (Spatial) Interpersonal Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

The Gifted Geographer

Different Types of Intelligence The Able Geographer Linguistic Logical Intrapersonal (Reflective) Naturalistic Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

Identifying Gifted Pupils

CAT Scores SAT Results The gifted geographer...

•Understands concepts easily •Able to apply understanding to new situations •Recognises patterns and sequences •Competent in using a wide range of visual resources e.g. maps, photos etc.

•Has well considered opinions on issues such as the environment and Developing World debt.

•Able to transfer knowledge from one subject to another.

•Shows good general knowledge and has a clear understanding of current affairs.

•Creative and original in their thinking Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

Won’t How much thought have you given to the specific needs of these pupils?

Can Pupils who fit in this band are your able Geographers.

Will Although a lot of time has been spent here making sure these students have an appropriate Education… Can’t Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School) I find this concept an helpful way of visualising pupils and their needs.

How can we better teach our gifted pupils?

How might we encourage students to develop their ideas?

Remember that gifted geographers: •communicate effectively •reason, argue and think logically •enjoy using graphs, charts, maps, diagrams and other visual methods to present information •are confident and contribute effectively •relate well to other people •have a more highly developed value system than most pupils of their age •have a wide-ranging general knowledge about the world •are able to transfer knowledge from one subject to another •can be creative and original in their thinking Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

How can we better teach our gifted pupils?

• Questioning • Differentiation • Extension • Learning Style

Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

Questioning...

If you ask the wrong questions, you’ll probably get the wrong answer!

Facts about Questioning:

A teacher will ask on average 400 questions a day… Questioning accounts for 30% of lesson time… On average a teacher will ask a question every 43 seconds… Most questions will be answered in less than a second!

Too often teachers fall into a comfort zone asking predominately closed questions which rarely stretch or challenge your able geographers. To extend your best open questions are needed as these encourage students to dig deeper. Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

Questioning ???

Bloom's Taxometry of Learning Difficulties Keep questions open-ended Evaluation Synthesis Vary your questioning style Encourage high level thinking Analysis Application Try to avoid cutting answers short Comprehension Knowledge Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

High Level Thinking

High order questioning requires understanding, low order questioning simply requires the memorising of data

Evaluation

Trigger words for...

Synthesis Analysis

Review Judge Assess Discuss Criticise Decide Rearrange Predict Forecast Create Compose Hypothesise Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School) Connect Solve Investigate Interpret Categorise Contrast

Questioning...

What if… the government banned in-migration?

WHAT

What if… the world’s rainforests were completely destroyed?

IF?

What if… a British nuclear power station went into melt down?

What if… the Yellow Stone super volcano erupted?

Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

Differentiation

Appropriate and skilful use of differentiation is vital to the well being of able pupils .

• By Task • By Outcome • By Dialogue • By support • By Pace • By independence / responsibility Differentiation should not be left to chance but should be written into the schemes of work.

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Extension

Extension tasks should provide experiences and activities beyond the regular curriculum.

HOTS NOT MOTS !!!

• A higher quality of work than the norm • A broadening of the learning experience • Promoting a higher level of thinking • The inclusion of additional subject areas • The use of supplementary materials Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

What makes a task difficult?

 The range of skills required  The amount of time provided  The degree of structure  The level of vocabulary  Confusing the order  Density of information  Familiarity of task Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

Learning Styles

Activists Get fully involved Open minded Enthusiastic about new experiences Act first, think later Get bored with everyday tasks and long term projects Thrive on new challenges ‘Always on the go’ Theorists Methodical Perfectionists Like to analyse and synthesise Develop logical sound theories Like to question Uncomfortable with subjective judgements Reflectors Observe and ponder Like to chew things over Thorough and cautious Tend to take a back seat Look at the big picture Like time to prepare Consider all possible consequences before taking action.

Pragmatists Very Practical ‘Hands-on’ and ‘now’ View problems and opportunities as a challenge Dislike open ended discussions Keen to experiment Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

Preferred Learning

A student’s preferred learning style will vary according to...

...their relationship with the teacher.

…their enjoyment of the subject.

…the time of the day.

A good lesson (or sequence of lessons) will incorporate an aspect of each learning style.

Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

Teaching to different learning Styles

Activists Encouraging group discussions.

Providing competitive exercises Opportunities to become engrossed e.g. role-play Encouraging students to pursue their own understanding of the work Ideas not restricted by imposed boundaries Theorists The purpose of the task is clear, with a defined structure Providing opportunities to work alone Include action planning Encouraging accuracy of recall Providing opportunities for collecting data Providing analytical tasks Reflectors Providing opportunities for observation Asking open ended questions Setting tasks that have more than one solution Asking students to draw on their own experience Allowed time to think and prepare Pragmatists Providing opportunities for trying things out Providing opportunities for relating theory to practice Providing opportunities for researching topics Little delay between the learning and implementation Presented with real problem solving opportunities.

Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)

The learning Cycle

Pragmatist Activist Theorist Reflector Activity : Have an experience Testing out : What could be done differently next time What happened? Review/reflect Why it happened? Conclusion Produced by Mr B Ward (Penwortham Girls School)