The Days of Reflection
Day 19 – Have an Impact
I have no doubt in my mind that every teacher works hard to help their students achieve their best. This hard work ethic will be boasted by all, and it is in fact true. However, why is it that sometimes this hard work doesn’t result in increased student achievement?
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how I can work smarter rather than harder. I am choosing to put my time into projects that will have a measurable impact on student engagement and achievement.
Here are 5 easy strategies I recommend for improving your impact on teaching and learning.
1. Improve independence by having a pick up activity at the door. My classes are aware that they have a task to do as soon as they enter the room. They are on task immediately and the activity give a focus to the lesson. Impact – increased engagement
2. Testing – sometimes tests can be demoralising if students have low self- esteem. However, a graded test is useful data for me as a class teacher as well as the student. All of our students will have to face tests. With the right guidance, facing tests builds resilience and can open a narrative with a student about improving progress. Impact – summatice assessment as evidence of student learning.
3. Practical Assessments – this is a less formal version of testing. I tell students I will be assessing a particular skill in a lesson. They will do well if they focus on the task. I give feedback on the practical effort in their book. This is useful for students who struggle with literacy and would appreciate written evidence of their practical effort. Impact – formative/summatice assessment of student learning and progress.
4. Study Mark schemes and exams to build conventions – Mark schemes contain concise definitions that are useful when teaching. If your students hear you repeat an exam board approved definition enough times then they are much more likely to remember the information. Impact- precision teaching with a greater focus on exam technique.
5. Study the Specification – you might not consider the exam specifications a riveting read, but it contains the basic information for which all exams and tests will be based on. If you want to teach outstanding lesson, you should really be reading the Specification. I work in a department where we work as a team to write schemes of work. I have written schemes for a variety of topics and I have always paid close attention to the specification. When the schemes and lessons have been written, it might be easy to fall into a pattern of ordering a particular worksheet or practical. However, you will fail to have an impact unless your lesson link back to specification outcomes. Impact – exam focussed teaching and learning should yield greater results for students.
This is a very short list and I expect there will be many parts to this line of thinking. What simple strategies do you use? Let me know in the comments below.