creating engaging classrooms

For many, marking is the bane of the teacher's existence. I, however, love it, for it is the perfect opportunity to give feedback . Feedback is your opportunity as an educator to have a personal conversation with each student about their learning, what they did well, what they need to improve and how they can do better. As such, done well, it is a massive opportunity for you to engage students by celebrating their successes and then granting them agency to achieve meaningful goals.  So, what are the key ingredients? Given I did my PGCE in 2011, unsurprisingly I use the acronyms WWW, EBI and DIT. That is: What went well   Even better if Directed improvement task However, while many teachers tend to focus on the latter two, I want to suggest that the first one, the WWW, is actually the most important.   Put yourself in the shoes of a mid-level student: you try your hardest, really revise and prepare, put your best into a piece of work, and when that comes back all...

 I am a big fan of cold calling, probably due to my training. However, I genuinely believe that cold calling when questioning (as opposed to taking hands up or letting students shout out) is the way to go for several reasons: a. it ensures a plurality of voices in the class (not just the Hermione Grangers); b. done well, in ensures all students think of an answer to each question, aware that they could be called upon, thus increasing student engagement; c. it cements the teacher's authority in the classroom; d.it allows the teacher to differentiate by directing specific questions to specific pupils, based on their current targets and prior performance.  It's particularly useful when paired with other questioning strategies such as "pose, pause, pounce, bounce" and " agree, challenge, extend ". However, recently I read this excellent blog post about research done on cold calling in Germany and it got me thinking: what does it look like when cold calling is ...

 Success is a great motivating factor, and students who are motivated are usually more engaged in the lesson and their learning. However, it's important (I feel) that students don't just equate success with grades. After all, loads of people (including teachers!) have been successful in life without scoring top marks.  This is where personal learning checklists can come in. Using these at the beginning, middle and end of a unit (and perhaps other points between) allow students to see the progress that they have made, the successes that they have had.  Here's an example, if you aren't sure what I'm talking about: It is literally a list of skills you intend for students to acquire or develop during the unit. Students self-assess themselves, perhaps using a colour code (red, amber, green) or letter code (d - developing, s - secure, e - expert), returning later to review their own progress. Thus they can then see how your teaching input has lead them to acquire new s...

OK, so I'm an English teacher, thus it's pretty easy to get drama into the class. However, I'm not just talking about acting out the texts we study.  Oh no.  Do you have to teach your students to use the passive voice?  OK, so after you have taught the form of the grammar point, set up a crime scene in class, and have them role-play being CSI, awarding points for every correct usage of the passive (e.g. "Buzz Lightyear may have been stabbed with the highlighter sir"). Yet, these kind of role-plays aren't limited to the Language departments. I was doing some training in a bilingual school outside Madrid and persuaded the Geography teacher to give this ago. Walking down the corridor the next day, he dashed out of his room, dragged me in and I was treated to a dramatic rendering of weather patterns: some students were playing the cold front, others area of high pressure, still more storm clouds. It was amazing! Forget the students: I swear I learned more about w...

 Questioning is a core part of teaching. Yet, as you badger away at an individual student, drilling down to see what they know and how deep their learning goes, how do you involve the rest of the class? One finger = agree Students in agreement with the answer/statement/opinion raise one finger. Two fingers = challenge Students who disagree with or want to challenge an answer can signal with two fingers. This is great - how often have you asked another student (or a series of students) only to hear the same opinion as the first student you asked? This way you can immediately jump to the dissenting voice. Three fingers = extend (or build, as I've also seen it called) Students who agree, but for different reasons than stated, or who want to extend the answer, can signal with three fingers. Train your classes to do this as students answer. Suddenly, you can see where the whole class is, and suddenly they are all participating and thus have an even greater reason to invest in listening ...