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Ilford?

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Peter Creber / Westfield Academy  STRETCH AND CHALLENGE

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Our 1st session of the year, and we looked at how various ingredients go into creating the growth mindsets and stretch and challenge for all our lessons.

Our role is essential, not surprisingly, and it is the right combination of the circles below that gets the challenge right.

How we communicate is so important, as this will contribute to the establishment of the right ethos and mindset - growth as opposed to fixed.

We start with resilience, and the old straw-through-potato trick. Spit, grit and a whole lot of duct tape was used by some, with varying success, and it was agreed by all that if we are to drive stretch and challenge, a resilient attitude amongst all learners was vital.

This connects with our growth mindset - do we practise and preach this as well? Jodie was a true believer on this...

The areas that we considered really crucial to improving the learning ethos stemmed from a few key concepts:

"Challenge in education is the provision of difficult work that causes students to think deeply and engage in healthy struggle. If we get this right, all else will follow."

It is not just about the 'most able'.

It is high expectations for all.

It is good for students to struggle just outside of their comfort zone - that is when they are likely to learn most.

The next step in the jigsaw was looking at the pedagogy behind Establishing the right ethos: As a group we looked atThe Learning Zone Model (Senninger, 2000)

Together we watched this amazing discussion about the difference between a Fixed and Growth mindset. It is important that we, as teacher's reflect the same positive ethos in our classroom and model high expectations and trust. This video created lots of exciting discussion around our pupils at Westfield and how we can diminish fixed mindsets amongst the most challenging pupils. We very much look forward to putting our ideas into practice.

The next stepping stone on our whole staff CPD session was to get the staff talking about what they key ingredients are; to establish this growth mindset ethos in their lessons. So , of course, we played a game of Pictionary. Special thanks go out to our amazing Art teachers Sam and Leah, who designed our wonderful playing cards.

After a long and healthy discussion and a lot of different diamond nines, we were able to identify the key ingredients necessary in enabling stretch and challenge. It created several debates- but that is good- because every single element is vital:

1. Working with your LSA

2. Contact with parents

3. Listening

4. Promoting resilience

5. Clarity of the learning direction

6. Having strong subject knowledge

7. Using your class context sheets as a daily guide to planning

8. Having high expectations of all students

9. Having good relationships

10. Creating a safe and inspiring learning environment

11. Being a strong presence in the classroom, and running the show.

Knowing the students, knowing the subject, knowing what they find difficult
If high expectations are in place, with the bar set high, we can differentiate downwards with the most suitable strategy to hoist each individual child up.
After a fantastic and engaged session, we left our teachers with a few tasks for the upcoming week:

1.Context sheets- know the students you are teaching

2.Read your SEN Booklets

3.Raise the bar for the learning direction of the lesson

4.Stretch their capabilities- put them in the learning zone-not the comfort zone.

5.Settle for nothing but their best-inspire & support them in their learning, every lesson.

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Our 1st session of the year, and we looked at how various ingredients go into creating the growth mindsets and stretch and challenge for all our lessons. Our role is essential, not surprisingly, and it is the right combination of the circles below that gets the challenge right.

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Carousel again?
Mix of input & discussion?
Half hour sessions?

How can we support good attendance for adults/1618s?

Pros and cons of coursebooks

Initial Assessment - what should it look like?

Diagnosing diagnostics

Getting the most out of the Employability quals

Teaching the Bite Sized English and maths quals

Best practice in Tutorial

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Please post your ideas! And add comments to mine.

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Linguistics research. PM?

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Department of English: Dr. Susan Fox - University of Bern

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'Linguistic Innovators: the English of Adolescents in London'. UK Economic and Social Research Council-funded, with researchers Paul Kerswill, Jenny Cheshire and Eivind Torgersen.

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SRE Training for 16-18 ESOL teachers - will contact Joshua at Children and Young People's Services 

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SRE Training for 16-18 ESOL teachers - will contact Joshua at Children and Young People's Services 

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Michaela could feedback on he Refugee and migrant rights training at the refugee council

I'm Sam btw - not intentionally anonymous!

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On Human Rights project?

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Human rights project piloted at Hackney Community College

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Archant A project to raise awareness about harmful practices such as female genital mutilation is being piloted at Hackney Community College. Running the show is the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (IKWRO), which provides support for women and girls from all middle eastern, north African and Afghan communities who are at risk of domestic violence.

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On Technology and Language learning? Or using EdModo with 1618s? or both (am and pm)

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Since the FELTAG report was published in 2014, the use of technology and the idea of the 10 per cent of provision being delivered online has been high profile in FE and adult education (bit.ly/tesfeltag). However, despite the increased coverage and emphasis within providers, one of the aspects of the current focus on technology and digital learning that concerns me is the fact that it seems to be overwhelmingly focused on its use with those learners from level 1 and above.

Should we just not bother with technology for lower-level learners and stick with pens, paper and Post-It notes? Of course we shouldn't (although I'm as much a fan of the sticky note as most teachers). We just have to think about what is appropriate and effective. This is equally important for all technology use, but I wonder if it can sometimes be easier to "get away" with less principled planning of tech use at higher levels.

Here are a few tips and ideas to bear in mind when using technology in the classroom with lower-level learners.

Build in 'play time'

If you are introducing new technology in any form, it's crucial that you include time in your planning for the learners to play with the tech itself and get to grips with it.

You may have planned the most amazing activities, but if the students don't actually know how to use the app or tool that you have chosen, you will already be excluding a large number of learners and may be left wondering why things went pear-shaped. It may seem incredibly obvious, but it's also important that you know how your tech tools work too. Otherwise, you will look a little ridiculous when trying to explain tasks - even to the most enthusiastic learners.

Choose wisely and bed tech in

Think about what tools will be most effective for your learners and then use them regularly over a period of time.

This allows you and them to get used to the tools and get the most out of them. At my college, we have been using Edmodo a lot with our entry level Esol (English for speakers of other languages) learners, some of whom had never used a computer until coming to college. After a couple of weeks, they all know how to do the basics and expect to find tasks to complete on there. It's a wonderful thing to see a complete beginner posting a comment and then being able to see their classmates' replies and contributions.

Emphasise safety

Get learners thinking early on about digital literacy and online safety. It is crucial that there is a safe place to learn about being online. This can be really important for those learners who are new to aspects of technology or who may find it hard to understand the boundaries of what constitutes safe online behaviour. Learning about digital literacy and online safety straight away can make a real difference for learners later on in terms of the digital footprint that they leave behind.

Encourage learner autonomy

If you build support into your online tasks, you will gradually help to develop learners' sense of autonomy.

We use the idea of scaffolding in teaching all the time, and this applies just as much to technology and to learning to work independently. At entry level, much of your online activity may take place with teacher support, but that allows learners to increase their confidence and learn good habits that will stand them in good stead for the future. I often set quite informal online tasks for learners to do outside the class. It might just be looking at a quick video clip or news item, but it's still engaging with the subject in some way and practising relevant skills. Over time, more learners will start to engage with these tasks if they see that such exercises prove both enjoyable and worth doing.

Nurture a support network

There is a pretty good chance that in a class at any level, there will be some learners who love using technology and have skills that they can share with other students (and the teachers, too). This is something that you can really use to everyone's advantage. You need to think about how to ensure that the more confident tech users don't end up doing other people's work for them, but this is something that you can focus on over a period of time. Challenge these learners to develop other skills while they support someone else - for example, giving clear instructions or checking for spelling errors.

Challenge learners

Don't let lower-level learners be passive recipients of technology. Give them multiple opportunities to be creative and express their ideas. Some may need support, but they are just as capable of planning and creating their own online quizzes and activities as anyone else and some will actually be more confident expressing themselves in this way.

Diana Tremayne is an advanced learning practitioner and Esol teacher at an FE college in West Yorkshire @dianatremayne

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Six tips for using technology to help lower-level learners

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Since the FELTAG report was published in 2014, the use of technology and the idea of the 10 per cent of provision being delivered online has been high profile in FE and adult education (bit.ly/tesfeltag).