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Voices from the Classroom: Conceptual retrieval practice in the…

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How can we use retrieval to deepen conceptual understanding?

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Coram Life Education & SCARF is the UK's leading charity provider of PSHE and wellbeing education in primary schools.

Our SCARF resources are developed by teachers for teachers. Over 50,000 subscribe to SCARF as their chosen provider of PSHE. Here are a few reasons why:

A Whole-school approach to health and wellbeing

Fully-resourced, comprehensive PSHE programme - over 360 lesson plans

Online - always up to date

Fulfils all DfE statutory requirements for Relationships & Health Education

Half term units of work & planning from Nursery to Year 6

Ofsted Audit tool meeting expectations for Intent, Implementation and Impact through the SCARF coherent, sequential curriculum

Assessment tools & progression embedded

Comprehensive free staff SCARF training

Access to free and low-cost specialist training

Support of a SCARF co-ordinator

SCARF's whole-school approach supports primary schools in promoting positive behaviour, mental health, wellbeing, resilience and achievement - giving you everything you need to meet the DfE RSHE statutory requirements. More than just a PSHE scheme of work, SCARF supports great learning every day.

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SCARF: Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience, Friendship

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Coram Life Education & SCARF is the UK's leading charity provider of PSHE and wellbeing education in primary schools. Our SCARF resources are developed by teachers for teachers. Over 50,000 subscribe to SCARF as their chosen provider of PSHE.

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Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools 

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Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools 

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In History we are committed to improving literacy in school by encouraging literacy through reading and writing in our lessons.

1. Prioritise ‘disciplinary literacy’ across the curriculum

Literacy is key to learning across all subjects in secondary school and a strong predictor of outcomes in later life.

Disciplinary literacy is an approach to improving literacy across the curriculum that emphasises the importance of subject specific support.

All teachers should be supported to understand how to teach students to read, write and communicate effectively in their subjects.

School leaders can help teachers by ensuring training related to literacy prioritises subject specificity over general approaches.

2. Provide targeted vocabulary instruction in every subject

Teachers in every subject should provide explicit vocabulary instruction to help students access and use academic language.

Effective approaches, including those related to etymology and morphology, will help students remember new words and make connections between words.

Teachers should prioritise teaching Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary, which students are unlikely to encounter in everyday speech.

Teachers and subject leaders should consider which words and phrases to teach as part of curriculum planning.

3. Develop students’ ability to read complex academic texts

Training focused on teaching reading is likely to help secondary school teachers teach their subject more effectively.

To comprehend complex texts, students need to actively engage with what they are reading and use their existing subject knowledge.

Reading strategies, such as activating prior knowledge, prediction and questioning can improve students’ comprehension.

Strategies can be introduced through modelling and group work, before support is gradually removed to promote independence.

4. Break down complex writing tasks

Writing is challenging and students in every subject will benefit from explicit instruction in how to improve.

Teachers can break writing down into planning, monitoring and evaluation, and can support students by modelling each step.

Targeted support should be provided to students who struggle to write fluently, as this may affect writing quality.

Teachers can use a variety of approaches, including collaborative and paired writing, to motivate students to write.

5. Combine writing instruction with reading in every subject

Combining reading activities and writing instruction is likely to improve students’ skills in both, compared to a less balanced approach.

Reading helps students gain knowledge, which leads to better writing, whilst writing can deepen students’ understanding of ideas.

Students should be taught to recognise features, aims and conventions of good writing within each subject.

Teaching spelling, grammar and punctuation explicitly can improve students’ writing, particularly when focused on meaning.

6. Provide opportunities for structured talk

Talk matters: both in its own right and because of its impact on other aspects of learning.

High-quality talk is typically well-structured and guided by teachers.

'Accountable talk' is a useful framework to ensure talk is high quality, and emphasises how talk can be subject specific.

Teachers can support students by modelling high-quality talk, for example including key vocabulary and metacognitive reflection.

7. Provide high-quality literacy interventions for struggling students

Schools should expect and proactively plan to support students with the weakest levels of literacy, particularly in Year 7.

Developing a model of tiered support, which increases in intensity in line with need is a promising approach.

Assessment should be used to match students to appropriate types of intervention, and to monitor the impact of interventions.

Creating a coordinated system of support is a significant challenge requiring both specialist input and whole-school leadership.

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Cross curricular: How history links to wider school. 

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Cross curricular: How history links to wider school. 

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English

Extended writing: using essay writing skills including, finding clear examples, analysing text and images, locating key facts, developing a point of view and structing a clear response.

Historical context : utilising social historical and intellectual context of different time periods to provide an understanding of time and place.

Literacy: using correct vocabulary and SPAG understanding language from different time periods, and using a dictionary to consolidate the meaning of a range of terminology.

Scan and skim reading: Locating key dates and information from challenging texts, finding useful quotations and identifying key points.

speaking and listening: Presenting projects on key time frames or historical figures, responding to questions and speaking to inform.

Primary and Secondary sources: understanding and interpreting a variety of sources including those that are written and pictorial.

Citizenship

Both subjects develop students understanding of power, rights and participation in society.

together they:

Show how rights are gained, restricted and defended over time.

Help pupils understand democracy governance, and the rule of law.

Encourage critical thinking about authority protest, and citizenship.

Support students in becoming informed, active members of society.

PSHE

Science

Looking at scientific discoveries- These include Newton, Curie, Darwin and Pasteur.

History of medicine- these include how we got over the black death, vaccines, antibiotics and pandemics that we have faced throughout the years.

Technology in War and Policing- Radar, atomic bombs and the devastation they caused, finger print technology in catching criminals etc.

Maths:

Timelines: Ordering events chronologically, using Roman numerals, and understanding historical periods.

Data Analysis: Analysing historical data, such as population figures or economic trends.

Art

Visual Timelines - Create historical artwork or reimagining events through illustration.

Artefact study- Drawing historical or recreating historical objects and symbols.

Themes and context- explore ideas from different time periods in visual forms.