# data[].attributes.headline
New BBC Bitesize Functional Skills materials 

# data[].attributes.subject
New BBC Bitesize Functional Skills materials 

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/functionalskills  .

# data[].attributes.body
Tom Sherrington

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Most of the blogs I write that get a good response are the ones about teaching. Thankfully. I'd write a book but a) it takes too much time b) the money is terrible and c) I'd just be repeating everything I've already written here. It would be called 'Into the Rainforest of Teaching and Learning'. I like the organic metaphor because it captures something of the mystery, complexity and beauty of teaching well. This post is my very lazy outline for that book; another way of bringing some ideas together in one place.

I like the idea that learning is 'lush, diverse, unpredictable, evolving, daunting, exciting'. This is my underlying philosophy for teaching better: rainforest thinking.

Update: In my current context, I increasingly feel that a 'managed rainforest' is a more appropriate metaphor and, actually autonomy should not override good collaborative team work where people work from a strong common curriculum and agreed principles. Can we have too much autonomy?
Great Lessons
Although I'd change a few things, I'm still very happy with this series as a way to capture the essence of great lessons, especially the focus on habits rather than strategies.

You can download a pdf with all the posts compiled together in one easy-to-share document.
Pedagogy Postcards
This collection of 20 posts covers an eclectic set of ideas some of which are quite practical; others more conceptual. There's one post here that contains links to them all. I imagine that only a few people have read them all - but they are here to dip into rather than wade through.
Principles and Basics
I've written three posts with lists of some basic principles - all worth a read for a summary of ideas, essentials and pitfalls to avoid:

Principles of Effective Teaching - which links to lots of other lists but includes 12 ideas of my own, including Mode A and Mode B teaching.

10 Teaching Essentials and 10 Teaching Pitfalls. Published on the same day these were neck and neck in the blog stats - but now Pitfalls has edged ahead.
10 Silver Arrows
If you do just one thing, do this.... That was the idea. I had an amazing response to the Silver Arrows post helped along by @educatingmiss who made the infographic. Sometimes, it helps to distil ideas down to something tangible and specific that you can actually do.

Think Pair Share: It's true that this is the feedback I give most often after lesson observations - to try more of this.

10 Teaching techniques to practise - deliberately: A blog setting out some specific teaching techniques that can be isolated for deliberate practice. By deciding to focus on one particular strategy and working on it systematically, I'm suggesting that teachers can significantly improve their practice.

Behaviour: For completeness, here is the Bill Rogers Top 10 post that gets 100 hits a day via google searches for Behaviour Management. Bill's approach is brilliant, especially in the context of a good school system.

Marking: I've got two posts on this subject. Close the Gap - is all about acting on feedback, using the approach used at Saffron Walden High School; it also has a fab sheet of ideas for reducing workload. The other is about keeping marking in perspective - doing the amount of marking that has impact but no more.

This post suggests a more radical approach - Rethinking Marking and feedback; it's all about the response.

Planning: I think we should focus less on individual lessons, more on planning a lesson sequence. I also find that the Learning Arc is a helpful concept - learning takes the time it takes.

Differentiation: Some people find this idea problematic because it can lead to lowering expectations. That is true. At the same time, we need to face the fact that different students have differing needs. In this post I use another organic analogy - gardening. Day-to-day differentiation is like tending to a garden, paying attention to individual specimens at the right time, doing the best you can.

Research: Teaching Better requires us to engage with the evidence about learning. There are lots of people out there doing research and, at a basic level, we need to know what the ideas are and how to interpret the evidence:

In this post, I've linked to lots of videos of key people sharing their ideas: Contemporary Educational Ideas All My Staff Should Know About.

Here, I'm sharing thoughts about how to engage with different types of research.

This post sums up the research that informs some of the work we do at Highbury Grove: Research Evidence that has shaped what we do

This post is a reading list of blog posts that I have found useful to inform our practice. Focusing our teaching and learning priorities: a reading list

Ideas in Practice: In my imagined book, I have lots of examples of the ideas in practice. Some of these are captured in my recent review of teaching and learning at Highbury Grove - 90 Lessons - in addition to the many KEGS references throughout all the posts above.

Presentation and Redrafting. It is worth revisiting the Austin's Butterfly video and use redrafting video to improve the basics of presentation. I also think that a focus on presentation can be a vehicle for addressing wider learning issues under the guise of simply making it more clear, accurate and precise.

Workload, Careers, Ethos and Culture. I want to round of my book focusing on how to make teaching a great job for life. I have various things to say here:

12 Steps to a 'Great Teacher' reputation - possibly a bit preachy in places but real enough.

Advice for getting a job - interviews and applications.

Managing workload - pressing the reset button from time to time.

And finally, a return to the Rainforest metaphor: Creating the Conditions for Great Teachers to Thrive.

Very finally, I want to reinforce the importance of seeking to improve continually. In my most recent post, I've reflected on my personal pedagogical to-do list. It changes every year. It's what keeps me going more than anything.

Thanks for reading. This post is dedicated to every teacher I've worked with, observed and borrowed ideas from and everyone who has read and commented on these blog posts. If anyone wants to volunteer to turn this into a book for me - please let me know!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ideas for Teaching Better. All In One Place.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Most of the blogs I write that get a good response are the ones about teaching. Thankfully. I'd write a book but a) it takes too much time b) the money is terrible and c) I'd just be repeating everything I've already written here. It would be called 'Into the Rainforest of Teaching and Learning'....

# data[].attributes.body
Blog

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Recently I have been looking again at the issue of marking. It is a hugely important source of feedback provided that we keep the volume of marking in proportion to the level of impact it can have in improving learning outcomes. I've discussed this in a much-read earlier post: Marking in Perspective: Selective, Formative, Effective, Reflective. At a whole school level at KEGS and in my own department, a key objective for the year is to devise approaches to marking that deliver maximum impact for all to see - that 'progress over time' issue. What does marking look like when it is clearly securing improvement and progress in learning?

To help with our search I was fortunate to be able to arrange a visit to the wonderful a thriving, dynamic school in NW Essex that recently received an astonishing OfSTED report: Outstanding in every detail. It is a school where teaching and learning and professional dialogue take centre stage and there is a palpable spirit of collaborative working. I'd heard they had an excellent 'whole school approach' to assessment and marking so I was delighted to be invited by the Headteacher, John Hartley, to attend a twilight CPD session preceded by an hour spent dropping in on a few lessons. He described the whole school approach to marking and feedback very simply: It is called Saffron Walden County High School, 'closing the gap'. All that is common is the concept; the theme; the mantra - that students need to close the gap between the work they have done originally and a higher level of work suggested by the feedback they receive. In other words, 'closing the gap' means 'acting on feedback'. The mechanism for doing this is open to interpretation. Sounds simple enough but it was hugely impressive to see in action.

On our walkabout I dropped in on a Y9 Art lesson where the GCSE course was starting; a couple of Y8 English lessons, a Y7 German lesson and a Y9 History lesson among others. The phrase 'close the gap' was being used liberally. In Art, students were closing the gap acting on the feedback written on post-its, both peer-marked and teacher marked; in English, students were re-drafting sections of their work, closing the gap by trying to build in the grammatical and stylistic content from their feedback. As a short-hand for the whole process of acting on feedback, closing the gap seemed well understood by the students.

The twilight CPD session revealed that this initiative was still being developed. The structure of the session was itself a model of exemplary staff CPD: one of several sessions running across the year that staff opt into from a menu of choices; food and drink provided beforehand, staff-led, small groups, interactive, mixing quality input with sharing and discussion - brilliant really. The core of the session was that five tables showcased the marking approaches used in a particular department; we then rotated around to talk to each subject specialist. Here the 'whole school approach' came clear. Far from being some kind of straight-jacket diktat, there was complete freedom to develop the 'closing the gap' concept and the methods were all very different. What they had in common was they focused on recording student responses to feedback; the gap-closing was as important as the marking.

In English, the teacher showed us an old exercise book - from a couple of years ago. Her marking was thorough - page after page of comment, later developing a www/ebi approach; comprehensive teacher feedback. But.... no student response. None - except the ephemeral hit and hope kind. In her current students' books the teacher comments were shorter and the students were obliged to respond straight away. This had crystallized mini dialogues in the books and there were re-drafted paragraphs emerging where the students had attempted to address the issues raised in their feedback straight away. Gaps were being closed. Comparing the two approaches, without any doubt, this new strong emphasis and insistence that comments must be acted upon was powerful.

Around the room, further examples followed. A grid system for Art recording teacher feedback and student action, A4 feedback sheets stuck in books in Science with a large box where students had to record their gap-closing work, Maths books where students were making attempts to identify and correct errors in response to teacher feedback, Humanities books where 6/8 mark answers had to be re-drafted taking account of teacher feedback on previous attempts; DT projects where feedback and self assessment were recorded and dated logging progress as the project proceeded through stages. In every case closing the gap appeared to be making an impact and the teachers all seemed to feel that it had helped them re-focus their marking so that comments were actionable and the overall volume realistic.

For sure, this approach makes the learning more visible to an external observer and we will be trying to emulate this approach in my own department at KEGS. Our book reviews have shown us that, without doubt, the most impressive marking is marking that has been acted upon. John and I agree that we'd rather see a few small steps of clear progress built on simple marking rather than screes of comments that students don't appear to have read!

Thanks to Polly Lankester, AHT at SWCHS, for organising the CPD and to John, Headteacher , for your hospitality. It was a wonderful afternoon.

UPDATE: Here is another great resource via SWCHS giving ideas for transferring responsibility to students as part of the closing the gap process. This comes via Nathan Cole - Deputy Head at the fabulous Wilson's School - and the Teaching and Learning team at Wilson's. Nathan was formerly a History teacher at Saffron Walden. I think this is genius.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Recently I have been looking again at the issue of marking. It is a hugely important source of feedback provided that we keep the volume of marking in proportion to the level of impact it can have in improving learning outcomes. I've discussed this in a much-read earlier post: Marking in Perspective: Selective, Formative, Effective,...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Never underestimate the power of visualisation. It may sound like a self-help mantra, but a growing body of evidence shows that mental imagery can accelerate learning and improve performance of all sorts of skills. For athletes and musicians, "going through the motions," or mentally rehearsing the movements in the mind, is just as effective as physical training, and motor imagery can also help stroke patients regain function of their paralysed limbs.

For most of us, visual imagery is essential for memory, daydreaming and imagination. But some people apparently lack a mind's eye altogether, and find it impossible to conjure up such visual images - and their inability to do so may affect their ability to learn and their educational performance.

Firefox co-creator Blake Ross recently described how it feels to be blind in your mind, and his surprise at the revelation that other people can visualise things. "I can't 'see' my father's face or a bouncing blue ball, my childhood bedroom or the run I went on ten minutes ago," he wrote on Facebook. "I thought 'counting sheep' was a metaphor. I'm 30 years old and I never knew a human could do any of this. And it is blowing my goddamned mind."

Neurologists believe aphantasia affects approximately 2% of the population, or one in 50 people

We've known that some people cannot visualise things in their mind's eye since the 1880s, when the controversial psychologist Francis Galton - one of the pioneers of eugenics - published a paper called Statistics of Mental Imagery. Galton set out to "define the different degrees of vividness with which different persons have the faculty of recalling familiar scenes under the form of mental pictures".

He asked his scientific colleagues to think of their breakfast table and describe to him the vividness of their impressions, and found this ability varied markedly - some individuals could draw up a mental image just as brilliant as the scene itself, whereas others could only conjure up an extremely dim image, or none at all.

Today, neurologists refer to this inability to form mental images as "congenital aphantasia" - from the Greek words a, meaning "without", and phantasia, meaning "a capacity to form mental images" - and they believe it affects approximately 2% of the population, or one in 50 people. Remarkably, though, aphantasics do experience visual imagery in their dreams, so it seems that only voluntary visualisation is affected.

In the classroom, mental imagery seems to be especially important for reading comprehension and learning word meanings, and, according to at least to one theory, is a cornerstone for literacy.

Dual-coding theory, put forward by Allan Paivio of the University of Western Ontario in 1971, distinguishes between verbal and non-verbal thought processes, and places mental imagery as the primary form of non-verbal representation. Thus, information is stored in two different ways - verbally and visually - and although these two codes are independent of one another, and can each be used alone, they can also interact to enhance learning and recall.

Dual-coding theory has its limitations, the main one being the assumption that thought processes are based on nothing but words and images. Nevertheless, numerous studies published since the early 1970s confirm that mental imagery does indeed play an important role in how schoolchildren acquire literacy skills.

The work shows, for example, that mental imagery helps eight-year-olds remember what they read, and that students who are asked to create mental images during word memory tasks learn two and a half times as much as those who are told merely to repeat the words they need to remember. Verbal recall and visual images do appear to be separate but related, and while the ability to use imagery is not directly related to measures of intelligence, vocabulary, and reading comprehension, the spontaneous use of imagery helps children to learn and understand prose.

More recently, other studies have shown that mental imagery can help students grasp abstract concepts, and that encouraging students to use imagery can improve their understanding of such concepts.

One study shows that using mental imagery helps primary school pupils learn and understand new scientific words, and that their subjective reports of the vividness of their images is closely related to the extent to which imagery enhances their learning. Visualisation techniques are also helpful for the teaching and learning of mathematics and computer science, both of which involve an understanding of the patterns within numbers, and creating mental representations of the spatial relationships between them.

Aphantasia could possibly affect how students revise for exams, too. Using mind maps is one common strategy, which has been shown to effectively help them retain and recall information, and merely visualising the appropriate page of their revision notes can also help them to recall the information on it. It follows, then, that an inability to create mental images would hinder students' abilities to use such strategies.

Although aphantasia was first recognised more than one hundred years ago, there has been very little systematic research on the phenomenon, and so we still know very little about it.

For example, are people with aphantasia able to imagine sounds or touch sensations, or does the condition affect imagery in senses other than vision? Galton alluded to this in his original 1880 paper, concluding that "the missing faculty seems to be replaced so serviceably by other modes of conception... Men who declare themselves entirely deficient in the power of seeing mental pictures can nevertheless give life-like descriptions of what they have seen."

Regardless, research into visual imagery would seem to suggest that students with aphantasia are likely to experience difficulties with learning, but as yet there is no research confirming that this is the case.

"We know that children with aphantasia tend not to enjoy descriptive texts, and this may well influence their reading comprehension," says neurologist Adam Zeman of the University of Exeter who, together with his colleagues, gave the condition its name last year. "But there isn't any evidence directly linking it to learning disabilities yet."

Zeman adds that people with aphantasia may be able to form visual images, but just don't have conscious access to them. "The story really is still at the early stages, so the implications for education haven't been explored," he says.

Researchers use questionnaires to determine the vividness of mental images, and people's scores on these tests are closely correlated to measures of activity in visual brain regions.

Thus, it may be possible to objectively measure individual differences or variations in the vividness of people's mental images, and to identify students who have aphantasia. If it becomes clear that the condition does in fact impinge on children's ability to learn, it may then be possible to devise alternative learning strategies for them.
Get involved with the Use your head series by joining the discussion on #useyourhead Topics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
If you can't imagine things, how can you learn?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Never underestimate the power of visualisation. It may sound like a self-help mantra, but a growing body of evidence shows that mental imagery can accelerate learning and improve performance of all sorts of skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Developing a Growth Mindset with Carol Dweck

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's a well-established idea that, to develop expertise in a particular skill or technique, you need to practise. The more you practise, the better you get. As outlined by the excellent people at Deans for Impact in their Practice with Purpose document, it helps to identify a specific element of your teaching to practise on and then focus very deliberately on improving in that area.

Instead of flitting from one thing to another, dipping in and out, the suggestion is that teachers would do better to select one thing from all the options and try hard to keep at it until the practice feels more like a habit. This approach absolutely applies to numerous elements of behaviour management and most of the Silver Arrows I highlighted in this popular post. However, for this post I wanted to focus on pedagogical elements of teaching.

Here are ten things you might want to try to practice - deliberately:
1. Developing routine knowledge recall procedures.
It takes practice to establish this as a snappy, low-stakes routine, conducted in a disciplined fashion, at a frequency that really helps your students to retain the knowledge you've taught them. You need to establish a pattern that you can stick to:

identify the specific knowledge elements that lend themselves to snappy tests - a knowledge organiser broken into sections that students can focus on.

a quizzing method that students are familiar with and can organise readily - are you going to read out the questions, prepare each test or use ppt slide?

a quick method for self or peer checking of the answer - eg with answers on a visualiser or ppt slide.

a routine that returns to the same knowledge elements repeatedly so that the recall is strengthened; it needs not to take up too much time in any given lesson and happen often enough to become low stakes and habitual.

Develop the technique with multiple choice questions, sequencing of concepts/events and more sophisticated 'which is a better answer' style questions.
2. All-student response: using mini-whiteboards really well.
As I outline in this post - the No1 bit of classroom kit is a set of mini-whiteboards. The trick is to use them really well. You need to drill the class to use them seriously, to do the 'show me' action simultaneously in a crisp, prompt manner and, crucially, you need to get students to hold up the boards long enough for you to engage with their responses. Who is stuck? Who has got it right? Are there any interesting variations/ideas? Use the opportunity to ask 'why did you say that? how did you know that?' - and so on. It takes practice to make this technique work but it's so good when done well.
3. Questioning techniques:
Each questioning technique takes practice, especially if you are in the default-mode habit of asking the whole class every question and taking answers from those with their hands up. Make a deliberate effort to try out and practise these methods:

Random selection: use an online name generator or lollisticks or some other means of selecting students at random. It'a powerful effect. (Lollisticks need to be a no-nonsense practical tool, not a fussy gimmick - I've seen this done superbly well.)

Cold Calling: just check out technique 33 in Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion 2.0. I prefer this when combined with wait time and the name selected after the question. eg "What is 7 cubed?.....pause..... John?" With "John, what is 7 cubed?", only John has to think about it.

Probing: routinely ask follow-up questions for every question you ask, two or three times. Go deeper. I've explored this in Great Lessons 1: Probing.

Going Dialogic. An extension of probing - you set up the expectation that one student might engage in an extended dialogue to probe ever more deeply into their understanding with the rest of the class as an audience. It takes practice but works incredibly well. See Pedagogy Postcard 1.

4. Think Pair Share
A strategy I firmly believe is underused relative to its power. It takes practice to make it a routine with the necessary behaviour management strategies. It is fully explained in this post: The Washing Hands of Learning
5. Metacognition and modelling
Metacognition scored very highly in several ranked lists of effective teaching and learning strategies - eg Hattie's visible learning effects or the EEF toolkit. In a nutshell, it is the process of teaching students how to solve problems and complete complex tasks by making the strategies and thought processes explicit by modelling them. For example, in these non-verbal reasoning questions, you can show students how you go about solving them, narrating the process explicitly including double-checking all the wrong answers. This is something they can then practice. It works for modelling writing too - you need to walk through the full details of how you construct sentences and paragraphs to convey what you want to say in the way you want it said. Doing this well takes practice - try it.

Look no further than John Tomsett's posts on this, featuring some videos of modelling in action: Modelling and meta-cognition - and this one too.
6. Whole-class feedback instead of marking
Instead of slaving away late into the night with your red pen poised to ink up a massive set of exercise books, just read this brilliant post by Jo Facer: Giving feedback the 'Michaela' way. Read through the books, make some notes and give whole-class feedback instead. Do it over and over again and get good at doing it - practise. It's a game changer.
7. Critique-method feedback
Instead of merely nodding in jaded recognition at the Austin's Butterfly video, why not actually use the critique method it describes and develop real expertise with it. There are lots of ideas and resources to support you - nicely compiled in this excellent post by Dave Fawcett Creating a culture of critique . Let's see your students developing the expectation that their work will be critiqued in a specific, support manner allowing them to reach higher standards than they thought possible.
8. Deliberate vocab development
This links to the recall method above but here I'm thinking about a technique to cement vocabulary development specifically. Very often new words are encountered in lessons and teachers might explain them at the time - only for them to be completely forgotten about and, consequently, not learned. I suggest adopting a routine:

a region of a board is dedicated to new vocab;

new words are listed during the lesson with awkward spellings explored explicitly

new words are sounded out through choral repetition so that students all experience saying the words

students are asked to put the words in a sentence orally or in a place in their books for new words

the lesson list forms the basis of a systematic recall test the following day/week/month - something students learn to expect thus supporting their engagement with the words in the first place.

9. Embedded tiering: Mild, Spicy, Hot or Challenge, Turbo-challenge

Instead of differentiation meaning providing different work, develop a collaborative planning approach where question relating to any given topic are constructed with in-built tiering. I've seen this used superbly well at primary and secondary with labels such as bronze, silver, gold; mild, spicy and hot or, Core, Challenge, Turbo-Challenge.

This is not the same as setting artificially differentiated learning objectives - but it supports the organisation of a class where students progress at different rates, allowing everyone to find a suitable challenge level (seeking an optimal 80% success rate). Practice is needed not only to devise really good tiered sets of questions that still offer enough repetition at each level - but also to manage the learning in the classroom when everyone has diverged from the initial instruction phase.

10. Third time for excellence: Draft, re-draft, publish.

Again, taking something from Austin's Butterfly, try to create space in your curriculum planning to go the whole hog on redrafting so that students get to the third version: the third draft of a poem, story, essay or piece of writing in French; the third attempt at a painting; the third run-through of the performance, recitation or speech. The first one might be 'a great start'. After feedback, the second version is a big step forward, taking the feedback onboard. But you will find that Version 3 is where you see Excellence emerging. This is where it gets exciting. You can't do it for every piece of work - so pick your moment - but when you can, go for the power of three. You can get better at this - more streamlined; less bogged down in the individual feedback; less fussy about every detail of the first draft, focusing on specific elements over others. Try it.

Let me know how you get on.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ten teaching techniques to practise - deliberately.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's a well-established idea that, to develop expertise in a particular skill or technique, you need to practise. The more you practise, the better you get. As outlined by the excellent people at Deans for Impact in their Practice with Purpose document, it helps to identify a specific element of your teaching to practise on and...