Becoming an Outstanding English Teacher Becoming an Outstanding English Teacher supports all English teachers in offering a wide range of approaches to teaching and learning that will stimu- late and engage students in studying English. It offers practical strategies that can be used instantly in English lessons. The topics offer examples for questioning, differentiation and assessing pro- gress. Some of the ideas have also been incorporated into lesson plans using texts from the revised English National Curriculum.
With a strong focus on creativity and engagement, this book covers: • promoting thinking and independent learning skills in students • methods to check learning rather than doing in the classroom • techniques for personalising learning for students • creating an environment for behaviour for learning. Fully up to date with the National Curriculum guidelines and packed with practical strategies and activities that are easily accessible, this book will be an essential resource for all English teachers who are aiming to deliver outstand- ing teaching and learning continuously in their classrooms. Kate Sida-Nicholls was an English teacher for eighteen years and had various roles in English departments. She has been the programme leader of a teacher training course for the past four years in Suffolk and Norfolk and spends a significant amount of time in classrooms with qualified and trainee teachers.
Becoming an Outstanding Teacher Series Editor: Jayne Bartlett Becoming an Outstanding English Teacher Kate Sida-Nicholls Becoming an Outstanding Mathematics Teacher Jayne Bartlett Becoming an Outstanding English Teacher Kate Sida-Nicholls First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Kate Sida-Nicholls The right of Kate Sida-Nicholls to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Sida-Nicholls, Kate, author. Title: Becoming an outstanding English teacher / Kate Sida-Nicholls. Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2016. Identifiers: LCCN 2016007798| ISBN 9781138916968 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138916975 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781315689319 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: English language--Study and teaching--Great Britain.
| English language--Study and teaching--Curricula--Great Britain. | English teachers--In-service training--Great Britain. | Curriculum planning--Great Britain. | Classroom environment--Great Britain.
Classification: LCC LB1576 .0071--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.gov/2016007798 ISBN: 978-1-138-91696-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-91697-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-68931-9 (ebk) Typeset in Melior by GreenGate Publishing Services, Tonbridge, Kent Contents List of figures and tables ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction xii 1 Making connections 1 What makes a lesson outstanding? 2 The learning journey 4 What’s in it for me? 6 References 7 2 How does it all begin? 8 Bell work 8 Learning outcomes 12 Starter activities 14 Big Question 15 Checking prior knowledge of students at the start of the lesson 15 Starter activities 18 Review 21 v Contents Summary: start of the lesson 22 Reference 22 3 Learning in the main 23 Sequencing the learning 24 The main assessment activity 26 Summary 36 References 36 4 So how does it all end? 37 Learning outcomes 37 Brilliant outcome 38 Big Question 39 Plenary activities 40 Reflection 43 Home learning 45 Summary 48 5 What’s in a question? 49 Learning outcomes as questions 49 Teacher acting as a funnel for question and answer sessions 51 ‘Pose, Pause, Pounce, Bounce’ question strategy 52 Depth of Knowledge 54 Written questions in poetry or other texts 56 Answering questions 58 Students generating their own questions 58 vi Contents Summary 60 References 61 6 How do I know? 62 What is assessment? 63 Learning outcomes and success criteria 64 Quality of interactions with students 69 Encouraging reflection time 70 Marking as a form of assessment 72 Assessment without levels 73 Summary 75 References 75 7 Thirty different minds in the classroom 76 Differentiation by questioning 78 Differentiation by task 80 Differentiation by learning outcomes 82 Challenge/extension task 84 Differentiation with students with specific learning needs 84 Support notes 86 Visual images 86 Working with teaching assistants 86 Summary 88 Reference 88 vii Contents 8 The classroom environment 89 Classroom displays 89 Student contribution in lessons 90 Group work 91 Seating plans 93 Positive learning environment 93 Classroom assistants 94 Outside learning 96 Summary 98 Reference 99 9 Putting it all together 100 Key Stage 4 lesson plan 101 Key Stage 3 lesson plan 106 Summary 111 Reference 111 Conclusion 112 Index 113 viii Figures and tables Figures 2.1 Jigsaws as a bell work activity 10 2.2 Pictures as a bell work activity 10 2.3 Bell work – dingbats 11 2.4 My level of understanding continuum line 14 2.5 My level of understanding is … 17 3.1 Summary of learning in the main 36 5.1 ‘Quickdraw’ from Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy 57 7.1 List of assessable verbs from Ginnis 80 8.1 Setting behaviour expectations 98 Tables 2.2 Six Thinking Hats 28 3.3 Make a poem from a Source of Words 34 3.4 Tic-Tac-Toe activities 35 4.1 Progress chart 41 ix Figures and tables 5.1 Depth of Knowledge levels 55 5.2 Depth of Knowledge levels in Lord of the Flies 55 6.1 An Entrance Ticket for the start of a Year 7 lesson on nouns 68 6.2 An Exit Ticket for the end of a Year 7 lesson on nouns 68 7.1 Working with learning support assistants in English lessons 87 8.1 Creating a positive classroom environment 94 8.2 Working with additional adults 95 9.1 Lesson plan using ‘Quickdraw’ by Carol Ann Duffy 101 9.2 Teaching persuasive techniques 106 x Acknowledgements My thanks to my English friends, Andrea, Kerensa, Maéve, Sarah-Louise and Trevor, who all took their part in contributing to this book. I would like to thank Henry and Michael for giving me the time to write this book as it took longer than we all thought. I would also like to thank my English colleagues and trainees, past, present and future as I know what you do every day in your English lessons makes a difference. xi Introduction During my career, I have had the privilege of working with a range of teachers, including those who are qualified and those who are still training.
Being part of many teachers’ classrooms has confirmed to me that teachers want to do the best they can for their students and work incredibly hard in order to do this on a daily basis. Therefore, I have written this book as a way of helping to contribute to the range of resources that could make your life slightly easier in the classroom. Teaching day after day without much input from colleagues or engaging with purposeful and relevant continuous professional development can become draining. It can make you feel that you are teaching the same kind of thing and using the same sort of activities day after day.
This book will hopefully engage your interest and stimulate you to try something slightly different in your classroom. This book has the title ‘Becoming an outstanding teacher’ but that doesn’t mean that you need to read this book in order to become one. If you are look- ing for ways of doing things slightly differently in your teaching then you are likely to already be an outstanding teacher or well on the way to becoming one. An outstanding teacher is a reflective teacher.
So, if you are constantly look- ing for ways of improving your practice and seeking feedback from students and colleagues about the impact of your teaching then you definitely have the characteristics of an outstanding teacher. Therefore, the aim of this book is to help you build on your existing practice by providing you with some strategies that you might not have thought of before. Chapter 1 discusses some of the key ideas in education at the moment and defines what outstanding teaching and learning might look like over time. Chapter 2 provides strategies for ascertaining the students’ knowledge at the start of a lesson.
It provides ideas for creating the right behaviour for learning at the start of the lesson and how important sharing the ‘brilliant outcome’ (not just the outcomes) with students can be for all students. Chapter 3 is full of practical strategies for teaching the main part of a lesson and covers a range xii Introduction of ideas that you can just pick up and include in a lesson plan. Chapter 4 identifies how important it is to demonstrate progress by ascertaining what the students have learned rather than what they have done by the end of the lesson. Chapter 5 outlines ideas for incorporating questioning strategies into teaching and even provides scenarios of what questioning can look like in a classroom when done well.
It also includes subject specific questions to use when teaching Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Quickdraw’. Chapter 6 focuses on assessment and the importance of success criteria if meaningful peer and self assessment is going to take place in a lesson. Chapter 7 is about differentiation and how knowledge of your students is essential to personalising the teaching and learning for students. Chapter 8 discusses the importance of the classroom environment and some strategies for establishing the right behaviour for learn- ing are outlined.
Finally, Chapter 9 contains lesson plans that incorporate the strategies that have been outlined in the book. Again, ‘Quickdraw’ by Carol Ann Duffy forms one lesson plan and there is another one about persuasive language aimed at KS3. I have written them as two lesson plans but realise that they may take longer than one lesson depending on your context. I was an English teacher for eighteen years with various roles in schools and English departments and have now been running a teacher training programme for four years working with trainee and also qualified teachers in various con- texts.
The ideas and strategies in this book are practical and I know that they work in a range of classrooms as I, and others, have had the opportunity to use them in our teaching on a regular basis. I hope you feel after reading this book that it contributes to your classroom teaching in either a big or small way and helps you to become an outstanding teacher. xiii This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER 1 Making connections The job of an English teacher is one of the more high profile and accountable teaching roles in any school. Changes in the educational world are inevitable but what remains static is that English is always going to be the most important subject, along with Mathematics.
On one level, it is because schools’ results and reputations rely on the outcomes of the two subjects but more importantly, being literate to a good level and all that entails is the key to success in any- one’s life. Communication, whether reading, writing or speaking, is an essential skill that any young person needs to have in order to be successful in the ever changing twenty-first-century world. Employers state that young people need to be able to work collaboratively; make decisions based on evidence; assimi- late a range of information in a short space of time; manage their time; present a clear point of view etc. The list goes on but all of these skills can be explicitly taught within the subject of English.