How my day exploded Y8 ,Y10, Website, Examiner

Today has seen me explode with ideas and begin to set in stone the vast majority of them!

In the past something always got in the way of the majority of my ideas mainly alcohol. However I have found great comfort in a renaissance to my thinking! I can't emphasise how much clearer my thinking has become. My planning is so much clearer, exciting, wacky, contrasting, reflective, inquisitive driven. But more importantly I am razor sharp with my focus in class and I am picking up much more great learning as my attention is 100% focussed on the students learning with a clean body and mind.

Take today as an example. My class were learning about push and pull migration. They came in to the Clash 'should I stay or should I go?' On the board asked to immediately explain the title. Apply it to a situation in their life in the last week. Then hold a paired discussion on their table of 4. One pair had to work out the additional Q of what a push factor might be and what a pull factor might be and how they could link it to the song - they then linked back with the other pair on their table and came to an agreed way of phrasing both push and pull and then wrote the push on the black card and pull on the white card. The class examined all the options and decided on the best 2 definitions then they all checked their table glossary to judge how well as a class they had done on creating definitions. Naturally they were spot on;) The class then were told to focus back to the song Q posed and their own life situation and adviced to do a contrasting room shift one side I should? one side I shouldn't for the problem they had posed themselves. The class had a quick PPPB session

Pose - one student pose their problem (their answer was related to which side of the room they were on - pause give students thinking time then when they saw a collection of faces that had processed the point and they could tell by face/body language ask for a vote thumbs up for agree or down for disagree they then passed the 'cubes of destiny' to them - pounce they gave their response - on the whiteboards students wrote alternative options. Then after 57 seconds turned them round and the class voted by on whose response was best and then given 13 seconds to decide on the best option view (unlucky if your decision isn't chosen). They then received the cube of destiny to bounce it to the other side or to their side so both I should? And I shouldn't got a voice. The students did this twice each side so we were fair and not overly biased to one side. During this I was allocating positive learning and behaviour points to Classdojo. I also handed all the books out and set up the board for the next task. The class were refocused onto the next task.

This involved Led Zep! The immigration song (lyrics with a similar theme) they all stared at the whiteboard it was flashing black (negative for push) and white (positive for pull). To engage the students it was then adding instructions on what to do - go and sit down quickly we're about to start task 2! A whistle from the whiteboard focus on the board 'I shall say this only once!' 9 pictures categorise into push or pull using a turbo table in your book (turbo table - fold page in book in half and central line acts as table with divide) rank each side into worst push and best pull. 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 go! The students quickly organised themselves to be prepared for the task - not a word from me;)

The class then reflected on their choices by each table choosing a picture from the catch phrase now blanked screen - catch phase music as the picture revealed and a response - thumbs up or down if agree or disagree?

I judged whether I was happy the class knew their push and pull and I was happy to move on!

I introduced the class to West Side story and the song America - the class had been given by me whilst they worked on the last task (I used slide hand held remote to move slides on) the lyrics to this song. Their task was to watch the introduction to the scene and listen to the song and watch it for the actions then for each line of the song write next to it whether it was a push or a pull? Students were asked at the end if their was a pattern? Yes the boys were push the girls pull for America:)

Next was the independent task students could using one or more of the multiple intelligences create a representation of push and pull factors.

I watched for the next 20 minutes in awe at what they produced!

Each group planned their task and created their own outcome and success criteria and process ladder for others to see how they created their learning.

One pair created a song mix using westside story and should I stay or go - for each line by Anita they added the response 'Stay' from the Clash and for Bernardo they used 'Go' it sounded AWESOME! - Musical

Another group wanted mathematical - they wanted to review statistics for different countries for their immigrants and emigrants and they linked with another pair who wanted to map it as they wanted to do that:) - interpersonal

A linguistic group focused on push and pull wording in different languages and then categorise them with a series of pictures that they sourced.

Another - Intrapersonal - linked it to Football and the push and pull factors that draw them to going to games home and more importantly the away games they'd been pulled by and in the future wouldn't consider or would jump at!

And on and on with great ideas! Next lesson will be completing and then an exhibition to listen, watch etc each group or individual creation.

Then feedback and evaluation using post it notes using Ron Berger's Kind, Specific and Helpful.

Onto Y10 a fantastic class (low ability targets but that means nothing to me with what I can challenge their thinking with) we were moving our learning on from a topic overview lesson to introducing the structure of our planet, convection currents and then finally linking this to the movement of the 4 plate boundaries.

Students entered the room to each pair having a hard boiled egg and a cadbury's Cream egg on their desk. They had a knife no instructions let intuition take control. Some times less is more and let instinct take control. They cut the 2 open on the board was a slowly. Developing question letter by letter. Could the class workout the core question to the lesson before it ha finished they had to write it on their paired whiteboard and reveal. Students were Asked to describe the textures as they cut through the hard boiled egg and discuss in their pairs. Then share with their table each person on the table adding a comment to the whiteboard to show the class - brittle shell that cracked as we applied pressure to it and soft white section smooth in texture but thick enough not to run then a solid yellow yolk. Students had some prior knowledge to this of the structure names but I wanted the textures in their minds to show different compositions like our earth. A quick table to classify and sort out properties with a 4 part information sheet that students had to organise for each section of the earth. Why do we have a hot core? Collisions with other rock bodies during the formation stages of our planet-demonstrate it:) punch the palm of one of your hands repeatedly fairly hard.. What happens? Test it now:)

Oh it goes red and gets hot:)

Whilst they did this I set up my fish tank (no fish) in the middle of the room students were told to form a circle around it one of the pairs bring an iPad from the table to film the others a whiteboard to describe what they see. Three on the table writing about the same thing as one is likely to miss a little as is two as is three but combine and likely to have a thorough set then they have the iPad video as well to replay and self assess their initial description and compare and contrast with each other the 4th makes a model answer from the other 3 to share with the class. http://youtu.be/7xWWowXtuvA this is an example of what they watched. No prior explanation to give it away just this is a model of what is happening beneath our feet each and every second. Describe what you see happening to the blue and red dyed water.
Next a picture of a radiator how does it hear our room? Think, pair and share and a quick research on the iPad for how. Now some relational learning opportunities can students link to the earth structure and its varying properties? You bet they could quickly linking the hotter outer core to the top of the mantle which is cooler and the crust acting as the barrier to split and force the flow side ways of the heat flow. I got students to demonstrate this flow pattern with their fingers. Hold them in pray position then push on to the table using the tips of their fingers. What happens. Give it a go?

Students from this were given another piece of earth dynamics to link to this process. Movement of the plates generated by convection currents could move in 4 core motions. Again initially nothing given by me I wanted to give thinking time to allow themselves, pairs, table and class to see if they could come up with these movements. As they were thinking saying nothing I put a picture slide show showing effects of the different motions to aid thinking to try and make connections with the motions. Stop. Find out time. Using their hands with eyes closed so as not to initially look at anyone else what had they discovered - hands coming together, hands moving apart and hands sliding past each other 3 out of 4 open eyes look at each other:) Laughter with some of the moves:)

So which had they missed?

Yes destructive plate margin movements where the heavier oceanic plate sinks and subducts beneath the lighter continental crust. Time for a demonstration ;) each table had an iPad and their green learning books. Can you work out what they did? Think before you read on:)

They slid the iPad and and book towards each other and found everytime the book went over the top of the iPad! Why? Heavier:) Just like the two plates.

Now for subduction! I got students to do another self demonstration on themselves- hold hands out flat - point them towards each other tilt your left hand downwards slightly but keep the line of the hand fingers straight next using the tips of your fingers of your right hand slide up and down quickly with a bit of pressure between the finger joints on your left hand. Again give it a go what happens?

Where you rub gets hot and read and your finger tips begin to hurt- a student shouts out (shame I wanted think, pair, share again about it:) sir that is friction! Bang on! So all describe what you have demonstrated what will happen to the rock during this time? - melt they said as a table yes then what will happen? Think, pair, share link to the tank- The melt will rise like in the tank the red dye:) bingo!

We then had 20 minutes left over to the class to again Use any of the multiple intelligences to demonstrate the movements if the four plate boundaries:)

I opened it over 2 lessons like the Y9 class to complete, exhibition present-feedback-evaluate-judge-reward.

By the end of the lesson I had a song, 6 stop motion animations, a dance like this one on YouTube some of my students made http://youtu.be/yCwS7ikN0_0 , a university lecturer podcast, an image collage and a few more gems.

My next thinking of the day was planning the school geography website that I'm going to create alongside students and the other geographers in the department. In the coming months watch out for the GeographyLord.com nothing yet but come back in a month or so;) (name because school is Lord Lawson).

I've enjoyed watching the progress of Mission Explore and Discover the World Iceland booklets. I had a hand in this epic resource by visiting Iceland and creating missions for it. I know you'll love them and if your school goes to Iceland for a trip be sure to contact Discover the World for the packs to download:)

My final part of the learning day involved me visiting Northumbria University to meet the Chief Examiner of AQA with some Y12 students. They listened and did some work in his workshop but the joy came from a student called Paige who told me and I quote 'Sir you owned everyone' She seemed super happy with the efforts I'm putting in to prepare her for the Geog 2 exam! I love moments like this:) I loved 2 of the students respond to his questions and he responded with 'Oh that is very clever I love that very technical' and 'ohh that is fantastic identification of this photo'. What I have in my minds eye is the smiles they have me saying a thank you for your efforts in helping us get ready for this exam:)

So I go to bed now with a clear, content mind which is buzzing away with what to do next.

So tomorrow is Urban100. A 500m transect walk in Newcastle taking 100 pictures one every 5m and creating a visual and mapping show from it. I plan to do it day and night to make comparisons between the two. I would love for you to do the same thing as part of #urban100 http://urbanearth.ning.com/events/urban100?xg_source=activity


I'm planning on Mission:Explore missions in Edinburgh and Italy for field trips coming up this year in March and July and I'll begin planning the Italian classes for the students going to Italy. Phew! But most importantly I can get cracking knowing I'll have a clear head in the morning:) I bid you good night!

Questioning

The start of a new term is nearly upon us and I am going in revitalised due to a number of life changes.

One aspect of getting back into the classroom and school environment is to listen to the great array of questions, challenges and responses I'll hear and be involved in. I love questioning and the potential depth to thinking it can generate. However far to often including in my own practice I prevent opportunities for taking the thinking deeper by posing a new challenge, problem to keep that engaging thrust of something new flowing in the room. This is good a trigger but like a gun firing the trigger too often at the same target can lead to the death of something. In this case deep thinking that challenges students.

So how about a strategy. Well my preferred method if you look at the pictures is Socratic questioning. I made a simple model which shows a possible method to students thinking about a question deeply and as a result using a whole multitude of other questions to come to an answer or perhaps a new aim to test by questioning the question and generating a new core question.

I've provided a series of pictures of a set of cards my school has provided that help provide a starting point for each of the stages of Socratic questioning so that the metaphorical ball can start rolling and as in a rolling snowball down a snow filled slope the momentum building and the ball - thinking expanding:)

So what are the question Socratic circle questioning poses?

It is a 6 step process:

• clarify
• challenge assumption
• evidence for argument
• viewpoints and perspectives
• implications and consequences
• question the question

By getting students to explore this process they are thinking about that impulsive answer try give. Have you ever had that moment as a teacher where you ask a student "why did you give that answer?" and you get back a shrug of the shoulders or a "urghh I don't know!" How many of us commit the cardinal sin of not even asking that question?

Questioning is crucial it allows me to go through the teaching process of acknowledging what learning and the depth of it and more importantly the opportunity of identifying this with ALL students in class. Therefore a process that takes more than a second is benefit to me as it allows me to lap the room listening to every table and a large majority of students if not all their use of questioning. I find using Classdojo has helped me identify this as I highlight each student on my iPhone as I lap as I hear them using questioning. If I haven't heard a student I identify this on my mobile device and I will go up to listen to them and ask them a question or two about so that I a have at least acknowledged everyone in class. This sounds like it takes a long time but give it a go and you'll be amazed at what you can pick up about a student/your class by lapping. It allows you to stop the class when you hear amazing thinking going on by handing the role of tutor to a student to tell the rest of the class. This can give them confidence, worth and aid others in your class to focus on something specific or think along a different avenue than they would otherwise have done.

This opens up another can of learning worms or threads as Socratic circle questioning in my view works best in pairs or as a table of 4 to allow the process to be deeper by allowing more viewpoints to be explored, implications, reasons, evidence etc. but more importantly I allows students to communicate and use literacy skills. Talking and listening especially with questioning allow students to use specific language and learn the powers of communication. These skills are very high for employers as let's face it a large majority of jobs involve an interview of talking and listening! So students thinking and interacting to learn from each other and extract information to make acknowledgments to help solve a problem are crucial life skills.

So look at the model picture for socratic questioning and give it go following the step by step process. Look at the cards and have a go yourself at planning it into a lesson or two next week it is a great strategy for developing progression of thinking.

Doing this every single lesson could develop learning boredom and throughout the years I have tried to plan the use of varied questioning into my lessons to keep the students intrigued as to what they'll expect next lesson. But at times it can be difficult to trace these questions.

This was where I worked on a question matrix I had seen. The main thought process of this for me was for me to clearly identify question threads I had use with a specific class and student and as a result I could personalise questions for them and then the process would be taken away from me and the student command it by personalising their own questions.

Each student has a question matrix in the back of their book and as try use a question thread from it they mark it off. On class learning walks I can sit o a I prefer to do kneel so I'm level with the students and get them to run me through questions they have used in their book and the matrix and the student from it identifies question styles they are effective at answering and those that they may not be. They then plan the next sequence o questions that they'll work on. The role for me is to monitor students question use and effectiveness and also to help make sure throughout the year they are using all threads and have made progress in the use of each question type. I have found it the most brilliant form of simple personalised planning for ALL students.

The matrix has another clear process. It allows students to plan progressively deeper thinking questions into a lesson or a project. So their learning follows a path. A self developed strategy to move down the matrix and further to the right.

This isn't to say that the questions at the top left aren't important. In fact far from it but these are what I refer to as closed or hinge point questions. They have a set answer. This could be a date or a landform name, a type of plate boundary that is important to get right as if not they could get the whole process wrongly linked to a specific location and so the effects, solutions may not be valid.

These questions are often I effectively used in lessons and can become a ping pong question between a teacher and one single student. What is the plate margin type that splits Iceland? Students put hand up teacher asks one student they answer constructive. Yes right and move on! What about the others in the class? What do they think? These questions could go around a table via the PPPB method. Pose the question, Pause for thinking time - I always think about what I will cook for dinner, let students discuss. I get the Pounce bit by saying ones on the table give your answer to the table am Bounce it to number 3 - I think it is x what do you think? So a quick Kagan strategy helps each table discuss and listen to thinking.

So I have mentioned a few strategies so far that I use in class socratic, matrix and PPPB, and there are many more.

One type that I love to implement involves TV quiz shows. Programmes like 'Pointless', Going For Gold, Blockbusters etc these have a slick style to them that keeps me and many others entertained when I get in on a night. But they work really well in class and can allow students to create and think deeply about answers that they have researched. Take Pointless it involves trying to find answers that few others will have known. This is a great concept to use in the classroom or as a research task. Find some information that is of use to a question posed as an Objective and allow students to question whether other people will have researched the same fact etc. it has led to some very interesting and extremely wide ranging points made in circle time discussions. It has engaged the students to think deep! Each student can then add their point to the question wall via a post it note or write it on the windows and allow time for other students to see if they can connect the point made to a specific aspect if they can it isn't pointless and the student(s) who found it get rewarded but if no one in the class can that student or group have a Pointless answer and so get rewarded. Also it is opportunity for me to look at the puzzled question wall where if a student or group have any issues the post it there and I can help or ask the class if anyone knows the answer or how to help and give them the responsibility of becoming tutor.

Later into a lesson or a project a. Student or group may finish the process. I don't say well done have a break far from it they take over role of tutor and become question monitors. Each will have a different focus on what they are managers of and try will go round with an iPad or my iPhone with Classdojo and give students points based on the discussions they have as they monitor the class. They can help solve issues as they have developedan effective strategy in the lesson (I check what thy have done first asking evaluative questions where the student traces their learning path and reflects on what they discovered etc) they then go and pass that strategy on as well hoeing their work off.

I briefly above linked the TV show question style with Objective questions. These are incredibly powerful and when constructed using solo taxonomy or blooms taxonomy allow students to clearly identify the skill the question involves and the ultimate learning purpose to the lesson to keep them focussed on the specific learning you are wanting to assess them on. The students will see the question and then have to question themselves or their group on how they will answer the question. What intelligence will they use? Musical in a song a music video, linguistically via a radio news report etc. students have a blooms wheel in their books that they spin or point to if they glued it in. This is the strategy they will use to solve this objective question. But why that method over another? Always questioning the question and questioning the learning method. I prefer for students to use their strengths at the start of the year so I can identify G&T students but also so I can identify possible strategies for stretch and challenge for ALL students and how we'll go about personalising those in our mini one on ones as I lap the room. Then throughout the year students underline what they have used so we have another audit system to check how thy are learning and going about solving problems and identifying strategies they haven't used and so could employ in the coming lessons. Why haven't you used that method? Have you seen or heard someone who has? You have! Have you asked them how they use it? No. Ask them I'm positive they'll do a great job in explaining it to you for you to attempt it as well. This extends the learning experience in my classroom where students are taking control and becoming self managers, reflectors, and more importantly planners for the future so they are planning their learning development and can identify what they have done, what they know to have gone well, what they need work on etc. Great for telling parents when they get home and me:)

I have started to lose track in my mind of what I have identified as questioning methods in my classroom. Actually I roughly know but that isn't really good enough! I need a rock solid plan so I KNOW! This reduces the risk of what has happened to me on many occasions where a class leave the lesson and a minute later I curse myself thinking ahhh we didn't get to that or I should have asked that etc...

I saw on twitter the great 5 minute lesson plan create by Ross McGill. I love using it as it is quick! But it got me thinking. Why not create a 5 minute questioning plan that quite easily can be used over a week or a project! So I did. As you can see in the picture it uses all of the questioning methods I have identified. The Columbo style is simply for the end of lessons or projects as summary questions to check are we at the end of the questioning process where we have the answer. This plan has really helped my focus to topics and lessons and means I am thorough. Students get a copy on their table or I print one off and put it on the door or the whiteboard for all to see. I have even started putting blanks on tables where students add their own and I use these for reflection of the lesson and as an evaluation for how I could adopt the main questions got another class or for next year. A very effective planning tool and once again it is handing over responsibility and command of the learning to the students where they feel empowered and wanted in that lesson 50 minutes:)

Give it a go and I'm sure it will strengthen questioning in your lesson and allow your students to stretch and challenge their thinking.

Questioning powerful or not? Let me know what you find out.

Questioning/thinking old classics that still have legs

I've recently read many great posts about questioning and thought I'd throw my 10 pence worth into the melting pot.

Here are two posts to get you thinking:

http://huntingenglish.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/questioning-top-ten-strategies/

http://taitcoles.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/punk-learning-i-want-to-be-free-free-to-learn-to-be-me/

I'll let you read their approaches, which are inspiring.

My focus will involve a few TV shows that had question stems that work brilliantly for geography and other subjects. I'll introduce the TV show and how I've used them over the years to develop students questioning and thinking.

Pointless

I've recently cottoned on to this TV show and have to say I love it for a number of reasons.

1. The presenters have a great chemistry together bouncing off each other.

2. More importantly it inspires people to really think hard about a specific topic/question. Contestants have to think of an answer that others might not know from a selection of mini answers in rounds 1-2. The less popular the answer the lower the points and less points wins!

This could be adapted for the classroom as a starter where students write answers on a whiteboard in secret and then reveal their answer for all to compare answers and evaluate whose was pointless. Alternatively set it as a homework where you set a question and get students to email in the answer or drop it in the pointless answer box as a plenary to then work through as a starter in the next lesson.

In the final round a set question is selected from a number of possible topics and then the contestants think of 3 pointless answers for it and see if no one else came up with it when 100 were asked.

My thinking is that students could set other students a question from their topic/project etc and gather 100 answer responses for it, then rank using a pointless scale and get them to test it out.

You could then get students to reverse the pattern and take over as tutor and teach the pointless answer to be known by all. -

How could you make a pointless answer known by all?

Why is it a pointless answer?

What part of the topic is the pointless answer related to?

This questioning thread is important to a teacher as you can adjust your planning to make specifics more accessible to students in order to limit the pointless answers:)

Tedious/Tenuous Link

From BBC Radio 1 and the Chris Moyles Show / Jo Whiley Show set a question and get students to make connections to it that MUST connect in some form in order to count. A great starter / plenary / form time task. These really do get creative minds ticking.

Ticking..... Ah yes my old personal favorite quiz show.

GOING FOR GOLD

I loved the buzzer round where in pairs (pairs in class, teams, class sides or dare I say it boys and girls) and Matthew Kelly would set the question thread...

WHO AM I? WHAT AM I? Or WHERE am I?

Matthew would then start off with vague or small details describing something that was connected to the term and then through time he added extra detail till it became obvious. (See picture 4,3,2,1) it was a timed part and every 5 seconds it switched sides locking the other out from giving an answer. If you got a question right you could take control or pass to the other person to start off with the harder little detailed 5 second start. Try it in class I find it gets the class very competitive. It can be great in 3s - 1 think up the question and hints and the other 2 have a competitive go. All methods link brilliantly with Classdojo.

It really gets students thinking about what details to add about a topic and when to avoid others getting the answer straight away. BUT to avoid a penalty when the clock finishes the question setter has to read out other connectives / hints till someone gets it to work on depth of answer skill and literacy.

Blockbusters

This task was doing the rounds a few years ago but it seems to be rarely seen or heard of in my opinion lately.

The concept is you have a board of yellow hexagon letters (see picture of yellow letter board). Students select a letter from the board and a set question is asked that incorporates that letter. The answer starts with the letter selected.

E.g. What Q______ do we ask each day in order to generate an answered response......

I find blockbusters questions work brilliantly with checking/assessing glossary terms. Getting students using Key Geography Words is a crucial skill with developing writing in my subject and activities like this help to plant the seed and get students familiar with the terms.

I get students to create blockbuster boards with answers. The best boards students make are solo-fied! So the terms and questions connect together. The longer the connected board the better. It's great for developing sequencing. And a great revision hook for students recognizing lettered sequences and linking this to a process or topic in a chronological way. All from a simple letter question!

A brilliant visual set of question stimuli come from my next EPIC TV show.

Question Of Sport

I grew up watching this programme every week. Although the host and team presenters/leaders have changed many of the core elements to the show have remained. WHY? Because they are fantastic and really stimulate great discussions, answers and more importantly THINKING.

The first question thread that has stood the test of time is:

What happens next?

This can be asked as a verbal response, as a written answer with ....... At the end or how I prefer to use it as a picture or video clip. This never fails to draw out some crazy, unique answers. The trick is to ensure in someway that the answers MUST incorporate something from the stimulus material in order to keep focus and a connection with the question.

An example I have used (see pictures is ZZ) what did he do next.....
You could then ask what COULD he have done differently? If he was in the same situation again what might he do instead? What was going through his mind before...during....after the incident?

You could get students thinking in a time sense. So what could have happened prior to the incident to cause ZZ to headbutt the Italian?

Or why did the referee have to send ZZ off?

Go through this process with your material. It'll add depth to them and engagement.

Many pictures can be adjusted by just adding a box over it or blanking a video at a key point.

Special guest

I use to love this part of the show where a famous sport star would be hindered from view only for some clues to show themselves.

This could be done with pixelating a picture or covering a video up with your body if your not technically minded with ICT, or turn the whiteboard off and just have sound playing and get students to make connections.

I often get students to do this for homework creating visual questions for others to answer.

Anyway I'm getting tired now so I'll leave it there.

I have just scratched the surface on some of the TV show questioning styles. Try them out ROTATE THEM so that students get a WIDE variety to test their thinking skills and keep them on their toes:)

Highlight text so Googling research isn't just copy-paste-don't read-hand in

I've been working on a simple technique with my students lately to ensure that they are reading what they research.

I read an article today about how 'googling' something has reduced research to a quick task of type-copy-don't read as we trust what the top site that google puts up from the search then hand in or bring to a lesson thinking we have done some effective research. Realistically this is just gathering information BUT it isn't research. In my interpretation of the term research it should involve using the first part of the word... RE.....REad, REadjust, REsemble. Therefore taking it apart and REconnecting.

It got me thinking of my past. Where once people might have used a technique I used at university where I would go to the library and read information from a variety of sources, photocopy it, highlight important sections of text that are relevant to my research question and  then write an article to take to a seminar.

So why not get students to do this technique electronically!

SO I DID!

Students started of with a question that I set them.

'Why is a species endangered?'

Firstly I directly students to one website that I told them I TRUSTED.

www.arkive.org

Students selected a species from it and copied the threats to that species and pasted it into a word document.

Students then gathered further information from at least 2 other sources off the net. I want a culture where students collected from more than one source to help counter the issue of bias. Once again students pasted the information into the word document. 

Students now have a collection of information to begin reading.

The more able students picked out specifics mentioned in the text and added them to google to gather more specific information about their species.

The next stage is the crucial one as it is where students really start to READ what they have collected. I told students to highlight reasons with a colour and different reasons with different colours. So students would begin to notice whether their species had threats from more than one source.

The colours would then act as a structural jigsaw. Students would create sub-titles for each colour and then rearrange by grouping the colours together. This could allow students to begin to make a visual evaluation. As more of one colour would indicate a greater threat to a species as writers generally they found talked more about more serious threats to the species. So by looking at the amount of each colour students could rank reasons into different levels of importance.

The next step is crucial. I get students to read each coloured section, which often is repetative as different sources often uncover the same reasons for why the species was endangered. Students produce a written summary for each coloured section and so they end up with a thorough process where they have READ information to answer a question.

I have found that the retention of what students research has gone through the roof! It definitely takes a long time for students to do this technique but they are realising the benefits as they are retaining what they are doing and so learning new things from their reading not just falling into the shallow blank googling technique where students and us don't READ!

Here is a quick guide to how I introduced it to students the powerpoint was made by another teacher in the department that I work in and she is fantastic.

explain_assessment_end_species.pptx Download this file

I've also attached two pieces of work from students on what they have produced from it.

One has even highlighted their own text to show how they are working on their literacy and highlighting terms to show they are explaining as that was what the question was asking for.

TURTLE_ASSESSMENT_;D.docx Download this file

Endangered_Tigers_research.docx Download this file

 

Teachmeet Cramlington Presentation

Here is a link to my presentation at Teachmeet Cramlington. It involves Critique and Solo Stations. The end has 2 slides in how to incorporate technology especially mobile devices into planning.

Teachmeet_Cramlington.ppt Download this file

Solo Taxonomy as a revision tool Using QR codes and a Google Form

I need time to add the resources for this.

My first attempt at a revisional exercise using SOLO involved halved hexagons.

Students worked in pairs and were presented with a series of halved hexagons. The hexagons were split between question stems and answers to those questions. They had to piece the hexagons together.

When they had achieved this they then flipped the hexagons over to reveal a QR code constructed when they pieced the correct hexagon halves together. If they had connected the hexagon correctly with the correct question stem and answer the QR code when scanned would launch them to a google form.

In the first instance of doing this I cut out the hexagons and then on the back I stuck a printed out QR code for a specific set of statistical details of the case study. Then I simply cut the hexagon in half. Wa la! 

Google forms are brilliant and they offer teachers multiple ways to construct a question and more importantly answer input from the student. The question types range from text, paragraph text, multiple choice, choose from a list, check, to a grid.

I mainly used simple multiple choice options as I wanted this stage to be quick and for students to get on to the main activity. So why was I using this?? 


I wanted students to build up the use of key CASE STUDY specific statistics and details.

So students filled out the google form and checked to see how well they knew the statistical and detail parts of their case study.

They then went on in class to construct an essay answer based on the case study, which was about China’s One child policy for an approach to reduce population growth. They were allowed to use the completed google form as well.


But before going hell for fire into the essay I wanted students to flip over the hexagons again and to using the hot map guide frame in my small at the minute thinking tool kit.


This was a stimulus to get students to arrange the hexagons around 3 core themes. Advantages, Disadvantages and background of the one child policy. The background hexagons I wanted students to think of as depth to the case study so they were still relevant and worthy of including in an essay.

I’m also working on developing students literacy especially with the longer questions such as the 6-9 markers. SOLO fits brilliantly with this as from the specification to get to a level 3 answer (GCSE) students must demonstrate that they are linking their answer together and use case study specific terminology and detail.

What is that highlighted term??? (I sense people are putting 2 and 2 together here and seeing RELATIONAL!

I have begun very basic with my students and need to have a word with English subject folk on how to really develop this but my efforts are simple. Such as the linking sentence terms in bold below.


So to the essay with a google form and solo arranged hexagons as resources to use to combat the essay.


The following is an answer by one of my students that I have simply copy and pasted from an email I asked to send containing it!


The 1979 One Child Policy introduced by China was a policy to reduce the rapid population growth problem and limit the strain put on scarce resources. The policy would work by limiting the number of children a family could have to 1 if Parents had only one child they would get a "one-child glory certificate," which entitles them to economic benefits such as an extra month's salary every year until the child was 14. Among the other benefits for one child families were higher wages, interest-free loans, retirement funds, cheap fertiliser, better housing, better health care, and priority in school enrollment. Women who delay marriage until after they are 25 would receive benefits such as an extended maternity leave when they finally get pregnant. This demonstrates a carrot approach to entice Chinese couples to have only one child. The stick approach involved these privileges been taken away if the couple decides to have an extra child.

To help promote the one child policy Slogans such as “Have Fewer Children Live Better Lives” and "Stabilise Family Planning and Create a Brighter Future” were painted on roadside buildings. Some crude family planning slogans such “Raise Fewer Babies, But More Piggies” and "If you give birth to extra children, your family will be ruined" These were banned in August 2007 because of rural anger about the slogans and the policy behind them. The one child policy angered rural people as many are farm workers who need labour hands to help produce the food that China needs! Therefore if the one child policy was nationwide it would make resourcing such as food production even scarcer!

However the one-child policy actually only covered about 35 % of Chinese, mostly those living in urban areas. The conventional wisdom in China has been that controlling China's population serves the interest of the whole society and that sacrificing individual interests for those of the masses is justifiable.

A huge problem with the one child policy was the impact on abortions. Most families wanted a boy in order to work and carry on the family name and so as a direct result of this there was a dramatic increase in female abortions. They accounted for 90% of all Abortions!! This also led to scenes such as babies dumped on the street or under bridges. This shows from a human being perspective that the policy was destroying human rights!

In conclusion the policy although it harsh especially with the impact on abortions and steralisation after many births on the mother the effects on population growth are clearly optimistic and beneficial to the country’s problem. In 1979 China had a birth rate of 40 per 1000 in a year as a result of the ‘one child policy’ this was reduced to 17 per 1000 per year by 1980. Therefore the one child policy worked as a strategy to reduce the population growth as the birth rate fell by 23 per 1000 per year.

I was really impressed with this essay. She has clearly used statistics and case study specific details throughout.


So in conclusion I thought the lesson went brilliantly. 


The use of solo as a strategy to get to this stage have been huge and I will be doing a hell of a lot more SOLO with my classes.

Incidentally I have begun a voyage with many other Geographers in using SOLO taxonomy. If you are interested then we've created a hashtag on twitter called #geogsolo 

I have also created a series of google docs on different aspects on employing Solo in Geography. Many of the sections are bare at the minute but they will be extensively added to over the coming week as I am on half term.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsyyHtZmTwFAdDdHZE5FN184bnByQm1GMThwdElyN1E#gid=0

Plus to emphasis the power of twitter we are having a global #geogsolo discussion for an hour on 16th June 12pm GMT. COME AND JOIN US!

#DurhamTM a quick Mission:Explore introduction

An introduction to Mission:Explore the books, website and the coming food book.

mission_explore_powerpoint.pptx Download this file

Scoop.it at #Durham Teachmeet

A quick (ish) inroduction to scoop.it see earlier post for a more thorough overview.

Scoopit.pptx Download this file

Mute Lapping as presented at #DurhamTM

Mute Lapping is my current concept in the classroom. In a nutshell it is PBL, Solo Taxonomy, Classdojo, Kagan collaboration, Socrative feedback and whole class presentations via an exhibition format.

If you want to get in touch with me about anyone it contact me on twitter @JOHNSAYERS

Mute_lapping_solo.pptx Download this file

 

Mute Lapping

Here is a basic powerpoint with the concept of what I'll be talking about regarding Mute Lapping with PBL, Solo, Kagan, DL Leader packs, Classdojo and Socrative.

Mute_lapping.pptx Download this file

CampEd12 Reflection

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Two days have past since the brilliant CampEd12. In that time I've struggled to get back into the swing of the day job. This has been a direct result of some quality/bizarre reflective time.

If you haven't already read up about CampEd12 as you don't follow those who attended then in a nutshell it was created out of a tweeting discussion between Tim Rylands, Dughall McCormick and Bill Lord from memory. The discussion evolved around the cost issues with conferences and CPD sessions and Tim Rylands commented that one in his own Shed would be better!

As twitter is an incredible networking tool the wonderful Helen Daykin soon added her 10 pence worth to the mix and got involved to quickly volunteered her Mother's farm as a site where an outdoor conference/festival of fun could be sited.

After a teething problem surfaced, which destroyed the concept of Shedfest in name sake at least as it's a wine festival in California the concept evolved into the wonderfully clear descriptive title of CampEd12.

At this stage I started to inquire whether I could be an attendee as I saw the list of brilliantly inspiring people grow and grow into an event that I felt I couldn't miss.

I'm at a relatively early stage of my teaching career and since joining twitter I've followed many incredible people in the education World some of the most inspiring were attending CampEd12.

As a direct result of twitter I've tried to develop myself into being a person that other educators can reflect with, share ideas, read interesting and note worthy news articles. In a year I've seen my followers grow to other 1600. A decent amount that could only of happened by other reflective learners in a similar network of people joining in on conversations on #ukedchat or #geographyteacher that I throw myself into on a daily basis.

So this was my journey that took me to hearing about CampEd and signing myself up to attend.

Since returning from CampEd12 I've read many blog posts on it. A few really stick in my mind as they emphasised my situation. The great Dawn Hallybone posted one of them. Her situation is like mine. A partner who glances over to see me engrossed in my phone, iPad of Mac in a twitter conversation on something educational. Jess often gets extremely frustrated with seeing me return home from school to then start nattering on about Geography at home! this was a feeling I felt Dawn and I shared with our partners.

"Put it down" is a phrase Jess is sick of saying!

When the event drew nearer and nearer I began to feel guilty of leaving Jess at home on her own considering she has just been made redundant. So I sounded her out saying that it'd be fun and time for us to spend away from the 4 walls of home and reflect on our current circumstances.

Unlike another blog post by Nicky Allman where her family decided against camping I decided to brave the suggestion that Jess and I should camp as I thought we were homing another camper. Jess made inquiries into the local pub but financially we I convinced her camping was better for us.

Jess was less than convinced and her trepidation was well founded as 4 weeks earlier we had camped in Gloucester where we had to come home early as she became sick through the cold. The forecast for CampEd was not looking favourable temperature wise!

Anyway we decided to pack the kitchen sink and the entire spare bedroom of extra duvet and set off with the car packed to capacity!

On arrival like all of the blog posts we've read on returning home we were greeted with a number of warm hand shakes and embraces from the core organisers and set upon the 1st great mountain to climb (see other posts regarding the mountain climb to the pub) setting up camp!

Unlike the other campers who had set up their respectable and sensible tents I decided to bring my 12 berth Outwell beast that was to become known as 'Hotel Sayers' 'Mission:Explore base' or via sections as the 'East Wing'. I love my tent as it has a great communal area to relax in any weather situation.

This was to be the case for the opening day as Emma Dawson and I had brought along some of our favourite Guerilla Missions for anyone and everyone who wanted to explore.

This allowed me to catch up with the incredible modest Emma who never gives herself enough credit in my opinion with things that we're doing in school. We allowed those who came to the Mission Tent to explore on their own and left everyone to their own devices a skill many teachers really need to adopt as much as possible but that's another story that I like to have on my ever appearing soapbox!

After a sneaky trip up to the pub to catch the final score of the FA Cup Final I sampled a glorious ale named 'April Showers' unfortunately for me and a number of others it soon ran dry:( Mind this didn't spell disaster as many great conversations were stoked up including with the incredibly approachable Bryn Llewellyn, Chris and Catherine.

In the evening we were treated to an outstanding BBQ courtesy of the great pub owner! The sausages were nicely spiced and the burgers yummy. Plus the spicy chilli was right down my street:)

This was followed by a great musical treat from Dan Bowen, Kevin Mc Laughlin plus special children guest appearances and the incredible BEV Evans ! WOW SUCH TALENT was on show! Plus Jamie who was the best egg shaker I've ever seen!

This was where Jess and I were pretty nervous as I've only known people through twitter so I socially felt pretty scared to sit and natter so we simply took a step back and observed laughter a plenty and made our way to bed to gaze at the Super Moon before the freezing cold kicked in!

Luckily Jess came prepared with 2 hot water bottles, 2 sleeping bags each and our thick duck feathered duvet! We'd need it! The morning followed plenty of body shuddering from the cold. It was a little earlier than welcomed due to the cockerels and the infamous cuckoo or was that owl Tony Parkin kept telling us all about:)

Day 2 was more relaxed Jess and I needed some thinking time for our penny counting future and opted for the great activity of Geocaching and a walk.

I love Geocaching and my 320 total in 1 country was well and truly eclipsed by the brilliant Lord James Langley with his 400 + from 7 countries soon to be 8:) I've done plenty of Geocaching in my time and thought of different ways to use them from mission explore cache boxes, to panoramic photo reference boxes to historical changes to an area to visual changes to seasonal changes in a QR code instruction in the geocache, to a game based traceable competition.

But I had never done Geocaching with the GPS devices the Lord had brought.

Instantly I was in my silly element! With squashing imaginary Geckos and other games. This was a fab ice breaker game that got to all at ease with people we didn't know.

On the Geocaching main challenge my group got talking about the pedagogical worth and value of Geocaching and quickly kept coming back to the outdoor quality it brings but came up with some strategies to make the searching time into thinking time or activity in itself time. We loved the dimensions, distance, direction and orientation aspect to build EAL issues and the QR code uses seen earlier but more importantly the fun aspect. We each discussed how at finding each cache of various different challenges that could be set and these could be collaborative to level based / solo based activities to each group getting an element to a mega task then collaborating centrally after each group has found their geocache-challenge-code to be solved.

We all love Geocaching and at this stage Jess and I wanted to explore the countryside. The walk was lovely and the guide was very informative and certainly loved her area. Something I think we should all take note of and explore our local area to relate to it more than most of us do ME included!

On this walk I got to chat to Dawn Hallybone and her husband for the 1st time. We had a lovely chat about travels and possible future options something that is at the forefront of both Jess and my mind! I loved the walk as it recharged my batteries that were getting wary of the amount of tea I was drinking to stay warm.

On returning to the Campsite I slumped into a chair to gaze at the awe inspiring Kevin Mc Laughlin and his 3D snow flake creation time. How is it created again Kevin? He showed great persistence that many teachers ooze when needing to finish a job/task. At that time a huge aspect of the Camp was beginning to surface again. My mind had drifted but now I was beginning to regain a mind focus it became clear that children were a central core to this festival of fun and rightfully so! Not once all weekend did I see ANY children whine about being bored or wanting to go home!

Perhaps like Matthew Pearson suggests this was because we were all a middle class well brought up mini community with engaging parents offering different stigmatic activities for the children. I agree with Matthew on this front that this sort of festival/camp is ideal to opening the eyes to those less fortunate who don't get much more beyond the end of their street let alone another county or country!

I'd be more than willing to run a competition/secret invitational criteria for next year to bring 1 boy and 1 girl from my school who fitted this bill for them to experience this wonderful event!? Thoughts????

After Kevin finally relieved himself from Snow flake duty I settled down to chat with Susan Banister, Dughall McCormick, Jamie and Dawn Hallybone. We had a lovely chat that ranged from some of the best ad hoc planning I've done in ages to a comparison of scars. Again another aspect that I'm taking back to form time to allow students to come up with a starting discussion point and see what we have in common on a specific theme.

The event drew to a close for me in the final Sunday dinner meal and drinking session. My sunburn was firmly setting in by then and so I enjoyed sitting back and chatting to those mentioned and the very approachable Tony Parking and Alex Bellars.

I had such a wonderful time as did Jess. She is happy for me to keep tweeting to open up other windows of networking opportunities like CampEd12 for a friendship event as much as an educating opportunity.

So what will I take from CampEd?

Well I've asked my SLT if I can set up my tent in the school grounds for a Learning Pod.

My form have begun a life experience book using the CBB app.

I'm planning a new transition series of events for next years year 7 using events from CampEd12 mostly the mission:explore, geocaching, den building linked events.

Overall I had a wonderful time and didn't get opportunity to speak to many who I wanted including Jo Badge about GTAUK and Graeme Eyre about Geography education or many other people who I follow on twitter like Chris Ratcliffe.

Roll on CampEd13! A camp that I hear now is a strong possibility of happening!

Scoop.it and Summly further reading tools.

Mute lapping - (Solo-Kagan-Socrative/Digital leaders-Classdojo-window writers)

This is a quick overview on what I'll chat about at #TMhum. I'll upload to this site the presentation in advance of it for you all to have a butchers at.

My whole teaching method at present is all about me doing very little and the students learning for themselves and collaboratively. I am the last port of call. So if they have a question they have to ask the others in their learning quad or around the room.

I provide a 2-4 week project based learning pack for each group. The students compliment this by using iPod touches, iPads, laptops (BYOD) for research and an avenue on how they want to present their learning.

Students also have learning packs (these have digital device weblinks, guides on how to use learning app/programs created by my Digital leaders team and are growing all the time) and their quad groups to use Kagan activities such as all write, pair, share to provide feedback/up and forward on how to develop their learning.

Throughout the lessons the Digital leaders run some Kagan led Socrative feedback questioning to check the learning progress of the class this is displayed on the whiteboard. Each group discuss in their learning groups and feedback via one person (different person each time) using the devices they have for the whole class to get a feel for the learning the other groups are doing so when they get onto that aspect of the learning they have a mini light bulb at the back of their mind ready.

The PBL packs all contain mapping/place activities, describing, explaining, opinionated, aspects. These generally are split up in the quad groups one each. Therefore the next lesson when the groups switch they have a partner who can give some feedback/feedforward.

My time is purely spent lapping the classroom and using my iPhone adding learning points to Classdojo that will be up on the whiteboard for students to see how happy I am as an assessor to everyone’s learning.

At the end of each lesson students evaluate where they are on the solo taxonomy path of learning and they know where they are at and the learning theme they have to develop the next lesson to complete a specific aspect of their projects. I am developing a solo geography skills ladder path so that students can easily decipher where they are and where they’ll take their learning.

The start of the next lesson students will think, pair, share the learning that they gained from the previous lesson. Ones from each group will spend 5 minutes each week getting together to discuss their learning progress and as a Q&A time. Twos, threes and fours do likewise.

During the lesson each group will write the learning paths that they explored (successes/problems on the windows in their learning room for the other classes that I observe to get some hints and tips or to explore ways to overcome problems that the other groups have had and give them a helping hand. Each window is split into 4 for this for the different aspects of the project.

So my role in the class is to be as Mute as possible and simply lap the room, listening and observing the learning.

Mission:explore Genius bar

I'll have the mission:explore books and the website that i'll run through and show how we are looking for schools to sign up to it and create their own mission based learning. This is something that can be cross-schools based. 

Scoop.it 2 min nano presentation

With the great Theo Kuechel I am running a Scoop.it research project with my students.

This is a site where you can curate on a given topic and have the site search different sites for items on your chosen topic on a daily basis. You can add the suggested content and add sites that you want the site to search each day. You can add bookmarklets to sites and then this will link that site page straight to your scoop.it page. Just by the click of a button. Once you install the bookmarklet to your bookmark folder this will be open for any site you look at. You can even do it on your iPhone so I'm constantly updating.

I have used this with 6 form and each student uses my account and they add content to it as they come across research that they find useful. The classes have all found that it speeds up research and created a turbo charged depth to their reading by the site doing it for them! I'll discuss some issues that students have had with it.

This site has meant that I now rarely update my further reading blogs for students to read up on different topics. Students also use the app.

I might add a little on zeebox on how I'm using this with students to cut down in class video watching time as we do it in the comfort of our own homes.