Monday 27 June 2016
Friday 24 June 2016
Thursday 23 June 2016
Embedding thinking skills
This post is about my attempt to embed thinking skills in my teaching - primarily as a way of improving analytical writing.
These frameworks have been aimed at KS4 and KS5, but the group with which these prompts were most successful, was a mid-level Key Stage 3 class.
Benefits of using this approach
The ideas contained are not new, but I think they are
part of a helpful structure. I also think they could be improved by the input
of a larger number of teachers, so I’ve published it here. If you like the structure,
and think it might help you, please use it, but please share something of the
experience here, so others can use what you have learnt. Although the initial
work has been done in English lessons, I am equally, if not more interested, in
whether it can work in other subjects. A cross-curricular approach would
undoubtedly have more impact.
Initial idea
and implementation in English lessons
It started when I watched this Morton and Webster YouTube
clip, where they demonstrate how to analyse
a text using higher-order thinking skills. By creating categories of
interpretation, they are able to come up with more sophisticated, high-quality
comments about the texts being examined.
I thought it
was useful strategy that would support my students in a part of analysis they
can struggle with; pulling together evidence from across a text to support the
main point made i.e. spotting patterns. After trying it with some success, I
began to think about how it could be developed. Perhaps reference to thinking
skills could improve my analytical writing by linking the process to thinking
skills and providing explicit strategies to progress. I also hoped this could
move teaching away from a focus on various Point
Evidence Explain (PEE,
PEED, PEEDRAW, PEEER, PETAL, PETER etc. etc.) writing
frames which I find don't always help students take their ideas beyond basic
reformulation.
As an
English Literature and Language teacher, I put together a bank of
prompts/strategies to help students move through these thinking skills when
analysing texts. The first one I made looked like this, and was designed for
students of A Level English Language. I should stress, that we dealt with
strategies over a period of time – didn’t just say: here you are, use this!
The slightly adjusted frame below, I used for students of
English Literature at KS4. The skills are similar, but here I wanted any
evaluation to be a test of their own judgement, as well as modes of address
within the text they were studying. Probably worth noting, that I originally
left out the applying section, because the taxonomy was designed to help
students organise their analysis in written form, and I felt the applying was
part of testing their initial knowledge and not relevant. However, I
brought it back so that students became more familiar with the full progression
of thinking skills.
These frameworks have been aimed at KS4 and KS5, but the group with which these prompts were most successful, was a mid-level Key Stage 3 class.
Benefits of using this approach
·
From the
outset, I felt that discussion about texts quickly demonstrated higher levels
of thinking, with some students moving from feature spotting, to making
discriminating observations about the most relevant ideas.
·
As an AFL
tool it has been really useful, able to address the “Where am I going? How
am I going? Where to next?” questions in a way that develops their skills
in the subject, rather than being about one piece of knowledge.
·
When
using it as a basis for feedback it is helpful and, I felt, motivating to move
away from levels and other assessment criteria. In some ways, the goal is to
challenge and push yourself and do things which mark out higher levels of human
ability, not just being about getting a good mark. However, it should be noted,
that I make explicit reference to the fact that the higher levels of thinking generally
correlate with the higher levels of a mark scheme.
· Making
students explicitly aware of the skills shared with different subjects.
Demonstrating that what we do in English can help them in History or Biology, and vice versa.
Where to next?
I have included the resources I
have made here. This includes a basic display and the initial frameworks and prompts I
have developed, as well as a few other notes and ideas. If you think it
might work, please help yourself. But please share your results here. If you
are a Maths teacher and you develop a range of prompts, please add them. If you
are a Science teacher and you can see how this can be practically applied to
your subject, please chuck something on here. If you are an English teacher and
you can improve this, please get something on here and make my job easier!
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