Archive

Better analysis: seeing the wood AND the trees

Nov 03, 2013 | Category: literacy

I've been exploring better ways to teach analysis and evaluation for some time now. A few years ago I stumbled on the idea of zooming in and out which has gone viral and made its way into the teaching...

#John Hattie #Reading #zooming in and out #De La Paz and Felton

Anything goes: Is there a right way to teach?

Oct 20, 2013 | Category: learning

There's nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.Shakespeare, Hamlet I read Joe Kirby's recent post on cognitive bias with interest because I've been pursuing a very similar line of enquiry. What...

#Ofsted #Sir Michael Wilshaw #cognitive bias #David Mcraney

The art of beautifully crafted sentences

Oct 17, 2013 | Category: English

I came across this post on Doug Lemov's blog earlier today and instantly decided to rewrite my Year 8 lesson to make use of the ideas within.The idea is, like all good ideas, a very simple one: that p...

#Slow Writing #Doug Lemov

Making data meaningful: Pen Portraits

Oct 13, 2013 | Category: leadership

Most of what makes classrooms work is invisible. The activities that teachers and students enact are, by and large, irrelevant. I'm aware that this runs the risk of sounding like preposterous nonsense...

#Clevedon School #data #inclusion #Pen Portraits #targets

Are all difficulties desirable?

Oct 05, 2013 | Category: Featured

I was aghast to read an extract from Malcolm Gladwell's new book, David And Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits And The Art Of Battling Giants in The Guardian yesterday. Not because it's bad, but because it's...

#stress #Malcolm Gladwell #John Tomsett #Robert Bjork #desirable difficulties #dyslexia #David and Goliath

Is failure just a lack of practice?

Sep 28, 2013 | Category: Featured

Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho!You must learn to fail intelligently. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world. One fails fo...

#failure #Dylan Wiliam #John Hattie #Samuel Beckett #Thomas Edison #Andy Weir #Taylor Mali

Hang on in there: could encouragement be more useful than praise?

Sep 27, 2013 | Category: learning

Last week I expanded on some of my doubts about the concept of praise, particularly the current consensus that we should be going out of our way to praise effort. I concluded by saying, "no one would...

#Carol Dweck #John Hattie #praise #Harry Webb #Alfie Kohn #competition #deciles #encouragment #Tim Taylor

Is praise counter productive?

Sep 22, 2013 | Category: behaviour

I had an interesting discussion with Tim Taylor this morning. He said, "At best, praising effort has a neutral or no effect when students are successful, but is likely to be negative when students ar...

#Carol Dweck #John Hattie #praise #Alfie Kohn

Chasing our tails - is AfL all it's cracked up to be?

Aug 29, 2013 | Category: assessment

Is it blasphemous to doubt the efficacy of AfL? While purists might argue that it's 'just good teaching', we teach in a world where formative assessment has become dogma and where feedback is king. (D...

#learning #AfL #assessment #Input/output myth #performance #remembering #understanding

Why can't we tell a good teacher through lesson observations?

Aug 23, 2013 | Category: leadership

No teacher is so good - or so bad - that he or she cannot improve. Dylan Wiliam The English education system is obsessed with ascertaining the quality of teachers. And what with the great and the good...

#lesson observations #Dylan Wiliam #Graham Nuthall