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Title: Achieving the possible..using the Foundation Strand Strategy to get pupils to really think.


1
Achieving the possible..using the Foundation
Strand Strategy to get pupils to really
think. How do we go about creating principles
for teaching thinking?
Phil Smith Foundation Strand Consultant Bury LEA
2
In the next 50 minutes we will
How can I develop the skills of independent
thinking in my pupils?
What are the principles for teaching thinking?
3
Isnt this a bit new?
No not reallythe National Curriculum has been
referring to this issue for a while.
  • The school curriculum should.promote an
    enquiring mind and capacity to think rationally.
  • The key skill of problem solving involves
    pupils developing skills and strategies that will
    help them to solve the problems they face in
    learning and in life.
  • By using thinking skills pupils can focus on
    knowing how as well as knowing what-learning
    how to learn.

4
But there is also lots of reference to it within
your own subject!
5
How do their brains work and stating of objectives
Three brains for the price of one!
1. The reptilian brain (brain stem) deals with
the 5 Fs (i) Fight (ii) Flight (iii)
Flock (iv) Freeze (v) Sex
Think of the intelligence of a newt..stay alive
and try to have sex.or an undergraduate!
6
How do their brains work?
2. The limbic system (emotional brain) deals
with emotions (i) Long-term memories (ii)
Experiences emotions
Three brains for the price of one!
7
How do their brains work?
3. The neocortex (Thinking Cap) deals with (i)
Speech (ii) Processing new information (iii)
Abstract thought and reasoning
Three brains for the price of one!
8
How do their brains work?
  • Why is this important?
  • Unless the emotional brain registers what the
    neocortex learns then it is not really
    believed.so when kids cant cope with whats
    going on in the classroom they go reptilian.
  • Brain starts to think of ways of avoiding or
    confronting the situation

All learning has an emotional base Plato
9
How do you set your tasks?
If you put the emphasis solely on winning people
will first try to cheat. And secondly, they will
try to win with the minimum of effort because
that shows that they are even better. Professor
Cary Cooperclearly seen those lads at the back
of your classroom!
10
What does David Beckham have in common with
Albert Einstein?
Einstein
Beckham
11
Answer
  • He is just as intelligent!

12
Flaws when we come to teach pupils
  • Their intelligence is fixed. Tends to put C.A.T.
    scores in their place!
  • Their intelligence is a single factor, something
    they either have or dont have to varying degrees

13
Foundation Strand materials counter this by.
  • Helping teachers to teach memory strategies to
    some of the most intellectually challenged
    studentsthrough helping pupils think about their
    thinking.

14
Isnt this a bit new?
No not reallythe National Curriculum has been
referring to this issue for a while.
WarningBEFORE we look at these FIVE areas have
YOUR subject at the forefront of your mind.
  • (i) Information-processing skills
  • (pupils locate and collect relevant information,
    to sort, classify, sequence, compare and
    contrast, and to analyse part/whole
    relationships)
  • (ii) Reasoning skills
  • (pupils give reasons for opinions and actions, to
    draw inferences and make deductions, to use
    precise language to explain what they think, and
    to make judgements and decisions informed by
    reasons or evidence)

15
Isnt this a bit new?
No not reallythe National Curriculum has been
referring to this issue for a while.
WarningBEFORE we look at these FIVE areas have
YOUR subject at the forefront of your mind.
  • Enquiry skills (pupils will ask relevant
    questions, to pose and define problems, to plan
    what to do and how to research, to predict
    outcomes and anticipate consequences, and to test
    conclusions and improve ideas).
  • Create thinking (pupils can generate and extend
    ideas, suggest hypotheses, to apply imagination,
    and to look for alternative outcomes).
  • Evaluation skills (pupils evaluate information,
    judge whether the value of what they read, hear
    and do, to develop criteria for judging the value
    of their own and others work or ideas, and to
    have confidence in their judgements).

16
Edward de Bonos six hats ideas
  • Fact-gathering (white)
  • Gut reactions and feelings (red)
  • Negative points (black)
  • Positive points (yellow)
  • Creativity and new ideas (green)
  • Organising the thinking (blue)

17
Edward de Bonos six hats ideas
  • TES 15th November 2002
  • Pupils colour their thoughts
  • A school in Surrey used this idea to develop
    their pastoral system.
  • It is difficult to say this is the reason why
    standards have gone up it is part of the whole
    raising standards package. But it just sits so
    well with the key stage 3 strategy, is easy to
    use, useful, and you get feedback straight away.
    Robin Pellatt (Assistant head teacher)

18
Edward de Bonos six hats ideas
  • These strategies were used to discuss
  • Whether parents should be allowed to sit in on
    lessons
  • To develop thinking about science
    work/experiments
  • To handle discuss style questions in exams
  • Some Year 11s took in 6 coloured pencils to
    remind them of the process and help them apply it.

19
Outstanding performance. What might it look
like in your subject?
  • Be subject sensitive and rigorous.
  • For example
  • What will a Year 9 pupil produce in their History
    lesson that is outstanding in terms of evidential
    understanding?
  • What will a Year 9 pupil produce in their Music
    lesson that is outstanding in terms of listening
    and applying their knowledge and understanding?
  • What will a Year 9 pupil produce in their
    Geography lesson that is outstanding in terms of
    completing an enquiry on Tourism-good or bad?

20
Outstanding performance. What might it look
like in your subject?
21
Outstanding performance. What might it look
like in your subject?
22
Outstanding performance. What might it look
like in your subject?
23
Outstanding performance. What might it look
like in your subject?
24
Outstanding performance. What might it look
like in your subject?
  • Create thinking
  • Generate and extend ideas?
  • Suggest hypotheses?
  • To apply imagination?
  • To look for alternative outcomes?
  • Information-processing skills
  • Collecting relevant information?
  • Sort, classify and sequence?
  • Analyse part/whole relationships?
  • Reasoning skills
  • Give reasons for opinions and actions?
  • To draw inferences and make deductions?
  • To use precise language to explain what they
    think?
  • To make judgements and decisions informed by
    reasons or evidence?
  • Evaluation skills
  • Evaluate information?
  • Judge whether the value of what they read, hear
    and do?
  • To develop criteria for judging the value of
    their own and others work or ideas?
  • To have confidence in their judgements?
  • Enquiry skills
  • Ask relevant questions?
  • To pose and define problems?
  • To plan what to do and how to research?
  • To predict outcomes and anticipate consequences?
  • To test conclusions and improve ideas?

25
What is outstanding performance?Some generic
responses
  • Seeing patterns in data
  • Making links with other topics or areas
  • Thinking laterally
  • Being creative
  • Generalising
  • Solving problems
  • Checking and refining solutions
  • Seeing different viewpoints
  • Using existing knowledge
  • Knowing a lot
  • Having a good memory
  • Fast processing of information
  • Working with others

26
The crucial planning stage
Key Stage 3 and cumulative resonance
27
Aristotle on teaching and learning at Key Stage 3
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then,
is not an act but a habit.
or in other words having cumulative resonance at
Key Stage 3!
28
Where to start? Creating the BIG picture for
developing pupils thinking
1. Planning for knowledge resonance and
knowledge building E.g How will we use the
series of RE lessons which focus on Where do we
look for God? to make the following series of
lessons What does justice mean to Christians?
more accessible, more enjoyable and more
rigorous? E.g. How will the series of Geography
lessons which focus on Where is our place and
what is it like? make the following series of
lessons How is our place connected to other
places? more accessible, more enjoyable and more
challenging? E.g. How will the series of Art and
Design lessons which focus on Objects and
viewpoints make the following series of lessons
Animating art more accessible, more enjoyable
and more challenging?
29
Where to start? Creating the BIG picture for
developing pupils thinking
  • 2. Create challenging benchmarks
  • e.g. By the end of Year 7 all History pupils will
    be able to explain how Parliament is different
    from Government using specific examples
  • e.g. By the end of Year 8 all Geography pupils
    will be able to use the organising
    words-Political, Social, Economic,
    Religious, Cultural, Demographic,
    Technological-with ease

30
Understanding some of the generic principles of
teaching thinking..how did go about solving this
problem?
  • Adults are holding children, waiting their turn.
    The children are handed (one at a time, usually)
    to a man, who holds them while a woman shoots
    them. If the child is crying, the man tries to
    stop the crying before the child is shot. Whats
    really going on?
  • A cabin, locked from the inside, is perched on
    the side of a mountain. It is forced open, and
    thirty people are found dead inside. They had
    plenty of food and water.

31
Understanding some of the generic principles of
teaching thinking
  • A dead man lies near a pile of bricks and a
    beetle on top of a book.
  • 4. A man marries twenty women in his village but
    isnt charged with polygamy.

32
Using starters to raise the level of thinking
   
   
 
 
  • 5Ws
  • Who?
  • What?
  • When?
  • Where?
  • Why?

33
Understanding some of the generic principles of
teaching thinking
  • Design a mammal

34
Understanding some of the generic principles of
teaching thinking
  • Design a mammal Handout 11.1

35
Understanding some of the generic principles of
teaching thinking
  • What came into your minds when starting this
    task?
  • How did your group operate?
  • What stages did your individual and collective
    thinking go through?

36
The Design a mammal and thinking skills
  • One model of memory describes the difference
    between immediate, short and long-term memory.
  • The sheep metaphor.
  • (i) You round up the sheep-(capturing them in
    your immediate memory). Information enters and
    exits at high speed.

Since these can enter and exit at high speed,
thats why the activity comes with the
instructions written down so that the brain
cannot hang on to all that information
37
The Design a mammal and thinking skills
  • By reading some of the cards you start to chase
    these details into your short-term memory. But
    the gates of the pen open and close and memories
    can be lost since the gates are insecure

38
The Design a mammal and thinking skills
  • The short-term memory does have a limited
    capacity before things start to escape from it!
    Thats why most people can only think of a
    certain number of cards at any one time. Many
    low attaining pupils will not be able to link
    many pieces of information together in the
    short-term memory.

39
The Design a mammal and thinking skills
  • (i) Everyone will have used knowledge in their
    long-term memory to do the task-knowledge of the
    Arctic and its animals, including episodic visual
    flashes from films, TV programmes and perhaps
    personal experience.

40
Can we improve our pupils ability to think?
  • Cognitive ability is related to three major
    factors
  • Genetic make-up
  • Time/maturity
  • Environment

41
Creating the right kind of classroom
High
Challenge
Low
High
Low
Stress
42
The Design Mammal activity achieves this High
Challenge Low Stress zone because
  • Pupils have to justify their choice of features
    in the light of information about the environment
  • Thinking about whether the six features actually
    fit together to make a sensible animal
  • Being challenged with questions such as How
    would your animal actually catch its prey? or
    How would it survive 3 or 4 months of permanent
    dark winter?
  • Presenting information about adaptations of its
    prey to avoid predation
  • Hearing other peoples reasoning
  • Being asked Would the animal survive in a
    desert?

43
The Design Mammal activity achieves this High
Challenge Low Stress zone because
  • Just a fun activity?.. or one which forms part
    of a bigger picture of learning in which these
    skills are revisited, warmed up and developed in
    different settings in future lessons over weeks,
    months and years?
  • Good thinking is shared through talk (Vygotsky
    and his zone of proximal developmenttranslated
    as two heads are better than one!)
  • Metacognition..thinking about thinkinggetting
    pupils to regularly step back from the task and
    review progress and strategies they are using

44
Points for discussion of handout 11.2
  • What do you feel are the key points outlined?
  • What type of thinking is common in your subject?
  • What implications are there for your own practice?

45
Time for a coffee break
46
So what can we do to get them thinking together
rather than just chatting?
47
What are the common pitfalls?
  • Planning frequently focuses on what teachers will
    teach and not on what pupils will learn?
  • Pupil progress is characterised by gains in
    knowledge rather than deeper understanding or
    extension of skills
  • Too often the context for extended writing is
    narrative or description
  • There are few opportunities for pupils to analyse
    or interpret, compare and contrast, or to develop
    their own ideas

48
Objectives
  • To consider talk as a tool for thinking and
    learning
  • To evaluate and understand ways that pupils talk
    together in joint activities
  • To consider how pupils can be helped to talk and
    reason together most effectively

49
Famous adults who could have done with the
Thinking together module from the Foundation
Strand
The Evidence Question If you could live
forever, would you and why? Answer I would not
live forever, because we should not live forever,
because, if we were supposed to live forever,
then we would live forever, which is why I would
not live forever Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss
USA Contest
50
Famous adults who could have done with the
Thinking together module from the Foundation
Strand
The Evidence..Part Two Smoking kills. If
youre killed youve lost a very important part
of your life. Brooke Shields, during an
interview to become spokesperson for a federal
antismoking campaign
51
Famous adults who could have done with the
Thinking together module from the Foundation
Strand
The Evidence..Part Three and four Outside of the
killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime
rates in the country. Mayor Marion Barry,
Washington DC It isnt pollution thats harming
the environment. Its the impurities in our air
and water that are doing it. Former US Vice
President Dan Quayle
52
Using talk to get pupils thinking?
Everybodys talking at me I dont hear a word
theyre saying Only the echoes of my mind People
stopping, staring I cant see their faces Only
the shadows of their eyes
53
Whats all this talk about talking?
  • Whats the point of talk?
  • Is it any good?
  • Is it making any difference?

54
The expectations are certainly high
Expectations for Year 7-9 when it comes to
speaking and listening
Year 7 Use talk as a way of clarifying
ideas Listen for and recall the
main points of a talk Identify and
report the main points emerging from a
discussion
55
The expectations are certainly high
Expectations for Year 7-9 when it comes to
speaking and listening
Then in Year 8 Reflect on their ability as a
speaker and identify areas for
improvement Listen for a specific
purpose Use talk to question
hypothesise, speculate, evaluate,
solve problems and develop thinking
about complex issues and ideas
56
The expectations are certainly high
Expectations for Year 7-9 when it comes to
speaking and listening
Then in Year 9 Use standard English to explain,
explore or justify an idea Identify the
underlying themes, implications and issues
raised by talk, reading Discuss and
evaluate conflicting evidence to arrive at a
considered viewpoint
57
But what can the Foundation Subjects add to this?
Lets be brutally honest. A. Unfocussed
discussion can be mind-numbingly dull especially
for the more able pupil. B. Weakly structured
empathetic work can do more harm than good C.
Can easily lead to more confusion
58
But what can the Foundation Subjects add to this?
A pupils perception of speaking and listening in
school Talking things through helps us to
understand. If you only say things in your head
it does not help-you have to get them out.
59
Sloppy chatter might be worse than
none Christine Counsell
60
What kind of talk do we want?
  • When you ask pupils to work and talk together,
    what sort of talk do you wish to take place?
  • If you had to compile a list of up to five rules
    that pupils should follow in order to talk
    together effectively, what would your rules be?

61
Exploratory talk
  • In exploratory talk
  • pupils and teachers engage critically but
    constructively with each others ideas
  • contributions build on previous comments
  • relevant information is offered for joint
    consideration
  • there is speculation
  • pupils give reasons for their views and seek them
    from others

62
Exploratory talk
  • reasoning is visible in the talk.
  • It is an effective way of using language to
    think the process of education should ensure
    that every child is aware of its value and be
    able to use it effectively
  • However, observational research evidence suggests
    that very little of it naturally occurs in
    classrooms when children work together in
    groups.
  • Mercer, N. (2000)

63
Ground rules for talk
  • Everyone should
  • be actively encouraged to contribute
  • offer opinions and ideas
  • provide reasons for their opinions and ideas
  • share all relevant information
  • feel free to disagree if they have a good reason
  • ask other people for information and reasons
  • treat other peoples ideas with respect
  • try to come to an agreement
  • and
  • change their minds if they are persuaded by good
    reasoning.

64
Transcript 1 Writing a jingle
  • In a Year 7 music lesson, Luc and Christina are
    composing a jingle on the keyboard for an
    advertisement and writing it using musical
    notation.
  • Luc is writing down the music as Christina plays
    it.
  • Christina Just write in the next note.
  • Luc Youve got to get it on there. (Points to
    keyboard) Yes thats you. Lets just have
    a listen to it.
  • Christina Youve got to let me get some ideas
    in sometimes.
  • Luc Youre playing it!

65
Transcript 1 Writing a jingle
  • Christina Well you can do some, go on.
  • Luc (Writing) In a minute.
  • Christina (Mumbles something under her breath)
  • Luc Youre playing. (Hums a bit of tune)
  • Christina You can play that.
  • Luc Why dont you do it?
  • Christina No, because you should.

66
Pre-course task using collected comments
  • So what did the pupils use talk for in class?
  • What is the potential educational value of talk
    amongst pupils?
  • What difficulties are there in ensuring that
    their task is useful?

67
Developing pupils speaking and listening Year 9
example
Pupil 1 But if Hitler had still been in prison
in 1929, the Germans would have had to have
trusted their other politicians Pupil 2 Yes,
but he wasnt. They couldnt trust politicians
who had been in power when their businesses went
bust. They had to hold somebody to account, so
they turned to Hitler's strong ideas. Pupil 3
So youre saying that they wanted somebody who
they knew Jews? Pupil 2 I don't know. I hope
not, but the more important thing seems to me
that Hitler had ideas for giving people their
jobs back. Wouldnt you have voted for him if
you were broke? At least he knew what he wanted.
68
Lessons learnt from the Key Stage 3 pilot
  • Strategies for helping pupils develop subject
    specific concepts as well as their own concepts
    and principles
  • Sorting/classification activities
  • (Why did Wilf Smith join the Durham Light
    Infantry?...History
  • Est-ce que Paul doit commencer a fumer?...MFL
  • Why is Simon going to Jerusalem? .RE
  • Why is Dai Williams involved in the building of a
    new Japanese restaurant in Bridgend?....Geography)

69
Lessons learnt from the Key Stage 3 pilot
  • Strategies for helping pupils develop subject
    specific concepts as well as their own concepts
    and principles
  • (ii) Odd one out
  • Useful as a starter/full lesson to be developed
    later in the lesson
  • Has worked very well in Design and Technology,
    art, music, RE and PE. More recent work has
    been done in MFL.
  • (See Handout 11.1 for further details
  • and FS video example

70
Lessons learnt from the Key Stage 3 pilot
  • Strategies for helping pupils develop subject
    specific concepts as well as their own concepts
    and principles
  • Maps from memory
  • Food technology and flattened individual cereal
    box
  • All sorts of data maps e.g. a map of Rome
    demonstration
  • See RE and Geography examples

71
Maps from memory
  • Each pupil comes up twice so that each group has
    eight visits
  • The group are asked to plan their strategy and
    write it down
  • Pupils look at the map for 10 seconds without pen
    or paper
  • After four visits the group are given the chance
    to review and adjust their overall strategy
  • After eight visits the class reflect on their
    strategies

72
Maps from memory
  • The teacher collates pupils strategies on the
    board but also does 3 important things
  • Suggests there is a pattern-to get the main
    outline of the map, divide it into sections and
    then focus on the detail
  • Suggests that this pattern is important in other
    contexts, for example in writing
  • Finally asking the class are asked to apply this
    new knowledge to another area, for example
    completing a sheet on how you get to know a map
    of a new area and what skills you need to pack
    when going on holiday

73
Lessons learnt from the Key Stage 3 pilot
  • Strategies for helping pupils develop subject
    specific concepts as well as their own concepts
    and principles
  • Reading photographs and pictures, 5Ws
  • See Inference Charts
  • Telling/Suggesting word boxes

74
(No Transcript)
75
Telling and suggesting
  • The church dedicated to St. Grwst was built in
    the early 1400 next to the church is the Gwydyr
    chapel, built in 1663 as a burial place for the
    Wynne family of Gwydyr castle.
  • In the centre of the chapel lies the stone coffin
    of Llewellyn (the welsh prince) who died in 1240.
    Llewellyn the great was originally buried at
    Aberconwy abbey and then removed to Meanan abbey
    until the time of the dissolution of the
    monasteries when the coffin was brought to the
    old parish church of Llanrwst.
  • The tower was built around 1800.
  • (Topographical dictionary of Wales 1844)

This tells us when the main part of the church
was built
This suggests that the Wynnes were a wealthy
family
This suggests that the wealthy people of the
valley took care of the coffin of the Welsh prince
This tells us when the chapel was built
This suggests that when Henry VIII had the
monasteries dissolved in England, the same thing
happened in Wales
This tells us when the tower was built
76
Investigating the site and the photograph in
Geography for example






77
Investigating the site and the photograph in RE
for example






78
Investigating Mozarts Symphony No. 40 in Music
for example

I can tell that this part of the piece is played
with violins

I suggest that the mood this creates is
.because

I suggest that one of the feelings Mozart was
trying to create was..
79
Lessons learnt from the Key Stage 3 pilot
  • Strategies for helping pupils develop subject
    specific concepts as well as their own concepts
    and principles
  • Mysteries
  • The lost livestock of Loxley Coppice Farm
  • Design and Technology Why did the Tai Bridge
    collapse?

80
Lessons learnt from the Key Stage 3 pilot
  • Spot the Dodgy Data Report
  • Numbers employed (000s) in UK farming 1988-1999

Now look at the two statements on your table.
Which may have been produced by the National
Farmers Union and which may have been produced by
the Ministry of Agriculture, fisheries and food?
How did you work this out? Could you write a
better summary of these figures?
81
Ready for more?
  • Build group talk into your lesson plans.
  • Raise pupils awareness of talk.
  • With colleagues, plan a coordinated approach to
    talk.
  • Use ICT as a resource for encouraging exploratory
    talk.

82
Ready for more?
  • Build it in dont bolt it on!
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