Yesterday I watched Professor Dylan Williams put theory into practice in an 'experimental' classroom in a mixed ability classroom of 13-year-old students in a comprehensive school.
Here are three of his ideas. They are simple but they are highly effective. Your students - and perhaps even you - will be reluctant to leave their comfort zones.
But if a technique improves their learning and our teaching we have a duty at least to give them a 'go'.
1. HANDS DOWN – NOT UP
The most common, time-honoured practice in the classroom goes like this. The teacher asks a question. Those students who are confident they know the answer put their hands up. The teacher selects one of them. The student answers. The answer is correct. The teacher asks another question. More or less the same hands go up. The procedure is repeated until the question-answer session is over. Behaviour has been good. A few of the students are content because they have been acknowledged by the teacher. Most of the students have are content because they have been left alone to slumber or daydream until the end of the session. The teacher is content because he has put a lot into the session, and good order has been maintained. But most of the students have learned very little, or at least whether they learned anything or not hasn’t been assessed.
Run the same session again but this time do not allow hands up. The question is asked but this time a student cannot predict whether or not he will be asked to answer. He doesn’t know if the teacher’s finger will point at him. He has to stay alert in case it does. He has to prepare some kind of response even if it’s only “I don’t know,” but if he says he doesn’t know, this will give the opportunity for the teacher to teach the point again. A collective groan will go up. The student is now under peer pressure to respond with something related to the question. And the students himself no longer has the refuge of withdrawing from the class.
Of course the students who do know they answer (these are the students who usually do) are becoming frustrated and annoyed. Why aren’t they being selected to answer? The teacher knows they know the right answer, so why is she bothering with those students who rarely know the answer, who rarely given any kind of answer, who simply want to be left alone? And it’s not fair because now the teacher is deliberately not choosing them to answer.
Run the same session again. Do not allow hands up. Give them time to think out their response but make your choice of student random. How? Several ways are possible. Get a set of lollipop sticks. Write the first name of each student on a lollipop stick. Stick the stick in a jar. Ask the question. Give a little thinking time. Pull out a stick. It’s that student’s turn to answer. When the student has given an answer, pop the stick back in the jar. Next question. Next random selection.
You will still get complaints. Individual students will still feel under pressure. So... pull two lollipop sticks from the jar. Either student can answer. Or both students can support each other in answering the question. Take even more of the pressure from yourself by getting students to draw the sticks when you ask a question.
Prepare for resistance, reluctance and resentment. Few people like change, and that includes teachers as well as students. You’ve all been in a reasonably comfortable routine. Why change things? Because not enough learning has been going on. And you, as a teacher, want to maximise the learning, maximise the engagement of your students, and maximise your own enjoyment. Routine is the great deadener. Take chances. Go for something different. And in this case the hands-down approach will work as long as you stick to it for long enough.
2. INVOLVE EVERY STUDENT
In the ideal classroom we would like to engage every student, and there’s a simple low technology way we can do this. Get your students into the habit of using the mini whiteboard. Mini whiteboards are popular in junior schools but they can be used just as effectively with learners of any age.
Let’s take a straightforward example. You are revising French vocabulary. You call out an English word. Each student writes down the French word on their mini white board. At your signal they hold up their white boards. Students who have no idea leave the boards on the desk. You can make a quick assessment how well that item has been learned, whether it should be taught again, and which students need more revision. Of course, students can work as individuals, in pairs, or in small groups. The key is that every student in the class is being given the opportunity to respond.
Another example. You are teaching algebra. You want to check learning. You write a series of equations on the main whiteboard. After each equation, you give students time to work out their answers on their whiteboards. They then show their responses. You get a lot of relevant information about your students’ learning immediately, and you can plan appropriately.
Another example. You are revising important cases. You ask your students to note down on their mini whiteboards which case you are referring to as soon as they can identify it, and then turn their boards face down on the desk. You begin giving key facts about the case. As each student identifies the case, they note the name down, and turn over their boards. The competitive element adds to the fun.
Using mini whiteboards is a simple but highly effective technique. They should be available in every classroom for students of all ages and of all abilities. Involve and engage all of your students.
3. INSTANT FEEDBACK
Wouldn’t it be useful if we could have instant feedback about how well our students have understood a new idea or concept? There is a simple way we can get it.
Get coloured card: green, red and yellow. Cut them up and make sets of three cards, each of a different colour. Make sufficient sets for your largest class. Hand a set to each student.
When teaching a concept, pause regularly and ask your student to hold up the coloured card that shows how well they think they are understanding the concept. Green = fine. Yellow = not sure. Red = not very well.
Adapt your teaching to suit their learning needs. Think of other ways you can use this ‘traffic light’ system. Remember regular feedback from your students will make you a better teacher.
4. COMMENTS NOT GRADES
Most teachers spend hours writing comments on students’ work. They add a grade or level and return the work to the students who immediately look at the grade, glance at the comments, and then forget or ignore the comments. Students are ‘hooked’ on grades, addicted, brain-washed into believing only the grades are really important. And like any drug, the over-use of grades distorts and undermines the learning process.
Consider not giving grades or levels when work is returned. Put the focus on constructive, helpful comments that guide students into appreciating the merits of their work and understanding how it can be improved. Avoid negative comments because your students will simply interpret them as meaning the work is worth only a poor grade and therefore has little merit.
Prepare yourself for disbelief, resentment and protest, particularly amongst students who usually get high grades. They are likely to be more addicted to grades and levels than students who usually get lower grades. The more able students are often the most seriously addicted; they have learned to work for the reward of the grade rather than the pleasure of doing good work for its own sake.
Make sure that you and your students ‘do something’ with the comments you have taken so much time to produce. Invite your students to discuss why they received the comments you gave their work. Place your students in pairs or small groups to discuss the comments they received and why the comments were fair and reasonable. Several of your comments should invite/instruct your students to do something with the work, e.g. rewrite the second paragraph making it more descriptive; rewrite the first part of the story as a dialogue rather than a narrative; select 10 words and offer synonyms for these words; make 5 similar equations, solve them, then test me (the teacher) on them. Comments are largely a waste of time unless they move the students farther on.
You do not have to abandon grades completely. You, as the teacher, should be keeping a record of the grades given. But decrease the frequency you give out grades. You can perhaps let your students know that a summative overall grade will be given at the end of each month. This will enable students to track their progress in a more meaningful way than a grade/level for every piece of work they hand in.
Be prepared for protests from other teachers as well as from many of your students. Many of them, particularly managers, are as addicted to ‘grade addiction’ as the students. But few things distort and undermine the learning process as grades and National Curriculum levels. The time is long overdue for us to wean our students and ourselves off them.
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