By the end of this workshop you should be able to confidently design and deliver

effective academic sessions for students in secondary schools

 

Workshop Overview

The psychology of learning Nigel

The ingredients of a good lesson Nigel

Gender differences and how to engage both males and females

Emma

Starters, lesson objectives, plenaries Emma

Break at 11.10am

Teaching and Learning strategies Emma & Nigel

Plenary and Evaluation Emma

Activity

1) What are the main differences between girls and boys’

a) learning styles and b) attitudes in the classroom?

2) What teaching strategies do you think would work to engage/reward girls and boys?

Girls V’s BoysGirls are more likely to Boys are more likely to

1. be good listeners 1. do well when using mathematical-logical thinking.

2. print neatly and follow directions carefully. Girls do not like to ‘mess-up’ their work.

2. settle for messy handwriting and disorganized work.

3. sit calmly in their seats. 3. need space to spread out their materials; move around in that space.

4. gather facts before they draw conclusions. 4. deduce conclusions from general statements.

5. need concrete examples when learning abstract principles.

5. be comfortable with mathematical symbols and general ideas in math.

6. need to talk about their subject before beginning a writing project.

6. lose focus on a writing task and spend little time talking about what they plan to write.

7. work well in pairs or in small cooperative groups. 7. Prefer to work alone; argue over who will lead when working in a group

8. entertain themselves during boring parts of the school day.

8. act out and disrupt the class when bored.

9. pay attention to more than one activity at a time. 9. act as if they don't care about learning when they are confused or frustrated.

10. Respond well to personalised praise

11. Systematic and good planners

10. Respond well to praise

http://www.eduguide.org/article/boys-and-girls-have-different-learning-styles

Group Activity

Evaluate the most suitable teaching strategies/methods that would most engage/reward girls/boys

Top Tips for Teaching Girls

• Think-pair-share – avoids girls being put on the spot (perfectionist mentality)

• Praise girls for taking risks as well as being good (something that girls avoid)

• I like the way you…but have you thought about…? Could you expand on that idea…?

• Self-/peer assessment – allows girls to reflect and improve

• Mini-saga (summarise…in 50 words)• Paired work over group work• If working in groups – teacher to select

groups – its awkward to choose• Girls don’t like to mess up their work so give

them scrap/rough paper to work on first• Competitive tasks with clear goals/targets

Top Tips for Teaching Boys• Bite sized chunks• Stretching but achievable targets• Variety of teaching methods and activities• Competitiveness and structure to lessons• Purposeful objectives/activities – real world, big

picture• Reflect boys interest e.g. sport, books, music• Self/peer assessment – aim to improve ability to

reflect and evaluate• Think-pair-share – avoids boys shouting out answer

and allows time for quality answers.• Use graphics, pictures, and storyboards• Boys are more kinaesthetic so get them ‘doing’ or

use demonstration as a teaching strategy• Move around the classroom

Starter Activities

During successful starters:• Pupils engage fully in

learning from the outset;• They gain an understanding

of the objectives and purpose of the lesson;

• There is a sense of pace;• Pupils spend most of their

time on-task and focused on learning.

DFES Key Stage 3 National Strategy. Pedagogy and practice

EXAMPLESStarter

Starter Activity: Diamond 9• The Governors at JCC, at the

request of the Environment Group has decided to introduce a range of measures to make the school more eco-friendly.

• The Governor has asked for your advice.

• Create a diamond 9 of the different measures.

• At the top would be the most effective in terms of their environmental effect and also in terms of saving money

Starter

Plot the following different motivational factors on to a scatter diagram

Productivity

Retention

Odd One Out.

• Tourist• International student• Refugee• Assylum seeker• Immigrant

Show me the answer!

Using mini-whiteboards, true/false cards, hand signals, different coloured cards etc. pupils must show you the answer to a series of questions

Answer!

ANAGRAMS

• ETPNROITF• ENUESSALREVE• VEEABRKEN• NOECOAMOFSIESCLE• MAIDMRETK• VITDUCPROTIY• FIEFCNCIEY

Students compete to decode the anagrams.

Students then must be able to clearly define the key terms.

What might have happened before the photo was taken?

What might be happening now?

What might happen after?

Right OR Wrong?

Scenario

Should Top Shop/Man take-over New Look?

Implications?

Graffiti or Art?

Can you name the product being

advertised?

Bring in a Prop

Starters – Top Tips

Keep it short – less

than ten minutes

Make it immediately

accessible to all or most pupils

Hook the pupils’ interest Make instructions

and outcomes clear

Activities should be challenging, active and demand high-level thinking.

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL SESSIONS

Teaching and Learning

Task

What might a pupil look like who is engaged in learning?

Top Tips

• Pace and challenge• Questioning is effective• Learning objectives are inclusive and

challenging• Variety of engaging activities• Develops thinking skills

DFES 2004

Active engagement.

People learn best when they are interested, involved and appropriately

challenged by their work – when they are engaged with their learning

Engagement is about promoting those approaches to teaching and learning that help pupils understand subject knowledge and its application and that demand their

active participation

How can we engage students?

1. Activate prior knowledge

2. Challenge - to stimulate and interest pupils.

How can we engage students?

3. Cooperative group work

4. Metacognition – pupils thinking about thinking

How can we engage students?

5. Different modes of representing information

6.Scaffolding

How can we engage students?

1. Activate prior knowledge – learning is an active process of constructing knowledge and developing understanding. Pupils make ‘meaning’ by connecting new knowledge and concepts to ideas and knowledge they already possess

2. Challenge - to stimulate and interest pupils.

How can we engage students?

3. Cooperative group work – according to Vygotsky’s ‘zone of proximal development’ the assistance of peers helps the development of thought in an individual.

4. Metacognition – pupils thinking about thinking – assess, reflect, evaluate,

How can we engage students?

5. Modes of representing information – the brain is forced to work hard when it has to convert one mode to another e.g. from text to diagrammatic form.

6.Scaffolding – providing structures and guides to support thinking

Paired Activity

Task: Design a one hour session for a group of 15 year olds about a learning topic of your choice.

Resources: Use the PLUS+ Scheme workshop session plan as a guidance template

Be prepared to share and justify your plan

The Importance of Plenaries

Help determine the next steps in learning

Draw together the learning of

the whole group and the

individualSummarise and take stock of learning so

far

Consolidate and extend learning

Highlight what has been learned and also how it has been learned.

EXAMPLESPlenaries

HEAD-something that has made you

think

BIN-something you did not find

interesting

BAG- something you will remember

and take away

HEART- something that you have felt

Bin

Key Word BingoCreate a list of 12 key termsAsk students to create a 9 box gridStudents to choose 9 of the key terms and write them onto their Bingo cardTeacher reads a definition – students decides whether they have the key wordStudent shouts Bingo if they get a line (or full house)Students has to read key words – and some key terms back to the teacher

Assess your Learning

Ask students to reflect on the lesson objectives and assess themselves

Students hold up five fingers if they are fully confident that they have met the learning objectives

Individual students can be questioned to check learning and understanding

One thing that surprised you

during the session

Two questions that you would like to know the answer

to

Three things you enjoyed about today

Four top-tips that you have learnt today

EvaluationFocus area Out of 10

Engaging starter activity

Clear and inclusive learning objectives

Variety of activities and ‘experiences’

Use of time

Level of challenge

Independent learning opportunities

Plenary