Effective Primary Teaching Practice 2016 EFFECTIVE TEACHING These

Effective Primary Teaching Practice 2016: EFFECTIVE TEACHING These slides are intended to be used a starting to support discussions in schools about aspects of the Effective Primary Teaching Practice report. For more detail and nuance, please do read the full report. Written by Dame Reena Keeble, supported by a group of teachers, headteachers and experts

Summary Teaching is the core of what schools are about – and continuing to develop teaching is at the heart of effective schools Effective schools: 1) Have strong leadership • Driven by a clear, evidence-based vision for school, owned by all staff • Regardless of structure, the most senior leader in school leads teaching and learning 2) Prioritise ongoing development of teachers and teaching • Development is structured and focused on pupil outcomes - and led by evidence • Purposeful, clearly focused planning • Teachers’ knowledge of a subject AND how children learn that subject is actively developed, using subject leads and external resources/expertise • Mastery approaches across the curriculum, with high expectations for all pupils’ attainment 3) Make the most of all their resources • Teachers are helped to use their time on things that make the most difference to pupils • Technology is used where it has a clear pedagogical purpose - and only then • There is careful consideration of whether and how to use teaching assistants • Teaching dictates the use of the classroom 4) Make clear choices about their priorities and organisation • Have a strong reception year with a structured approach to teaching - with planning around learning not activities • Think hard about whether setting or streaming helps all pupils to achieve • Are clear on the use and purpose of any homework and how it supports learning objectives

Effective teaching is about: • Planning what pupils should learn • Using approaches that help them to do this, which include: review • explanation • model • practice • feedback • further review • • Understanding what pupils have learnt and in particular who needs any additional support or practice How do you characterise pedagogy in your school?

Effective teaching needs effective planning, that: • Creates careful sequences of teaching, considering what it is that pupils are to learn, and the medium-term goal - being clear about the progression of learning within a subject, working backwards from the point that pupils should reach at the end of each half-term, term and the academic year • Addresses misconceptions - planning to help all pupils avoid or confront typical misconceptions and any potential difficulties about a subject • Sets high, realistic expectations of outcomes and behaviour for all – recognising that pupils are more the same than different in the way they learn and think, and a pupil’s ability or potential should not be confused with a pupil’s attainment to date • Provides opportunity for mistakes - helping pupils not to fear mistakes and rather show they can help pupils learn, encouraging an approach to learning that prioritises effort, where all pupils see achievement as possible through hard work Effective planning does NOT mean a burdensome bureaucratic reliance on compliance. Monitoring should focus on outcomes.

Effective teachers: • Create the right level of difficulty or challenge so that pupils both think about a subject, and get satisfaction when they understand something or solve a problem • Help pupils think about what the teacher wants them to think about - not just what they hope they will • Build knowledge: explicitly referring back to prior learning and/or supporting particular pupils through pre-teaching • Sequence teaching purposefully: building on prior knowledge and helping develop understanding of the underlying concepts • Use extended practice to build automaticity and deepen understanding Do you jump straight to an answer, or create or pose a question first? Are pupils thinking about performing or meaning when doing a play? Which do you intend? Practice is important for learning, but not all practice is the same: Practising different instances of the same principles, rather than practising the same thing can help encourage a deeper understanding Spacing practice out over time is more effective than cramming or just practising everything in a single block Practising remembering/recalling things, through things like regular quizzes, can help learning last longer

Effective teachers know how to understand what pupils have learnt And, therefore, how to identify who needs additional support or practice. This needs: • Consistent understanding of expected outcomes: what progress means for specific pupil groups, years and in different subjects – using this to spell out expectations to pupils (where they are and where they should be), as well as to inform their own teaching • Frequent monitoring of pupils’ progress, using reliable, quick and simple methods which check: • Can all pupils explain what they are learning? • Do all pupils understand what they need to learn or practice next? • How deep or shallow is pupils’ understanding? • Reviews of common challenges and gaps, to identify any corrective teaching required, adapt future lessons, and to improve future teaching How do you know what your pupils have learnt? How do you target and then monitor the impact of corrective teaching?

1 – Mastery In recent years this approach has become more common for teaching maths, where it has been shown to improve pupil outcomes. There is no reason why mastery principles could not apply in other subjects too - and some of the most impressive schools are working towards doing just this. It does require careful thought, in particular to the careful sequencing of the development of knowledge and skills with a subject, and potentially consideration of the resources available to support it. The term ‘mastery’ had no consistent definition in the schools we visited, which affected its implementation in teaching practice. The Effective Primary Teaching Practice report uses it to mean Mastery teaching is: • • • An expectation that all pupils reach a minimum (but high) level of knowledge of the same content - i. e. that all pupils have mastery of content - extension for the highest attainers comes through greater depth rather than breadth or acceleration Carefully sequenced teaching that progresses a subject Teaching that plans for and challenges any misconceptions students may have Corrective teaching and interventions to help all achieve the minimum level Ongoing deliberate practice of core skills to embed knowledge, resulting in pupils being able to recall and demonstrate their knowledge in different contexts (including reasoning and problem -solving) over time Regular informal assessment to ensure accurate teacher understanding of pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skill Mastery teaching is NOT: ticking each national curriculum objective and sub-point as you go along, using them as a proxy for your teaching sequence

2 – Using whole class approaches Effective schools often organise pupils as a whole class: • Frequently organising pupils as a whole class can maximise pupilteacher contact so that every pupil benefits from teaching and interaction for a sustained period of time • Effective schools continue to provide opportunities for individual practice, and structured working with peers (see next slide), alongside whole class teaching, but individual practise does not take up the majority of the lesson time • This is not about teachers talking at pupils - it is about teaching where teachers explain and model, then encourage pupils to think and grapple with a subject as their understanding develops. • It also gives teachers the opportunity to listen to responses and understand how all pupils are learning and understanding How much lesson time do your pupils spend on individual practice? How do you check pupils’ understanding in a whole class setting? How do you encourage all pupils to think and reason using questioning?

3 – Effective use of small group work • Pupils learn from summarising, communicating and reasoning with peers, and this works best with structure and support so that pupils learn and progress as intended • Small groups can be effective for corrective teaching or targeted preteaching - helping ensure all pupils can access the content in whole class teaching. Pre-teaching: • Is teaching pupils skills or knowledge that they need to know, before a lesson where the skills or knowledge will be applied • Requires accurate assessment to see where it is required or can be most helpful • Can be used to deliver content to the whole class, individual learners, or with small groups – for example, pre-teaching groups of learners to enable them to take part in whole class teaching How do you structure and support group work to be effective? How could you use small groups to aid pupils in whole class settings?

4 – Corrective teaching and interventions • Use the most appropriate adult who understands the outcomes required and how to assess progress – this could be a teacher, teaching assistant, or someone else • Effective schools purposefully address pupils’ misconceptions and knowledge gaps, considering how best to use staff to achieve this • Consider the evidence for particular interventions, and the likely outcomes compared to the investment (time, money, staff) for the number of pupils involved • A well-evidenced intervention poorly implemented may be a worse option than a less effective option where training and expertise is in place to deliver well There is good evidence that some interventions are not effective. Our review of the evidence suggests that Accelerated Reader and Reading Recovery are effective, but READ 180, Project CRISS, and Writing Wings are not. See the review for yourself here. How do you monitor the impact of interventions? Do you know where to look for evidence of effectiveness of interventions?

5 – Using phonics • Using phonics with all early readers to secure decoding ability, and as an intervention approach for struggling readers, seems to be effective • Done well, this requires all teachers in a school to have a secure understanding of phonics and phonics teaching, including key stage 2 • Many schools have pupils entering throughout the key stages without any English which further emphasises this need Phonics is not just for pupils in reception and key stage 1. Good phonic knowledge is required all through key stage 2, not least in tackling multi-syllabic spelling. How confident are you that all teachers within your school have a secure understanding of phonics teaching?