Teaching and Learning Gem #12 – creating meaningful personal targets
This comes from Helen Sinclair. She asked her Year 9 to write a reflection for their end of year assessment. However, as she watched them write it on OneNote, she noticed that some of the comments were rather vague. She therefore copied a range of different reflections onto the chat and asked the whole class to review them using the reaction emojis (being clear that a sad face didn’t mean it was bad, just that they thought it could be improved). Once they had done this, she then asked students to explain in the live call what made some targets more effective than others.
This is effective because:
It encourages students to be meaningfully self-reflective.
The collaborative nature of this makes it clear that all students have things to improve….it discourages perfectionism!
It emphasises the importance of making targets specific.
Teaching and Learning Gem #8 – the power of quick questionnaires to get a picture of whole class understanding
This idea comes from Nicola Higgs, who created a digital RAG sheet for students using Microsoft Forms. Students rated their confidence about the topic of climate change (covered during lockdown) by using ‘red’, ‘amber’ or ‘green’ . This allows students to reflect honestly on their Guided Home Learning AND helps Nicola understand which areas of this topic she needs to revisit in lessons.
Below are some of the results, quickly giving Nicola a sense of the whole class picture and what has been understood by students:
Here is the excel spreadsheet generated, allowing Nicola to dig down into the detail of particular students so she can support them/make interventions:
This is effective because:
It is quick for students to complete and gives all students the ability to share their feelings.
It encourages students to be self-reflective about their learning
It gives the teacher direction about where to focus their teaching
It allows the teacher to see which students need more support or intervention
Suzanne East, Head of Year 12 at WHS, looks at how listening can empower us as teachers and learners.
I am a talker, and I suspect that is true of many teachers. We get a buzz from sharing our passions for our subject, from explaining and answering questions and from solving problems. But increasingly my attention has been drawn to the importance of listening as a vital way to genuinely shift our focus away from ourselves, our opinions and assumptions; forcing us to notice what is really happening for our students, what they are learning and the journey they are making as they engage with the information we are presenting.
During this time of lock down this has been brought into sharper focus as we realise what we miss by not being able to see and hear our pupils in person. I think many of us have experienced that unsettling feeling of talking into the void, calling out for any pupil to respond! This has added to my intention to ensure that I bring good quality listening to my school life once we return.
Concerns about the quality of listening may be a reaction to the Twitter generation which seems to demand that we constantly project our thoughts and ideas out into the world – this demand to be seen and heard where perhaps nobody is doing the listening. But we have long been aware that it is easier to notice and respond to the louder and more obvious messages that can be presented by students. Susan Cain’s “Quiet: The power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” reminded us of what we may miss if we don’t stop to make sure that all voices are heard, and of our obligation as teachers to ensure that no one is overlooked.
Above: Image by Anemone123 from Pixabay
Attending mindfulness sessions with MiSP and again in courses with the Positive Group, I started to realise the difference between my usual listening style and what really thoughtful and attentive listening can be. The requirement to stop and to observe your surroundings is closely linked to the need to listen as well. To stop sending messages out and to take time to notice what is actually being said. Practising this stillness and trying to observe the moment was both a relief and a revelation. Accepting that I don’t have to respond to everything straight away, fighting the urge to jump in when listening even to a simple story, and noticing my instinct to mould what I hear to fit my own experience and expectation was a real eye opener.
One listening activity many of you may have tried is that of working in pairs to sit silently for between 1 to 3 minutes whilst the partner describes a situation, perhaps a simple event like a holiday or a more emotional experience such as a recent frustration or disappointment. In either case it is revealing to notice the desire as a listener to interrupt, join in and comment, rather than allowing the story to be and remain that of the storyteller. Feeling that listening to each other is a skill our girls will also need to develop, and we have tried this with Y12.
We asked them to sit back to back in pairs to listen for one minute to their partner and then to repeat back what they had heard. Giving time to listen to the end of the story and then telling the account back allows a sense of mutual understanding to grow and holds a mirror to the mistakes we often make in our everyday interactions. By actually doing this exercise the girls were able to start to experience this for themselves and to acknowledge their own behaviours. We know that many friendship issues arise from not listening honestly to each other and the damage done by quick reactions to a message on social media which can then take months of unpicking to repair the hurt caused.
Encouraging girls to listen fully to the whole story, to think before they act, and to go back and check with each other to see if they have understood correctly, are all useful tools in diffusing potentially viral misunderstandings. Despite all our efforts to be more inclusive and to accept diversity, we also live in a social media age which encourages swift reactions with a quick “like” or “dislike”. It is our responsibility as educators to highlight the potentially damaging impact of this and to explore the advantage of allowing space to consider the nuanced motivations that contribute to individual actions and decisions. We explored this further with our Sixth Form using the three chairs activity, in which the same situation was described from the perspective of the protagonist, victim and a fly on the wall. In my group the fairly trivial example of Horrid Henry and Perfect Peter led to a surprisingly rich discussion on the different motivations for bullying.
We want our students to be able to open up to us and we want to help them to live happier and more fulfilled lives. From our greater age, we can look back at the challenges of teenage life and see where we could have done it better, but that is not what any student wants to hear; we have to be careful to make sure the conversation remains focussed on the student and not on us or our ability to problem solve quickly.
Neuroscientist Sarah Jayne-Blackmore has spoken and written many times on the nature of the adolescent brain and reasons why it leads to greater risk-taking behaviour, and how this behaviour is significantly influenced by peer group approval. We want to influence our students and encourage them to make what we consider the best decisions, but the evidence suggests that they are not going to hear us unless we really take time to listen and understand what is important to them. We allocate time to one to one conversations with form tutors in the sixth form, but successfully managing these is not easy and tutors need to be skilful in creating a situation of trust in which a student can really open up. Mark Wilmore, one of our tutors with many years of experience as a Samaritan, training as a Counsellor and also as a sixth form tutor, shared his top tips for these conversations:
Check in & boundaries
Non-verbal communication
Listen ‘actively’
Have an agenda
Try to avoid closed questions
Use challenge where appropriate
Feedback
Set targets
Keep a written record
Follow up
Making it obvious to the student that these conversations are important – that they deserve proper time and attention and that we are genuinely listening to their experience and their story – are vital in building a successful relationship. Body language and preparation will tell the student far more than words, so making sure you have time to genuinely be there for them is vital, as they will be quick to assume that we are not really interested and then any words of wisdom we have will fall on stony ground.
It is also an important part of a student’s development to struggle and to find their own solutions to problems. We need to empower them with the confidence to know that they can make the change for themselves and that they have the skills that they will need. Rachel Simmonds says in Enough As She Is that “suffering is key to our children’s learning” and “that the price of some of our most important life lessons-the ones that make us wiser, tougher, and more capable-is pain, even heart-break” (Simmonds p200). This isn’t to leave them on their own, but to be with them and give them space to sound out their own solutions so that next time they know they will manage better.
In PSHE earlier this year we invited the Samaritans in to talk with Y12. Hearing the accounts of these masters of listening without judgement, the ones that those who are feeling most isolated and rejected turn to were truly inspiring. But they emphasised that the skills of listening were something that we should all practise in our relationships to help avoid people becoming isolated in the first place. Their campaign Shush “wants to encourage people to listen to the really important things their friends, family and colleagues need to tell them, and to devote some time and attention to being better listeners” (Samaritans). This was a powerful session, which left us all awed by the potential impact each one of us can make by just taking the time to stop and listen and allowing others to be heard.
Mr Richard Finch, Oxbridge Coordinator, looks at how WHS works with partner schools to develop effective Oxbridge admission support programmes.
We all have a responsibility for widening access to Oxbridge
These days, any article you read about Oxbridge entry focusses on widening access. The Sutton Trust[1], for example, recently reported that Oxbridge currently recruits more students from eight leading public schools than it does from 3,000 state schools combined. Few disagree (not least the universities themselves) that this needs to change. But it is not just the universities that have a responsibility for widening access.
At Wimbledon High, we work with our partner schools to share ideas and activities to develop our Oxbridge support programmes. These programmes seek to dispel myths about studying at these institutions and ultimately support students to be as well prepared as they can be for the application process. At the heart of any successful support programme is the ability to galvanise enthusiasm and guide independent exploration of their chosen subject.
How we help pupils decide if Oxbridge is right for them
In order to help pupils decide if Oxbridge is right for them, our introduction to Oxbridge starts in Year 10 with a day trip to either Oxford or Cambridge. As well as the tourist hot spots, we visit individual colleges (hosted by Wimbledon High alumnae) and receive a lecture from our link college admissions tutor to understand the realities of living and studying in these historic university cities. The purpose is to plant the seed for the right candidates to pursue an application in the future.
For those that do decide to take part in the programme, the real preparation starts in Year 12. Despite encouraging the girls to learn independently, the opportunity to discuss ideas with likeminded people is possibly the most valuable part of the programme. Each girl is therefore linked with a personal mentor (a teacher at the school) whom they meet regularly from the spring term of Year 12. Sessions vary greatly by department but the common format is a guided discussion using a particular stimulus (perhaps an artefact in Classics or a graph in Economics) chosen by the student. The idea is to allow the girls to forge their own path of academic discovery.
Building links with departments is vital
Pupils are also encouraged to engage with Oxbridge departments as much as possible. Cambridge, for example, offer subject “master classes[2]” which enable students to experience typical undergraduate teaching. Entering essay prize competitions are also a great way to engage directly with departments. Oxford, for example, offer a range of essay prizes[3] across a number of departments. We also link candidates with Wimbledon High alumnae studying their subject. Current undergraduates are well placed to suggest current reading lists and give specific advice on how to prepare for their application.
Confidence is key
Jasmine delivering her WimTalk entitled, “who legally owns your dead body?”
A common misconception among students, whichever type of school they attend, is that are not “clever” enough to go to Oxbridge. Of course, these institutions are highly competitive but girls especially often underestimate their abilities and fail to acknowledge that a deep academic interest in their chosen subject is possibly more important than a stellar set of GCSEs. The WimTalks programme is there to encourage WHS girls to express their love for their subject with confidence. Girls are required to present a series of short presentations to their peers on a topic of interest. They then have to field questions from subject specialist teachers. Encouraging the girls to develop expertise in a range of topics has proven a great way to boost self-confidence and prepare for interview.
The results
These are just some of the ways in which our programme supports and empowers our girls. In an increasingly competitive environment, we have managed to increase the percentage of the cohort securing offers year on year. This bucks the national trend for independent schools and we think our support programme has helped our Oxbridge success grow. We continue to work with our partner schools to develop our programmes to encourage candidates to pursue an application and to support them wholeheartedly throughout the process.
These are just some of the ways in which our programme supports and empowers our girls. In an increasingly competitive environment, we have managed to increase the percentage of the cohort securing offers year on year. This bucks the national trend for independent schools and we think our support programme has helped our Oxbridge success grow. We continue to work with our partner schools to develop our programmes to encourage candidates to pursue an application and to support them wholeheartedly throughout the process.