Mentor materials
Planning backwards from learning goals
Select a development area
Consider the development areas for this topic (below). Then make a note of the area you plan to zoom in on and when you plan to visit so you can observe your teacher in this area. Familiarise yourself with the focused development areas. You will select one later when you observe your teacher.
Development area 1: Learning goals and end points
Focused development area
- Teacher, with the support of a colleague, identifies achievable and demonstrable learning goals linked to the knowledge and skills pupils need.
- Teacher, with the support of a colleague, accesses and reviews subject resources to ensure that learning goals relate to the ambitious learning outcomes for the longer-term curriculum.
Development area 2: Planning backwards from learning goals
Focused development area
- Teacher, with the support of a colleague, reviews the learning goals for a lesson and identifies the knowledge and skills required to meet them.
- Teacher, with the support of a colleague, ensures lessons contain the knowledge and skills in the learning goals and these are sequenced to build towards the learning goals.
Example precise target: Teacher, with the support of a colleague, ensures lessons contain the knowledge and skills in the learning goals and these are sequenced to build towards the learning goals
- Not doing it at all: With the help of a colleague review and, if necessary, edit upcoming lesson plans to ensure the tasks address all of the knowledge and skills encapsulated in the learning goals for the lesson.
- Doing it but needs some improvement: With the help of a colleague review and, if necessary, edit upcoming lesson plans to change or omit tasks that do not cover the knowledge and skills encapsulated in the learning goals for the lesson.
- Doing it well and needs some stretch: With the help of a colleague review and, if necessary, edit upcoming lesson plans to ensure knowledge and skills are sequenced to build towards the learning goals.
Development area 3: Linking tasks and learning goals
Focused development area
- Teacher, with the support of a colleague, accesses and reviews subject materials to understand how tasks build pupils’ knowledge and skills towards the learning goals for a lesson.
- Teacher, with the support of a colleague, accesses and reviews subject materials to understand how to adapt task content to efficiently build pupils’ knowledge and skills so they can meet the learning goals for a lesson.
Observe
Consider the following questions based on a short (approximately 15 minute) observation of your teacher.
What was your teacher’s previous target? Are they meeting it? How do you know?
Thinking about the development area you have selected for this topic, what is your teacher already doing well in this area? Which focused development area best aligns with what your teacher needs to get better at? What one precise target (bite-sized action) might you work with them on during your mentor meeting?
Reminder: You can choose to stick with this previous target if they have not made enough progress. When moving on to a new precise target, you can select one from the table above or, if this doesn’t fit your teacher’s needs, you can write your own.
How will you model the target to your teacher to show them what good looks like? What questions will you ask to check your teacher understands the model? For example, ‘How it is different from your current practice?’ and ‘What impact might it have on your practice and pupils?’
Reminder: Your model should help your teacher develop their ability in some of the following:
- Set tasks that stretch pupils but are achievable within a challenging curriculum.
- Identifying essential concepts, knowledge, skills and principles of the subject and providing opportunity for all pupils to learn and master these critical components.
- Draw explicit links between new content and end points in the subject.
- Build in additional practice or removing unnecessary expositions.
Next, meet with your teacher to work through the ‘feedback’ stage of instructional coaching.