Mentor materials
Planning learning effectively
Intended outcomes
The intended outcomes of this topic are for Early Career Teachers to:
Learn how to plan effective lessons, by:
- Using modelling, explanations and scaffolds, acknowledging that novices need more structure early in a domain
- Enabling critical thinking and problem solving by first teaching the necessary foundational content knowledge
Activities
Introduction to the topic (5 minutes)
Explain that the focus of today’s mentor topic is what the ECT can do to plan lessons effectively. It will focus on two key statements of the ECF:
- Using modelling, explanations and scaffolds, acknowledging that novices need more structure early in a domain.
- Enabling critical thinking and problem solving by first teaching the necessary foundational content knowledge.
Ask the ECT whether they have any questions related to these statements following their self-directed study reading.
Novices versus experts (5 minutes)
Guidance for mentors:
- The ideas here build on what was learned in module 2 – How pupils learn.
Ask:
What does it mean to be a novice?
- A person who is new or inexperienced
- Novices have incomplete or underdeveloped schemata to draw on
What does it mean to be an expert?
- A person who is very knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area.
- Experts have more developed schemata
Why is this relevant to your classroom?
- It is relevant because our pupils tend to be novices or return to novice status every time we teach them something new. We need to support them to become experts.
- We need to develop their schemata so that they can have more prior knowledge to draw on.
The process of moving from novice to expert: (IMAGE MISSING ON HERE)
Modelling, explanations and scaffolds to support novices – understanding what each is (10 minutes)
Suggested dialogue for mentors: We can support the development of schema – and making novices more expert learners – by using some specific strategies such as Modelling, Explanations and Scaffolds
1. Modelling
Read the following together:
’students need cognitive support to help them learn to solve problems. The teacher modelling and thinking aloud while demonstrating how to solve a problem are examples of effective cognitive support. Worked examples allow students to focus on the specific steps to solve problems and thus reduce the cognitive load on their working memory. Modelling and worked examples have been used successfully in mathematics, science, writing and reading comprehension.’ Rosenshine (2012)
The goal of modelling is to help pupils know what we know and do what we are able to do.
2. Explanations
Read the following:
Our explanations can support pupils to develop conceptual understanding and build strong mental models. We can support novices by ensuring that our explanations do not contribute to cognitive overload. How?
- Take into account pupils’ prior knowledge when planning when and how to introduce new content.
- Minimise distractions so that pupils can focus their attention on what is to be taught.
- Eliminate unnecessary information in our explanation – stick to what the pupils need to know.
- Use dual coding effectively – combine words and visuals to enhance explanation.
- Repeat the key messages and information – make use of wall displays and prompts so that pupils do not have to hold too much in their working memory.
- Break down explanations into smaller steps so that pupils don’t need to process too much at once.
3. Scaffolds
Read the following together:
Scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move pupils more progressively towards stronger understanding, and ultimately, greater independence in the learning process. The teacher provides successive levels of support to help pupils reach higher levels of comprehension and skill acquisition that they would not be able to achieve without assistance. The teacher gradually shifts more responsibility for learning to the pupils with the ultimate ambition that pupils become unconsciously competent at the skill being taught. Often a vital step in the scaffolded learning sequence gets omitted – the point at which the pupils are learning independently.
Ask the ECT to summarise in their own words what each of these concepts is and to identify one or two key features of good modelling, explanations and scaffolding.
Plan an effective lesson using modelling, explanation and scaffolding (30 minutes)
Look together at Handout 3.2, which is a simple lesson plan.
- Identify how the teacher will model what they want pupils to do.
- Identify where the teacher will explain the key idea for the lesson.
- Identify the scaffolds.
- Discuss what you think of them? Are they going to help the pupils achieve in this lesson?
Now, for a lesson that the ECT is going to teach soon, use the blank lesson plan template on Handout 3.2 to plan out the lesson. Use the following prompt questions:
- What is the learning objective for this lesson?
- How will you model how to do it for pupils?
- How will you explain the key ideas or knowledge?
- What scaffolds will you provide to help pupils achieve the learning objective?
Planning for action
Agree with the ECT when they are going to teach the lesson that they focused on in the previous part of the topic. Ask them to note down some reflections that they can bring to the next topic.
In the next topic you will be looking at effective teacher expositions. You might ask the ECT to be aware when they are delivering an exposition (that is they are presenting information from the front). Ask them to consider whether it was planned or in response to the learning in the classroom and how well they thought the exposition helped pupils learn.