Mentor materials
Understanding teachers as role models
Learning intentions
Your ECT will learn that:
Teachers have the ability to affect and improve the wellbeing, motivation and behaviour of their pupils.
Teachers are key role models, who can influence the attitudes, values and behaviours of their pupils.
Teacher expectations can affect pupil outcomes; setting goals that challenge and stretch pupils is essential.
Setting clear expectations can help communicate shared values that improve classroom and school culture.
A culture of mutual trust and respect supports effective relationships.
Establishing and reinforcing routines, including through positive reinforcement, can help create an effective learning environment.
A predictable and secure environment benefits all pupils, but is particularly valuable for pupils with special educational needs.
Your ECT will learn how to:
Demonstrate consistently high behavioural expectations, by:
- Creating a culture of respect and trust in the classroom that supports all pupils to succeed (e.g. by modelling the types of courteous behaviour expected of pupils).
Establish effective routines and expectations, by:
Creating and explicitly teaching routines in line with the school ethos that maximise time for learning (e.g. setting and reinforcing expectations about key transition points).
Practising routines at the beginning of the school year.
Reinforcing routines (e.g. by articulating the link between time on task and success).
Topic introduction
In their first self-study session of this module, your mentee considered how they can be a role model to their pupils. They also learnt about the importance of setting clear expectations, and about how to embed routines to support an effective learning environment. They have spent some time exploring the culture and values of your school and observed a colleague beginning their lesson. They then drafted a script for an entry routine to their classroom – you will work on this together during this ECT mentor meeting.
Meeting activities
Throughout the session, try to refer explicitly to the Learning Intentions, and encourage your mentee to record key points in their Learning Log, if they are using one. Tailor your use of the Theory to Practice activities below in response to the Review and Plan sections of this session.
Review: 5 mins
- Start this session by briefly checking in with your mentee that they have been able to access and engage with the materials for the first self-study session of this programme. Address any questions or issues they have, which could include topics such as:
- how to protect the time and space to engage with their professional learning on this programme
- accessing resources needed to support their study (in this case school materials on culture and values)
- completing activities as part of self-study (in this case observing a colleague as they manage the beginning of a lesson)
- how they are recording their thinking and learning on the programme
- Clarify the Learning Intentions for this session with your mentee.
Plan: 5 mins
In their self-directed study session this week, your mentee drafted a script for an entry routine into their classroom. The instructions for this activity are repeated below. Ask your mentee to briefly explain to you their routine, including what will happen and why.
Scripting – use the ideas in the research and practice summary in this week’s ECT materials, and your notes from this session so far, to script your own routine for how pupils will enter your classroom. If relevant to your setting, you may want to consider the role of parents and carers as part of this, too.
Your script should address the ‘clarify’ and ‘model’ stages of the process described in this week’s research and practice summary. Include in this script:
- your expectations about how pupils will enter the room: will they line up? Where? Who decides when pupils enter? What will happen if pupils aren’t following expectations?
- instructions you will give pupils about what to do on entry: how will they deal with bags and coats? Will they sit down immediately? What are your expectations about how quickly they settle? What should pupils ‘do’ once they are settled?
- how you will model your expectations to your pupils
- notes for yourself on how you will create opportunities for pupils to practise your new routine
- notes for yourself on how you will communicate your expectations verbally and non-verbally: what language could you use to greet different pupils? How will you use tone, volume and pitch? How will you use facial expressions and gestures to help reinforce your expectations?
Be as specific as you can in the detail you give. The purpose of this activity is to help you think in detail about how you can set clear expectations about behaviour on entry to your classroom, and create a predictable and secure environment that supports effective learning.
Theory to Practice: 35 mins
- Discussion with mentor
Discuss with your mentee any routines that are mandated by your school’s behaviour policy and teaching and learning policy. Make reference to the relevant policies as appropriate and check that your mentee is clear about what is expected of them. This could include:
- routines for moving around the school building
- routines for managing behaviour
- routines for organising teaching and learning (e.g. required components of lessons)
- Analyse artefacts/scripting
Work with your mentee to review and refine their scripted entry routine for their classroom, drafted during this week’s self-directed study session.
To support this process you could:
- cross-reference the script to this week’s research and practice summary, checking to see how the script does/could draw on ideas drawn from best practice
- cross-reference the script to your school’s policies and embedded routines
- consider the characteristics of your mentee’s pupils and how these influence your mentee’s expectations
- discuss how the routine might be altered to account for differences in pupil characteristics or contexts (e.g. how routines might be different for pupils in different key stages, or in different learning spaces)
- ensure that the script is sufficiently detailed that it sets out clearly what is expected of pupils and how your mentee will clarify, model and embed these expectations
- Rehearsal
Having refined your mentee’s script/routine, work with them to rehearse the script in action. To support this process you could:
- play the part of a pupil entering your mentee’s classroom
- give feedback on how closely your mentee’s enactment of their routine reflects their script
- give feedback on how to improve enactment of the routine
- ask your mentee to repeat the routine until they are able to enact it confidently and accurately
- If you have time you may wish to repeat the processes of scripting and rehearsal with another routine relevant to your mentee. This should be selected according to the phase and specialism of your mentee and their personal learning needs.
Next Steps: 5 mins
Agree with your mentee how they will now put their learning from this week’s session(s) into practice in their teaching. Help your mentee to clarify:
- the action(s) they will take and how these action(s) are expected to contribute to improved pupil learning
- what success will ‘look like’ in relation to these actions(s)
- how they will evaluate their success in taking these action(s)
Note the date of your next mentor meeting, when you will check on your mentee’s progress.