Mentor materials
Making new concepts accessible through targeted support
Learning intentions
Your ECT will learn how to:
- balance input of new content so that pupils master important concepts
- make use of well-designed resources (e.g. textbooks)
- consider carefully whether intervening within lessons with individuals and small groups would be more efficient and effective than planning lessons for different groups of pupils
Topic introduction
In their self-directed study session earlier this week, your mentee extended their knowledge of how adaptive teaching can impact on learning. They considered how the configuration of groupings can help pupils build their knowledge, access the curriculum and make progress. They also considered how pupil success is underpinned by having frequent opportunities to practise and by the gradual removal of scaffolds as their expertise increases. Your mentee reflected on their practice in relation to the standards and identified which of these ideas might have the biggest impact on their current practice. Your mentee will have either asked for you to observe them for 15 minutes or recorded a segment of their lesson to reflect on how they support all learners in overcoming barriers to learning.
The learning outcomes from their self-directed study were to learn that:
5.3 adapting teaching in a responsive way, including by providing targeted support to pupils who are struggling, is likely to increase pupil success.
5.4 adaptive teaching is less likely to be valuable if it causes the teacher to artificially create distinct tasks for different groups of pupils or to set lower expectations for particular pupils.
5.6 there is a common misconception that pupils have distinct and identifiable learning styles.
This is not supported by evidence and attempting to tailor lessons to learning styles is unlikely to be beneficial.
In this session, you will facilitate your mentee in developing their understanding of why it is important to evaluate pupils’ knowledge, understanding and skills and how this can be achieved (discussions with pupils, during whole-class feedback, checking classwork, summative assessment of their work, etc.) Through discussion, your mentee should be able to identify when certain pupils need more help to improve their knowledge, understanding and skills; what help they need; and the best way to adapt their teaching to support them. You will address the educational research which refutes the idea that lessons need to cater for pupils’ ‘learning styles’ - this does not improve learning.
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. Tailor your use of the Theory to Practice activities below in response to the Review and Plan section of this session.
Review and Plan 5 mins
Clarify the Learning Intentions for this session with your mentee.
At the start of this module, you looked at all of the ‘learn how to’ statements for Standards 4 and 5 and conducted a module audit with your mentee: in some areas they will already be confident and skilled; in others they will want more practice and support from you and others. Look back at this audit now and use it to help decide how you and your mentee will make the most productive use of the suggested Theory to Practice activities below.
Theory to Practice 40 mins
Discuss with mentor
You may have observed the lesson your mentee planned in their self-directed study session. Otherwise, you should use some of the time now to watch the video of that lesson or read the annotations they made on a detailed plan of the lesson. Your purpose is not to assess or grade the lesson but to probe their thinking and offer constructive challenge.
Consider some or all of these questions with the mentee (not all will apply):
Key concepts -
- how did you balance introducing new content with teaching key concepts?
- what were the key concepts within this topic?
- how well do your pupils know and understand these concepts - how do you know?
Adapting a resource -
- how did you adapt it in the lesson to support pupils?
- how did you adapt it in the lesson to stretch pupils?
- did any of your pupils request additional resources?
Intervention in class -
- did it seem effective?
- how did you support pupils who didn’t have the required knowledge, understanding or skills compared to other pupils?
- how did you identify key pupils that needed help?
- how did you adapt questions to stretch and/or support pupils in their learning?
Successful outcomes -
- did the pupils achieve their learning outcomes?
- was it more effective to give targeted in-class support than creating extra resources or separate tasks for individual pupils?
- did you save planning time by using one rich resource which you could adapt in the lesson?
Action planning
Help your mentee to identify next steps arising from the lesson you viewed. Be careful not to allow too many extra targets to emerge – concentrating on one area of teaching to improve would be much better.
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 improving pupil learning
- what success will ‘look like’ in relation to these action(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.