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  • Support for early career teachers
  • UCL
  • Year 1: Second half term: developing quality pedagogy (part 2)
    • Spring week 4

    Mentor materials

    Meeting individual needs and balancing workload

    Learning intentions

    Your ECT will learn how to:

    • make use of well-designed resources (e.g. textbooks)
    • plan to connect new context with pupils’ existing knowledge or provide additional pre-teaching if pupils lack critical knowledge
    • build in additional practice or remove unnecessary expositions

    Topic introduction

    In their self-directed study session earlier this week, your mentee extended their knowledge of meeting the individual needs of their pupils whilst balancing their workload. They should have annotated a scheme of learning for the next three lessons, applying their understanding of expositions, foundational concepts and efficiency.

    In this session, you will reflect on the notes they have made on the scheme of learning and consider how what is learned can be applied to your mentee’s teaching in the future.

    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

    Analyse artefacts

    Look at the annotated scheme of learning and the table of notes which the mentee did as part of their self-directed study.

    Foundational Concepts Potential Misconceptions Potential resources/expositions Efficient? (my workload)

    Trying not to interrupt, listen to your mentee as they explain the misconceptions they expect may arise and how they will efficiently plan resources and expositions to address them.

    Sharing of practice

    Share your own experience to help your mentee to plan for meeting their pupils’ needs efficiently, without unnecessarily adding to their workload. Dwell on all four or one or two which have emerged as priorities for your mentee. (There are some ideas in the bullet points below.)

    How do I make use of well-designed resources (e.g. textbooks)?

    • what type of resources do I use and what is my rationale for using these resources?
    • do I use different resources for different pupils and why?
    • do I use commercial resources, collaborative resources or have I made my own?

    How do I connect new content with pupils’ existing knowledge?

    • do I use analogies and metaphors?
    • do I use ‘concrete’ examples that pupils are familiar with?
    • do I encourage pupils to make their own connections, for example, what is this a bit like?
    • are pupils encouraged to see links to other subjects?

    How do I pre-teach?

    • do I set homework before a lesson to pre-teach issues that will arise in my lesson?
    • do I set reading or research tasks for this?
    • do I pre-teach the same way for all pupils, or do I target some for extra support or challenge?

    How do I make time for independent practice?

    • when does practice occur, for example, do I teach many new ideas first before practice occurs or is new content ‘chunked’ up and practice occurs immediately?
    • do I model a new process or skill first before pupils are asked to practise and do I show the process step-by-step clearly?
    • do I give sufficient time for practice before moving on-- how do I know?
    • how do I keep my exposition to the point and clear?

    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:

    1. the action(s) they will take and how these action(s) are expected to contribute to improving pupil learning
    2. what success will ‘look like’ in relation to these action(s)
    3. 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.