Mentor materials
Module interim audit
Mentor materials content
ECT Mentor session
Module 8: Developing quality pedagogy and making productive use of assessment
Week 9: Module 8 interim audit
Learning Intentions for this session
a discussion with your mentee of their interim claim from their evaluative inquiry
using the Module 8 ECT audit as a stimulus for discussion around your mentee’s current knowledge and practice in relation to Module 8 (ECF Standard 4, 5 & 6)
supporting the mentee to make accurate judgements about their progress in this module so far
to agree with the mentee areas for particular focus and further development
Introduction
Your mentee has come to the midpoint of Module 8.
Last week, in their self-study time, your mentee collected and analysed evidence relating to their area of development and evaluative inquiry. They have written a ‘claim’, a statement describing what they believe they now know about their practice in that area.
This week, you will discuss that claim, remembering that your mentee still has some way to go before their inquiry is finished.
You will then revisit the audit from the start of the module and use it to recognise your mentee’s progress and areas for further development.
Case Studies
There is no case study for this session, but you could refer back to the studies of Andy, Vashti, Louise and Mo who conducted their inquiries around Standards 4, 5 and 6.
Mentor 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.
Review and Plan 5 mins
- Start this session by briefly following up the actions that the mentee set at the end of the mentor meeting two weeks ago. Ask your mentee to summarise
- what they did
- the impact of this on pupil learning (including how they are evaluating this)
- what they will do going forward to build on these actions
- Clarify the learning intentions for this session with your mentee.
Theory to Practice 40 mins
Sharing Practice and Reflection
Invite your mentee to share with you their claim from their Module 8 inquiry so far. If they still need help with structuring their claim, you might remind them of the claims made by 3 of the teachers in the featured case studies:
Vashti:
Through her inquiry, Vashti was learning better how to plan effective lessons, by (4a) using scaffolds for pupils who needed more structure; better how to stimulate her pupils’ thinking, by (3r,4p) providing scaffolds for talk to increase the focus and rigour of dialogue; and better how to provide frequent opportunities for her pupils to plan, draft and edit their writing in pairs. Her claim is:
Classroom talk, combined with scaffolding resources, can be a powerfuldriver for improving written literacy among pupils with a Speech, Language and Communication Need (SpLCN) in Year 4.
She is going to keep monitoring her use of the ‘speaking sentences’ scaffold.
Louise:
Through experimenting with ‘minimal marking’ as an alternative to always giving full written feedback, she learned better how to reduce the opportunity cost of marking by using codes and verbal feedback (6p). She also learned better how to give whole-class feedback so they knew what they needed to do to improve, and had the time to do it. (6h) Her claims therefore are:
- Using codes/verbal feedback does not detrimentally affect pupil progress, compared with a standard written marking approach.
- On average, using codes/verbal feedback saves the teacher 30-45 minutes a week, per teaching class, compared with a standard written marking approach.
She will use this insight to now apply the same principles of verbal feedback and minimal marking to her Year 7 and Year 8 classes, while monitoring the impact of that on her pupils and herself.
Mo:
Through expanding his range of questioning approaches, Mo learned better how to include a range of types of questions in class discussions to extend and challenge pupils (4m), provide appropriate wait time between question and response where more developed responses are required (4n), and prompt pupils to elaborate when responding to questioning to check that a correct answer stems from secure understanding (6f). Based on this, his claim is:
Responsive questioning is a useful tool for improving the qualityof talk and writing among Pupil Premium girls in Year 11 GCSE PE.
And because he has developed his questioning practice to this extent, Mo has decided to apply the same approaches to his other classroom-based lessons.
To help your mentee reflect more deeply upon the strength of their claim, here are some probing questions:
the alteration to your practice..
- can you describe the ‘ingredients’ of what you have changed in your practice?
- one simple change, or a complex change?
had what impact..
- one impact, or multiple?
- are any outcomes a surprise?
- have the impacts been largely positive, or not?
upon whom?
- upon all of the pupils you had in mind, or only some of them?
- upon you?
Self-assessment
At the start of this module, you looked at all of the learn how_ _to statements for Standards 4, 5 and 6 and conducted a module audit with your mentee. Look back at this audit now at this mid-way stage. We understand that getting better at teaching means having ‘practical fluency’: the wider knowledge, experience and beliefs to make judicious use of practical skills in the specific situation that the teacher is in at a given time.
Do not attempt to review the whole audit. Encourage your mentee to review a selection of the learn how to_ _statements from Module 8 and make claims for where they now feel they know how and when to make use of the practical skills, i.e. they can be ‘judicious’.
To support this self-assessment, you might share with them a model, e.g.
- I know it is important to first teach the necessary foundational content knowledge before asking my pupils to engage in critical thinking and problem solving. In my curriculum planning, I have started to identify what the key content is and how I will ensure my pupils can gain a firm grasp of it. I am beginning to see that this is working well with all of my pupils, and it is helping them with their critical thinking.
- Now more than ever I realise how making use of textbooks in the department (at least those that fit well with our curriculum principles) can save me from unnecessary workload. Although I do like to create my own resources, I have more contact time this year and so less time to devote to planning. I have discovered that textbooks often give extra scaffold for those pupils who need greater support or who are ready for an extended challenge.
- Although I accept that I need to apply high expectations to all of my pupils, I am still struggling to ensure that my low prior attaining pupils have access to a rich curriculum. Sometimes I resort to providing them with easy worksheets, in the hope that they can get on with them without further help from me. My aim is to more frequently intervene with them in lessons – possibly in small groups – to scaffold work so that they have the same access to a rich curriculum as the rest.
- When I question pupils in class, I now never allow them to give an answer without also demanding that they elaborate. My favourite instant response is ‘Why do you say that?’ or ‘Why are you so sure?’ My pupils now know to expect this, and they enjoy trying to convince me. I now have a much better idea of whether their answers are built on secure understanding.
Collaborative planning
Having completed the interim audit for Module 8 and reached the midpoint of the evaluative inquiry, you and your mentee will have a clearer idea of strengths and areas for development.
Agree on a specific development goal for either a strength or an area where your mentee needs to build more secure practice.
You might find it useful to translate this into ‘goal statements’ e.g.
- ‘By the Summer, I will have embedded my use of the “thinking aloud” technique when modelling, to make explicit how experts think. I will say things like “when I am writing an introduction, the first thing I will do is define the tricky terms in the question”. I will know that this is having a positive effect because many more of my pupils will be able to meet all of the success criteria for greater depth writing.’
- ‘By the next half-term, I will be working much more effectively with my Teaching Assistant (TA). I will be sharing all of my outline plans with her on Thursdays for the following week; I will meet with her for 10 minutes after school every other day, to make sure she knows in detail how I need her to help me in numeracy and literacy. We have agreed to meet in CPD Time on 2 Tuesdays every month. I will know that this is having the desired effect because she will feel much more confident in supporting me; the pupils I ask her to work with will see that they are getting consistent messages from her and me.’
- ‘During the Summer term, I will be using a past paper exam (or similar externally validated material) every week with my exam classes; every other week, my classes will sit these like a “real” exam: they will be told what areas to revise, and they will have only 30 minutes to answer the paper. We will follow this with peer feedback in the next lesson, where the pupils will have very clear criteria and they will be expected to point out to their peers 2 areas to improve. I will know that this is having a positive effect because they will all feel much less anxious about the real exam, and they will be performing better in the mocks.’
It might be possible to build this new development goal into your mentee’s ongoing inquiry. In any case, it is a good idea to help your mentee be clear about what ‘success’ in their area of development would look like.
Next Steps 5 mins
Agree with your mentee how they will now put their learning from this week’s session 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, which will be in two weeks’ time. You will check on your mentee’s progress with their inquiry, and invite them to look for any negative consequences of the alterations to their practice.