Mentor materials
Making judicious use of practical skills in relation to setting high expectations and managing behaviour effectively
Mentor materials content
ECT Mentor session
Module 6: Enabling pupil learning
Week 5: Making judicious use of practical skills in relation to setting high expectations and managing behaviour effectively
Learning Intentions for this session
a presentation by your mentee of their findings from their short practitioner inquiry
using the Module 6 ECT audit as a stimulus for discussion around your mentee’s current knowledge and practice in relation to Module 6 (ECF Standard 1 & 7)
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 end of Module 6, their first of Year 2 of the programme. In this short module, they focused on an area of their teaching to develop and devised an exploratory question – one which helped them to interrogate an aspect of their normal practice in relation to setting high expectations (Standard 1) or managing behaviour effectively (Standard 7). They collected some near-to-hand evidence about the impact upon pupils of their normal practice, and they agreed with you an ‘alteration’ to their practice. Over the past two weeks, they have been collecting some evidence as to how far this has made a positive difference to their pupils.
In this session, you will listen as your mentee describes what they did and what they found. You will help them to understand that getting better at teaching means both having ‘practical fluency’ and the wider knowledge, experience and beliefs to make judicious use of these practical skills in the specific situation that the teacher is in at a given time.
You will 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 Sam (setting high expectations) and Meera (managing behaviour effectively).
Mentor Meeting Activities
Review and Plan 5 mins
- Start this session by briefly following up the actions that the mentee set at the end of last week’s training session. 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
Encourage your mentee to share with you the results of their Module 6 inquiry. If they need help with structuring their comments, you might say:
Please tell me what your original exploratory question was – which elements of the ECF was it focused on?
Remind me what you discovered about the impact upon your pupils of your normal practice in that area – did that tally with what you would expect, from what you learned using the ECF last year?
Tell me again what alteration to your practice you agreed to implement – which elements of the ECF inspired this alteration to your practice?
What improvements did you hope to see?
How did you collect evidence of any improvements?
What did you discover?
Self-assessment
At the start of this module, you looked at all of the learn how to statements for Standards 1 and 7 and conducted a module audit with your mentee. Look back at this audit now. We understand that getting better at teaching means both having ‘practical fluency’ and the wider knowledge, experience and beliefs to make judicious use of these practical skills in the specific situation that the teacher is in at a given time.
Encourage your mentee to review these learn how to statements from Module 6 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 do intentionally and consistently use language that promotes challenge and aspiration; for example, if a pupil says they cannot work out the mean, median and mode of a set of numbers, I will always now respond with ‘you can’t do it yet but, if you follow and practise these rules, you will’ – my pupils are now much more likely to persevere with work they find challenging
- to communicate my belief in the academic potential of all my pupils, I phone three of their parents or carers each week to report their successes; I am doing this only with my Year 8 class because that is where I had to work hardest to convince them of their potential – many more of the boys in that class now show much more interest and pride in their work
- I teach my pupils behaviour routines in line with the school ethos (e.g., not allowing pupils to speak while the teacher is speaking), but I am not always consistent with how I apply them; I can see the positive difference this is making to the quality of work they produce, but I am still spending too long following up on behaviour issues after lessons
- I am good at responding in a less-intrusive way to low-level disruption because always, while my pupils are working independently, I am circulating the room so I can deal with questions and keep my pupils focused on learning; the atmosphere in the class now feels much safer and conducive to high-quality learning
Collaborative planning
Having completed the inquiry and the audit for Module 6, you and your mentee will have a clear 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 January, I will be consistently communicating a belief in the academic potential of all of my pupils. I will know that I am because my pupils’ improved progress will be evident in the central data, they will be willingly accepting higher challenge in my lessons, and I will hear them say things like “I like it when you point out how I can improve my work.”
‘I will achieve this by, for example:
- setting pupils a short weekly quiz to determine their current level of knowledge and understanding – making sure that this is non-threatening, so that the pupils are supported by a positive environment and recognise that they can learn from their mistakes (1c)
- writing explicit, descriptive success criteria for each maths lesson and referring to these success criteria intentionally and consistently in lessons – this is so the pupils will understand the challenge I am setting them and how to achieve it (1b)
- making daily reference to a fictional pupil, ‘risk-taking Sam’, to a) model what it looks like to take risks and push yourself out of your comfort zone; b) model common mistakes and misconceptions made by pupils in class; c) help pupils anticipate common misconceptions, and identify solutions, before they arise; and d) to create an environment where risk-taking and mistake-making are embraced as a part of the learning process (1.1, 1.2, 1.3)
- contacting the parents and carers of three pupils each week to celebrate success where pupils have reached or exceeded expectations in maths (1d)’
- ‘By January, I know I will have developed a positive, predictable and safe environment for my pupils – and be managing behaviour effectively – because my pupils will have more merits on the data management system, there will be minimal threatening behaviour and pupils will say things like “Miss deals with low-level behaviour quickly and with little fuss.”
‘I will achieve this by, for example:
- creating a set of short, positively worded, three-step routines to make clear my expectations with regard to my pupils’ behaviour in each part of a lesson (7h)
- creating visual reminders and non-verbal signals to help my pupils understand behaviour expectations for each part of a lesson (7e)
- deliberately practising the routines until the pupils can do them without thinking (7i) and mentioning the routines regularly using clear, consistent language non-verbal signals (e.g., my hand up means I am waiting for quiet) (7j)’
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 at the start of Module 7.