Groby Community College Pupil Premium The Toolkit 1
Metacognition Metacognition refers to the skill or ability to think about our thinking more specifically, the ability to consider what we know, how to assess what we know, and when to access the appropriate information or call on the skills necessary to be successful at a task From Struggling Students to Expert Learners Successful students use metacognitive strategies throughout a task and actually start thinking before they start the task itself. What do successful students do? Plan and organise Monitor their own work Self-reflect Direct their own learning 2
Strategies: Teach students how their brains are wired for growth The beliefs that students adopt about learning and their own brains will affect their performance. Research shows that when students develop a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset, they are more likely to engage in reflective thinking Give students practice recognizing what they don't understand The act of being confused and identifying one's lack of understanding is an important part of developing self-awareness. Take time at the end of a challenging class to ask, "What was most confusing about the material we explored today?" This not only jumpstarts metacognitive processing, but also creates a classroom culture that acknowledges confusion as an integral part of learning. Provide opportunities to reflect on extended pieces of writing/problem solving Questions that help this process might include: Before this lesson, I thought. Now I understand them to be the result of How has my thinking changed about Have students keep learning logs One way to help students monitor their own thinking is through the use of personal learning log What was easiest for me to learn this week? Why? What was most challenging for me to learn? Why? What study strategies worked well as I prepared for my exam? What strategies for exam preparation didn't work well? What will I do differently next time? What study habits worked best for me? How? Consider essay vs. multiple-choice exams Research shows that students use lower-level thinking skills to prepare for multiple-choice exams, and higher-level metacognitive skills to prepare for essay exams. While it is less time consuming to grade multiple-choice questions, even the addition of several short essay questions can improve the way students reflect on their learning to prepare for test taking. Facilitate reflexive thinking. Teachers can create a classroom culture for deeper learning and reflexivity by encouraging dialogue that challenges 3
Here are some sample metacognitive questions you can use to engage your students in reflecting on their own experiences as learners during the course itself to facilitate their growth and improvement over time. You may wish to start with just one or two questions and use them more than once over the course of the term to provide students with practice in thinking this way about themselves and their learning. How have I prepared for class today? What s the best way for me to prepare for a class like this one? What questions do I have? Why did I miss those exam questions/do poorly on this project or paper? What do I need to do to do better next time? Classroom intervention to further the progress our Pupil Premium students Prioritise PP students in any activity that you believe is particularly likely to improve students commitment, interest or progress Visit PP students first in lessons to guarantee they get your attention and get them started with the task promptly Where possible, give PP students high status, challenging roles in group tasks: e.g. chair, summariser, and envoy. Make sure that PP students sit where you can easily get to them. Mark PP students work first and/or more often. Mark PP students homework almost as soon as it is handed in. Make this a priority. Schedule into lessons occasional, more formal learning conversations with PP students, and record and act on the outcomes of such conversations. Deliberately design some lessons to inspire students without worrying too much about whether the lesson will guarantee progress in the short-term. Plan differentiation to support student engagement as well as to support low attainers. Explicitly direct PP students to free on line sources of support for the current topic, or for revision. Take extra care over how you set homework: ask students (particularly PP students) to decide when and where they will do their homework. Get them to visualise themselves doing the homework. Ask students to anticipate what might get in the way of homework, and help them to plan how to evade these homework blocks. Remind PP students that the LRC opens late on a Wednesday. 4
Ensure that PP students have sources of support for their homework. At the very least, for example, publish details of the homework task and key supporting resources on ShowMyHomework Make absolutely sure that PP students have got copies of past papers and revision materials. Check periodically that they still have them, and replace them if these key materials have gone astray. Talk to the PP students about when and where they will use the materials. Find out if any of your PP students are getting extra help during the week - for example in maths or English. Deliberately design in opportunities for PP students to practise and apply those skills in your lessons. Prompt them to do so. Ask PP students other teachers about techniques that are particularly effective in maintaining those students engagement and progress Student passports on SIMS Homework The impact of homework on learning is consistently positive (leading to on average five months additional progress). There is some evidence that homework is most effective when used as a short and focused intervention with some exceptional studies showing up to eight months positive impact on attainment. In the most effective examples homework was an integral a part of rather learning, rather than an add-on. To maximise impact, it is also appears to be important that students are provided with high quality feedback on their work Consider Making the purpose of homework explicit to learners, e.g. to increase a specific area of knowledge, or fluency in a particular area. Not setting homework as a punishment or penalty for poor performance or behaviour. Setting homework that includes a variety of tasks with different levels of challenge is likely to be beneficial. Ensuring that the focus is upon the quality of homework and not necessarily the quantity. Providing feedback on homework that is specific and timely. Homework is effective when: It is well planned Staff and students regard homework as an integral part of the curriculum rather than an afterthought or add on. It is planned and prepared alongside all other programmes of learning. Tasks set are integrated into the whole class lessons. It takes 1 to 2 hours per school day The optimum level is between 1 to 2 hours, or slightly longer for older students but the effectiveness is reduced as the length of time increases. Students receive feedback When homework is completed well it is acknowledged and praised. Homework is marked in line with the college s feedback policy and treated with as much respect and attention as schoolbased learning. It supports attainment of all students Homework tasks are differentiated and are appropriate to the needs of individuals. A variety of tasks are set, the use of ICT. Ensure homework is published onto ShowMyHomework. Teachers may need to provide a written copy for students with a SEN 5
Feedback - mark PP work first Closing the Gap Students acting upon teacher feedback Closing the gap means getting students to act upon feedback they receive to close the gap in their learning. Students need to close the gap between the work they have done originally and a higher level of work suggested by the feedback they receive. In other words, closing the gap means acting on feedback. The mechanism for doing this is open to interpretation. Evidence from student voice shows that some of our PP students struggle to respond to teacher feedback, therefore it may be an idea to offer PP student sentence starters or a model response for students so that they are aware of what they need to do Next lesson I will ensure that I If I had to reduce all of the research on feedback into one simple overarching idea, at least for all academic subjects in school, it would be this: feedback should cause thinking. (Dylan Williams, 2011) Examples of students responding to teacher feedback examples below are offer more guidance 6