From the @ThirdSpaceTweets Blog: EEF Digital Technology Report 2019 [SLT Summary]: Essential Guidance For School Leaders On The Perils And Promises Of EdTech In The UK

My summary of the EEF's Guidance Report about the use of digital technology in education: https://thirdspacelearning.com/blog/eef-digital-technology-report-2019-slt-summary/

What You're Forgetting When You Teach Writing

Time in a primary classroom is at a premium: there are so many things to try to fit in. Even under the umbrella of English there is handwriting, spelling, grammar, punctuation, composition, reading, and more. It’s so difficult to make sure that everything is covered. And there are certain parts of the writing process which are either misunderstood or don’t always get a look in because of time constraints.

The 7 stages of the writing process

The writing process, according to the EEF’s ‘Improving Literacy In Key Stage 2’ guidance report, can be broken down into 7 stages: Planning, Drafting, Sharing, Evaluating,Revising, Editing and Publishing.

In a recent training session, when I asked a group of school leaders and teachers to write down elements of current practice in their own schools for the teaching of writing, we found that most of the time was spent on planning, drafting and editing. In fact, there were very few examples of how the other stages were being taught.

Click here to read more: https://bradford.researchschool.org.uk/2018/12/08/895/

In summary

• Set a clear purpose and audience before beginning the writing process;
• Teachers complete the task themselves;
• Allow children to work at each of the seven stages of the writing process as they work towards a final piece;
• Model each of the seven stages to the children using the I/We/You approach at each stage; and
• Evaluate,share and revise by checking the writing fulfils its purpose.

Reading Roles Linked To Reading Comprehension Strategies

This information can now be found at https://www.aidansevers.com/blog/search/reading%20roles
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Things You Should Continue Doing In The Early Years (And What The Research Says About Why)

Here's another blog post I wrote for the Bradford Research School blog. It is in response to the EEF's guidance report 'Preparing For Literacy', which can be downloaded now for free.

Much of what goes on in Early Years is misunderstood by those without experience of working with the youngest children in our education system. Early Years practitioners can feel like they are continually having to defend their working practices against those who have little understanding of the ways children develop and learn in the Nursery and Reception years. The fact that there are proportionally fewer Early Years teachers than say, Key Stage 2 teachers, or Key Stage 4 teachers, means that they are under-represented in education as a whole.

And nothing is as bad as when an agency produces a report telling the experts how to do it. So, does the EEF’s latest guidance report ‘Preparing for Literacy’ just teach the proverbial grandmother to suck eggs?

One benefit of engaging with research is that often it can confirm that what is being done already has an evidence base. Sometimes, after reading up on a particular working practice, one might discover that nothing needs to change, and that actually the things they are already doing are likely to be effective. Often, teachers will be convinced that their practice is effective because their own assessment of outcomes appears to prove it. For these teachers, checking with research findings can confirm that what they are doing has worked elsewhere too.

With that in mind, here are some common Early Years practices that the ‘Preparing for Literacy’ guidance report confirms as best bets; these are things you should definitely continue to do in your Nursery and Reception classrooms...

Click here to read the whole article

Why Primary Teachers Need To Know About Metacognition

Sir Kevan Collins introduces the EEF’s latest guidance report on metacognition and self-regulated learning with these words:

‘…with a large body of international evidence telling us that when properly embedded these approaches are powerful levers for boosting learning, it’s clear that we need to spend time looking at how to do this well.’

And if the focus here is on embedding and spending time on metacognitive approaches then there are surely strong implications for primary schools. In order for these learning habits (which research says are highly effective) to be embedded, we who are involved in primary education should be thinking about our role in their early development.

Continue reading here: https://bradford.researchschool.org.uk/2018/05/28/metacognition-in-primary/

The EEF's Metacognition and Self-Regulation guidance report can be downloaded here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/tools/guidance-reports/metacognition-and-self-regulated-learning/

From The @thirdspacetweets Blog: EEF Report Summary: Putting Evidence To Work

My work with Bradford Research School has really turned me on to the work of the EEF. So when they release another a guidance report I'm always keen to read it first to find out what its implications are. The latests one applies to all subjects and all schools but here, in this blog post for Third Space, I outline how I should have used it had it been published in time, and how I will use it in the future to introduce any new changes.

Winds of change blew in the world of primary Maths when the 2014 National Curriculum was introduced. We now had to teach some things sooner, other things later, some things not at all and there were additions too (hello, Roman numerals!). The ‘new’ holy trinity of Maths teaching and learning were introduced: fluency, problem solving and reasoning.

Then the SATs gradually changed. The calculation paper had already been done away with; next to go was the mental Maths test, replaced by the arithmetic test. And the reasoning tests appeared to begin to assess how pupils were doing on the 2014 curriculum ahead of schedule. The two new reasoning papers were perceived by many to be more difficult than before.

And so, up and down the land, Maths leaders and teachers have been making changes to the way the subject is taught in their schools...

Click here to read on: https://thirdspacelearning.com/blog/eef-putting-evidence-work-report-slt-summary/

Teaching Mathematical Problem Solving: What The Research Says

Recently the EEF published their guidance report for KS2 and KS 3 maths. It gives 8 recommendations for improving the teaching of mathematics:

In this blog post for Bradford Research School I focus in on problem solving but touch on the use of manipulatives, developing a network of mathematical knowledge and other areas of the guidance. In the article I outline a maths lesson which follows much of the advice given in the guidance (the cube trees at the centre of the lesson):

https://researchschool.org.uk/bradford/news/teaching-mathematical-problem-solving-what-the-research-says/

Why You Might Be Getting Feedback Wrong! (Part 2)

At the launch of Bradford Research School I held a workshop entitled Why You Might Be Getting Feedback Wrong! The workshop is now available in blog form over on the Bradford Research School blog. It comes in two parts:

Part 1 addresses 5 myths:

• Myth 1: marking is evidence-based
• Myth 2: feedback = marking
• Myth 3: marking is time consuming
• Myth 4: Ofsted require a particular kind of marking
• Myth 5: children need to know what level/grade their work is

Part 1: https://bradford.researchschool.org.uk/2017/12/08/why-you-might-be-getting-feedback-wrong-part-1/

Part 2 addresses 4 more myths:

• Myth 6: marking needs to be done in great detail
• Myth 7: marking will have an impact on progress
• Myth 8: all errors are equal
• Myth 9: triple/dialogic marking is best

Part 2: https://bradford.researchschool.org.uk/2017/12/15/why-you-might-be-getting-feedback-wrong-part-2/

I have also uploaded the PowerPoint I used in the workshop for anyone to use in their own training or discussions with SLT: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/why-you-might-be-getting-feedback-wrong-powerpoint-for-staff-training-11795794

Why You Might Be Getting Feedback Wrong! (Part 1)

At the launch of Bradford Research School I held a workshop entitled Why You Might Be Getting Feedback Wrong! It's a slightly clickbaity title, and I wouldn't have been surprised if no-one came to it, after all, who wants to be told they're doing something wrong?

Anyway, people did come and I've begun to write up what I presented in the workshop. The information I was presenting all came from the EEF's review of the evidence on marking 'A Marked Improvement' - my workshop was an attempt to summarise their findings into a 20 minute bite-size chunk.

Read part 1 here: https://bradford.researchschool.org.uk/2017/12/08/why-you-might-be-getting-feedback-wrong-part-1/

From The @BradResearchSch Blog: What The Research Says About Primary Literacy Priorities In Bradford

As some of you are aware I am part of the team at Bradford Research School. One of our methods of outreach is blogging. On the Bradford Research School blog I will be focusing in on how research, particularly that reported on by the EEF, can be used in schools in the Bradford area.

My first blog post looks at the EEF Literacy guidance reports for KS1 and KS2 and proposes that a priority for Bradford is for schools to have an embedded culture of oracy:

https://bradford.researchschool.org.uk/2017/10/31/what-the-research-says-about-primary-literacy-priorities-in-bradford/