Planning for Change

Secondary English teachers on both sides of the Wales England border are preparing for a new curriculum in all three key stages. This is a matter of great concern and discussion with anyone who will listen to us.

Change is not unusual. More peculiarly  this time is that the two nations are changing in totally different ways. The politics of the changes are driven to some extent by the proliferate discussion if our rankings with PISA. I do not intend to loan about the changes or the politicians careless treatment of the profession. My intention is to try to document, for my own enlightenment, the process of managing such dramatic change.

Creating a curriculum plan for a team of teachers can be quite difficult but it is nothing as to the complexity and enormity of resourcing a totally new curriculum.  The general public assumes that all teachers wheel out the same materials year in year out.  They imagine a dusty folder neatly organised with the same resources taught at the same time every year.

The new curriculum in Wales has a heavy focus on non-fiction and ‘real world’ texts.  This is unashamedly an attempt by the Government to improve Wales’ standing in the PISA tests.  It may well do the trick.  A real concern for English teachers and especially English leaders in Wales is the impact this change will have upon morale of a community of teachers who, on the whole, became teachers because of a love of literature and the creative.  I digress.

The challenge to meet this new focus in Key Stage 3 and 4 is sourcing sufficient reading materials that the new ‘PISA type’ skills can be thoroughly addressed.  This is not by any means a loathsome task and if truth be told I am quite enjoying it.  We are about to embark upon a pupil voice process to ensure that at least some of these materials.  A major issue that I am facing is time.  Traditionally, I would panic of a while and then resign myself to the great benefit of the summer holidays and plan to do twelve weeks of work in that time.  I am trying to avoid this familiar pitfall.

I am fortunate in working with a team of talented and generous people who are going to support my efforts to meet the needs of the new curriculum.  Unit for different year groups have been shared and staff with sculpt the units and collect or create the requisite resources.  This seems to be working.  However, my real dilemma is that I do not really believe in detailed and prescriptive schemes of work.  I much prefer selecting the best learning plan for my classes based upon their needs and interests.  It would seem odd to move onto the next lesson in the scheme if the requirements and challenges of the lesson taught had not been met.  In planning and creating resources for lessons, I enjoy selecting resources that are relevant to the class and where possible contemporary.  Detailed schemes of work hinder this differentiation and creativity.

In my head, I know that the scheme will be created and I will only mostly adhere to it.  This may make me a complete hypocrite but it is unavoidable.  The real issue I face is that as I will create the bulk of the materials for the new curriculum is it appropriate to expect my colleagues to adhere to a strict scheme of work.  My headteacher prefers this method of working and in reality that is the answer to the question.  Perhaps a well-resourced detailed scheme will make their lives easier.  Time will tell.  The real shame is that we have spent recent years moving towards a fiction heavy, creative scheme that allowed teachers to follow learners needs and interests.

A change may well be as good as a rest.

Easter Marking

I’ve spent the majority of today marking.  This is by no means a moan.  Marking is the bread and butter of teaching.  I tend to prefer the teaching part (the meat of the sandwich) and have not really taken marking very seriously until the last few years.

Keeping exercise books up-to-date can be difficult.  Having spent much of the past term marking controlled tasks and coursework, some of my exercise books needed a real overhaul today and more will need serious attention tomorrow.  I can now see, after over a year of taking a more rigid attitude to marking regularly, how beneficial regular marking can be.  This has taken its toll on my planning and anecdotally my planning of those planning intensive high impact lessons seems to have diminished.

Where does the balance lie?  Or are we doomed, as teachers, to be constantly contemplating our balance of these issues.  In changing my attitude towards marking (via the edict of a new headteacher) I have also witnessed the benefits of well-prepared and frequent peer assessment.  Already looking forward to next year, I can see now that some careful consideration and planning of assessment needs to take place so that my marking becomes more manageable and to ensure that it does not hamper planning and facilitating more impactful lessons.

At  the same time I am also contemplating the every lesson approach of described here by Mr Benney.  This is mostly due to what I have really felt is the benefit of regular marking and feedback: more specific differentiation and planning linked exactly to learners’ progress and understanding of work already covered.

Despite how all this may sound, I am not a novice teacher and did mark previously.  Previously, I marked when I felt it needed to be done and focussed more on planning and creating resources to engage learners.

Marking is deservedly a bug bear for many teachers and I cannot say that it is a pleasure, as quite often marking entails the process of realising what did not work or was not listened to.  I am learning to appreciate the importance of marking but always looking for ideas on how to minimise its workload.  Peer assessment is already a weapon in the armoury and the RAG1234 approach mentioned previously will benefit my current practice in this area.

What else do people do to minimise marking whilst keeping it as frequent and high quality as possible?

Happy Easter (especially to those of us who return to the chalkface on Monday)

D

Hello world!

When I first started teaching, I used to hate writing on the whiteboard.  A fear of my handwriting, mistakes and, perhaps, turning my back on my students saw me avoiding doing so as much as was humanly possible.  There is certainly a distinct sense of paranoia linked to being an English teacher and then exposing your own literacy to the world.  I now feel immensely stupid and naive I choosing the title ‘Please Check Your Capitals’ for this blog.  In fact, I’m feeling that I should not be blogging and that my own thoughts are not worth the attention of any reader.  Despite this I will attempt to plough on.

Despite any insecurities felt about literacy and a realisation that this is what I cause in my students, I truly believe in the power of words.  ‘Words, words, words’ was my preferred title for this blog but another blogger beat me to it.

My desire to teach and my chosen career path was caused by a series of dedicated professionals, but one English teacher really changed my world with her attention to detail, care and choice of ‘Hamlet’ as an A Level text. To Mrs Kate Thomas, I will always be grateful and indebted.

I intend this blog to be a personal reflection and perhaps at some point a means of professional discussion. There will errors in literacy, thoughts and manners but here goes!