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The Plans & Pitfalls of building an interleaved English curriculum

The Plans & Pitfalls of building an interleaved English curriculum. The session should:

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The Plans & Pitfalls of building an interleaved English curriculum

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  1. The Plans & Pitfalls of building an interleaved English curriculum The session should: Dig under the surface of major changes to a departments curriculum map to embed these new systems and ways of working into the delivery of curriculum content, across all key stages in English, with the rationale of embedding ideas into the long-term memory of students. The session will look at how the seeds of ideas, grow, flourish and change as they are implemented, reflected on and adapted to suit the context of the school, the staff involved in the teaching and learning and the way that the students engage with them. What to expect: 1 - Curriculum model 2 - Changes & Rationale 3 –Potential Problems 4 – Solutions focused implementation 5 - New Curriculum Model 6 - Adapting 7 - Next Steps

  2. Curriculum Model 1 Year 10 example – The old specification and fully blocked units, no interleaving or focus on embedding knowledge over time with students: no longer fit for purpose! Y10 exams week 12th – 16th May: possible disruption. No English exam

  3. Changes & Rationale • Keep blocked units (not 100% interleaving) • Embed consistent prior learning starters in every lesson in every year group (@TLMPsF style 5 in 5) or other starter activity • ‘Pause’ lessons or Revision interleaving lessons – teachers, purposefully complete a revision lesson during a larger SOL • Knowledge/Skills lessons – linking current learning & skills to prior learning • Y9 – Embedded fortnightly grammar lessons using Of Mice and Men - thanks to @becky1820 for this idea) • Knowledge organisers created for every unit – bespoke KOs created ‘in house’ • KO MCQ quizzes – using Googleforms – researched and created ‘in house’ • More focus on target reflection work/metacognition work • Homework to take a three pronged approach – metacognition/target work/consolidation work • English lectures into the revision programme for Y11 ‘Aim HIgher’

  4. Using the mini context guide – Create a set of questions about the poems you have studied that a partner can answer about the context in the poems. Swap the questions with a partner and answer the questions in your book in full sentences Anthology Revision Which poems have you studied? In groups – write down everything you can remember about the different poem sets. I will move these on. War Love Place Making links – For each poem write down a link to another poem with a reason – cover all the poems – Then Feedback On a post it note – Write down any questions you have about any of the poems – we will go through the questions now

  5. KO Lesson (20 minutes) • Vocabulary work • Use the vocabulary in your writing. • Create sentence starters which apply the vocabulary and then build up to including this in your analysis • E.G. The metaphor used in…

  6. DEPARTMENT SPECIFIC Focus (created to define what embedding learning over time means and how it works) What is ‘Embedding Learning Over Time’ = defined as the use of embedded revision in lessons and in homework, the interleaving and spacing of learning to ensure students in all academic stages are able to retain information in their long term memories in order to achieve academic success and have life-long learning strategies in place. Embedding Learning over time by Key Stage: English

  7. New Curriculum Model Year 10 example – The new specification with blocked units, revision interleaving, pause lessons, knowledge & skills lessons and starters to embed knowledge with students in their long-term memories and offer ‘forgetting time’

  8. Your thoughts: Are you currently using any of these ideas in your department? OR, Is there anything that you think might work for your context? OR, Could you adapt these ideas to suit your way of working? AND, What challenges do you imagine?

  9. Potential Problems • Teacher buy in • Time – large project to roll out over one year • Ensure that it is viewed as and used as a long term strategy – not a flash in the pan initiative • How do we get the KOs to work? • KO not being used and just being another piece of paper • What about the way skills and knowledge cross over? • Why do MCQ? What about ICT issues etc.? MCQ set up – how do we want to proceed with these? • How will it impact on workload? • What if I/we forget to use the new approach? • How do we get teachers in the team to understand the research behind the approach? • What if teachers don’t use the new approach?

  10. Solutions Focused Implementation • Getting teachers involved in the process from day one –KO decisions, implementing, checking and ideas from teachers on using them (making them specific for our dept. needs) • Sending out lesson suggestions and sharing ideas of how to embed the strands • Teachers feedback sought consistently over time (both informally and in department meetings as discussion points) • Using department meeting time to put in place a constant review process • Using student voice – year group and year 11 revision feedback • Talking as a leadership strand about the potential drawbacks and pre-empting these before roll out • Offering time to go through the strategy • Revisiting constantly in department fortnightly e-mail bulletins • Communicating areas of struggle and coming up with solutions as a team • Sharing good practice through learning walks • Reading up on research in blogs and books • Creating MCQ using the information from research – ‘desirable difficulty’ • Working together and talking to each other all the time about what and how we are using the different strands

  11. Adapting Plans – What didn’t work? What were the solutions? • KO’s worked – but needed consistency – we met – worked on this and adapted – now definitions and resources consistent • KO as lots of loose sheets not brilliant – consolidated this into the ‘Pink Assessment’ booklet – Also, as a homework booklet for consideration • MCQ – became messy in Google forms – creation of individual teacher folders – time consuming doing in class – better than complete student autonomy for consistent checking of learning • MCQ – the admin side – arduous process to get set up and have the kids sorted and ready to go – set as homework and check all set up on google forms • Confusion over the rationale for interleaved revision points – make sure the rationale as well as the “how to” apply the process is made clear • Time – it is a constant process – this process will take 5 years until we can evaluate the effectiveness of the new model

  12. Your thoughts: What problems or issues could you foresee with this type of change in your context? Or, Are there other solutions you think would work?

  13. What next? • Writing challenges into Y7 and Y8 to address concerns with grammar • Audit of definitions, KOs and adapting these for consistency • Embed the KO documents into the student booklet (see examples) • MCQ – have an end of year – whole year MCQ quiz • Ensure students re-quiz on units over the course • Re-visit the strategy for knowledge retention • Evaluate year on year the effectiveness through learning walks, teacher and students feedback • Continue to develop and embed core revision strategies and independent reflection of previous learning with all students • Strengthen parent – teacher communication for awareness of independent revision strategies and rationale behind using knowledge retention strategies

  14. Your thoughts: Any questions? I have put together all the instructions and documents that I created in the preparation for ‘going live’ as a team with KO, MCQ, ‘Embedding learning over time’ and added this to a blog post.

  15. The Plans & Pitfalls of building an interleaved English curriculum “No man is an island” John Donne This quote resonates for ending this presentation as the work I’ve discussed is as a direct result of the @ChurchillEng team, which consists of full time and part time teachers and an excellent teaching assistant – all of whom have helped shape and adapt this interleaved English curriculum. This in particular is with thanks to the Leadership strand: Dave HOD @daveg5478 Laura KS5 coordinator @MsBirkett237 Susan KS4 coordinator (me) @susansenglish Rachel KS3 coordinator @miss_thinks (former second in Department & KS5 coordinator) Matt @Mr_Kingscote

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