1. Actions Taken by Your Collaborative Group

MFL Collaborative Practice 2013-14
Mid-Year Review

Focus on Phonics in French to promote better comprehension and pronunciation

1. Actions taken by your collaborative group

The MFL department agreed to investigate and extend work on phonics with our students. This is an important component in the development of listening skills but we had also previously noted serious concern about students’ poor pronunciation during GCSE controlled speaking assessments and it was agreed that we should aim to tackle this earlier with students. Two colleagues identified phonics as a particular target this year in their teaching (NMD/NS). SHD circulated appendix 1 which included detailed phonics resources and instructions for the conduct of a small scale research project based on an unseen text in French. The aim of the project is to measure if there is improvement in pronunciation following regular intervention in the classroom. Each team member identified a small sample of students (3 per year 8 French group). The students then read the unseen text aloud individually in French with no assistance or prompting and this was recorded. Each teacher has now identified and highlighted every pronunciation error made by the students and SHD has collated all of the initial recordings and copies of teachers’ annotated notes on each student.

2. Initial findings/ successes/ barriers

The initial trial was very successful and all teachers submitted detailed annotations and recordings to SHD following the first set of recordings. It was very clear that there were a number of recurring errors common to all students sampled. For example:

• Third person plural verb endings sounded –ent (e.g. étaient)
• Liaison between words – either missed or included when not necessary
• Cognates (e.g. impatient) and eu /er / oi / qu sounds anglicised
• silent letters like spor’t’ are pronounced
• confusion with accented letters e.g. é not pronounced / ç as hard k
• separation of words where there is an apostrophe e.g. l’équitation

Colleagues also noted that many students had very poor fluency and intonation.

A focused intervention on phonics is now taking place and colleagues regularly include phonics activities in their teaching with all Y8 students e.g short starter activity focusing on particular sounds, listening exercise to identify differences between for example ‘ou’ and ‘u’ greater emphasis on reading aloud through dictation work. Although we have not yet made a second detailed analysis, there is some initial evidence that this already having an impact on pronunciation. A large phonics wall display has been created in D7. NMD also circulated an excellent detailed list of phonics strategies to colleagues (see appendix 2 below)

3. Planned next steps

The same students will be tested towards the end of the year in order to measure if there is any improvement in their French pronunciation. The team will need to discuss the validity of our findings and agree whether to roll out regular phonics practice for all our students. SHD will collate our findings and consider preparation of a research paper for submission to Association for Language Learning Journal.

Appendix 1: Phonics Research document circulated by SHD at the start of the project provides a range of resources available for trial

SHD

DTCollaborative Practice Mid-Year Review 2014

Group work tips agreed for when planning and delivering lessons

When planning

•Have clear aims

•Have a clear procedure, plan ahead

•Plan out what you want to happen

•Plan for tasks that promote discussion

When setting groups

•Aim for mixed gender and characters

•Avoid alphabetical groupings or friendship groups

•Keep group size to maximum of 3 for spoken tasks and 2 for practical tasks

•Put poor attendees in larger groups

•Check any data on class before selecting groups ie PP, Cop, attendance, withdrawal for literacy, extra support etc

When the work is going on

•Take a step back – give the groups time to get into the task

•Ensure they do not talk outside the groups

After the lesson

•Evaluate the practice, review the success of the task

•don't be afraid to make changes

MAC

English department collaborative learning – 2013-4

NCH and LPF

Objective: to prepare for the new focus at GCSE and KS3 on grammar and literacy skills in the English Curriculum by creating a bank of resources, including new or modified schemes of work.

Actions taken/Progress so far:

• LPF and NCH trial of ‘Grammar for Writing’ schemes of work by Exeter University and NATE with Years 7, 8 and 9 to great success.
• Resources being collected and saved in ‘grammar and punctuation’ folder on English Staff shared for all teachers to use whenever appropriate.
• LPF experimenting with a ‘Literacy Mat’ to see if they help boost progress.

JEH, JLW, LSL, CVP, RJS

Objective : to improve the management and effectiveness of written feedback to students.

Action taken and progress so far:

• Classroom observations, sharing different strategies for providing feedback, and evaluation.
• Preparation of group feedback documents, to provide a structure to feedback which students recognise and can use to improve their attainment.
• Statements created to improve the quality of feedback and to provide next step statements.

RJS/JH

Objective: to investigate the ways TAs supports students’ learning

This has changed focus somewhat due to some timetable changes. RJS has conducted a survey of students’ views about the support they receive, to establish what students value. It is clear that students do value the individual and immediate support they receive from teachers and TAs.

Next steps: -

• Share experience with department and model some lessons to encourage wider usage of new schemes, both in the teaching of grammar and in providing feedback.
• Invite department to watch lessons to help encourage a more consistent approach to teaching grammar, and providing feedback.
• Summer term visits to Primary Schools by all members of the department to be arranged to observe the teaching of grammar and punctuation to improve transition and teaching of basic skills in Year 7.
  Key questions: how do they teach it? What do they teach? Are we building on their skills appropriately or not challenging Year 7 enough?
• Extend the use of student voice in our innovations.

Maths department collaborative learning – Mid Year Review 2013-14

Use of Progression Ladders in Maths

John Mould (JSM), Sabina Mason (SKM) and Gary Wells (GSW)

The initial investigation stage involved assessing how best to access material that had been produced by the previous Government and archived by the current one, rendering links unusable. Although not all the links are ‘live’, the most robust solution appears to be the use of an archive disc previously provided by Dorset LA when the online resource sites were initially being archived. This has been uploaded to Dropbox to enable use by all members of the department.

It was decided that the material in the progression ladders would be used to plan lessons and the material was reviewed and suitable topics and classes identified. The first lesson was planned by SKM who assessed the current progress of a class against the levels in the ladder and planned based on the ‘next’ level. An Ofsted review of the Maths Department was announced in the week SKM was due to teach the lessons so the observations were postponed.

During the next meeting, the efficiency of using the ladders was discussed and it was felt that, although a useful tool to analyse specific difficulties being experienced by a class (or individuals within a class), the routine use of all information provided within the ladders could cause a significant increase in planning time. They were, however, still considered to be a useful source of information when teaching an unfamiliar subject or when reviewing approaches to a topic.

It is also of note that the review of the progression ladders shows that they are likely to have a role in the planning of the phasing of schemes of work in addition to planning groups of lessons. In particular, the Shape section is laid out in a manner that limits its use in the more detailed planning of lessons within the current scheme of work as the levels do not easily link with the current phasing but it could be valuable when this is next reviewed.

All 3 members of the team considered the most valuable aspect of the ladders for planning lessons is likely to be the suggested question types. These questions are similar in style to those currently asked of classes but it was felt that having them provided within a progressive, phased structure was likely to be particularly useful. Use of the questions will allow planning for progression using the ladders as a guide.

It is intended that use of the questions will be trialled this term with 3 observations taking place before Easter. A follow-up meeting will be held to feedback observations and decide the next steps.

Geography Trio/Collaborative Work – JPL /SIS/ JAC 2013-14

Focus – meeting needs of different groups at KS4 (Yr10)

Actions :

Engagement of KS4 predicted data + fine grades to identify groups within KS4 classes.

JPL shared with JAC and SIS

Identification / discussion of good practice regarding meeting needs of different students. This included active learning techniques and formative feedback – discussed in dept meeting & individually.

Initial observations of KS4 groups between JPL & JAC (SIS currently planning this): this looked at identifying groups that exist in the class and brief book trawl to see what feedback had been given at early stage.

Further developments / next steps:

Focused observations on differentiation / actions and review reported

Findings / good practice to be shared at dept meeting in summer 2014

Barriers:

Time to observe classes

PE Collaborative Learning - Mid Year Review 2013-14
Item / Discussion / Action
Department project.
Establishing if there is a link between a student’s primary school and a student’s level of sports participation at school clubs and in school teams. / IRS shared the discussion he had with Sarah Vincent and how the PE questions could be included.
SRV was very interested in the project.
A long discussion was held to discuss what we would actually like to find out.
All agreed that the results should also be used to look for correlations between attainments in PE.
Possible male and female differences.
Types of activities undertaken.
Summer school connection.
Results should be passed on to the primary schools and be a starting point for PE provision. / To liaise with Sarah Vincent to incorporate our project with her survey that she will be completing as part of her Leadership Challenge role.
Students possibly complete the survey in a PE lesson.
DCC to correlate students with their primary school.
Results to be analysed in a department meeting in the summer term.
EC/IRS to share with primary schools.
Assessment Wheel. / Following our free trial a discussion regarding the new assessment wheel was held.
The implementation of the wheel was discussed and after Feb half term was the decided introductory time.
Staff looked at and discussed how the students would complete the wheel out of lessons.
Staff discussed the implications for their lessons and how staff now need to make the wheel an integral aspect of their lessons. / Feb 14th – OTJ introduces to PE staff the wheel – log in details, operating systems etc.
OTJ introduces the wheel to IRS and DCC after half term
OTJ and HLM introduce the wheel to all year 7 in the week after half term.
Year 7 start using the wheel immediately.

History Collaborative Learning – Mid Year Review 2013-14

Trio Members: TFW, RSB, EJP

Focus: Raising attainment of C/D borderline pupils at KS4

Initial findings: Last year while achievement amongst higher ability pupils was OK at GCSE. Pupils at the C/D borderlinedid not achieve as well as theyought to havedone.

Successes: Visit to Holyrood to gather ideas and strategies, implementation of mindmaps, cue cards, tips posters, formative assessment, revision classes,

Barriers: Resource creation has been very time consuming

Planned next steps: Lesson observations: teachers to observe each other's classesfocussing on performance of C/D borderline pupils.