Tag: assessment

Integrating skills progression into learning at Hallglen PS

WP_20150317_051 Following a meeting at Hallglen PS about staff development of skills within their curriculum, Alison McCalley and Linda Hastie gave Yvonne McBlain a tour of the learning walls around the school.

Click here to read more about this development process. Staff had made very effective use of walls around the school to share and celebrate learning. In every classroom the “learning walls” were used to help pupils understand what they were learning. Pupil self-evaluation and next steps were also displayed.

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Themes like Houses and Homes linked learning and skill development in social studies, numeracy and technology.  Teachers used their themes to integrate literacy skill development in reading, writing, talking and listening. WP_20150317_013  There was evidence of pupils developing their vocabulary and their higher order reading skills by being “Thinking Readers”. Writing tasks were carefully planned by teachers to progress literacy and numeracy across learning within the social subjects or science topics. This included homework tasks at all stages.

From the meeting, and the tour, it was clear that staff are collaborating very effectively to build their curriculum. Their joint exploration of the skills built into the experiences and outcomes means they can make progression explicit to pupils so that everyone can track and profile learning in a meaningful way. It was a pleasure to experience the depth of reflection going on at Hallglen PS. The following pictures give a flavour of the development of the curriculum and how staff are addressing the 4 aspects of the curriculum. Next steps for staff is to pull their bundles of connected E & Os together with the significant aspects of learning and contexts and build their curriculum framework. Staff worked on this during the May inset day and will combine it with subject specific and discrete skills progression to build and review their curriculum.

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S1 Curriculum Enhancement Course

Fiona Malcolm, Faculty Head of Social Subjects and RMPS at Braes HS worked with colleagues to create a new course for S1 pupils which is currently being delivered. Click here to see the presentation shown to all Braes cluster primary 7 pupils as an introduction to the course. The rationale for the course states:

Curriculum for Excellence is seen as a continuous process of learning during and beyond the school years. The purpose of this course is to provide the pupils with time in S1 to build on skills and values learnt in primary school and develop them for further use across the secondary curriculum and into adult life.

In her message to S1 pupils inside the cover of their enhancement course booklet (click to view), Helen McCulloch, head teacher writes:

Our Enhancement Course is designed to improve and increase the quality of your education at Braes High School by helping you to pull together all the skills you gain across the different subjects you study in the junior school so that you can link them together and put them to good use in every classroom and in this way, have real success in your learning at Braes High School. …

One obvious problem with our Enhancement Course is the title. Enhancement Course sounds pretty boring so as the year goes on we are hoping that one of our pupils can come up with a good catchy name for our course. There will be a prize for the winning entry – so get your thinking caps on, pay attention to what is in the course and see if you can come up with an innovative and catchy title.

I look forward to receiving your ideas!

Staff used collegiate time in session 2013-14 to design the course, ensure that it meets the needs of all learners, and uses a wide variety of activities and different methodologies. This course is interdisciplinary – click here to see the skills poster for pupils. In addition, the course connects the four contexts for learning in Braes HS: pupils have opportunities for personal achievement; they contribute to the life and ethos of the school as a community; and specific knowledge and understanding is developed within curriculum areas, and through interdisciplinary experiences. (Click here for more information about these) http://glo.li/1rRhBYp

The course is being delivered over 2 periods per week – click on each term below to see the overview of learning for each term.

Term 1          Term 2           Term 3            Term 4

As part of the course, pupils are encouraged to explore, develop and share their personal achievements through Braes HS own award system called BRAW. Staff also intended that the course would enable pupils to achieve a Dynamic Youth Award, but are now in discussion with primary colleagues to explore how this element could be taken forward in primary 7 leading up to S1. This holistic approach to curricular planning for S1 helps build a coherent learning experience for pupils and alerts them to the transferability of the skills they will be developing. In addition, in contributes to a positive transition for pupils and encourages them to apply their skills, knowledge and understanding within a range of contexts.

S2 IDL at Braes High School

Fiona Malcolm, Faculty Head of Social Subjects and RMPS at Braes HS worked with a range of colleagues to create an interdisciplinary unit of work entitled Braes Anatomy. Over the course of last session, all S2 pupils experienced connected learning across science, history and religious, moral and philosophical education. The theme which connected this learning was vaccination and its impact on society past and present. In science, pupils discovered how vaccination works with the body’s immune system, and in RMPS they explored the ethics of the ways in which vaccines are produced and used. During history lessons, pupils explored the pioneering role of Edward Jenner and his discovery of the first “vaccinations” as the cure for smallpox.

The overarching learning intentions for this connected learning were:

By the end of these courses, I will:

Be able to develop an understanding of medical knowledge and innovation in the past and present

Be able to develop an understanding of social, moral and ethical views on medical discoveries, past and present.

The project was launched during a history lesson, then each teacher taught their subject content discretely. Click here to see the introductory teaching presentation and here to see the final one for pupils. Pupils then used the 2 weeks leading up to their Easter holiday in their RMPS lessons to begin the task below – they completed this as a homework task. Click here to see the overall IDL homework task.

You are part of the original scientific team that discovered HPV. This is the most important scientific discovery on cancer research in the past 5 years. As such, your evidence is in demand. To keep your funding, you have to produce an article for Medical News Today sharing your findings on HPV.

You must consider the social, moral and ethical implications of your research, including the historical background.

One challenging element of the collaboration for staff was their shared responsibility for marking the pupils’ work. To help with this, each department prepared assessment guidance on their subject content – click here for science, here for history, and here for RMPS key learning points. Fiona and colleagues are still working on how best to manage the joint assessment and maintain their focus on teaching for deep understanding and higher order thinking in line with Curriculum for Excellence ideals.

Staff involved in the project are keen to develop it further this session because it obviously engaged pupils’ interest in all 3 subjects. By making the overlap between subjects evident to the pupils, staff increased the coherence and relevance of learning. Pupils have responded positively and enthusiastically, and can better appreciate how curricular learning in school is actually used and applied in an interconnected way in the workplace and by society. Despite the challenges of finding time to communicate and co-ordinate their work, Fiona and her colleagues have designed connected learning which uses an interesting theme to integrate effective assessment, and develop a shared set of skills, knowledge and understanding for their pupils.

STEM support materials for Interdisciplinary Learning

STEM Central is a very rich source of support materials for discrete and interdisciplinary learning which develops understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Click here to explore the range of learning journeys and contexts available. These resources also support planning of learning which meets recommendations of the Learning for Sustainability Report. Click here to view a second level learning journey linked to the theme of Using Water, and here to view a third level example. These documents demonstrate how to bundle related experiences and outcomes across the STEM subjects. They also show the prior learning required for the study, and the skills being developed. There are suggested success criteria, learning experiences and evidence of learning and next steps. Most learning journeys have additional “challenges” which  follow on and allow pupils to apply and deepen their understanding using an unfamiliar context – click here to see an example. The STEM website also has excellent information on how higher order thinking skills are integrated into the learning journeys.

What is interdisciplinary learning?

 Education Scotland states that  interdisciplinary learning: “enables teachers and learners to make connections across learning through exploring clear and relevant links across the curriculum. It supports the use and application of what has been taught and learned in new and different ways. It provides opportunities for deepening learning, for example through answering big questions, exploring an issue, solving problems or completing a final project.”

The importance of interdisciplinary learning as one of the 4 contexts for learning is highlighted by this quotation. Education Scotland has just published assessment and moderation exemplar materials which show how teachers carefully select a relevant and related “bundle” of experiences and outcomes. These  exemplars (click here to view the collection) provide an assessment overview of the significant aspects of learning being developed  in one subject area, but almost always show the teacher making a type 1 connection between one or more subject areas and/or with the cross-cutting themes of Curriculum for Excellence.. Click here to see how E & Os within HWB & LIT were linked at early level. Click here to see how higher order reading skills were integrated with contexts for learning at first level. To see how modern language vocubulary skills and thinking skills within literacy were linked at second level, click here. To explore how RME & Buddhism were linked to modern life at third level, click here. These do not prescribe the way these things must be done – they simply show how teachers have planned, delivered and assessed linked learning  for their pupils. They may act as useful examples of very focused IDL which provides breadth, challenge and/or application opportunities for pupils.

Deanburn Nursery Developing Interdisciplinary Planning

Deanburn Primary School nursery staff have been developing their approach to planning interdisciplinary learning with Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support teacher from Falkirk Education Services. They took an enquiring approach to exploring how their planning procedures could help them to identify and select related “bundles” of experiences and outcomes which were relevant for their learners. Caroline McKay, principal teacher with nursery responsibility, and Karen Stewart, senior early years officer, took an innovative approach to integrating learning through the storyline approach. During the project, Yvonne worked with the team for half a day once a week with a working lunch evaluation/planning meeting straight afterwards. The team used the storyline approach to explore how the children would engage with an initial stimulus story linked to winter and Jack Frost. Click here to read the stimulus story.

In this way, planning for next steps responded to the children’s interest and engagement with the characters and the story. Click here to see the initial simple daily plan which was trialled for use in the floor book. As suspected, this proved unsustainable as a planning procedure in the long term, but has helped the team explore exactly where and how they met the essential  elements of the NAR planning flow chart – they are still tweaking their planning formats to maximise impact, but minimise unnecessary workload. The project included an opportunity for parents to take part in the storyline and was very positively evaluated – click here to see some parental evaluation. Clicking here will allow you to see the results of the assessment activity designed to guage impact on the pupils – lots to consider from a sample assessment! Everyone involved was fascinated to observe the degree to which each child opted in and out of the storyline context while still fulfilling the learning intentions and success criteria during free play, outdoor time and group time.

 As a result of the project, the team are now consolidatng the children’s knowledge of the seasons through relevant development of specific skills, understanding and attitudes across the curriculum. Click here to see the floor book page gathering the children’s existing knowledge of spring. Karen and the early years officers have developed their use of the floor book  as a record of all of the learning taking place across nursery. They now feel that their ability to evidence and track progression in learning is enhanced by the changes they have made. As can be seen from the photo at the start of the post, the team are also developing their use of a learning wall in the waiting area to try to inform and engage parents as much as possible in their child’s learning processes. The experience as a whole has supported the team in reviewing their systems to meet the requirements of the NAR planning flowchart and improve their application of the principles of curriculum design – both for discrete and interdisciplinary learning.

What is “Interdisciplinarity”?

Anne Pearson, Acting Head of Service for Falkirk Council Education Services found this interesting video clip (click below to view). Myra Strober of Stanford University shares her interpretation of interdisciplinarity, its current influence and application within education, and how it is best fostered.

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Key Features of IDL Good Practice

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/CcdLzAvF5UQ" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /] Graeme Logan and Joanne McLauchlan of Education Scotland broadcast a Glow TV session in December 2012 which offers useful guidance on interdisciplinary learning. Although aimed at primary schools, much of the advice is valuable in helping us shape effective planning, teaching and assessment of IDL within our schools. Click on the image at the start of this post to watch a You Tube video presentation summary of this session produced by Yvonne McBlain. Alternatively, click here to link to the National Primary IDL Glow group where you can watch the full recording of this session.  Click this document to see some reflective questions which may help you self-evaluate your practice while you watch these presentations.