Teaching tips to trainee teachers

This year, two of my Theology department colleagues have completed their PGCE with Buckingham University, and it made me think about when I did my PGCE 8 years ago. So, I thought I would revisit the notes I made and write some tips for trainee teachers. 

5 top tips for all teachers: 

1. Reappraise planning & resources throughout the year
• What has worked, what hasn’t? How can you improve it?
• This is something we can all get lazy at... and end up using the same resources with the same flaws the following year! My top tip is to colour it in red as you go along and write what didn't work in red to remind you to update it next year
2. Feedback: provide time in lessons for feedback. 
• Build it into planning. 
• Provide time to reflect on marking, make corrections and write targets for next time to allow them to grow and understand your feedback. This is particularly important for me as most of the pupils can't read my writing!
• Ask for feedback on your teaching. You can read feedback I received from my students later in this blog...
3. Provide “think time” with big questions (at least 8 seconds for them to think through their answers) and wait for their answers.
• This wait time is particularly effective for some EAL students who may have to translate what you have said into their own language but also allows for a considered response
• Sometimes we are too quick to move on and not give the pupil a chance to think it through. As a trained coach (see my coaching blog here) I understand more than ever the importance or power of silence to allow people to think or reflect. 
4. Have a marking method
• It's a good idea, especially for essay subjects, to have a marking plan the students know to save you time writing things out e.g. targets = T, good = *
• I also think that keeping advice short & to the point is key, so no more than three targets. It's also important to include positive feedback as no one wants to just hear the negatives (even if it can be difficult to find something sometimes) 
5. Provide opportunities for self-assessment
• This is all part of them owning their own learning and can be difficult if they don't really understand what good looks like! Self-assessment can help them understand this and get to know the mark scheme
• Model answers can also be helpful & can be a way to boost students by choosing an answer they have given (not always the same student...). You can then ask pupils to choose their favourite answer/what means most to them
• Another form of self-assessment is to get them to give an effort mark on their work before they hand it in 

One piece of advice all trainee teachers get is to have a seating plan. This is great advice as seating plans are such an easy win for a teacher to have control of the class, get to know them and be able to target particular individuals who might need stretch or assistance. I didn't include it in my top tips as it would be hypocritical, as I very rarely use one as I want pupils to be as comfortable as possible in my lessons and encourage collaborative working. This, I believe, works best when they sit with people they are comfortable with. I do, however, use quite a bit of paired work where I mix them up with pupils they might know less well, as I also see the benefit of this.

What 5 things would a good lesson involve?

1. Independent thinking
• This is the key for all lessons as it is so important to build in space for this to ensure that learning is occurring, the pupil is challenged & isn't just following the herd 
2. The whole class contributing in some form
• Similar to above but it is hard to include the whole class in all activities which is why I always like a written element in any lesson so that all can contribute in some way
3. Have a purposeful and engaging starter 
• This sets the tone for the lesson & gets them working effectively. I quite like a written starter  to settle & ensure all involved straight away.
• Be creative to see what works! But here are two starter ideas I like:
• Re-activate previous learning e.g. follow on from learning in a previous lesson. A re-cap starter is especially helpful with younger years and irregular lessons (two week timetables for example).
• Guess the lesson objectives e.g. using a 'What is' / 'What do you know about' question on the board to get them thinking straight away. 
4. Provide context and links to previous lessons
• Nobody likes it when they don't understand why they are doing something. Context is important to understand what they are doing, why and what's next. It also helps to get the brain thinking about the next thing they will learn.
5. Have clear objectives to understand whether the lesson was a success
• How can you show the lesson was successful? 
• Lesson objectives ideas:
• List clear objectives at the start of the lesson: you will have learnt "XYZ" & have it written out somewhere the class can see throughout the lesson
• Re-cap as you go along e.g. have we completed this objective now? Thumbs up and down if so
• Look ahead to future lessons. Could you have objectives for the whole term listed and get them to tick them off as you move along the course? This is useful for context
• Could you have different objectives for different pupils with individual targets?
• Ask the students to write at the end of the lesson what they think the lesson objective was... to see if your lesson was a success!
• Plenary ideas:
• Re-cap objectives
• Ask simple questions: 
• What was most important thing you learnt today?
• What did you find difficult/easy?
• How could you relate this to… (real life, for example)
• Test/Quiz on lesson objectives (also an effective starter)

Tools to break down text heavy lessons (useful for any text heavy subject):

1. Sentence starters
2. Fill in the gaps
3. Crosswords for key terms
4. Specific words to include in answer
5. Cartoon, provide pictures and get them to write what is happening
6. Write your own comprehension questions and answers
7. Stick story in right order
8. Tell story in own words
9. “Hot seating” to check passage understanding
10. Provide a glossary (important for EAL especially)

Requesting feedback from students - This is probably the best tip I can suggest to any teacher. I have learnt so much from the feedback I have received from students and have done surveys throughout my teaching career to ensure I keep learning.

The next blog I will write involves revisiting a survey I did on my teaching back in May 2015 when I taught English and RS to years 4, 7 & 8, whilst this year I only taught years 10-13 RS (or Theology as I prefer to call it). I have completed the same survey to the classes I taught this year to compare learnings.

These are the questions I sent out in a survey, in case you wish to replicate (make sure you change my name!):

1. What do you think Mr Kellaway should keep doing in his lessons? 
2. What do you think Mr Kellaway should STOP doing in his lessons?  
3. What have you enjoyed doing in Mr Kellaway's lessons?  
4. What have you disliked doing in Mr Kellaway's lessons? 
5. Anything Mr Kellaway can do better? 
6. Do you have anything else you would like to say?

I hope you have found this useful. Please let me know any feedback below... Until the next blog!