Staff Handbook

Hold Fast Mentoring Program

The HOLD FAST mentoring Program provides:

  • Learning experiences that empower student agency over how they learn as individuals in order to achieve academic and personal growth 
  •  An understanding of how to develop positive and respectful connections with peers, teachers and other members of the Macleod College community
  • The opportunity to develop a broad set of skills, work habits, character traits and career pathways knowledge that are necessary for them to succeed in today’s ever-changing world

MACLEOD COLLEGE EXPLICIT TEACHING MODEL

Learning Intention

A learning Intention is a statement that describes what students will learn and is the focus of your instruction. It provides clarity for students and teachers by focusing attention on the teaching of concepts/knowledge/content and skills. 

 

The learning Intention should be:

  • Measurable
  • Observable
  • Short-term
  • Specific

Learning Intentions must use action verbs such as define, identify, predict, analyse, evaluate, select, write, recognize, explain, classify. 

 

The students (audience) will identify (skill/verb) how one character is depicted (content) in the text and images.

 

POOR EXAMPLE: TODAY YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT CHARACTERS IN STORIES.

 

Success Criteria;

The Success Criteria is the statement of what students will do to demonstrate successful achievement of the Learning Intention. Success Criteria allows teachers to measure if students have achieved the desired outcome of the lesson.

 

They should:

  • Directly mirror the Learning Intention
  • Be measurable and observable

I will be successful if I can (audience) record on my retrieval chart (skill/verb) how one character from Emily and the Dragon (content) has been depicted in words and images.

 

POOR EXAMPLE: I WILL BE SUCCESSFUL IF I CAN FILL OUT MY TEMPLATE WITH WORDS.

 

Participation/Practice (body of the lesson)

a)  I Do – Teach: Explain, Model and Demonstrate. 

 

In this part of the lesson the teacher explicitly teachers the new skill or concept. It is focused teaching time, the student’s role is to watch and listen while the teacher clearly and concisely explains, models and demonstrates step-by-step what they are required to do.

 

During this time, questions are initiated by the teacher for the purpose of ensuring students are engaged. The I Do should not be lengthy.

 

b)  We Do – Guided Practice. Use of SOLO and differentiation to cater for student learning needs. 

The purpose of the WE Do is to guide and monitor students as they practice the same steps, facts and processes in multiple examples.

 

c)  You Do – Independent Practice. 

The purpose of this section is to provide students with an opportunity to independently practice what has been taught. Additional repetition of the lesson’s concepts and skills in order to demonstrate competence.

 

When planning your lesson, start with the end in mind. The entire lesson is designed to teach the students how to successfully complete the independent task, therefore it is vital that you start your planning with the You Do first and work backwards.

 

Review:

In this part of the lesson you want the students to review their learning with reference to the concepts and skills.

 

Some good review prompts; 

-     Before today I didn’t know…..

-     I need to learn more about…..

-     In this lesson I was able to…….

-     I was pleased with my ………

-     Today I practised…..

-     In this lesson I discovered that…..

-     Now I understand that…..

 -    It was difficult to…..

-     Something that worked well today was…..

 

EXAMPLE OF THE MACLEOD COLLEGE EXPLICIT TEACHING MODEL

 

Learning Intention: Today we will recognise the contribution of Shakespeare to the modern world.

Success Criteria:    I will be successful if I can identify two reasons why we still study Shakespearean plays.                          

 Participation/practice:

a)     AT; Reflective Diary Writing task 13 narrative;  due date 7th August.           

         Writing task 14 & 15 Informative due date 14th August.           

         Reflective Diary due date Mon 17th August.

b)     Why are we still studying the play Romeo & Juliet?

           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1Mi_JxTB_g

c)     Use a T diagram to record what you are looking forward to when we read the play and          what are you worried about.

d)     Access the R&J booklet on compass resource and have your book ready to read and            annotate key themes.

e)      Lets read the prologue.           

  • What surprised you about the prologue        -    
  • why do you think Shakespeare did this?        -    
  • what do you predict the themes to this play may be?

f)      View the Bazz proglogue

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beV56hp4T3w 

H/work; read and listen to Act 1 scene 1

Reflect; In this lesson I was surprised by........