Differentiation, Metacognition and Correction Strategies!

Curriculum Day - Glen Pearsall Presentation and Workshop - Differentiation, Metacognition and Effective Assessment Strategies

For our recent Curriculum Day, we secured the return of the highly sought after educational consultant Glen Pearsall to work with us as we explored strategies for differentiation metacognition and effective assessment. Glen worked with our staff back in December 2022 and was ready once again to explore evidence based pedagogical strategies.

Throughout the three sessions, there were opportunities to ask questions and discuss best practice approaches. Here’s a sample of the importance of pausing  and allowing students opportunities to explore their thinking.

You learn to listen interpretively

As a teacher, it is easy to rush to judge a student’s answer: Is it correct? What have they left out? This evaluative response is reductive, narrowing your role in questioning to

acknowledging when your students give the answer you hoped for, or ‘rescuing’ them when they don’t. Using pause time helps you avoid this impulse. Instead, it reminds you to listen interpretively (Davis, 1997). That is, to listen so you can ascertain how they came to their answer, and how you might modify your instruction to maximise their learning. Using more pause time helps you to focus on the thinking behind your students’ responses. However, it is not enough to just avoid the situation “where students report fixed answers to a teacher who then evaluates their responses as either right or wrong” (Rezitskya, 2012, p.448). You also need to make space for students to offer those responses in the first place. As Sharon Pakrul succinctly put it: “what student voice requires is a listener,” (Pakrul, p. 11–26). 

                                                                                                                                        Glen Pearsall  2023

DET – Professional Learning Communities (PLC) – Intake 7

Professional Learning Communities comprise of small groups of teachers who investigate a common problem of practice using the FISO Improvement Cycle. This Cycle supports teachers, school leadership teams and school improvement teams to focus on increased learning growth for all students. Staff commenced the Department PLC Core initiative in February 2023 and the final online presentation took place on 8th June.  

Mark Fernandez, Laura Ritchie, Julia Vogel and I made the final presentation of our scaffold inquiry to the Department and to four other neighbouring schools.  

Several Leaders and Learning Specialists took part in the PLC training over the past six months. Thank you to Ashlee Bate, Maria Curphey, Luke Devenish, Peta Prokopos, Laura Ritchie, Julia Vogel, Mark Fernandez, Laura Suckling, Kylie Maltarollo and Amy Porter for your efforts. 

Handbooks and Subject Selections

Just a reminder that 2024 Curriculum Guides for 7-9 and 10-12 are available on the College website for students and parents to peruse as decisions are made about electives and Units for next year.

English Masterclass  - Poetry in practice

In Term 2, the college has extended more opportunities to our gifted students through the Masterclass series of events. Our school had the privilege of hosting celebrated SLAM poet, educator and guest speaker, Joel McKerrow, for two half-day workshops with Year 8 students in weeks 8 and 9.

Joel performed some of his award-winning poetry for us, captivating the Year 8 audience and prompting them to re-think their previously-held misconceptions of what poetry looks and sounds like as a literary form. Students identified the blocks to creative writing and Joel gave students strategies to overcome these hurdles. To paraphrase the inspirational leader, "the best way to write great poetry, is to start by writing really bad poetry." Our Year 8's began to write what they suspected would be 'bad poetry.'  However, through the frantic scribbling of pen on paper, the sharing of ideas, the discussion of great imagery and the creative risk-taking that rapidly occurred, something magical happened. The Year 8's became poets. Joel interweaved personal stories, poetic exploration and micro lessons about assonance, rhythm, figurative language and structure seamlessly throughout the two sessions. It was incredible to see students sharing their work with their peers and enthusiastically volunteering to read aloud in front of the group. The session certainly highlighted the great things that can be achieved when poetry is presented as such as vibrant and accessible form of expression. 

Some of the comments by students who attended included:

'I found it interesting that poetry sounded so much like song lyrics and that R.A.P stands for Rhythm and Poetry. " - Charlotte Cockerall

'I found the structure used to write a poem interesting and surprising, and the practice of writing whatever came to mind.' - Vishnu Easwar

'It was inspirational listening to his love for poetry and experiencing the talent he has for it.' - Jasmyn Burns

The visit by Joel McKerrow certainly ignited a newfound appreciation of Poetry for our gifted writers and we look forward to students taking some of the strategies and techniques from this educational masterclass to use in their own writing, both in school and for pleasure.

Maths Masterclass - Jumping frogs, paper folding & finding the mathematical rule  

The Maths Masterclasses were a resounding success for our Year 7 students in enhancing their numeracy skills. These sessions have proven to be a strong platform for fostering problem-solving skills, collaborative discussions, pattern and rule recognition, and mathematical thinking. Led by our expert teachers, the masterclasses have provided an engaging and enriching environment for our students to explore the world of mathematics. Through hands-on activities, challenges explored using the iPads, and thought-provoking puzzles, our Year 7 students have not only sharpened their mathematical abilities but also developed essential teamwork and communication skills. 

It was heartening to see students grapple with difficult problems, or 'making their brains churn' as one student put it. We were also thrilled to see how enthusiastic students were when they felt they'd solved a problem. Celebrating success is just as important as undertaking the learning process.  

We are in the process of collecting data from the students who attended these sessions as student voice assists us to reflect and refine our offerings for Gifted Education, tailoring the programs to our students point of need, as well as their interests.  We extend our gratitude to Ms. Estelle Ashkar and Mr. Callum McCombe for facilitating these sessions, continuing to inspire our learners, as well as enriching and extending their knowledge of mathematics. 

Laura Washington - Learning Specialist  Gifted Education 

Literacy

In Term 2, the literacy focus at Sandringham College has been on improving literacy within English and Humanities classes. We have focussed on developing team teaching abilities to make best use of those teachers with expert knowledge to help support students in breaking down exam questions and answering them coherently. From a teaching perspective, the College established joint teaching combined with observational practices to ensure feedback on teaching is timely and reflective. In addition, a focus was placed on revamping the English curriculum for Term 2 to include a unit on Film study at Year 7-9. 

Denholm Pickering - Learning Specialist Middle Years Literacy and Numeracy Support (MYLNS)