IckneildWalkFirstSchool, Royston
LauranceHainesSchool, Watford
WoolenwickJuniorSchool, Stevenage
Theme of Visit: / Thinking Skills and Independent Learning via group work
Country/Region Visited: / Evansville, Indiana, USA
Dates of Visit: / 31st March 2007- 8th April 2007
Types of Schools Visited: / Elementary (Kindergarten to Grade 5)
Junior High (Grade 6 - 8)
Senior High (Grade 9 - 12)
Alternative Education Centres for High School students
(Grade 9 - 12)
Ages of Students: / Age 4 to 19
The intended aims of our visit were:
1. To investigate the amount of time allocated to independent learning
2. To learn about the use of new styles of thinking skills
3. To investigate the approaches to learning through talk
The Expected outcomes of our visit were:
All schools participating in this TIPD visit have the areas of Thinking Skills and Independent Learning within their SPDs in order to raise achievement. Ideally, the visit will allow the participants to inform their colleagues of new developments to strenghten success within their SDPs. The visit will also enable LA consultancy to continue to be effective in the areas of Leading in Learning and Assessment for Learning for all schools in Hertfordshire
Methods used to record data:
Notes and photographs taken by each individual teacher participating in school visits and group discussion at the end of each day. Books and information given to the group by each school visited. Research done prior to our visit – many thanks to Norma Faust, our host, for providing us with internet links.
Success of the visit:
The profile of the schools visited in Evansvillewas similarly matched to the participating schools from Hertfordshire – apart from the profile of ethnic minority students–there were very few students from ethnic minorities in the Indianaschools visited. The gathering of information to address our objectives was, according to our findings, heavily weighted towards the objective of ‘independent learning’.
The education methods observed – which might be considered ‘new’ to us - were less about teaching strategies per se and more about the systems and structures within which schools were working i.e. the strong focus on teachers to address ‘The Standards’ as set by the United States government. There was much evidence of innovative teaching (albeit, strategies which did not necessarily ‘fit’ our objectives) and our Hertfordshire teachers were delighted to return to the UK with some excellent ideas using poetry cafes; I CAN rewards; RAKs – Random Acts of Kindness Awards; Dyslexia friendly classroom displays; Themed Project Days across different classrooms; use of art and fabrics to create a welcoming learning environment andrenewed ideas to do community work and make community links.
The main comparisons to be drawn between the US and the UK systems are that both systems are government funded and thus, along with both nations’ drive to raise standards, comes accountability to ensure that schools are making good provision for their students. The US’s system of accountability relates to The Standards which students must meet on a regular basis. When students in the US meet their Standards, they are awarded ‘credits’ which show that they are meeting the Standards and that they are proceeding as expected in their learning. As a result this has, by necessity, led to weekly ‘testing’ and ‘unit’ driven teaching and learning.
Students appear motivated – in the lower grades – by rewards such as ‘Parties’ or ice-cream or sodas and in the higher grades by ‘kudos’ and the need to keep up with their peers in order to not fall behind a grade. These regular tests which show progress towards the Standards mean that all students know where they are at any given point in the semester and students who are not meeting the standards are, in some schools, given the opportunity to have ‘remediation’ sessions to help them to meet the standards. These requisites mean that the schools must be – and are - highly organised in the week by week units of work and the associated compulsory tests which are integral to the meeting of Standards. These organised semesters are available for students and parents to see – and are impressively and clearly explained, along with sporting fixtures and important dates, in students planners. The curriculum is rich and heavily laden and the weekly testing means that classes are quite rigid in content and structure and creative teachers are forced to work hard to use a variety of teaching strategies to bring the students’ learning alive given the content they have to deliver and the time allocated to them. In the classes we saw, student owned group discussion was rare and student definition of ‘discussion’ pertained to teacher question and answer and despite observing extremely eloquent students on a one to one or one to group basis (i.e. via student prepared presentations), it seemed that students were unconfident about protocols of group discussions and debate within their peer group.
Several elementary schools offer a software based programme for testing reading – Accelerated Reading (AR). Students are often motivated by ‘credits’ and reward. The system does not give ‘credit’ for reading for pleasure and students in the AR programme (in most schools this is ALL students) are tested by a series of multiple choice questions – created by the teacher or the software programme and – seemingly but not exclusively - based on recall.
The positive result of the ‘credit’ system is the ethos of an education system which requires and expects that students willbe independent learners and can engage with the contents of a text book in order to take a test and receive credit. This responsibility lies with the student and students we talked to were acutely aware of this fact.
Evaluation:
Elementary Schools:
The Accelerated Reading (AR) programme is highly rated by staff and is high profile for students. Students take their reading tests as and when they decide. Students keep their reading log and are given target goals by a computerised system. All students who meet their target goals are able to attend an AR party, have ice-cream or sodas. Students have an independent choice of when and how often they take their tests to meet their goals.
The AR work was linked in with the topic work from the curriculum. There is lots of choice over books and following up with presentations. Students had the opportunity to choose AR books for private reading.
There are many ‘Reading Projects’ set up in schools in the UK where the end result is achievement for ‘kudos’ or a certificate. However, the UK systems do not always support the motivational needs of the weakest readers who are, in fact, the students most in need of reading improvement. Nevertheless, the effective UK schools who know their students the best will pair a weak reader student with on older ‘coach’ whom the student respects for their interests so schools can still adhere to the government initiative to be‘Healthy Eating’ schools without needing to tempt students to read to get ice-cream or sodas as rewards.
Some of our Hertfordshire Schools would like to know more about ICT based reading programmes available from all over the world and different publishing companies – but will scrutinise the quality of questions should any of the books be ‘tested’. As we left the elementary schools we visited, we felt that the following points were real positives for us to take away and share with our UK colleagues:
- High Profile of Reading exuded from the teachers
- Wonderful ‘Homely’ libraries
- Superb Behaviour and Learning Atmospheres
- Fabric of the buildings was immaculate
- Students had a strong sense of pride in themselves, their school, their teachers and their surroundings
- Sense of/Use of Community to support students, staff and surroundings
- Strong links to parents
- Classroom environment as a resource to help learning
- Transition Class – students in between Grade 1 and Kindergarten are given an extra year of support before they are ready to enter Grade 1
- Dyslexia friendly – word walls and visual prompts
- Underground Railway project across classrooms – how did the slaves reach safety in the north
- Thematic Learning approach with ‘Space Days’ and ‘Rev up for the Math Party’ days
- Teacher as facilitator with the planning and practical resourcing reducing the Teacher input and maximising student independence
- Continuity across whole county – text books are chosen together across schools
- I CANs – manners and self awareness is high profile
- 6 week focus on community projects
- Literature Circles – DEAR reading – Drop Everything And Read
- Self Assessment
- Students as teachers
- Student responsibility for progression
- Life skills class – EBD MBD – community work with old people’s home
- STEP – Writing traits in 6 – Success Criteria
Ideas and Contents
Word choice
Sentence Fluency
Organisation
Voice
Conventions
- Birthday book system – students bring $15 dollars and choose a Birthday Book
- Student partnerships rotated every week to encourage socialising and responsibility.
- Dyslexia friendly with visual clues.
- Partial remediation to ensure continuity within the curriculum.
- Welcoming & friendly atmosphere
- Building words activities – 1st Grade
- All children are expected to be involved in lessons
- Grade 1 - Lessons split into separate activities, children moving around
- Grade 5 – Battleship test – game – good for children because it was a change from their normal test approach – a game approach to test.
- Mastering Maths facts – possible to keep it because of partner work, children were talking to and helping one another to learn.
- Mini-Economy – children to balance their own accounts throughout the year, paying debts etc. Slight positive – Grade 5 integrating some SEN into main stream with support from TA
- Cards for taking turns to speak
- Grade 1 lots of independent group work, positive kinaesthetic learning activities for sight words and movement around the room
- Evidence of mind mapping
- Kinaesthetic – posit notes for categorising and recording – good alternatives for children to plan their writing
- Very positive teacher response to suggested strategies for partner and group work from our group
- High quality reading books. Reading books renewed as part of a five year cycle
- Kinaesthetic active approach to learning spellings
- Recognition and provision was made for gifted and talented children,
Judith Adams was very impressed by the word building and high frequency word activities present in the Four Blocks Literacy System used in some 1st Grade classrooms, and the alphabetical word wall present in every classroom. She will be using them in her class and cascading it to other members of staff.
Alison Moore was impressed by the amount of time spent during the school day on the acquisition of literacy skills and is keen to find out more about the ‘four block’ method of learning which is used in many schools. The four blocks use four different approaches of teaching children to read. She saw active phonics being taught in a grade 2 class and a very kinaesthetic approach was used to help children in the learning of high frequency spelling words. She was keen to use this approach more with her own class and then to develop the approach more within school.
Jane Andrews has made email connections with a teacher at Castle Elementary and is enjoying exchanging ideas. Jane also said: ‘the American system of children presenting their project work from a young age is something I really think we can learn from as it did seem to produce very eloquent and confident speakers on a one to one basis. This may become particularly relevant for us in the near future as many UKprimary schools are returning to topic based rather than subject based teaching, thus creating opportunities.’
Junior High Schools:
There were many of the same ‘positives’ for the Junior High schools as exist in the above list for the Elementary schools. In addition the Junior High system allowed teachers to know their students very well as a result of Grades 6-8 learning together – very much like the Middle School system in the UK.
In the Junior High schools there was a core of teachers with good strategies and ideas and who wanted to have an opportunity to support each other although the INSET time and capacity was limited. The US teachers were interested to learn about the training facilities provided at Wheathampstead Development Centre. The Junior High teachers welcomed change but were realistic about how this can happen.
Alison Wood and Katherine Huttonare keen to encourage English Teachers in Hertfordshire of the need to use holiday time as an opportunity for Wider Reading and then create a follow up lesson within which the students must participate upon return. The credit system does US support teachers with regard to consequences for failed assignments whereas this does not exist in UK schools in the same way.
Katherine Hutton and Sam Irving will be taking back the idea of Random Acts of Kindness awards for use in tutor groups and perhaps houses. They will also be discussing ways to make school/classroom rules more obvious and positive by redesigning posters in light of their observations.
Katherine Hutton has also set up a pen pal system with Mount Vernon Junior High, which will involve students from Years 7-9. Students in the UK and US are already writing their letters!
Carole Graham was interested in the issue of inclusion and noted that the Junior Highs and Elementary Schools have SEN students who are ‘mainstream’ for some subjects. Although SEN students had an IEP, the targets were linked directly to The Standards and were reviewed only once a year. In the UK, IEP targets are reviewed termly and are linked to SMART targets. Carole was able to leave a copy of the Laurance Haines Literacy Assessment Pack (created in the Special Needs base) with two Elementary schools who were delighted with its contents and eager to pilot it as soon as possible.
Elizabeth Stott was impressed by the Literacy across the curriculum teaching within History and Geography where the teachers used cloze activities, vocab, questioning with context, note taking strategies –all of which are used in the UK - but a new process called ‘10 and 2’ – this is where students have 10 minutes to read/listen and think about new information and then 2 minutes to create auditory or visual connection between bullet points given by the teacher after. Elizabeth was keen to trial this with her students back in the UK and then share this with other teachers in her school.
Senior High Schools:
The students at the Senior High Schools were expected to be highly independent learners and had an extremely broad curriculum in order to receive their High School Diploma. Many of the students we met were high achieving ‘Honors’ students – whereby they must achieve above a fixed Grade Point Average for every subject they study. Students are responsible for signing up to extra curricular activities and, in many cases, actually running these activities. There was even an after school society which volunteers to clean the campus – i.e. Pick up the trash!
Katherine Hutton was able to forge links with students and teachers in order to exchange emails on projects. Alison Wood was keen to link students up to discuss reading certain books: ‘Holes’ is a popular reader in both the US and in the UK for example.
Sam Irving was interested to see Senior students being taught science where the practical was very similar to a University approach using a lab report structure. Again, students were very independent about following instructions and completing the task. Sam was surprised at the high level of scientific terminology being used with students who were equivalent to Year 11 students in the UK.
Katherine and Alison also saw some Grade 12 students doing group work to prepare for a test on Julius Caesar – the conversations were high level and the tasks were open ended but the students seemed to struggle with there being ‘no right answer’ – however, we did not see the setting up of this discussion so it was difficult to know if this was the intention.
Alternatives to Senior High Schools:
For students who cannot be accommodated into the mainstream senior schools for numerous reasons; problem with attendance; social integration; drugs; pregnancy etc. Students can be accommodated into alternative educational centres. The atmosphere in the centre is relaxed and the students are taught about respect and their rights and responsibilities. Students can eat and drink at their desks. The emphasis is 100% on independent learning. There is no ‘up front’ teaching other than for those students who are accommodated separately because they have been excluded from school for behaviour issues or in extreme cases: carrying weapons.