E-Article

from ES4S This months focus is ..........

Questions for consideration: How do your staff plan and monitor the levels of higher-order thinking in lessons? What percentage of lessons, or specic activities, involve the pupils engaging in the higher-order of cognitive processing? To what extent are pupils asked to relate their learning to new and novel situations Are our pupils asked to examine their emotions concerning the challenges and dilemmas they have faced?
Professional development for 2012 Can ES4S support you in embedding the changes found in the new OFSTED framework ? If you have been interested in the article on rigour in learning, you might like to consider the CPD session .....

It has to be rigorous (Part 1)

How do you evaluate the rigour of learning within your class or school? The new OFSTED framework is underpinned by three essential qualities of outstanding learning ....... Rigour, Relevance and Relationships. To ensure that every young learner receives rigorous learning experiences, staff within any school must be operating with a clear and shared understanding of rigorous learning and how it can be offered in every class. Check your curriculum or planning documents and identify where rigorous learning took place. In which recent lesson did you achieve the most rigorous learning experiences for every young learner? Though not every lesson or learning experience needs to be rigorous, the pupils should be exposed to rigorous curriculum opportunities throughout the week. Rigorous learning is not the same as hard learning or learning at a faster pace but, instead, is more about two interwoven facets ....... The level of thinking offered to the learner together with opportunities for a greater degree of application. When considering rigorous learning, it is worth keeping in mind the 6 levels of higher-order thinking. Pupils should be challenged to understand and work with difcult concepts and to make their own discoveries around complex issues. The nature of any learning experience, be it an input from a class teacher or teacher assistant, or a learning activity, carried out individually or in collaboration with other learners, will only achieve a real sense of rigour if the learner is engaged in a higher-order of thinking. Many classroom experiences engage pupils in shallow-levels of thinking, focusing on knowledge retention and a basic level of understanding. It maybe worthwhile for a teacher or group of teachers to monitor the levels of thinking they are hoping to elicit when offering a particular learning experience. Perhaps a specic focus on tracking the levels of higher-order thinking during literacy lessons. When planning a lesson, or a specic activity, how often do you consider the level of thinking that will be required and the degrees of application that this experience will involve? To engage in effective rigorous learning, as well as using higher-order thinking, the pupils should be asked to apply their knowledge in new, novel and real-life situations and not simply within the specic curriculum context. Finally, when considering rigorous learning experiences, teachers should not forget the affective domain of thinking. The emotional engagement sparked from the planned experience will be a vital ingredient of genuine rigour in learning.

Making it rigorous
If ES4S can support you with this or any other future developments, please contact us. Alternatively, you can view our new CPD ebrochure at www.es4s.co.uk

A quote for your staffroom/ learning lounge .....

'There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.' Winton Churchill
Recommended website ....... A nice, easy-to-use creative story writing tool for all primary aged pupils. Create and publish a book in no time Tikatok.com

Recommended book ...... A perfect book for all of those rituals and morning thinking challenges. You never need to be stuck for an idea again The little book of thunks (Ian Gilbert)

e-mail : ofce@es4s.co.uk.

ES4S Call us : 01202 267066.

Web : www.es4s.co.uk

March 2012