The Future Has Arrived

How refreshing it was to read again Sir Ken Robinson in last week’s TES, reflecting on the 10th anniversary of the All Our Futures report on creativity and educational policy in England and Wales, and to consider some of his comments alongside the discussions which are going on around Curriculum for Excellence . Robinson was bemoaning the fact that while most policymakers will instinctively argue that of course creativity is a good thing and we must have more of it, in reality they have at the back of their minds a notion that it is something messy and uncontrollable – in his words, “it sounds like people running around knocking down the furniture” - which presumably is why, ten years later, he feels that nothing much has changed:-

“We weren’t arguing for tinkering with the system; we were arguing for long-term, transformative policies because the old system is locked into an old culture – and we need a new culture for the 21st century. Kids starting school this year will be retiring in 2070.”

There are lessons to be learned here. It will very soon be a decade since the national debate in Scotland promised a radical shake-up of  “the old system” and “the old culture” yet the parallel changes required in the accountability and assessment systems have still to materialise in a way that gives equal status to each of the four capacities. Secondary schools (and indeed some primary schools) may well continue to see their main role as preparing young people to sit exams and everything else as a welcome bonus but not a requirement, unless and until there is a clear sign that all achievements will be recognised in some way, and that schools will be judged on the personal development of all young people for whom they have some responsibility. The next few months could be crucial in determining whether policymakers are serious about the vision outlined in that ground-breaking document of November 2004.

Failing the Literacy Test

The principles of Curriculum for Excellence continue to take a bashing from right-wing reactionaries in the traditional media, and from others who feel their positions of authority threatened, not only by the notion of a curriculum for all rather than just an academic elite, but by definitions of intelligence which go beyond an ability to remember “facts” to the capacity for critical and independent thought. In today’s Sunday Times, Joan McAlpine is critical of the idea of a portfolio of evidence to support the development of literacy and numeracy skills, preferring instead to put “the straightforward business of education” to the test – literally. She continues by citing as support for her grand theory the former First Minister Jack McConnel’s radical plan to re-introduce arithmetic at Standard-Grade as a “sensible idea”. Strange bedfellows indeed – until you consider the political ideologies of their respective institutions.

McAlpine contends that “an obvious way to improve literacy and numeracy would be to teach it well.” So there we have it. Literacy and numeracy reduced to a single entity, and one which should be “taught well”. A hugely complex issue reduced to a few basic rules and tested at the end of the process by a well-crafted examination paper. Improving the nation’s literacy and numeracy in a series of simple, carefully delivered lessons.

Joining the rush to condemn the idea of a portfolio before it has even been fully explored is Carole Ford, president of School Leaders Scotland, who, writing in this week’s TES, records the serious doubts expressed by the organisation of headteachers about the ability of schools and teachers to cope with the demands of a folio, claiming that the idea of gathering evidence of performance in literacy and numeracy from across the school is impractical, “will inevitably result in pupils drafting and redrafting work”, involves the judgement of “non-specialist” teachers, and is not a “robust system of assessment.”

These claims should not go unchallenged. I totally agree that the practice of drafting and redrafting of folio work in Standard-Grade English has been one of the most negative and depressing features of our curriculum in recent times, a consequence of a system where the end grade assumes an importance completely disproportionate to the means of achieving it. However, I don’t accept the there is any “inevitability” about this whatsoever, as the best teachers have always realised how counter-productive this can be, in terms of de-motivating pupils, especially those who are already disengaged from a curriculum which offers them very little. And how patronising to teachers of subjects other than English and mathematics (I’m assuming, perhaps wrongly, that these are the specialists in literacy and numeracy McAlpine and Ford have in mind) that they are “non-specialists” in the development of literacy and numeracy skills. The illustration McAlpine uses in her article of a geography teacher “taking time out from map reading to explain percentages” at once demonstrates perfectly her failure to grasp how learning and teaching have already moved on in our schools over the past few decades, and the failure of those few remaining teachers in our schools who, sharing her mindset, fail to recognise their broader responsibilities.

Those people who still believe that more tests, “robust measures” and target-setting, disguised, to paraphrase McAlpine, in the camouflage of accountability, have had ample time to prove their theories correct, and they have failed miserably. Show me the test which is going to deliver the literacies our young people need to be successful in this century, not the last one, and I will eat my proverbial hat. It’s time to move on and look at the range of ways, including technological ones, which are available to our teachers and young people to allow them to develop and to demonstrate their literacy skills.

Moving Images in Musselburgh

Had a really good day yesterday at the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh where I was making a presentation to the MIEast network on Curriculum for Excellence and the New Literacies. Despite a few technical glitches in setting up when the laptop and projector seemed to have failed to get the message about digital media and communication and were refusing to talk to each other, the day went well.  

Mairi Flood spoke about Dundee’s successful Moving Image project which provided a box of resources for every primary school in Dundee. James Miller presented a new resource built around Winky’s Horse, a lovely short film about a Chinese girl who moves from China to Holland, where her father has opened a restaurant, and which explores the cultural difficulties she encounters.

Finally we had a very interesting presentation from Per, Jens and Pia-Mari of the Swedish Film Institute who took us on a journey through a brief history of children’s films in Sweden and gave us a flavour of the ways in which they are encouraging the use of moving image education in schools. One particularly ambitious project was the one in which they took all the headteachers in a particular area and had them filming and presenting a brief news item in the course of a day. They thoroughly enjoyed it of course, and what better way to learn of the benefits of MIE for young people. Wonder if it would work here?

I have attached a copy of the presentation I used yesterday. Feel free to watch it, use it, adapt it or distribute it if it is of use to you.

Brave New World

I would guess this is by far the most significant post I have written since I started the blog, as today I announce to the world that I will be leaving Learning and Teaching Scotland in early July and stepping out into the world on my own as an independent learning consultant. Finally, I will actually be The Literacy Adviser, and the title of the blog will be a reality rather than a statement of intent. I never really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up, and while it’s too early to establish whether I have finally grown up or not, the prospect of being completely independent is at once daunting and hugely exciting.

Having been an English teacher, a Principal Teacher, Staff Tutor, Depute Headteacher, and latterly an Education Manager at LTS, the time has come for me to really put myself to the test and see whether I actually have the knowledge and skills which I have been claiming all that time. Again, after working for just over thirty years in the public sector, for the first time in my life I will be selling my wares in the educational market place, but to paraphrase Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, we’re all selling ourselves in one way or another. The market is depressed at the moment of course, but it is something of a paradox that only by investing in teacher training and education generally will the country be able to move out of recession. And just in case I forget what the education business is all about, I’m planning to do some supply teaching as well.

If one or more of the following statements applies to you, then you need to contact me as soon as possible to discuss what I can do for you (see, I’m warming to it already):-

• I have just taken on a responsibility for developing literacy in my area of work
• My staff need to have a better awareness of Curriculum for Excellence
• I would like to explore Moving Image Education but don’t know where to start
• We need to improve our literacy results in P6/ P7/ S1/ S2
• Our school cluster would like to develop reading strategies to improve transition from primary to secondary
• I would like to explore the use of new technologies but I don’t have the time and I’m a bit scared of it all
• I know we should involve our parents more but we never seem to get to it
• I need to develop a better understanding of literacy as “the responsibilty of all” within my school
• I am organising an event and I need a first-class presenter/facilitator/chairperson
• In preparation for the new literacy qualification, we want to look at how to develop e-portfolios

 

I hope that gives you a flavour of what I am about. Over the coming weeks and months I will be using the blog to upload resources, advertise events and share what insights I have gained into the vision of Curriculum for Excellence. In the meantime, here is a brief summary of some of the areas I will be working in, and where I can offer support and advice to teachers, schools, local authorities and others:-

Reading Strategies to Improve Literacy

Improving literacy is a key feature of most education improvement plans, yet there is often a lack of clarity about how it can be achieved. Motivation, and understanding the key strategies involved in developing higher order reading skills, are the route to success. Over the past couple of years I have been looking at what some of the world’s leading thinkers have been saying about reading development and at the key strategies we employ as we move from acquiring basic reading skills to becoming sophisticated readers. These strategies are often regarded as “instinctive” but in order to be effective they need to be made explicit to learners, and before they can be made explicit, teachers need to be aware of what they are and how they can be developed.

 Improving the Transition from Primary to Secondary

HMIE’s Improving Scottish Education report in January 2009 had some fairly damning comments about the primary-secondary transition, confirming that in the first year of secondary school young people are still too often “passive observers in lessons”, and going on to say that “while many schools recognise that improving links with primary schools helps progression in learning, too many do not build on what has been achieved in P7.” While we are now very good at the social aspects of transition from primary to secondary, we are failing to build on prior learning when young people enter secondary school. Developing a common pedagogy, especially around literacy, can change all that.

 Improving Literacy through Moving Image Education

I have recently joined Scottish Screen’s core group of Lead Practitioners in Moving Image Education. This is an area which has huge potential for teachers as they come to terms with the re-definition of “texts” in Curriculum for Excellence – using the kind of texts which most of us engage with on a daily basis viz., short films. Through an understanding of the film-making process and through working collaboratively, young people develop the “traditional” literacy skills of talking and listening, reading and writing, while at the same time developing critical thinking skills and a better awareness of modern media.                                           

 Using Web 2.0 technologies to Improve Learning and Teaching

Working in Learning and Teaching Scotland has given me the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills and knowledge of new technologies, internet and networking tools – such as Blogging, Wikis, Twitter, Delicious and a host of others – which can make learning and teaching much more fun and effective, and at no extra cost! Finding the right resources for the modern-day classroom need not be an issue if you know where to look, and with a few simple lessons teachers and learners can become part of a global learning network.

 From Inputs to Outcomes – Making Sense of the Literacy and English Framework

As one of the original writing team for the Literacy and English Framework, I have a comprehensive understanding of the thinking behind the Experiences and Outcomes, and of Curriculum for Excellence generally. I have presented extensively on various aspects of Curriculum for Excellence over the past couple of years to a wide range of audiences. Whether you are looking at specific outcomes, beginning to look at interdisciplinary approaches, or trying to ensure that literacy is at the centre of learning and teaching in your area of responsibility, I can offer you unrivalled support and advice.

Make Your Lesson Go With A Bang

A few year ago when I was heading up our school’s learning and teaching policy group, we were trying to capture the basic requirements for effective learning and teaching. Checklists were flavour of the month so naturally our policy was full of checklists. However, I wondered whether an alternative checklist might be more effective in getting the message across. I kept it pretty much to myself at the time, and somehow I don’t think it would have made it into the official policy document, but I just wonder what effect it might have had…………………. Hope you enjoy!

 

EFFECTIVE LEARNING AND TEACHING                       ALTERNATIVE CHECKLIST

OR

HOW TO MAKE YOUR LESSON GO WITH A BANG

• Don’t arrive at the class too early. They won’t be expecting you.  Have another cup of coffee and a blether with your colleagues until the corridor is clear.
•  When you arrive at the class, start shouting, whether they are behaving well or not. It lets them see who’s boss.
•  Make sure pupils are well wrapped up in jackets and scarves to keep them more comfortable.
•  Allow pupils to sit wherever they choose. This makes it easier for them to socialise.
•  Start issuing instructions to the class before they are all listening, or even better, while some are still arriving.
•  Keep the aim of the lesson to yourself in case anyone in the class gets wind of it.
•  Don’t remind them of what you did yesterday. If they were paying attention they should remember.
•  Remember to interrupt the lesson fifteen minutes in to take the register.
•  Ask the biggest nuisance in the class to take the register slip to the office. Why should the rest of the school have peace and quiet when you don’t.
•  Always refer to pupils by their surname. They prefer the formality and respect you more for it.
•  Punishment exercises are a godsend. Make sure you always have a plentiful supply in the room.
•  Never allow pupils to talk, even when engaged in group discussion.
•  Make it perfectly clear you don’t want to be there any more than they do.
•  Send pupils to the toilet and/or the medical room at regular intervals. It gives them regular exercise, keeps support staff in a job, and gives you a break.
•  Time your lesson carefully so that you are in the middle of a sentence when the bell rings.
•  Instruct pupils to throw books, jotters etc in a heap at the front of the room and run quickly to their next class.
•  Don’t forget homework. This should be shouted at pupils’ backs as they leave the room. That way you can catch them out next lesson when they deny that they heard you.

Have a good day!

Film Shorts as Literacy Texts

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the re-definition of “texts” in the context of Curriculum for Excellence, and indeed in the context of the 21st Century! For anyone with responsibility for developing literacy skills in young people it is no longer appropriate to think of texts simply as books, important as books are, but to be employing a whole range of texts, some of which will be multi-modal, to reflect the reality of the world we live in. This is what I would describe as improving literacy through digital media, as opposed to digital media literacy, which is, in my view a different matter.

The short film is an ideal medium for developing the “traditional” literacies of reading, writing, talking and listening, a “short” film being a complete text lasting anything up to 30 minutes, but for our purposes ideally no more than ten or fifteen minutes, which means it can be shown two or three times in the course of a lesson if necessary. This is preferable to using an extract from a feature film as it doesn’t require an understanding of the whole work from which it has been taken, and there is a huge range of texts available, from animation to live action, fiction to documentary.

With a minimal understanding of the language of film, teachers can use short films to introduce and reinforce concepts related to reading and writing printed texts, such as narrative viewpoint, plot, characters and setting, as well as developing a greater understanding of the medium of film itself, the medium with which most of us engage most frequently. It is important to emphasise the similarities between printed and moving image texts, as well as the differences, since ultimately they are both about telling stories, and why we tell stories is arguably the reason for studying any kind of texts at all! This is a subject dear to my heart and one to which I will return in due course.

In the meantime, thanks to Mike Coulter for alerting me to this short animated film. Apart from being a delightful piece of work in its own right, it could provide the literacy teacher with any number of opportunities for developing aspects of literacy. To take one example, imagine leading a discussion around the creation of character in fiction. What kind of character is the central figure in this film and how do we know? Remember, there are no words spoken other than some faint song lyrics which appear briefly towards the end of the film.

If you want to hear the writer and illustrator James Jarvis talking about how he made the film and how he combines his two different worlds of drawing and running click here.

Creating Confident Individuals

Thanks to Laurie O’Donnel for reminding me in his recent blogpost of what a significant text Carol Dweck’s Mindset is, especially in the context of the four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence, and in particular the aim to develop confident individuals. To many people, and perhaps particularly to Scots, “confident individuals” has connotations of arrogance or cockiness, characteristics which we have always derided, and rightly so. However, as Dweck demonstrates in Mindset -subtitled The New Psychology of Success - having confidence as an individual is much more about having what she calls a “growth mindset” rather than a “fixed mindset”.

Students with a fixed mindset often give up easily because they assume they have been dealt a losing hand, usually reinforced by people telling them they are dumb or stupid. Even for very able students, a fixed mindset can lead to failure: in the fixed mindset effort is not something to be proud of, it is something which casts doubt on your abilities. Teachers with a fixed mindset bemoan the fact that they have been given “the bottom set again” and believe that no matter what they do it will make little or no difference whatsoever, so have often given up on some students before they even meet them.

With a growth mindset on the other hand, young people learn that effort is in itself rewarding, and that while some people are apparently able to do some things with little effort, others take longer and may have to work harder to get there. It isn’t difficult to think of examples - in sport, music or any number of activities – of people who have shown early talent only for it to remain frustratingly unfulfilled, while others who develop later go on to more sustained levels of success. In the growth mindset challenge is welcomed, because it is the effort which matters, not the ability. Ability is something which can be learned – you don’t have to be born that way.

We Think, Therefore We Are

In his latest book, We-Think, Charles Leadbetter argues that if the 20th Century was one of mass production and mass consumption, the 21st Century will be one of mass innovation and collaboration, the sharing of ideas being the currency on which our future prosperity depends:-

“In the economy of things you are identified by what you own – your land, house, car. In the economy of ideas that the web is creating, you are what you share – who you are linked to, who you network with and which ideas, pictures, videos, links or comments you share. The biggest change the web will bring about is in allowing us to share with one another in new ways and particularly to share ideas.”

At least two questions immediately come to mind. If the new economy is about sharing, what is it that is going to encourage people to share and to give away, rather than trying to cash in on their ideas and maximise their profit, according to the natural laws of self-preservation, natural human tendencies to self-interest etc etc. And in a world where it is rapidly becoming easier to organise on a global scale, what is going to prevent individuals and organisations from using the power of the internet for destructive rather than constructive purposes?

On the first issue Leadbetter is optimistic. It’s not that he believes we-think will entirely replace the market-driven economy but rather that there will be a balance between  market and non-market ways of organising the networked economy. In other words, individuals and organisations will survive according to their ability to sell and to share freely their ideas in the right proportions, a mix of collaboration and commerce, community and corporation. He believes that what motivates people above all else is not wealth but the quality of the relationships they are able to develop, alongside a sense of worth and a recognition of their talents, especially by their peers. This is threatening to traditional corporations with hierarchical structures, which operate on the basis of status and authority within the organisation rather than the creativity of individuals, and in the next few years we will see an increasing struggle between this dysfunctional world where decisions are made for us rather than with us and an alternative world in which we are, in the words of Pat Kane, “players”, where we are engaged and participating fully in the process of our own lives.

The challenge, according to the author, is to create a sense of order and security without undermining our capacity for sharing, for sharing can also spread diseases, infections and viruses, ideas and identities can be stolen. Furthermore, those who have top-down control, whether private corporations or governments, will fight to retain it. However, he believes that within organisations managers and professionals will struggle to retain power based on privileged access to information as those they govern  become less deferential, acquiring their own voices and finding their own information.  Secondly, more forms of peer-to-peer control, including surveillance, will provide the transparency needed to provide the security we all seek. We will get used to rating one another and being rated by our peers – something which is currently an accepted form of self-regulation in the scientific community but which will spread to many other walks of life. Finally, Leadbetter argues, we will have to encourage and develop in people more self-control so that they use their increasing technological power more responsibly. Enter the role of education and educators. He puts it succinctly like this:-

“That means, at the very least, children learning the skills and norms of media literacy and responsibility; learning to question and challenge information as well as copy and paste it.”  Reassuringly, this has echoes of the following statement from the new Literacy and English framework in Curriculum for Excellence:-

To help me develop an informed view, I am exploring the techniques used to influence my opinion. I can recognise persuasion and assess the reliability of information and credibility and value of my sources.

Never has the role of the teacher been more important in guiding and supporting young people as they develop that “informed view” for themselves as independent learners and thinkers.

Happy Birthday Blog

Just realised that today marks the anniversary of my first blog post, and I was reflecting on the changes it has made to my life in that time. The original motivation for starting the blog was to take myself through the process of setting it up and go through the various stages of development, so that in turn I could take others through the process and prove that the technical bits were just challenges to be overcome rather than insurmountable barriers ( I was already convinced that here at last was a tool to put learning, and writing in particular, in the hands of the learner). I have to say in that respect it has been fun – if at times very frustrating – and I am learning a new language as I go – the language of posts and inserts, tags and categories, uploading and embedding, not to mention wikis, wordles and widgets.

In terms of developing literacy skills, there is no doubt in my mind that creating blogs and wikis in the classroom, and making full use of Web 2.0 technology, most of which is free and far less technical than many teachers imagine, is the way forward for learners and teachers, allowing them to make links within the school and out to the wider world. What better motivation to write creatively and accurately than to know that your peers, the most critical audience of all, are reading, watching and commenting on what you produce! What better motivation to write than to know that what you are writing  isn’t only being read by one critical adult, and it isn’t coming back with a grade on it? As someone somewhere once said, the best motivation is self-motivation. Incidentally, if you want to see how blogs can be used in the classroom, have a look at this one from Australia, or this one from Perth Academy in Scotland.

Recently, signing up to Twitter and developing an expanding network of friends and colleagues with common interests, I have added a new dimension to my social networking and opened up a whole other world of possibilities, enlisting in what Mike Coulter has referred to as “an army of researchers”. I’d like to thank all of them for getting me this far, especially those listed in my Blogroll (and who would have thought I’d ever say that a year ago!). Look forward to talking, sharing and working with you for a long time to come.

The New Meaning of Text

Today will come to be seen as a landmark in the history of Scottish education, with  the publication of the new Curriculum for Excellence frameworks in the eight curriculum areas of expressive arts, health and wellbeing, languages, mathematics, religious and moral education, sciences, social studies and technologies. The revised curriculum has a clearly stated purpose – to ensure that all the children and young people of Scotland develop the attributes, knowledge and skills they will need if they are to flourish in life, learning and work, now and in the future - which is further encapsulated in the four “capacities”, providing learning and teaching opportunities which will enable young people to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. A key difference in the new curriculum is that it is described in terms of outcomes or “I can………..” statements rather than inputs or content, which is how curricula have traditionally been defined (NB this is not the same as saying that content is not important!) thereby shifting the emphasis and the main responsibility for learning to the learner, which is exactly where it belongs. 

Having been involved in the early stages of drafting the framework for Literacy and English, I am delighted to see the formal recognition, alongside books, of non-print texts including film, and the word “watching” given equal status with “listening” and “talking”. The full definition of “text” appears as follows;-

“A text is the medium through which ideas, experiences, opinions and information can be communicated.”

The document helpfully offers a range of possible texts for use in the classroom, and I think it would be a good idea for any teacher responsible for the development of literacy to have a graphic reminder of all the options avaialable, so that when planning a series of lessons or a course of work, a reasonable balance can be achieved over the week, or the term, or the academic session. I have presented these in the form of a Wordle, which could easily be enlarged and printed as a poster to put up on the wall of your classroom as a reminder to you and your students.

The Meaning of Text