This September, if you are looking to improve your classroom practice, one of the highest-leverage but underused strategies to try is HIGH-FREQUENCY questioning. Not note-taking, not copying definitions, not retrieval starters. What do I mean? 1/ The biggest factor that determines whether pupils develop strong understanding is FLUENCY of the key constituent facts. It’s hard to explain ionic bonding if you can’t quite recall what makes an ion positive or negative. 2/

Two of the biggest myths about direct instruction:

1. Pupils are passive while the teacher talks endlessly.
2. The teacher tells pupils everything so pupils don’t think for themselves.

These are completely wrong. 🧵 1/ Far from being passive, teacher-led lessons involve:

- High frequency questioning: after nearly every sentence, pupils answer a question.

- High participation strategies (e.g. choral response or turn & talk) which get the whole class involved. 2/

bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2023/12/30/tur…

Back to school & want to build a strong culture?

Here is a thread 🧵 of 5 blog posts with concrete strategies that you can implement from day 1.

1. Four Whole School Strategies to set pupils up to pay 100% attention in your lessons. 1/5
bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2023/04/15/set… 2. Forget 'no hands up'. If you want a buzzing classroom with a culture of participating, expect ALL hands up for your questions. 2/5

bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2023/04/08/che…

Lots of teachers & leaders have reached out to me over the last year, wanting to implement:
✅ 'All hands up' rather than 'hands down' cold calling
✅ High frequency 'checks for listening'
Here is a thread of resources (podcasts & blogs) to help, which I'll keep adding to 🧵 1/ What is 'all hands up cold calling' and what are 'checks for listening'? This blog summarises the ideas 2/
bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2023/04/08/che…

‘Turn & talk’ FAQ:

Q1. Implementation: how do you establish the routine?

A1. Make success criteria explicit: face your partner, take turns, eye contact, full sentences.

Establish clear in cue: ‘Go’ & out-cue: “3,2,1 hands up!”

Consider pairings in seating plan.

https://twitter.com/Mr_Raichura/status/1741004874626593086

Q2. When *shouldn’t* you use a turn & talk?

A2. Never for a ‘check for listening’ - this removes accountability for paying attention.

For ‘checks for understanding’ it is better to use a turn & talk AFTER you have seen the whole class’ answers.

What has SLANT got to do with Spider-man and All hands up cold calling?

Story time! 1/ 3-2-1 SLANT. All my Y9 pupils were sat tracking me as I explained the factors that affect the rate of diffusion. Suddenly I notice the face expression of one of my pupils change. 2/

Wishing everyone a Happy Diwali! 🪔 The story of Diwali originates in the Sanskrit 24,000 verse epic called the Ramayana.

Three lessons we learn from this story:

1. Duty
2. Sacrifice
3. Service

🧵1/ Duty
Rama is exiled to the forest for 14 years at the behest of the Queen, who wants her own son, Bharata, to he king. Bharata rules the kingdom but does so in his brother’s name, symbolically placing Rama’s slippers on the throne. It’s rare to treasure duty over power. 2/

Reif’s haystack analogy explains that the more knowledge we teach, the bigger the haystack. This makes it harder to recall the right ideas at the right time. How can we help pupils overcome this? 1/

bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2018/03/19/ret… 1. Teach new knowledge in a way that explicitly links knowledge together & crucially, get pupils to rehearse the links between bits of knowledge as well as the individual bits of of knowledge. 2/

For a long time I didn’t have a coherent questioning strategy.

This @RoySocChem article summaries my thinking about how to use questioning most effectively in the classroom.

This has been a game changer for my teaching! 🧵1/

edu.rsc.org/ideas/how-to-g… Firstly, I use ‘checks for listening’ during all of my explanations.

- Simple questions
- usually choral response
- expect all hands up
- high accountability
- high praise

2/

bunsenblue.wordpress.com/2023/04/08/che…

This blog has generated a lot of discussion & debate. In this thread I’ll try and address some crucial points about the two strategies:

1.*All* hands up cold calling
2.Checks for listening

THREAD 🧵 1/ Frequent comment: ‘But surely getting *every* single hand up just isn’t achievable?’ What you are really saying is that not every student in your class can be expected to pay attention & contribute throughout the lesson. 2/

Wholesome end to term yesterday @ArkSoaneAcademy.

Whenever a student won a badge or award in our rewards assembly, there was pure delight on the faces their classmates’ faces. Magical team spirit.

Why is this important? How can teachers influence this? 1/ A from identity is important to cultivate. ‘We are 7 Augustus’. Why? Firstly, it gives students a sense of belonging. A sense of belonging makes students feel safe, happy & motivated. Contributing to a team is a powerful motivator. 2/

Being a form tutor at @ArkSoaneAcademy means you’re responsible for the character development of your students.

We *explicitly* teach students to:

1. Show integrity
2. Be grateful
3. Work hard
4. Be kind
5. Aim high
6. Take responsibility

How?

Thread 🧵 1/ We regularly tell students that we are on their side & care deeply about them. This is why we will hold them to really high standards.

“We will do this by being strict. We will be strict because we *believe* you can rise to our high standards.” 2/

Fascinating interview!

I think the elements often missing from discussions on teaching knowledge, using direct instruction & cognitive science, are the practical ways to *motivate* students in the actual lesson.

Here are my top strategies! THREAD!

https://twitter.com/ChrisChivers2/status/1605249318700683264

1. Narrate the joy of acquiring knowledge.

How lucky are we to be learning this fascinating idea? This is one of my favourite topics! We’ve learned so many new words today, team! We might always have wondered… now we actually know - how cool!

Strategies often recommended to new teachers that I think are equally useful for experienced teachers. *A THREAD* 1. Scripting. Phone calls, explanations, concise instructions, class narrations etc. Planning content helps you focus on delivery. It means you don’t leave important things out, & can evaluate before delivery.

This tweet from the #MichaelaScience conference seems to have attracted the attention of a lot of progressive teachers.

Conceptual understanding emerges from knowing the idea’s constituent facts. You cannot understand what you don’t know. 1/

https://twitter.com/mr_raichura/status/1222595321731198976

This is especially true of a complex concept. We teach a rigorous curriculum so expect our pupils to grasp difficult ideas. It would be daunting for pupils to explain a concept without secure base knowledge. That’s why drill is such a useful tool. 2/

School values: *THREAD*

At #Michaela, we embrace three key values that permeate our decision-making:

1. Personal responsibility
2. Duty
3. Authority
How do these values help our pupils?

1/ Personal responsibility.

When we are not happy with outcomes in our life, it’s natural & easy to blame our circumstances. But we constantly remind pupils that there are some things we can control & other things we cannot. 2/

In our last #MichaelaScience department meeting, we discussed the best way to teach pupils to tackle Q's where they must decide whether a substance is a solid, liquid or gas at a given temperature.

We started with this, were pupils plot a number line with labels 1/ We then realised that in the Maths department, pupils use a vertical number line. This also matches a thermometer, so we updated it to this - how exciting! 2/

@mrlouieevans @MrTSci409 @olicav Benefits of visualiser over board:
1. Face the class - keep an eye on pupils
2. Can permanently store all of your 'board work' (use an exercise book) - great for revision
3. Pre-prepare & reveal diagrams like with PowerPoint*
4. Can show worksheets, exams annotation & pupil work @mrlouieevans @MrTSci409 @olicav *but unlike powerpoint, encourages use of simplified hand-drawn diagrams of concepts which cannot be done as easily on PowerPoint. Obviously use pre-existing diagrams if you can't draw them better.

5. Use live-dual coding on pre-prepared / partially completed diagrams