I gained Newly Qualified Teacher Status!

Yesterday I gained NQT status with Outstanding, which is the highest grade possible! The external assessor came in to audit my files and watch me teach a lesson. She highly praised my files and parts of my lesson. She said I needed to make my lesson pacier and at the beginning of the lesson she said there was too much guess work even though the girls were having fun. The students worked in pairs and gave feedback to the rest of the group, one thing she did say was that I needed to start the feedback in a different place in the room every time to make sure that every student has a fair chance to feedback. She said I should have made the Learning Objective more explicit and I should have assigned the TA to a job. However, I am pleased and have to teach a four period day today and then have two weeks of preparation time to sort out things for next year.

Year 12 live blog

The class teacher is playing the students The Life and Loves of a She Devil to introduce the text by Fay Weldon. She has asked the students to research the legend of Faust for homework as the text by Weldon relates to a poem called Mrs Faust by Carol Ann Duffy.

First year 12 media lesson

As part of my professional development I have asked to start teaching a-level media. Today I had my first lesson with a year 12 group who have just taken their AS exam and are starting the A2 course. They are starting to look at how to deconstruct a music video. The person that was observing me is an AST and his feedback has been integral to my training year. The girls took a long time to come to the lesson because they were coming from assembly. Therefore, my starter had to be shortened and I gave the students 1 minute to come up with 10 terms relating to the picture of Geri Halliwell. If I were to do this activity again I would consider giving them more structured ideas such as aspects of mise en scene or connotations/denotation.

The students were then asked to watched the video. I wanted the students to watch and enjoy the video. I maybe should have capitalised on the fact that the students are now active viewers and asked for their initial thoughts about the video. I gave the students questions to consider after watching the video for the first time and the observer said this could considered to be guiding their thinking. I maybe should have just had a freer approach to the discussion about the video. We then watched the video for the second time and as they were watching it I wanted the students to consider the questions I presented to them. This then led into a class discussion where we discussed a variety of things. However, I think I could have probed more about representation as the only representation we discussed was of women.

Towards the end of the lesson we started reading the academic essay and I maybe should have given this type of laborious reading task as homework. I asked the students to continue reading this article for homework and highlight the key points. I should have been far more specific about what I wanted them to highlight (for example, camera shots, things to do with mise en scene...)

On my lesson plan I have to include a section where I consider all, most, and some as clear evidence of differentiation and I need to think far more carefully about this.The observer and I discussed that the all could have been identified some of the key features the some could have been the intertextual references.

Other things I could have considered: is this exhibitionism as opposed to voyeurism and, consider the theory of star status and the star as an institutional vehicle.

For next lesson we will discuss breaking down the video even further and Goodwin's key features.

Year 12 live observation lesson two

As the students enter the video of The Hunchback of Notre Dame from 1939 starring Charles Laughton. It is the scene where the hunchback saves Ezmerelda from being hung and where he talks about his disability.
After watching the clip LH introduces the idea of intertextuality as the film is based on the Victor Hugo's novel of the same title.
LO: To explore Duffy's intentions in this poem "Mrs Quasimodo".
Feminism - female experience at the centre of the text. Why she has done this? Because we have lived under 2000 years of patriarchy.The world and his wife suggests the world is male, so Duffy has punned this phrase to title the her anthology The World's Wife.
Campanologist is a bell ringer, arpeggio, epithalamion is a wedding song, stretti means close together.
LH reiterates that there is a guide to every poem on the student's blog.
LH reads the poem to the students.
When looking at the three texts you will be looking at relationships, power, jealousy, marriage, power, betrayal, and social expectations to write your coursework on. http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/advanced/carol-ann-duffy/notes-on-selected-poems-advanced/mrs-quasimodo
The students then look at the poem in terms of Form, Structure and Language as well as the following questions: what happens in the poem? Is this poem in free verse or can you spot a rhyming pattern? What symbolism does Duffy use in this poem and why? What tone do you think this poem is intended to establish.
LH has spent 30 mins out of the 60 introducing the poem and is giving the students 20 minutes to do their own interpretation of the poem. After 5 mins LH asks for feedback from the first question and there is dialogue between student and LH for the remainder of the lesson.
LH then asks the what type of woman does Duffy portray here.
LH asks the students to read the notes on the blog before next lesson.

Year 12 live observation

The Life and Loves of a She-Devil by Fay Weldon
Othello by Shakespeare
The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy
Quick review of what the students did last lesson - review of different types of fairy tale through Post Modernism and Feminism
LH relates the retelling of fairytales to Shrek and the active participation of Princess Fiona
Post Modern/modernism - referencing other texts including media texts (intertextual references), it's playful - it plays with form and language, it involves reader interpretation through a shared culture. It's a style not a time period.
Feminism - exploring something from a female perspective that empowers the female.
LH uses the trailer of a film from The Company of Wolves which is written by Angela Carter. It portrays the girl as not as naive as the fairy story. The age of the protagonist in a fairy story is usually 12 or 13 because of menstruation. What does the wolf symbolise in the trailer? (human animalism - lycanthropy, dangerous and exciting) We can now separate between sex and fertility, at the time you couldn't, thus Carter has brought it into the 21st century.
LH then relates this to Little Red Cap by Carol Ann Duffy. http://thepoemoftheweek.blogspot.co.uk/2006/01/poem-of-week-1162006-little-red-cap.html Contextually Duffy had a relationship with an older male poet, so the poem could be considered to be biographical.
The stanzas of the poem are then split up and students are asked annotate the poem.
LH is moving around the room and discussing key ideas with the students.
On the board LH has written the following words under the title essays - betrayal, power relationships, relationships, social expectations, jealousy, marriage.
Also, how does the poem relate to Post Modernism - fairy story, form and Feminism - at the end of the poem the woman has the power with the axe.
After the students have discussed their ideas they feed them back verbally to the rest of the class.
There are only 13 students in this class.
For homework the students are asked to read the information about the poem that this on their blog.

Yr 9 exam

I have been teaching a year 9 top set in preparation for an exam on non-fiction media texts. The scheme of work I created for them to follow worked well and we looked at a variety of skills they would need in order to be successful in the exam. We started off by defining what a non-fiction text is as opposed to a fiction text and obviously I did not need to spend too long on this. We then looked at forms of non-fiction texts such as newspapers, magazines, Internet pages... We then moved on to look at an example of a non-fiction text call 'No more play times for school children'. Students then identified what the purpose of the text was (persuade, describe, explain...) and decided it was a persuasive texts. Students then wrote a Point, Evidence and Explanation to support this and volunteered to share them with the rest of the class.

We then peer assessed these PEEs using a success criteria that I wrote. Then we answered questions that were based on the exam. Students did well to answer the questions but they struggled with question 1a. For the 1b question students set out their work using a PEE grid. This is a good revision strategy and one I will use in my future teaching.

Question 1c is a comparison question so we spent one lesson on comparing two articles. We started by thinking about comparative connectives and then compared two articles about Peppa Pig. In the last lesson I let the students dictate what we were going to do by them asking questions. We also worked through an example that was based very closely on the exam. Students struggled with question 1a, and I don't understand why because it was a simple retrieval question.

When it came to marking the exam the overall lowest question was question 1a. Also, students forgot to use PEE structure and a few even forgot to use paragraphs. I was a bit disappointed and in a lesson later on today I will feedback to them on their exams with them reflecting on the feedback they have received.

If I were to teach this scheme of work again I would focus on the simple retrieval question.

Reflection on 9y1 lesson

At the moment year 9s are preparing for their exams. They are learning about non-fiction texts. I was observed by my mentor on 27-04-12 and we are now finely tuning my teaching. In terms of the LO I need to think about sharing it through a discussion rather than getting the students to get the students to write the LO down. I said to her that the reason why I have started getting my students to write the LO down is because I have been criticised for not communicating the LO with the students. Also, in order to quieten down the students this is a technique that I have seen used. In terms of behaviour management I need to make sure the students are in complete silence and set time limits to help them with preparation with their exams. Also, I need to make sure the students are receiving immediate feedback. Therefore, when we are sharing are work, we must comment on the WWW and EBI. I could also start a discussion as a plenary about whether or not we have fulfilled our LO. Thinking back to when I was first observing, one of the teachers that I observed used a skill based objective as well as a knowledge based objective. I could try doing this and also this could be a good discussion point.

In terms of time saving I could have produced a copy of the table and attached the LO to the sheet. My ultimate aim is too discourage passive listening and strongly encourage active listening. Also, bearing in mind that I have got a HI student in my classroom who also becoming a VI student, I need to think about making my PPT more colourful.

Year 7 parent's evening

Overall, I think the evening went very well. I had one situation that I don't know if I dealt with it in the best way possible. A parent asked me if about the consistency of teachers, as her daughter has had five different English teachers. I said that I can ensure consistency between now and the end of the year as I am teaching them full time between now and then. This student also has confidence issues and I have ensured her parent's that I will aid her encouragement. I also had a parent express concerns that that her daughter has an issue with hearing as she suffers with regular ear infections. I will keep an eye on her.

10y4 Thursday period 5 and Friday period 2

I am particularly nervous about teaching this group, so I need to observe the class teachers carefully.

Thursday period five - there had obviously been an altercation before the lesson had began. One of the students was not in the room and a student that had not been present on Thursdays was present today. The class teacher realised that this was happening/had happened and made allowances for it. She had prepared a PPT for the lesson and they were focusing on the longer writing task of the English GCSE exam (it is worth 24 marks). Students need to focus on form, language and purpose in order to answer the question. She also emphasised that you need to use 3 different types of punctuation in order to get a C (? . , - !) She is encouraging all of the students to strive for that C. It is clear that a lot of differentiation is necessary in order for these lessons to be successful. She actually said that her differentiation was not simplified enough and that if it was it would have probably engaged a student that eventually had to be removed. The main task was to improve a D grade answer into a C grade answer. She asked questions like how can it be improved in terms of the opening paragraph, complex sentences, spelling, rhetorical questions and final paragraph.

The students were asked to re-write the opening and they then shared their work with the rest of the class. Two students are now no longer to sit next to each other (CD and H). This is the first time I have been in a lesson where a student had been removed.

Friday period two - the girls were much much much better behaved. The first task that NG gave them was a simple task. When the students were reading they were silent and engaged. NG praised them by saying things like "all of you are capable of doing this", "this is a four mark question that all of you can can get full marks on". NG gave them an article about Peppa Pig, she said that this probably wasn't the best idea for M as she's her sister has just had a miscarriage. NG constantly repeats her instructions  and is using anecdotes to keep the students engaged. It is obvious to me that is CD is going to remain in a lesson it is essential that she receive4s encouragement all of the time, and I think when I take over this class, I will ask LH, SO or NG to work closely with her. The students were all engaged on the easier tasks and when NG asked them to complete a more difficult task on language devices they were more reluctant to do it. NG read the second article about Peppa Pig for them as she felt they were getting tired and it would help them to understand the article as it contained a lot of sarcasm. To end the lesson NG left them on a high by giving them another easy task of skimming and scanning.

I think having the students at the end of the day is going to require a lot more planning and the task are going to be shorter and hopefully more engaging.

Catching up with paperwork

For this week I am off timetable, so I am making the most of my time by keeping up to date with paperwork. I have now got four out of the six pieces of evidence for my 33 standards. I have to order them so that the standard with all of the signatures is at the front and the pieces of evidences are behind. I can see it spilling over into two a4 lever arch files. My NGS folders are up to date, as is my DMS folder. My Professional Development Portfolio is nearly there and that is the task that I have for today. As well as this I am creating medium term plans for all of the subjects I am teaching.

INSET DAY 16-04-12

Today was my first day back at NGS after spending term 4 at DMS. I felt like I was back in my induction period as the amount of information we received was phenomenal! There is a huge concern that we are going to get visited by Ofsted this term so our first session was all about that. We spoke about what they are looking for in terms of a good/outstanding department, and I have a lot of work to do. Therefore, for this term I need to focus on pace, student focused lessons/independent learning, progress, questioning, and effective use of TAs.

Out HOD gave us some very useful sheets from Osiris training on: a suggested model of learning to guide planning, criteria for the judging the quality of teaching, Socratic questioning (which was suggested that we not only use ourselves but give to the students to use), and features of Outstanding English Departments.

My mentor and I also met to discuss the plan for this term. I will be teaching year seven (but I'm not sure what I am going to be teaching them yet!), year eight about Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' for a reading assessment on AF5, 6 & 7; speaking and listening for AF1; creative writing covering all AFs; and morphographs, year nine exam prep for a reading exam; multi cultural poetry for a reading assessment testing AF5 and AF7, and year ten Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing' focusing on relationships for a CA. Year 12 have four weeks to prepare for their exams and understandably teacher's are reluctant to give up their lessons. So after the exams have been completed and the students return I will take over the teaching. I am especially excited about teaching year 12 media as I will be teaching the conventions of a music video :)

For this week I will be observing and reintegrating myself back into school life and my focus from my mentor is to apply what I have learnt over the past four terms. Therefore, it is my responsibility to keep up with marking, folders, reports and parents evenings. The observations I receive will focus on small targets that I need to meet the following lessons.

Good lesson with Outstanding features

I was pleased with the start of the lesson and the students responded well to this. I was particularly pleased with the noise level and I feel as if I aided this by being consistent. For the starter I should have given the students that had finished the task a thinking task.

I was pleased with the pace of the lesson as this was something that I was focusing on. I kept the tasks short to keep the students engaged. Although the tasks worked well they might have worked even better if the students had been given a summary of the story.

Even though the students are in top set they still need to be told when to write notes down and this is something I have learnt from experience. When questioning the students I should have asked why, and the students would have been able to answer this if they'd had a plot summary.

At one point the room went silent whilst they girls were reading and I had to encourage them to start their paired discussion. At this point I should have reminded them of the question. I need to think carefully about the seating plan because two of the students were completely isolated during the discussion period.

I should have clarified what a theme is for task four. The plenary worked very well but I should have verbally brought it together. I will practise this in a lesson I am teaching this afternoon.