So recently the
geography department have been trialling something a little different. I
mentioned it in briefing but 8.30am is sometimes not the best time to be hit
with a new idea.
Although only one
week into our new timetable we decided to test our new format for observations
and LWR was first up! JAH and I carried out a joint observation of a lesson
that would be typical of any geography lesson seen in the geography department
on any given day. Having viewed the lesson and already picked up ways I would
like to further embed vocabulary usage within my own lesson, John and I turned
our focus towards departmental improvements based on the lesson we had viewed.
These would hopefully be in the form of small wins, which are easy to implement
and impactful on student progress.
With that in mind
the next day I was due to teach a year 10 class the same topic. I had set my
sites on trying to give students a context, a hook, a reason to be learning
about longshore drift (That well known exciting topic that we all know students
can’t wait to learn about…). It came in the form of a simple starter activity.
Now it wasn’t
necessarily the slide that made us go “WOW, this has changed how we teach!!” It
was the discussions that JAH, LWR and I had afterwards that were the most
interesting (in what is usually called the “observation de-brief”). We talked
about changes being made to KS3 lessons with the aim of engaging students and
gauging better how much they already know. We chatted about how we wanted the
students to become experts in geography and more importantly we talked about
actual changes to lessons that would facilitate that. We discussed the merit of
baseline tests for year 7s and how maybe they know more than we think they do
when they come to our first lesson. The slide above revealed that many year 10 students
actually already knew the 3 keywords which were a focus of the lesson and
with that knowledge I recognised I could pitch the lesson higher and progress
students on quicker! J WIN!
It is fair to say
we left the “observation de-brief” feeling inspired and motivated. I think even
at one point someone said “I could stay here till 6 to chat about this!!”
Needless to say we didn’t stay until 6 but the 45 minutes we did sit down for
were valuable and will continue to shape our lessons into the future.
Author FLT
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