#markingdirt

Dirt stands for:

• Directed/dedicated 
• Improvement/Independent
• Reflection 
• Time

We very much value our students completing their D.I.R.T work (as a result of good marking).

However,there's another area we could improve on:

The marking of our students' D.I.R.T responses.

 I believe that it's important to promote student self-reflection and peer assessment as it goes along with the cherished motto of: brain, book, buddy and boss.

As a result, I've created a D.I.R.T marking sticker/hand-out for my students. It's still in its draft stage and I intend to gather feedback on how best to adapt it for my students' learning.

It's a D.I.R.T Check up:

It encourages the student to evaluate their D.I.R.T effort and level of understanding for the D.I.R.T task as some students don't actually understand what the D.I.R.T task is or how completion of the DIRT would develop their learning. By ensuring that the students are able to answer the why questions (what's the point of completing this D.I.R.T task?) we're one step closer towards a higher standard of progress.

Feel free to download your own copy, of the D.I.R.T check up, here!

 

Twitter treats!

I've adapted the following resources thanks to ideas from the following Twitter people: @HeadofEnglish, @ACCooke5 (Mega Hexagons) and @globalsolo:

Mrs C Spalding's starter idea worked a treat with all of my Key Stage classes. I adapted it so that it became a main task rather than a starter. See my version here! It promoted discussions and my students were supporting each other as I wanted them to answer different discussion questions about the same text. They filled in the blanks for their own essay question and a variety of insightful answers were appearing across the classroom.

 

 

Mega Hexagons:

 

 

 

They're a great way of engaging students with the idea of higher level thinking - visually. Each layer has a different focus. Here's a simple version of the Mega Hexagon. The inner layer focuses on the main character and the outer layers encourage the student to identify, describe and to explain a particular literary feature.

With language analysis in mind: I've adapted this fantastic idea here!

I will continue to incorporate Solo thinking skills and tie it in with DIRT time for PEARL paragraphs.

My classroom's extension tasks wall, stuck wall and peer/self assessment sheets! Promoting independence!

Media Studies self-assessment sheet for AQA MEST1 Section B essays

Section B of the MEST 1 exam paper caused a rush of panic in my students' eyes as they had to move away from the comfort of short Section A responses.  Armed with their independent research and their long argumentative essays, I created the attached self/peer-assessment marksheet for them to assess their strengths and areas for improvement. It's based on the mark scheme, the examiner's report and student feedback!

Follow the link here!

End of Term 3 target setting sheet

End of term reflections!

I decided to create a target setting sheet for  my Key Stage 3 and 4 English classes. I wrote a list of WWW and EBI comments for general reading and writing skills. It's more important to remind our students to question HOW they intend to achieve their targets instead of just identifying their areas for improvement. As a result, I've set up a list of strategies for my students to choose from in regards to how they intend to reach their personal reading and writing targets.

Students simply have to highlight two areas of strength and two areas for improvement from the writing and reading lists. Furthermore, they're also encouraged to re-read their highlighted targets and to summarise them into their own words in the last page of the document.

My students have reacted very well to the sheets as they recognised that there are several ways to revise for English - breaking down the shocking myth that "you can't revise for English!".

Follow the link below for the target setting sheet! :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzOKbcWyKF4kbkxrQ0lqbWtZb2s/edit?usp=sharing

Zooming in and out and Zones of relevance!

First post...

I was recently inspired by @ASTsupportAAli and @LearningSpy.

I created the attached resources as a result of blending some ideas from David Didau and ASTAli (Twitter).

I adapted Ali’s great 'Is it Relevant?' idea by applying it to PEARL (PEE) paragraphs instead of general questions. I’ve used David’s fantastic Powerpoint slide definitions of analysis and evaluation.

So I created the Zones of relevance target sheet and Powerpoint (attached).

The process:

A quote is analysed starting with the ZOOM in process (analysis of language techniques/structural devices in the quote). Students then use the ZOOM out process (evaluation) to notice how the surrounding information (setting, motifs, foreshadowing) influence our interpretations of the text/character as a whole.

The zone tasks increase in higher levels of analysis/evaluation with each inner circle.

I noticed that some students didn’t know where to start with analysis and this seemed to help their understanding of how to analyse a quote. I got the Year 7s to draw their zones of relevance on their tables with chalk pens.

They thought it was great fun. They also completed a hexagon sheet with several points about what they’ve analysed from their selected quotes.

You could adapt the Zones of Relevance sheet to assist all key stages!

My colleague, Mr Peel (@mrpeel) adapted my Year 7 Powerpoint for Year 9 and he used sticky notes instead of the hexagons with excellent results:

http://jwpblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/1869/

I highly recommend that you use this strategy for analysis and evaluation of poetry, prose and non-fiction texts.

:)