Converged Curriculum – Lesson Cycle

Converged Curriculum – Common Resource PowerPoint Template

Common Medium Term Plans and Lesson templates will be used for the creation of converged curriculum resources.

What is Retrieval?

Retrieval requires pupils to answer low-stakes questions from memory by recalling previously-learned knowledge. This helps create schemas of knowledge and increases the likelihood that the information will be transferred to long-term memory.

What is ‘Spaced Retrieval’?

Spacing is the process of deliberately spreading out retrieval over increasing lengths of time. By spacing out retrieval, recall and revision, pupils have time to forget things, and re-learn them the next time they revisit the information. Re-learning is key to strengthening memory and makes it more likely that the information will be remembered in the long term

How We Plan Spaced Retrieval At Archway

All lessons begin with Spaced Retrieval in each of our academies. Typically, this is a series of questions that the pupils answer independently, in silence, in the opening minutes of the lesson.

These questions typically involve:

• Misconceptions spotted in previous lesson
• Current Knowledge from the KO
• Recent Knowledge from this scheme
• Longer-term Knowledge from other schemes, which can help us understand todays learning

Retrieval can happen at other points of the lesson as well as in the opening minutes

1. Questions are on the board – or otherwise immediately available to all pupils – as the lesson begins.
2. Pupils answer the retrieval questions immediately and in silence. They must attempt all questions. Teachers should take the register during retrieval.
3. Retrieval should be prompt – no more than 5 minutes.
4. Teacher shares answers and students self-mark in [colour] pen

Assessment for Learning

Retrieval Practice is a cognitive strategy to build knowledge over time. As such, it matters more that the pupils engage thinking than get answers 100% correct.

‘Show Me’ is the ideal AfL strategy for Retrieval Practice. Whether answers are written on a whiteboard, in a booklet or exercise book, retrieval practice should be ‘shown’ to the teacher to check for completion. ‘Correctness’ is checked by pupils themselves when teacher shares answers (ideally on board) and pupils should self-mark their answers in a [coloured] pen.

Watch: National College webinar on Retrieval Practice.

What Is Instruction?

Instruction refers to a range of teacher-led approaches, focused on exposition and demonstration of the substantive knowledge and disciplinary knowledge – often with an emphasis on reading.

What is ‘Explicit Instruction’?

Explicit instruction ensures instructions are clear and complete. The EEF suggests explicit instruction involves ‘clear explanations, simple language and relatable examples – show and tell what you want pupils to think’.

How We Plan Instruction At Archway

Instruction typically follows Retrieval and shares the substantive and disciplinary knowledge that pupils need to remember and master. Teachers should plan to clearly explain that knowledge without deviating or overcomplicating.

Archway schools prioritise reading in the curriculum, and instruction is often the perfect place to engage in reading activities, using the Archway Reading Strategies on the Reading Ruler.

1. Select the Substantive and Disciplinary Knowledge in the Medium Term Plan and Knowledge Organiser.
2. Plan exactly how you will explain and demonstrate that knowledge: script any explanations that you know pupils need to remember precisely.
3. Source reading materials that support the instruction and use the Reading Strategies to teach reading as well as the knowledge in the text.

Before we begin: ‘Practice’ with a ‘C’ is a noun, the task pupils engage in; ‘Practise’ with an ‘S’ is a verb, the act of engaging in the task. English teachers would like to sincerely apologise for this needless complexity.

What Is Practise?

Teaching is not a performance: the most important aspect of every lesson is that the pupils can know more, remember more and do more of the work themselves, with increasing success and independence. Pupils need to practise what is learned to secure the knowledge and achieve success and mastery.

Watch: Dylan William explain Hinge Point Questions in practice

How We Plan Practise At Archway

The most commonly used approach to practise in Archway schools is ‘I > WE > YOU’ Modelling.

The ‘I Do’ phase often happens with a visualiser or worked example, when the teacher ‘makes thinking visible’ and builds a successful response or example. Often the pupils will copy what the teacher writes or performs.

The ‘We Do’ phase incorporates pupils answers and thinking. The teacher may ask for a response and write the pupil’s response into the exemplar. Pupils might work together and discuss how they would respond to the task or activity.

The ‘You Do’ phase is independent practice (as much as possible). The key is to practise successfully so the teacher ensures tasks are scaffolded and circulate the room to ensure pupils are practising successful responses.

1. Use an exemplar of excellence – or create one ‘live’ using a visualiser.
2. ‘Make thinking visible’ throughout modelling. Explain choices and vocabulary and make deliberate errors – and correct them!
3. During ‘We Do’ and ‘You Do’, circulate the room and ensure that pupils are practising successful responses. Don’t allow them to practise mistakes, because they will remember and embed that incorrect knowledge.

Assessment for Learning

Effective questioning gives teachers the reassurance that pupils have a secure grasp on the new knowledge and will highlight any misconceptions or common errors. Expert teachers ask more and better questions than novice teachers, so questioning is a priority for improvement for many teachers.

Expert Teachers also ‘Track and Transfer’ the learning from one lesson to the next, taking note of any misconception or common errors in order to address them in the next lesson. Likewise, key successes can be shared as exemplars or demonstrations under the visualiser.

Read: Tom Sherrington on the power of questioning

What Is Secure?

Once teachers are assured that Practise has been successful, they should direct pupils to capture their knowledge in writing or performance.

This can be rushed (especially if it falls too near the end of a lesson) so planning to include time to secure learning is vital.

How We Plan To Secure Knowledge At Archway

We allow ample time in all lessons for pupils to secure their new knowledge. Scaffolds used to support independent practice should be removed as much as possible so that pupils get a chance to secure their own best work.

Teachers can question students during this time to ensure they have a secure grasp of the new knowledge. Where there are misconceptions or common errors, teachers should correct them immediately (if possible) and make a note to address these in the following lesson, through ‘Track and Transfer’.

1. Always plan time to Secure new knowledge within the lesson, and how it will be secured, e.g. in an explanation, performance or written paragraph.
2. Remove as many scaffolds as possible at this stage so that pupils are working independently and successfully.
3. Question students on the substantive and disciplinary knowledge developed in the lesson, and make note of any misconceptions or common errors to inform that next lessons.

Assessment for Learning

Effective questioning gives teachers the reassurance that pupils have a secure grasp on the new knowledge and will highlight any misconceptions or common errors. Expert teachers ask more and better questions than novice teachers, so questioning is a priority for improvement for many teachers.

Expert Teachers also ‘Track and Transfer’ the learning from one lesson to the next, taking note of any misconception or common errors in order to address them in the next lesson. Likewise, key successes can be shared as exemplars or demonstrations under the visualiser.

Read: Tom Sherrington on the power of questioning

WHAT IS CONNECTED EDUCATION?

Knowledge is stored as a complex, interconnected web or ‘schema’ within the human brain. We learn new knowledge more easily and securely when it is connected in our brains with what we have already learned.

Expert teachers use every opportunity to connect current learning with the bigger picture of the Curriculum Intent and Long Term Plan. This gives the new knowledge coherence and meaning. They also connect new knowledge to a host of wider, deeper learning opportunities, such as cultural capital, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), careers education, personal development, the academies values and other curriculum subjects and concepts.

HOW WE PLAN TO CONNECT KNOWLEDGE AT ARCHWAY

Teachers will take the time to explain links between the current learning and the wider curricular journey, often between Retrieval and Instruction. They will make pupils use the Knowledge Organiser during the lesson to embed the knowledge, concepts and vocabulary.

Connected Learning also incorporates enriching wider knowledge and cultural capital that add depth and detail to our schema. In studying the poem ‘War Photographer’, for example, a teacher would need to explain how ‘spools’ of photographic ‘film’ are ‘developed’ in a ‘dark room’. They may then also explain the etymology of the word ‘film’, which pupils understand to simply be streamed content on Netflix: “Have you ever wondered why it’s called a ‘film’?”.

HOW WE PLAN TO CONNECT KNOWLEDGE AT ARCHWAY

Teachers will take the time to explain links between the current learning and the wider curricular journey, often between Retrieval and Instruction. They will make pupils use the Knowledge Organiser during the lesson to embed the knowledge, concepts and vocabulary.

Connected Learning also incorporates enriching wider knowledge and cultural capital that add depth and detail to our schema. In studying the poem ‘War Photographer’, for example, a teacher would need to explain how ‘spools’ of photographic ‘film’ are ‘developed’ in a ‘dark room’. They may then also explain the etymology of the word ‘film’, which pupils understand to simply be streamed content on Netflix: “Have you ever wondered why it’s called a ‘film’?”.

1. Make sure Knowledge Organisers are on the desk and are used to reinforce and embed knowledge, concepts and vocabulary.
2. Seek opportunities to connect your subject knowledge to other subjects or disciplines. Speak to colleagues and look for cross-over points.
3. Refer back to the MTP when planning lessons to ensure that opportunities for connected learning are explored effectively.

The below extract comes from the Ofsted School inspection update of January 2019. There have been more recent inspection frameworks but this gives the most detailed description of learning

Learning has been defined in cognitive psychology as an alteration in long-term memory: ‘If nothing has altered in long-term memory, nothing has been learned.’1 Progress, therefore, means knowing more (including knowing how to do more) and remembering more. When new knowledge and existing knowledge connect in pupils’ minds, this gives rise to understanding. As pupils develop unconscious competence and fluency, this will allow them to develop skills, i.e. the capacity to perform complex operations, drawing on what is known.

Given the understanding of the curriculum set out above, progress should not be defined primarily by meeting standards or hitting the next data point. Rather, learning the curriculum itself is progress. If pupils attain within a well sequenced, well-constructed curriculum, they are making progress.

It is unhelpful to think of pupils’ minds as ‘empty vessels’ waiting to be filled with isolated, disconnected pieces of information. People learn new knowledge when new concepts are connected in their minds with what they have already learned.

It is more appropriate, therefore, to understand the way knowledge is stored as a complex, interconnected web or ‘schema’. Every time a pupil encounters a word they have previously learned, but applied in a new context, it adds to the complexity of their understanding of that concept. In other words, they develop

a deeper understanding of that concept and enhance their capacity to use that concept in their own thinking.2

Where pupils lack prior knowledge, they may find it difficult to learn new knowledge or skills, because their short-term, working memory is likely to become temporarily overloaded. If they are able to draw on their long-term memory and attend to a small number of new features in what they are learning, they are much more likely to learn and make progress.5

Research shows that we learn by relating new knowledge to what we already know. Therefore, the more pupils know, the more they have the capacity to learn.4

1 ‘Cognitive load theory (Vol. 1)’, Springer Science & Business Media, 2011, J Sweller, P Ayres and S  Kalyuga
2 ‘A schema-theoretic view of basic processes in reading comprehension’, R C Anderson and P D  Pearson, in ‘Handbook of reading research’, 1, 1984, pp. 255–291.
3 A Baddeley, ‘Working memory’, in ‘Current biology’, 20(4), 2010, R136-R140.
4 D T Willingham, ‘How knowledge helps’, in ‘American Educator’, 30(1), 2006, pp. 30–37

Further Reading

A really comprehensive review of Spaced Learning

A teacher’s guide to retrieval practice: Spaced learning (sec-ed.co.uk)

Efrat Furst’s recent blog on brain function during learning

https://sites.google.com/view/efratfurst/learning-in-the-brain

The CST Paper on Knowledge Building School Improvement at Scale

https://cstuk.org.uk/knowledge/guidance-and-policy/knowledge-building-school-improvement-at-scale/

Mary Myatt – ‘Making the case for less’ (but all her blogs are fantastic)

https://www.marymyatt.com/blog/making-the-case-for-less-again