April 2004
'April is the cruellest month'. In this newsletter we start with some harsh words about television and attention disorders, then mix memory and desire with a piece on Learning to Learn. We provide links through to Alistair Smith's Campaign for Learning keynote speech and a description of what it means for a Portchester Primary. For the aspiring Polar explorers in your school we offer an opportunity to make a virtual journey. Details of what could be the best software investment you or your school might ever make are also included in our PlanEasy2 promotion.
Brat Camp
Parenting is in the news again. It is an expensive option to send your tantrum fixated, pierced, dreadlock wearing, Bacardi Breezer drinking, cigarette smoking bully of a fifteen year old to Utah for a month in the hope that she will come back reformed. Most parents just have to stick it out. In Dr Robert Shaw's soon to be published book The Epidemic (Harper Collins) he fuels the debate between the post-Freudians, some of whom find it difficult to say no to their child's requests and the neo-nay-sayers who want to put a clear line in the parenting sand - by suggesting that "showering your young with love, gifts and tokens of our esteem creates monsters." He sees all around him "sullen, selfish children raised by absentee and over-indulgent parents in a society made toxic by consumerism, TV and lack of family stability." Watch out for this book, it's going to get lots of attention.
In the same week that we hear of The Epidemic, research is published in the US Journal Pediatrics on the effects of television on the young mind. Dimitri Christakis of the Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Centre, Seattle said that no child under two should be allowed to watch television because of the risk of developing attention deficit disorders. Now is this yet more reactionary and alarmist ranting or should we pay attention? David Bell, Chief Inspector of Schools reported that communication skills and behaviour related to learning amongst five year olds were the lowest they had ever been. One in four UK children aged between six-months and two years has a television in their bedroom. Amongst three-year olds in the Seattle survey about 10% watched seven or more hours of television each day.
That is frightening but maybe not as frightening as the massive 44% who watched two hours each day. The study found that for every hour of television watched daily toddlers faced a 10% increase in the likelihood of having attention deficit problems by the age of seven. In what is increasingly recognized as a link between lifestyle choices and viewing habits, the BBC are to reduce the contract with the company which licenses Tweenies and Fimbles. This is in part because BBC preschool characters appear on almost 100 products aimed at under-fives: marshmallows, jelly babies and chocolate bars. BBC's CBeebies - one of 21 Preschool channels available in the UK - had 6.7 million viewers last month. Teletubbies has a global audience close to one billion. Maybe stage one in keeping your child out of Brat Camp is to put a line in the sand over viewing?
What sort of learners do we want?
We return to the question: what sort of learners do we want? Yesterdays answers don't solve today's problems, so fresh thinking about learning offers the possibility of a fresh set of solutions. A number of newsletter correspondents have asked for an update on the Alite 5R's Programme. We have completed a set of well defined outcomes for learners. We are now in the midst of creating an electronic tracking system so that learners and their teachers can engage in purposeful dialogue around these outcomes. The system will track and record student progress against each. Our 5 R's have a development history and we define them as:
The resilient learner
- persists
- remains positive throughout
- stays involved with their learning
- sets targets and practises
The resourceful learner
- shows initiative
- is capable of learning in different ways
- asks good questions
- is prepared to take risks
The responsible learner
- makes moral choices
- is self-managing
- delays gratification
- participates constructively
The reasoning learner
- identifies distinctions
- considers all the evidence
- chooses the right problem solving tool
- reaches measured judgements
The reflective learner
- shows curiosity
- is objective
- can see things from different perspectives
- learns from, and acts upon, experience
In order to encourage the development of the 5 R's we need the following conditions in a school:
A "coaching" culture with an emphasis on solutions
Learning is itself a focus of learning throughout the school
A means of tracking, recording and reflecting on progress
Emphasis in assessment on improving rather than proving
Visionary leadership
Space to take risks
L2L Conference
Alistair Smith appeared with Professor David Hargreaves and David Miliband MP at the Campaign for Learning's National Learning to Learn Conference. Alistair's keynote, entitled Making it Real, set out to define learning to learn and to describe its condition in UK schools. You can see all the slides in the news section of the Alite website www.alite.co.uk/news .
The Campaign for Learning argue that "learning is learnable" and describe Learning to Learn (L2L) as: "a process of discovery about learning. It involves a set of principles and skills which, if understood and used, help learners learn more effectively and so become learners for life." Alistair's speech claims that L2L in the UK remains locked within a "study skills" mentality which limits its value. He describes the three levels and five layers of learning necessary for a school to be transformed by L2L. In describing current and future practice, he argues that school leaders also need to understand the entire learning map before investing in any journey. For a detailed copy of the text of the speech go to www.alite.co.uk
Enthusiasts and Advocates
Sue Anders, Deputy Head, of Wicor Primary School, Portchester, Hampshire wrote to tell us of their Accelerated Learning journey.
We have been using the Accelerated Learning approach as the basis of our learning at Wicor for two years now. Our decision to refocus on learning rather than teaching and to build a learning community preceded the adoption of Accelerated Learning. Headteacher, Mark Wildman and I undertook extensive reading of theorists such as Michael Fullan, Dean Fink and Barbara MacGilchrist and their theories of school culture and the needs of 21st Century learners made us realise that developing our school as a community of learners was paramount if we were to help the children in the school reach their full potential in life. We then found that the whole Accelerated Learning approach and the principles underlying it would provide the best vehicle for achieving our vision.
Since adopting Accelerated Learning and the associated strategies of developing emotional literacy and teaching explicit thinking skills our school culture has changed completely. We have observed some outstanding learning experiences in classrooms, children are talking about learning and about themselves as learners and there is much more evidence of true autonomy in learning and independence of thought amongst staff and children. Teachers are feeling more free to experiment and take risks and the level of professional reading has risen tremendously. One major achievement has been the award of Investors in People status. Our assessor concluded that we were genuinely a Community of Learners because in the assessment interviews staff referred to themselves as learners and spoke about how they felt able to take risks and innovate.
We have placed a large emphasis on developing our classroom environments as environments for learning. Initially when this idea was suggested staff were very sceptical as they did not think they would have enough material to display - we now don't display children's work in classrooms unless it is to be used for learning! Now staff complain that they do not have enough wall, ceiling or window space because they have so many learning posters, information, motivational statements, belonging and aspiration statements to display! All our classroom environments are good and many are exceptional. Also, the benefits of this display approach on learning has sold the policy to teaching staff who are now enthusiastic advocates. In November Mark and I were asked to speak about our developments at Wicor to the Hampshire Assessment co-ordinators conference and it was the issue of classroom display which proved to be most controversial!
Although we have travelled a tremendous way over the last two years, we realise that this is merely the tip of the ice berg. We know that the developments are only just beginning to embed into the school culture and we are now investigating how these changes can be sustained over time so that they continue to grow and develop further. However, we are lucky that the majority of staff are committed to our vision and to our school so we have a good base upon which to build.
I have just finished writing our school's Learning Handbook, a 65 page document which sums up learning at Wicor to date and now my next task is to lead the reorganisation of our curriculum for September so that it fits more neatly with the learning agenda; we are going to focus more on developing competencies and learning skills in the main. Also, we are now considering how we can sell our ideas and new philosophy much more clearly to parents. We have begun by holding evening workshops so that parents can learn about areas such as the Brain, Motivation and Self Esteem and Thinking Skills. These are well received by those who attend but they are not well attended yet. We are also going to provide information for parents at our mid year progress review day (a day for parent/ teacher meetings which is replacing the traditional parents evening!). Finally, I am currently trialling a series of learning to learn lessons that I have written with my year 3 class. We are investigating the 5 R's and how developing these can make us better learners.
The Year 3 lessons in learning to learn have been going very well. The first two lessons were examining what it means to be a resourceful learner and writing resourcefulness targets and devising resourcefulness strategies. We then did two weeks revisiting VAK learning strategies and devised lists of strategies as a class, re VAKed ourselves and practised various strategies with the spelling lists for the week. We are now learning about Multiple Intelligence - the children know what it means to be word smart, body smart etc and they have tried to identify their balance of smarts. We are now going to produce MI prompt posters full of strategies and link the Smarts to famous people the children know. We will also try out some of the more unusual strategies to solve problems based on the children's own assessment of their strengths and weaknesses and evaluate whether this helps them with their learning.
We are now planning a whole school project on thinking, learning and relationship building which will last for the first half of the Autumn term. The outcome of the project will be a 2 day exhibition/event organised by the children. The children will be told that they are going to use the exhibition to tell their families about what learning is like at Wicor!
Leading Learning database
The Alite Leading Learning database continues to grow. We are accumulating details of good and interesting practice around the leadership of learning. This can be within classrooms or across colleges and schools, lesson planning and delivery or strategic visioning. Having visited hundreds of schools and worked with 000's of educators over a ten year period, we are, as you can imagine, sitting on a lot of contacts and data which we are continuing to assemble and make sense of. There are two ultimate aims. The first is to make the database accessible to as wide a group of Alite customers as possible and the second, to draw on the database to generate case study material for a general audience. If you have a story to tell, or know of one, or, if you feel your school or college can offer some valuable insights on any aspects of leading learning then please do get in touch. We are interested in as broad a view of learning as possible.
Alite operates according to the requirements of the Data Protection Act, and would never release contact details without prior permission.
PlanEasy2
If you could count the number of separate files you use which are called on at different times in planning and delivering lessons you may have to lie down before you get finished. Educators have hundreds of resources - Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, video excerpts, music files, lesson plans, observation sheets and Schemes of Work - in electronic format scattered all over their PCs. Now, if you can face the thought, multiply this up by the number of teachers in your school or college and thousands of resources are being lost, replicated, misused or forgotten altogether. Don't get too stressed - we have a solution we call PlanEasy2.
PlanEasy2 is the low-cost tool for electronic lesson planning. PlanEasy2 will guide you through planning lessons against the 4 stage Accelerated Learning Cycle prompting as you go. You can hold up to 30 lesson plans in any scheme of learning and gather all the electronic resources you need for the lessons into one place.
PlanEasy2 will upload selected resources onto a student website for 24 hour access. We think the best feature is that it will also track simultaneously for thinking skills, formative assessment, VAK and the 5 R's. Available in a CD format from Alite, PlanEasy2 is customisable and also comes with sample lessons, a discussion forum where purchasers can exchange resources for use with the planner and full instructions.
Spotted!
Hurrah for networking! In the programme for a National School Improvement Network Conference on 23rd March led by Chris Watkins of the Institute of Education, Brain-Based Learning and Accelerated Learning share a slot under the slightly demeaning title: "Sneaky Space Invaders! Approaches which claim to be about Learning but aren't."
Also noted in the March edition of the Institute of Education's National School Improvement Network Newsletter, which arrived the same day, is a feature stating that their Brain-Based Learning zone is the most popular spot on the NSIN website. Also an advertisement for the Institute's second Public Research Seminar of "Brain-Based Learning approaches - a day devoted to learners and learning" on Tuesday 25th May: watch that space!
Family Learning
Parents are the first teachers and the family the first classroom. Every school in the land seeks the support of parents and wants to get them more involved in their child's learning. What does it look like when it's done really well?
Dudley LEA have gained national prominence in their ground-breaking work with family learning. Janice Graham of the LEA will be presenting one of the 16 case studies featured at this year's conference, Alite 2004 Meeting the Challenge, at the Café Royal, London on 25th June. In addition to the inspiring case studies, the keynote speakers include Alistair Smith and Lady Marie Stubbs.
To register for the conference, please email events@alite.co.uk or visit the website at www.alite.co.uk
AL: A User's guide
The book co-written by Alistair Smith, Derek Wise and Mark Lovatt won the Education Show Resource of the year. Congratulations to all concerned.
Aspire, achieve, advance - and wrap up warm!
All of us at Alite are delighted to be supporting West Notts College in their bid to be the first organisation to take a team of students to the South Pole. The expedition will provide educational information from the bottom of the world, via the universal accessibility of Alite's website, to schools and colleges across the world.
"The philosophy of the Polar Challenge is to 'Re-invent the future of learning'" said Steve Bull of West Notts College. "Our motto is 'aspire, achieve, advance' and we see this as being entirely in line with the philosophy of Alite"
The team aim to gather information throughout their expedition and in line with key skills projects. This will include data for Numeracy, Geography, IT and Communication. The information will be made accessible to schools across the country by means of the Internet. Alite will provide a portal on the web site for schools to access the data, which will be updated continually throughout the expedition.
"The information and opportunities that we present can be used across schools in a real and tangible way." said Steve Bull. "Pupils will be able to watch live action of our expedition and the information we send back will be real and relevant."
Members of the Polar Challenge team will be at Alite 2004 displaying some of the equipment and information material that they will be using during the expedition.
To find out more about the conference, please email events@alite.co.uk or visit the website at www.alite.co.uk
Pocketbook series
Congratulations to Alite colleagues Will Thomas and Bruce Potts who both have new books in the Teacher's Pocketbook series
Free Prize Draw
Andrew Pink, a student teacher at the University of Warwick, was the lucky winner of the first prize in our draw at the Education Show in March. Andrew wins a free pass to our conference Alite 2004 Meeting the Challenge at the Café Royal on 25th June, as well as his travel expenses and hotel accommodation. Congratulations, Andrew, and we all look forward to meeting you.