Improving outcomes for our low attainers

Editor's Notes

1. In all subjects from Key Stage 3 onwards, students are required to begin using more abstract ideas. Students who are lower attaining find the jump from using concrete examples to the abstract difficult. They need help in order to make this jump. Learning sequences that use small steps while still allowing students to see the big picture have been found to be very effective.It is useful to know what the ‘big concepts’ are in a given subject. To plan how to move students on to the next level, you should have a good idea of what the big concepts are in your subject area, and how they develop.
2. These ‘big ideas’ need to be shared with students. One technique that can work well is to construct a concept map with students at the beginning of a new unit of work, showing how the unit will develop. This is then referred to at the beginning of each lesson, with the teacher pointing out on the map which part they are going to cover in that lesson and how it fits into the whole. Linking ideas together is often difficult for lower attainers; paying attention to this can move learning on significantly. This also has the advantage of providing a ‘quick check’ to see if students can remember what they learned last lesson.
3. Literacy skills are important in all subjects. Lower-attaining students often exhibit poor literacy skills, which means they are disadvantaged in accessing the curriculum. Subject departments need to incorporate basic literacy skills into their planning for these students. The following characteristics are typical of lower-attaining students:reluctance to write – and ploys for avoiding writing tasks;poor handwriting to disguise weak spelling;difficulties in understanding the language of written instructions and questions;problems with reading non-fiction texts, and with inference and deduction;inability to adapt writing styles to different audiences and purposes.However, it is important to remember that not all students will have all these characteristics, and many will have some strengths, particularly in expressing ideas orally and through drama activities.
4. Many classrooms have displays of key words around the room. This may make for colourful decoration, but for lower-attaining students it can cause confusion. The problem is that they do not know which words relate to their particular topic or unit.There are a number of techniques that can be used to promote a more active use of these words. All of the following ideas can be used as starter or plenary activities.1. Write the words on pieces of card. Each lesson, select the three most relevant words for that lesson and move them from the ‘word bank’ to be displayed next to the board or in some other prominent place in the classroom. Indicate to the class whenever the word is used in the context of the lesson.2. When using a worksheet or help sheet, always highlight the selected key words in bold and reinforce their use in the text.5. Give students personal workbooks in which they record new key words when they encounter them. The workbooks can then be used for practice. For example, ask the class to turn to the ‘s’ page, then ask one student to pick a word from that page and another student to give you the meaning. A third student could be asked to make up a sentence with the word in context. 4. Ask one student to select a word from the word bank and talk about it for 30 seconds without repeating themselves. The other students judge whether the talk is an accurate account of what the word means and how it is used. (This activity is best done towards the end of a topic or unit.)Ask one student to select a word and talk about it without saying what the word is. The other students have to guess what the word is from the description. You will need to model this technique first.3. Ask students to make up their own mnemonics for subject-specific terms.
5. Lower-attaining students are likely to struggle with texts, in both reading and writing specific text types. Activities can be incorporated in lessons to support both.Developing reading These students often lack the skills of scanning and skimming, which can be explicitly taught within the context of the subject.In addition, Directed Activities Related to Text (DARTs) provide a very motivating and accessible means of developing reading skills. They fall into two types:analysis, such as highlighting activities on complete text, or construction activities involving sequencing and synthesis of text parts (see unit 13 Developing reading).Developing writingLower-attaining students have weaker writing skills than they do reading skills. There are two main approaches to developing writing that can be effectively incorporated into subject lessons that benefit understanding of the subject. ModellingThis is the most effective method of introducing students to the conventions of text. Here a teacher shows how to construct a new text type, expressing their thinking out loud as they proceed, making the decisions explicit. It is also useful to use good and poor examples to tease out the conventionsWriting framesThese are attempts to scaffold students’ first attempts at writing a particular text type and can help students structure their writing. For example, when supporting students’ attempts to write explanations of ‘how’ and ‘why’, you might provide them with the following frames:Explaining how: First, next, then, after, FinallyExplaining why: I want to explain why, because, however, in conclusion
6. Lower-attaining students often have great difficulty in recalling facts. This puts them at a disadvantage when sitting tests. More importantly, perhaps, it makes it difficult for them to apply one piece of learning to the next. When students are required to apply learning to a new context, the problem is compounded if they cannot recall what has gone before. In order for recall to be effective, it is necessary to review learning on a regular basis. Reviewing the content of every lesson is unmanageable, but in order for students to begin to process the information and thus commit it to long-term memory, starters and plenaries are vital. One way to get students to review a lesson is by making a diagrammatic representation of the key points. They can then turn to a neighbour and explain the key points using their diagram as a memory aid. The starter for the next lesson could use the diagram from this review, with students making the key points a different colour or turning the key words into a mnemonic or acronym.
7. There is also much that can be done to make lessons memorable in the first place. Create context: In lessons where students receive a lecture from the teacher then take lots of notes or complete comprehension exercises, the content of the lesson is soon forgotten. students forget these lessons quickly because they are not actively involved. The brain remembers context much better than content. Put the content in an interesting context where students are actively engaged and it will be remembered much more readily. Use starters and plenaries: students remember more from the beginning and end of a learning experience than they do from the middle. Plan lessons with several different episodes, thus creating lots of ‘beginnings’ in order to improve learning and recall. Starters and plenaries do not have to occur only at the beginning and end of lessons. Make it different: Boring and mundane experiences are easily forgotten. Conversely, students will remember the dramatic and the unusual. Nevertheless, if you can find some different ways to put across key messages from the lesson, it will aid students’ recall significantly. Make time to think: Memory and understanding are two separate things. Students will remember information more easily if they understand it properly first. It is therefore worth investing the time and effort to make sure that students truly understand. In order to do this, the learning should be structured to ensure that the students are fully engaged and have time to think about what is being asked of them. They should also be allowed time to make personal meaning of new ideas, preferably with the opportunity to talk to each other about how they came to their understanding. Being able to explain how new learning was constructed is as important as what has been learned.
8. Research suggests that lower attainers often benefit from lessons that arestructured into a number of shorter episodes (see summary of research). Theseepisodes will need distinct outcomes and may each require a mini-plenary. Thisclassroom assignment will allow you to bring together a selection of thetechniques outlined.