1. When making use of this presentation as a CPD resource you may wish to consider the following reflective questions
How can you cluster experiences and outcomes into meaningful groupings to provide appropriate and exciting contexts for learning?
How are you providing opportunities to allow for breadth, challenge and application in the learning experiences?
What range of learning activities could you use more effectively to help to develop young people’s problem solving and higher order thinking skills?
How have you provided opportunity for personalisation and choice in your lesson planning?
What types of evidence can you gather to support learning?
‘Points to consider’ have been included in speaker notes for personal reflection.

2. Enhancing experiences and raising standards through the experiences and outcomes Religious Education in Roman Catholic Schools
Jo Hughes, PTRE, St Ninian’s HS, Kirkintilloch
Nadia Quail, St Andrew’s PS, Bearsden
Mary Lappin, LTS Development Officer
Tom Greene, LTS Development Officer

3. Opportunities
A coherent approach to planning the curriculum, learning, teaching and assessment
Literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing embedded throughout curriculum delivery
Opportunities to work in partnership across departments and sectors
Utilising new and innovative teaching approaches
Classroom experience grounded in Es and Os and TIOF
We should be familiar now with the opportunities which are provided by Curriculum for Excellence and the supporting documentation complemented by 'This Is Our Faith'.
It is worth mentioning some of the main considerations for practitioners:
We need to build classroom experience around the experiences and outcomes.
Our learning and teaching approaches must be focused on putting the learners’ experiences at the forefront.
Breaking transition barriers is a further positive step in our planning.
Adoption is a journey; we are taking the first steps.
Have you thought about...
Your school’s current curriculum structure meeting the demands of the four capacities?

4. Points to consider
How do you share knowledge and understanding of expectations?
How can we achieve consistency in terms of expectations and build trust in teachers’ judgements?
How do you ensure that assessment supports learning and teaching?
How do you ensure that learners can apply what they have learned in new and unfamiliar situations and contexts?
How do you ensure that methods of assessment meet the needs of all pupils in terms of challenge and opportunities for success?
What impact will changes in assessment procedures have on practice?
These are important questions which we must consider in all of our planning under Curriculum for Excellence.
Assessment remains a major part of our work as teachers and work is being carried out at all levels to support practitioners in this area.

5. Support Learning and Teaching Scotland website: total support
Building the Curriculum documents including recent documentation on Quality Assurance and Reporting
Support for staff material covering all stages, all curriculum areas as well as Assessment (NAR), Building your Curriculum, outdoor learning, climate change, etc
Glow – a place to share practice, resources, experiences. An opportunity to collaborate, establish partnerships and networks.

6. Glow
Glow is transforming the way that the curriculum is delivered in Scotland. It breaks down geographical and social barriers and provides the tools to ensure a first-class education for Scotland.
Glow provides:
A trusted and safe environment for pupils, practitioners and parents
A space to create personalised programmes of work and share thinking and curricular resources
A variety of online tools to enhance learning experiences
Virtual learning to share information and take part in a lesson
Tools to enable you to communicate and collaborate across the network
Communities of practice that offer practitioners rich opportunities to share and collaborate
Innovation in learning and teaching approaches by engaging and immersing young people in powerful and relevant learning experiences
Motivation and support for individualised learning, personalisation and choice.
Glow is beginning to establish itself as the future for all involved in education. It is a highly effective resource which is growing constantly as more and more practitioners and students log on and contribute to its effectiveness by sharing their experiences and their resources.
Have you thought about...
Making use of Glow to engage learners in your class?
Making use of Glow in delivering Curriculum for Excellence?

7. What is the NAR? The NAR will provide:
Support for assessment in the context of CfE, NQ and national monitoring (SSLN) arrangements
Examples of assessment approaches and evidence relating to experiences and outcomes across all curriculum areas, stages and levels
Examples and guidance for CPD in assessment
Initial focus was on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing across learning: next phase – curriculum
Opportunities for professionals to design examples of assessment and contribute to the NAR.
In time, opportunities for pupils to engage in self and peer assessment.
Developed by LTS, SQA and the Scottish Government to provide assessment support.
Assists practitioners in developing a shared understanding of the standards and expectations for Curriculum for Excellence and how to apply these consistently.
It also provides an opportunity for you as practitioners to publish examples of what you are doing to assess the experiences and outcomes within CfE.
We can develop together by sharing our practice with others.
You can log in to the NAR using your Glow credentials.
Have you thought about...
Sharing your understanding of the standards that exist within the experiences and outcomes with colleagues ?
Making use of the NAR to provide support to your assessment approach?
Examples of your own assessment that could be shared through the NAR to help other practitioners with sharing the standard for moderation?

8. Exploring Religious Education Through Reciprocal Teaching
Nadia Quail, St Andrew’s PS Bearsden
As a good example of partnership working which also helps to break down transition barriers, this project was developed between primary and secondary schools in East Dunbartonshire and Mary will explain more about the background and context of what happened there.

9. Reciprocal Teaching – Background
Initially piloted in St Andrew’s to help less able children.
All pupils showed improvement in reading skills when exposed to Reciprocal Teaching.
Social skills development also noted.
The project which is supported by East Dunbartonshire is specifically targeted at improving quality in learning and teaching with a particular focus on literacy in the context of RERC.
The project became known as the 'East Dunbartonshire Initiative' and it was part of a larger initiative which was called Moving Forward Together.
It began by considering what was working well in RERC. What was effective and how could that be developed?
What would good RERC learning and teaching look like?
We decided that RERC teaching had to become more active and more 'hands on'.
How could we make it more collaborative?
How could we ensure deeper learning?
How could we utilise the experiences and outcomes to create better understanding for our learners?
And, very importantly, how could we ensure that all this had taken place? How could we assess the process and the learning and teaching?

10. Reciprocal Teaching
A tool with specific strategies designed to improve pupils’ ability to learn from text.
Pupils closely following a predetermined script:
Clarifying
Questioning
Predicting
Summarising.
Monitors comprehension activities that are usually difficult to detect.
Nadia Quail from Bearsden primary outlined the process followed in Reciprocal Teaching.
We decided to take a whole class approach with this initiative and after assessing learners’ reading ages at the beginning and then also at the end of the project, we found a considerable improvement had taken place.
Social skills had also been developed. Reciprocal Teaching is a co-operative activity where peer learning is taking place.
Assessment is enhanced through the use of this tool as it highlights the areas where learners might find difficulty.
Have you thought about...
What co-operative strategies could you make use of in class?

11. Development of Strategies
Teacher introduces each strategy, controlling the group activity.
Support reduced as children gradually become more independent.
Finally group works independently, which requires the appointment of:
Group Leader
Clarifier
Recorder.
When introducing this tool, the teacher has to model the process from the predetermined script. The learner then feels more confident when the teacher steps back and allows peer work to progress.
The learners take on roles. There is a group leader who ensures everyone is participating, a clarifier who verifies any difficult words and a recorder who takes notes on the reader’s progress.
Have you thought about...
Assessing individual contributions to group work?

12. Strategies Explained Clarifying
– picking out any difficult words and trying to make sense of them.
Questioning
– asking questions about the text.
Predicting
– using clues from the text to predict what will happen next
Summarising
– select and identify the main ideas in the text.
The group begins with clarifying. Difficult words are identified and the learners are trained to read the passage before and after the difficult section. The difficult word may require a dictionary definition if no-one in the group knows its meaning.
The group then ask each other questions. The learners find this very stimulating as they have control over their learning. Literal questions soon give way to inferential ones as they become better at deepening their understanding. There is also an element of shaping the questions for specific learners which provides focused support in the peer questioning.
The learners then predict where the text is likely to go and again peer support keeps a good focus on this aspect of the process.
The final summarising part asks the learners to demonstrate understanding by reducing the text to a few short sentences while maintaining the key points and meaning of the original text.

13. The Script – 1 Clarifying Questioning
Would anyone like a word clarified?
What word would you like clarified?
Does anyone know the meaning of ?
Would the clarifier please check . . .
Questioning
Does anyone have a question?
I have a question and my question is for . . .
What is your question?
My question is ?
My answer is . . .
(or) I do not know the answer but perhaps (name) does.
Thank you for your answer.
This is an example of the type of question and answer structure which is encouraged at the beginning of the process.

14. The Script – 2 Predicting: Can anyone predict what happens next?
Summarising:
What are the main points of this passage?
In the situation described here the teacher provides some reinforcement to pupils about what is meant by summarising and predicting so that they become fully aware of what they have to do.

15. Example Lesson Learning Intentions: Success Criteria
We are learning to understand a passage from the Bible where Jesus speaks to his disciples about the Messiah.
We will be successful learners when we can:
Clarify unfamiliar words
Ask and answer questions
Explain who the Messiah is
Explain the important role of St Peter
Explain how these events affect our lives.
Teaching religious education in the classroom was the subject chosen as the vehicle by which learning via reciprocal teaching would take place. In this way, skills in literacy would be enhanced as well as the development of knowledge, understanding and skills acquisition in RE.
I share the details in the slide with the class by putting them on the whiteboard at the beginning of the lesson and then, at a suitable point somewhere in the middle of the lesson, I refer the class back to these points to ensure they are aware of keeping themselves on track.
Have you thought about...
Developing success criteria in collaboration with your learners?

16. Example Reading
This is a Scriptural reference which the learners worked on. The task which they had was to read the extract and to use the pro-forma exemplified in the next slide to come up with any issues they had in respect of clarifying, questioning and so on.
This passage is a challenging one as it contains a large amount of metaphor.
Have you thought about...
Literacy delivered through different curriculum areas?

17. Record Sheet
They kept a record sheet of the issues which they wanted to develop more.

18. Reading Session Results
And, on the back of the previous sheet, they recorded what they had achieved.
In this way they were able to evidence their understanding of what they had read in terms of their mastery of words, their prediction of what would happen to Peter, thereby giving assurance to the teacher that they had grasped the gist of the passage and were able to support this and provide evidence for their understanding by summarising their thoughts on this particular passage.
Have you thought about...
What types of evidence you can gather for assessing pupil progress?

19. Plenary Session Review Learning Intentions/Success Criteria.
Draw together the key ideas of the lesson.
Assess what has been understood.
Correct errors and misconceptions.
Discuss their success in meeting success criteria.
In the plenary session I am able to correct and assess work as a whole class.

20. Assessment – Set Task 1
I was then able to take a deeper approach to the learning and produced this task which asked questions requiring a deeper understanding.
Assessment of the exercise was integral to proceedings and I produced assessment tasks designed specifically for purpose.

21. Assessment – Set Task 2
The next task allowed me to develop the understanding and also to assess where each learner was in their attainment.
The learners were able to demonstrate through this task that they had a deeper understanding of the original text.
In this way I was able to claim, confidently, that learning had taken place in the context of reciprocal teaching.

22. Linking Experiences and Outcomes to Building the Curriculum 5
Jo Hughes PTRE, St Ninian’s HS, Kirkintilloch
Katie McKenna S6 pupil, St Ninian’s HS, Kirkintilloch
Mark O’Neill S6 pupil, St Ninian’s HS, Kirkintilloch
Emily Thomson S6 pupil, St Ninian’s HS, Kirkintilloch
Jo Hughes will now speak about Building the Curriculum 5 and how the experiences and outcomes are linked to assessment.
I have been working closely with the primary schools in East Dunbartonshire through the project and this has been a very enlightening experience. Curriculum for Excellence has allowed the secondary sector to have a much greater awareness and understanding of the experiences the learners have had.

23. Building the Curriculum 5
Framework for Assessment aims to create:
A more effective assessment system which supports greater breadth and depth of learning and a greater focus on skills development
Through collaborative working, a better-connected assessment system with better links between pre-school, primary and secondary schools, colleges and other settings to promote smooth transitions in learning
Better understanding of effective assessment practice and sharing of standards and expectations, as well as more consistent assessment
More autonomy and professional responsibility for teachers.
Taken directly from BtC5 document, p 9.
The green text represents areas which I believe are already being done well and so CfE represents a clear progression from existing work in RERC. Text in red is where we have to be careful to ensure that dialogue occurs in order to achieve consistent assessment.
Points we already do well or are well placed to fulfil in green.
For years good RE teachers have been providing pupils with learning opportunities which were undervalued because they fell outwith the narrow confines of a largely summative, text-driven assessment system. This is because we have always had a different educational currency. We don’t always deal in knowledge but in the process of the internalising of concepts and ideals.
Curriculum for Excellence and BtC 5 offer the opportunity to come up with ways of assessing the process, rather than the outcome.
Breadth and depth – we have always known that this can often best be achieved through the provision of an experience, be it liturgical, charitable, etc. These experiences, by definition, require skills of teamwork, organisation, reflection, expression, etc, etc.
Collaborative working – at a school level, This is Our Faith allows this at a level I certainly have never known before in any subject.
More aware now of what is covered in primary and how than I ever was with 5-14 or Alive O.
We have always worked with outside agencies – SCIAF; Mary’s Meals Retreat Centres and teams; parishes Nothing new here to frighten us.
Also, RE is very well suited for collaborative learning and teaching within the secondary school in IDL projects.
I will show an example of this later.
Effective assessment practice – we can have a say in what is effective for us. Do we get pupils to keep journals, perhaps? A 'Checklist'? A monthly report written by pupils on their progress? Peer assessment?
There are possible issues as regards sharing of standards and expectations. Can we have an effective assessment system without an effective communication system? Need, at a school level, an Assessment and Reporting Team (or similar) which can communicate between departments and have a school overview. If our 'Gold Standard' remains the Higher, then that comes from a system which encouraged an almost feudal approach where departments often saw themselves as being in competition. It is comforting to have something that remains static ('Higher') but the approach must change. We already should be seeing this more open and flexible approach through literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. We must look to take the best of it and apply it realistically and consistently.
Standards and expectations also have to be shared with parents and, at secondary level, with Higher and Further Education.
In terms of consistency, RE will still have the problem of generalist teachers who may not be as confident in or particular about their RE class as they are with their own subject class. In the developing of new courses, we should always have one eye on how we will assess this.
Autonomy and professional responsibility – trust your judgement but always gather evidence to support. Many recommended approaches in 'This Is Our Faith'; pointers in 'HGIOS' and 'Shining The Light of Christ'. Use self-evaluation tools and be willing to learn from other colleagues.
Have you thought about...
Sharing your understanding of the standards that exist within the experiences and outcomes with colleagues ?
Making use of the NAR to provide support to your assessment approach?
Examples of your own assessment that could be shared through the NAR to help other practitioners with sharing the standard for moderation?

24. Building the Curriculum 5
What We Assess
'Assessment of the broad range of planned learning is required across the full range of contexts and settings in which the curriculum is experienced. These contexts include the ethos and life of the school as a community, curriculum areas and subjects, interdisciplinary learning and opportunities for personal achievement. They cover learning both within and outwith education establishments and classrooms.'
All the liturgies, sponsored events, cake and candies, clubs, etc can now contribute towards our assessment profiles and our pupils can get the credit for not only the work they do specific to a given task but by the contribution made by these things to the overall ethos and life of the school and the building of a culture of personal and community achievement.
Some of my senior pupils will now talk you through a couple of examples, particularly the area of 'Opportunities for personal achievement'. How can we do that? How can we provide opportunities for learners to be more active and therefore experience a deeper learning? The learners are being prepared holistically to go out into the world.
The learners will talk about the particular reference on 'The Reign of God'. For our school this is perhaps the area which has proven to be more active in its approach and involving more interdisciplinary learning.

25. The Justice and Peace Group
Addressing assemblies (eg Money Week, Rape in DRC)
Fair Trade campaigning
campaigns
G20 Summit – Crunch-a-rama
Namasari – Young/social enterprise
Acat
Mark, Emily and Katie are members of their school’s Justice and Peace Group. These are just some of the activities which these youngsters are involved in. This involvement with experiences and outcomes is linked strongly to BtC5 in the approach outlined here.
These activities provide learners with opportunities for personal achievement and they have had a considerable effect not only on the individual learners but on the school as a whole. The experiences were clear and measurable and in this way were also assessable in relation to the experiences and outcomes and through approaches suggested in BtC 5.
The four capacities can be clearly seen in the learners’ experiences and how they developed as individuals.
The IDL aspects were also very strong, eg the G20 Summit project involved RE and Business Studies and the Young Enterprise project involved RE, Business Studies and Design and Technology.
Have you thought about...
Recognising wider achievement of learners?
Opportunities for interdisciplinary learning?

26. Experiences and Outcomes Reign of God
I recognise the contribution of other Christian Churches to Jesus' Kingdom. I have explored ecumenical action and reflected upon its impact in the world. RERC 2-21b
I have explored the call to forgiveness and reconciliation and have reflected on how this can restore my relationship with God and others. I can put this understanding into practice in my relationship with God and others. RERC 3-22a
Here are the connections with the projects and the experiences and outcomes; looking at the 'Reign of God'.
The Es and Os can clearly be seen in the different elements of the Justice and Peace Group’s work.
All three learners have opportunities to experience, at first hand, the place of faith and how it works on the lives of communities and individuals in the wider world, not only locally but nationally and internationally.

27. Experiences and Outcomes Reign of God
I have developed awareness of the elements essential for making informed decisions and I have examined situations which pose a moral challenge in life. I can describe and explain my response and the responses of others to these situations. RERC 3-23a
I have experienced opportunities to engage with issues of social injustice. I can describe how Church teaching in this area has affected my response and the responses of others to these issues. RERC 3-24a
The experiences and outcomes can be teased out to allow for deeper and broader learning and the projects listed above are examples of how these experiences and outcomes become part of their learning in an active and practical way.

28. Our Indian Partnership
Our partnership with APD (The Association of People with Disabilities) in Bangalore was set up in 2004.
Pupils are able to be involved in the Partnership through:
Fundraising campaigns
Assemblies and lessons
Pupil visits to India.
Partnership has already been mentioned as an important part of Curriculum for Excellence and is clearly seen through the work of the Justice and Peace Group as they have taken up opportunities to work internationally.
Have you thought about...
Which partners are you already working with effectively? Are there other partners with whom you could establish working relationships to support young people’s skills development?

29. Our Indian Partnership
The main partnership events are India Week, during which pupils participate in a variety of themed activities while learning about India and our partnership, and Partnership Day, which can be marked by a range of activities such as being 'Disabled for a Day' so that they can better understand why our partnership is so important.
As the learners progress through their experiences and develop their understanding, the impact of these experiences is then felt across the school community as well as the local community who become part of the larger 'learning community'.

30. Experiences and Outcomes Reign of God
I recognise the contribution of other Christian Churches to Jesus' Kingdom. I have explored ecumenical action and reflected upon its impact in the world. RERC 2-21b
I have reflected on the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Christ. I have acted on Christ's personal challenge to contribute to the creation of a transformed world of Justice, Love and Peace, through the power of the Holy Spirit. RERC 3-20a
The experiences and outcomes are also part of the individual experience and reflection as the learners progress through the opportunities created and experienced.

31. Experiences and Outcomes Reign of God
I have experienced what it means to be wise and compassionate. I can describe how these experiences have affected my understanding of my value as a person, my awareness of the needs of others and my willingness to contribute to the service of the common good. RERC 3-21a
I have developed awareness of the elements essential for making informed decisions and I have examined situations which pose a moral challenge in life. I can describe and explain my response and the responses of others to these situations. RERC 3-23a
The experiences and outcomes allow for personal reflection and a sense of how and where the individual learner can be part of the world around them and how they have choices and responsibilities in life.