Whole site approach to improvement Leading the Learning Workshop 3 - for leadership teams in secondary sites Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness Unit

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness2 Whole site approach to improvement Workshops PURPOSE: To…  build leadership capacity to implement a whole site approach to improvement  collaboratively determine the leadership capacities and site processes required for leaders to ‘lead the learning’ and successfully support improvement  provide a platform for development and team learning in 201x

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness3 Whole site approach to improvement Workshop 3 PURPOSE: To… The extended Leadership team develops an understanding of: The focus on learning through student achievement and the challenges of leading the literacy learning The inter-connections - between the ‘L the L’ Diagnostic tool, the “ideal state”, ‘what is working’, leading the Literacy learning and ‘what constitutes a good lesson’… The development of a whole site approach to improvement

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness4 Focus on Learning  achievement data  literacy Failure in secondary schools is predominantly related to literacy failure, not content. (Reeves) Achieving the National Minimum Standard at Year 9 is equivalent to the performance of an average Year 5 student (aged 10/11). The reading age of average texts at Yr 10 level is 14 – the demands of texts and writing tasks increases from Year 10, with minimal focused teaching of these advanced skills. “Most teachers devote little if any class time to showing students, explicitly, what it means to be a good reader or writer in their given subject area. And most students engage in very little discussion of what they have read.” (Alliance for Excellent Education report 2007) What expertise do staff here have? TABLE TALK

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness5 Leading the Literacy learning Time to be provocative again… What is our current situation at xxHS? What are the greatest opportunities for improvement in literacy - and what is the sense of urgency? Who currently leads the literacy learning? As leaders, what do we know about the literacy expertise of our staff? As leaders, how much do we know about the key writing text types (genres) that form the basis of each area of curriculum? As leaders how much do we know about the literacy skills that are the foundation of reading and writing in our content areas? As leaders, what do we know about the key strategies for connecting writing and reading skills in each curriculum area?

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness6 Leading the Literacy learning What is our current situation at xxHS? Do our staff see themselves as content teachers and literacy as someone else’s business? Do our staff plan at the beginning of a year/term and follow the plan regardless – regardless of the particular prior knowledge OR literacy needs of students? Do our subjects have pre-determined units of work - with resources and tasks - that staff are expected to rotate through regardless of the particular prior knowledge OR literacy needs of students? Do we predominantly work in isolation as teachers, and as leaders? As leaders, how do we build staff literacy “capacities” and support our staff with literacy? TABLE TALK

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness7 Leading the Literacy learning What is our desired state? We agree to: focus on writing (or reading) 8-12 for 201x all lead the literacy learning develop and implement whole school approaches to the key writing text types (genres) (or key strategies for developing reading skills...) determine the ‘gaps’ from the data and provide integrated targeted support that makes a difference for individuals and groups build our staff as literacy experts and support them to implement whole school approaches using research based strategies explicitly teach, model, use literacy meta-language, share, moderate, observe, … to raise the bar TABLE TALK

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness8 Aspects of a good lesson We will … provide a clear statement of the purpose of the lesson and what it is that students will learn and or be able to demonstrate from the lesson connect to prior learning and to the real world experiences of the students provide assessment tasks for the range of students that are challenging, extend learning and promote effective participation scaffold learning through explicit teaching and modelling and provide for group and individual practice and consolidation of new learning and skills provide purposeful feedback about the quality of learning demonstrated by the students Consolidate the learning at end of lesson. These need to be changed to the actual site’s collated aspects

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness9 Aspects of a good lesson – with a literacy foundation We will … provide a clear statement of the purpose of the lesson and what it is that students will learn and or be able to demonstrate from the lesson connect to prior learning and to the real world experiences of the students provide assessment tasks for the range of students that are challenging, extend learning and promote effective participation scaffold learning through explicit teaching and modelling and provide for group and individual practice and consolidation of new learning and skills provide purposeful feedback about the quality of learning demonstrated by the students Consolidate the learning at end of lesson. These need to be changed to the actual site’s collated aspects TABLE TALK

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness10 Connecting it all – Leading the Learning Link the greatest opportunities (lowest score areas) from the Leading the Learning Diagnostic Tool To key relevant statements in your “Ideal State” And statements from the “What’s working…” handout that connect closely or offer the greatest leverage

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness11 Connecting it all – Leading the Learning With any statements from the ‘Leading the Literacy learning’ slides and conversations that that most closely link to your situation Then connect all this to your “Aspects of a good lesson” And your “Aspects of a good lesson with a Literacy foundation TABLE TALK

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness12 Connecting it all – Leading the Learning In this way, the ‘Aspects of a good lesson – with a literacy foundation’ can become the vehicle for -  collegiate reflection on best practice  a strong focus on learning and explicit literacy teaching  establishing high expectations  shared programming and planning  moderation and peer observation  performance management discussions  determining professional learning needs… for a whole site approach to improvement of learning outcomes for all learners.

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness13 Whole site approach to improvement Workshops PURPOSE: To…  build leadership capacity to implement a whole site approach to improvement  collaboratively determine the leadership capacities and site processes required for leaders to ‘lead the learning’ and successfully support improvement  provide a platform for development and team learning in 201x

Quality, Improvement & Effectiveness14 Whole site approach to improvement Workshops Where to from here? Language is never innocent – e.g. use ‘teaching team’ instead of ‘staff’ in meetings, use ‘learning’ instead of ‘work’ in classrooms… Discussing the elephants in the room Connecting and Improvement Planning to action improvement and leading the learning ‘Your’ own planning as leaders Please provide feedback on the use and effectiveness of these three workshops to the QIE –