Engaging Pupils Religious Education Quality Circle January 18 th 2006

Principles for Creating Engagement Activating prior knowledge Challenge Cooperative group work Metacognition Modes of representing information Scaffolds Deep and surface learning

Developing Engagement Develop good teacher – pupil relationships Attend to the physical environment Establish clear routines and ground rules

Raising Standards We must look not only at WHAT pupils learn but how they learn… Question: What strategies are we already using?

Thinking Skills Information processing Reasoning Enquiry Creative Thinking Evaluation

Effective Development of TS’s Pupils are given open and challenging tasks Learning builds on existing knowledge structures Collaborative group work Pupils are encouraged to talk about tasks they have done There are learning outcomes at different levels Question: What thinking skills activities do we already have in our schemes of work?

Thinking Skills ClassificationOdd one out MysteriesMaps from memory

Writing Tasks Purposeful Context Visual Support Collaborative Writing Writing Frames

What supports lower ability pupils? Key words displayed Saying new words out loud Analysing text with the teacher Repeating a newly learned skill until mastered Having a small part of the lesson that reviews work Being shown the big picture Linking learning with other work Visualise abstract ideas using model and analogy Immediate feedback and praise for success Time to improve work and correct mistakes Working with a partner Linking learning to real life Using writing frames to structure writing Using games and competitions Frequently setting tasks that guarantee success