Angus Council

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• Angus Council
• Learning and Teaching Scotland
• Literacy Project
• Listening and Talking in Groups
• Arbroath West Cluster Schools

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What we set out to do

• Provide support for teachers in teaching the
  skills involved in listening and talking
• Create a rubric which describes these skills in
  a progressive way
• Introduce these skills across the curriculum in
  both primary and secondary
• Create short video extracts to support teachers
  and pupils

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What the researchers think
The Learning Pyramid
Average Retention Rate
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Listening and Talking to Learn

• a crucial factor in human development is that
  language and thought come together to create a
  unique cognitive tool for reasoning and problem
  solving, so that children solve practical tasks
  with the help of their speech..
• Some of the most profound kinds of learning
  take place when people share in words their
  experiences of activities and events. (Vygotsky)

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More background thinking

• Children learn from each other
• Children learn and retain their learning through
  discussion
• Children learn best when they have to share their
  learning, or tell someone else

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Context

• Its probably fair to say nowadays
• We listen less and watch more.
• We often half listen with the radio or TV as
  background.
• Sustained listening is an infrequent experience
  for most pupils and many adults.

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What we did

• Set out to define what quality listening and
  talking in groups would look like, sound like,
  feel like and what it should contain
• Described progressive, observable skills from
  3-18
• Used this as a means of judging current skills
  and next steps
• Through discussion, we shared the criteria with
  the pupils so that they could understand what
  successful group discussion is
• Used video cameras to allow pupils to capture
  examples of quality listening and talking

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Success Criteria

• The criteria for successful group discussion need
  
• to be agreed and shared
• What does Quality Discussion look like?
• What does Quality Discussion sound like?
• What does Quality Discussion feel like?
• What does Quality Discussion contain?

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ANGUS COUNCIL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT LEARNING AND
TEACHING LITERACY PROJECT- LISTENING AND TALKING
in Groups (Page 1) Skills Rubric Early Stages
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ANGUS COUNCIL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT LEARNING AND
TEACHING LITERACY PROJECT- LISTENING AND TALKING
in Groups (Page 2) Middle Stages
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ANGUS COUNCIL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT LEARNING AND
TEACHING LITERACY PROJECT- LISTENING AND TALKING
in Groups (Page 3)
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Format of the Rubric

• A decision was taken not to include levels but to
  simply concentrate on skills and progression.
• The progression covers pre school to S6
• It can be used to facilitate peer and self
  assessment
• It can be used to determine next steps in
  learning
• All the skills are observable i.e. looks like,
  sounds like, feels like and contains

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Using the Rubric In Pre school

• Used as an audit tool to identify learning needs
• As a teaching tool to identify best practice in
  group work
• As a reflective tool to identify next steps in
  learning

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Using the Rubric in P1- P3

• Teaching the skills
• Using the rubric, the teacher identified the
  skills needed
• Through discussion the teacher shared these
  targets with the pupils

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Speech Bubbles
The teacher used speech bubbles to display the
targets and to help pupils to remember the skills
they need
Are you a sensible distance from other people?
Are you making sure you are not interrupting
others?
Are you saying what you think?
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Pupils carry out the task
By referring to the speech bubble targets, the
pupils evaluate their success
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With the teachers help, pupils plan for
improvement and for next steps using the targets
and the rubric
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Using the Rubric P3 - 5

• Initial Activity
• The teacher for this group decided to introduce
  the work on listening and talking in groups
  through a true or false activity based on a
  health issue
• The key target was that everyone takes a turn
• The teacher videoed the children at work to
  assist in their self assessment
• Because the children were unused to being filmed,
  it provided some excellent examples of off-task
  behaviour for the pupils to see for themselves

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Assessment of Initial Activity

• Pupils viewed the video footage and discussed
  initial impressions
• Children assessed how well they had followed the
  instruction
• Children were then asked to suggest what would
  help them improve

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Introducing the rubric

• The children were told they would be completing a
  challenge in mixed groups
• Listening and talking in groups would be
  important
• They were asked to recall the video of the health
  activity and the discussion of it
• The class were told that a rubric would help them
  in their learning
• They were given a partially completed rubric and
  they discussed what skills were missing in the
  grid to describe successful listening and talking
  in groups

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How we used the rubric

• Start with first column. Pupils look at what
  skills they already have
• Then identify their learning needs from further
  along in the rubric
• These are then set as targets
• Some skills will be achieved over a long period
  of time

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Targets
Are your points based on fact?
Are you delivering your points confidently?
Are you using reasoned arguments?
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Outcomes

• Most children were more focussed on the task
• Children were aware of what they were trying to
  achieve
• Children encouraged others in the group to make a
  contribution
• Children responded more positively to each
  others ideas

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Teachers Reflections

• I found the teachers rubric helped me focus on
  the progression of skills
• It helped me to select an area of the rubric
  relevant to the needs of my class and adapt it
  for the pupils
• Viewing and discussing video footage highlighted
  both good and bad points. It clearly showed areas
  for improvement and gave me the opportunity to
  observe and assess
• Children gained in confidence and self esteem.
  They contributed more readily.

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Primary 5 7Introducing the idea of a rubric

• Art Lesson
• The teacher introduced the idea
• of a rubric through an art lesson
• The pupils were asked to
• draw a babys face
• They were then shown three
• pictures and were encouraged
• to compare them with their
• own drawing.
• They created a rubric by describing what they
  could see in the three pictures

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Creating the Rubric
Pupils point out the features on the baby faces
and record what they see onto the grid
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RUBRIC FOR BABY PICTURES COMPLETED THROUGH
DISCUSSION BETWEEN TEACHER AND PUPILS
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Peer and Self Assessment using the rubric
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Transferring this into other work

• All this was done through discussion
• This work prepared the pupils for working with a
  rubric for listening and talking in groups
• Used discussion skills to create a rubric for
  writing

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S1 S6

• The focus in Secondary was listening and talking
  to learn across the curriculum.
• The rubric was used to support quality group
  discussion in English, RME and Geography
• This was supported by the PT English and the PT
  Raising Achievement

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Getting Started

• A questionnaire was given to find out about pupil
  and teacher views on group work
• Rubric can be used with all classes
• Use rubrics and Critical Skills as basis for
  learning and teaching
• Useful for target-setting (both pupils and
  teacher) and evaluating

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Pupils in RME assess their skills using the rubric
Sounds like challenge and compromise - 'Thumbs
up'
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• Looks like confident in role and actively
  listening
• Content evidence of reasoned arguments
• presented and followed

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Teacher Reflection

• It was only when I saw the progression of
  learning from pre-school through to what we aim
  for in S5 and S6 that I realised that we truly
  are striving to achieve the same goals, and the
  rubric is an excellent way of focussing on the
  skills so necessary to be effective communicators
  and successful learners
• PT Raising Achievement Arbroath High School

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Building Confidence in S5
Targets evidence of reasoned well developed
arguments group members felt
respected, included and productive
S5 class were asked to be aware of the skills
necessary for quality group discussion. They used
the rubric to plot where they thought they were
and what they needed to learn. They were then
asked to discuss unseen poems in groups to pick
out the interesting features. As a result the
small group discussion pupils had more confidence
in their opinions and were more prepared to share
them with a wider audience
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Higher English

• Class divided into five groups after reading
  Hamlet together
• Each group given one act of the play to highlight
  key incidents/characters
• Video class to highlight listening/watching
  skills
• Groups present findings to the whole class
• Work on Critical Essay using findings

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Listening and Talking and A Curriculum for
Excellence

• These approaches to learning are exactly what
  A Curriculum for Excellence is all about. The
  pupils have become successful learners because
  they have ownership of the texts and their
  opinions. As a result of working in groups they
  gain confidence in their ability to be effective
  contributors. By cooperating and working
  together they are learning life skills which
  should help them to become responsible citizens.
• Elaine Clark, PT English, Arbroath High School

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Next Steps

• The work of these four schools will be shared
  with the other schools in the cluster
• The skills rubric and the rationale behind it
  will be shared across other curricular areas in
  Arbroath High School
• CPD will be delivered to other teachers within
  Angus