An Ethic of Excellence in the Classroom

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An Ethic of Excellence in the Classroom

• A Passion for beautiful work.

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Just one teachers core belief?

• I believe that work of excellence is
  transformational Ron Berger
• Because it leads to a new self image
• An appetite for excellence
• Builds pride in excellence

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How do we aspire to this vision of excellence in
action?

• Shift the focus of our work in the classroom from
  quantity to quality
• To enable an Ethic of Craftsmanship
• To enable An Ethic of Excellence

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Essential First steps

• Become an Archiver of Excellence
• Start your lessons with a taste of excellence.
• Introduce your students to models of great work
  by their predecessors allow them to see
  themselves as standing on the shoulders of
  giants.
• Admire the work explore and discuss its power.
  Set excellence as the aim.
• Carry portfolios of excellence forward into the
  future.

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Three Dedicated Toolboxes

• A School Culture of Excellence
• Work of Excellence
• Teaching of Excellence

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Quality Work

• Needs re-thinking, reworking, polishing.
• Students who do this need to be celebrated for
  their commitment.
• Doesnt discourage if it becomes the expectation
  of how students will learn.
• Allow students to choose a favourite version and
  justify their choices through critiques.
• Yearly presentations of the students best work to
  administrators, teachers, school governors
  members, local officials.

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Models An ethos of Excellence

• Models set the standard for what students are
  aiming for.
• They excite interest.
• Provide challenge.
• Provide opportunities for analysing strengths and
  weaknesses.
• Joint exploration of what success looks like.
• Your classroom itself can be a model of
  excellence.

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Critique

• Berger suggests that teachers take critique to a
  whole new level and make critique a habit of mind
  that suffuses the classroom in all subjects.
• Make them a cornerstone of your class practice
  and the informal culture of critique they spawn
  is at the core of work improvement.
• Mr.Halls experience of Maths!

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The Power of Critique

• Not just about the author
• A primary context for sharing knowledge and
  skills with a group
• Analysing together in guided sessions
• Build excitement for and understanding of, the
  incredible learning potential in looking
  carefully at student work.
• Refining the criteria and vision of excellence.

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A Protocol for Critique

• Be kind the environment must feel safe and free
  from sarcasm.
• Be Specific avoid comments like Its good or I
  really like it these are timewasters.
• Be helpful the goal is to help the individual and
  the class, not for the critic to be heard,
  echoing the thoughts of others. This, too, wastes
  time.

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The Guidelines

• Begin with the author explaining the ideas and
  goals, and explaining what particular aspects of
  the work they are seeking help with.
• Critique the work not the person.
• Begin with a positive and then move on to
  constructive criticism.
• Use I statements I am confused by this
• Use a question format I am curious why you chose
  to begin with this or Have you considered
  including?

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Two Distinct Critique Formats

• Gallery Critique the work of every child is
  displayed to be read. Generates desire to be
  involved , generating models of strong work,
  setting the tone for the whole class standard.
• In depth Critique Look at the work of one child
  or group and spend time critiquing it thoroughly.
  Allows teaching of vocab and concepts of the
  discipline the work emerges from and modelling
  improvement.

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Making Work Public

• Using Assessment to build stronger students
• If students developed and presented portfolios of
  their work parents would get a clear picture of
  their childs skill levels achievements and
  learning style.
• Year Nine book inspections

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Assessment

• Assessment starts in the wrong place its not
  done to students but goes on inside them.
• Is this good enough? Do I feel comfortable
  handing it in? Does it meet my standards?
• Changing assessment at this level should be the
  most important assessment goal of every student.
• The question is how do we affect self assessment
  so that students have higher standards for their
  behaviour and work?