The case for choral repetition in all subject areas

By Jemma Holden

In MFL, a lot of our time is spent drilling vocabulary - repeating new words and phrases until they stick. This can feel a little mechanical, and it’s not always obvious if students are actually remembering anything. However, I’ve found that choral repetition - asking a whole class to repeat key words in unison - can really help students engage and retain what they’ve learned.

A key benefit of choral repetition is that it encourages a culture of ‘no opt out’. Every student needs to be engaged and listening, every student is expected to attempt an answer, and every student has the chance to learn. It stops us assuming that silence equals understanding and prevents the confident few from taking control. Research shows that actively producing information, rather than just hearing it, strengthens memory and helps students retain knowledge more effectively. It also supports confidence and resilience as students quickly learn that making mistakes out loud is part of learning, and it gives teachers the chance to address whole class misconceptions efficiently.

However, I am definitely aware that achieving 100% participation isn’t always easy, and I’ve had many lessons met with awkward silence and have wondered if a class would ever join in. But I’ve found that with clear routines and consistently high expectations, most students eventually meet you there.

Routines make a real difference. In my Spanish lessons, I use simple cues: “Escucha” (hand to my ear) and “Repite” (pointing to the students). This signals exactly when students should respond and helps keep lessons moving. The consistency also helps students feel safe to try, even if they might get it wrong. Over time, most students begin to speak more confidently

Additionally, I’ve found it helpful to encourage engagement with plenty of praise. I regularly award house points to recognise strong effort and good pronunciation or recall. For younger years, turning it into a competition also works well. For example, splitting the class in half and awarding points to the half with stronger pronunciation, pace or effort. Over time, participation becomes more automatic, even when the vocabulary is new or challenging.

While call and response lends itself particularly well to languages, it’s a technique that can work across all subjects. I did a placement at an Ark Academy school last year, and saw it effectively used across the board, with really positive impact. For example, in English, the teacher asked, “Who killed Macbeth?”, counted down, 3, 2, 1… and the whole class answered together. In science, students chorused definitions of key terms in the same way. The energy in the classroom was noticeable, and every student was actively thinking and participating.

When used consistently, call and response helps to keep students actively involved, gives teachers immediate insight into understanding, and turns repetition into a purposeful part of learning rather than a passive routine. Try this out!

Further resources:

https://tipsforteachers.co.uk/call-and-respond/ 

https://www.innerdrive.co.uk/blog/choral-response/ 

Doug Lemov, ‘Teach Like a Champion’, Chapter 4: Engaging Students in Your Lesson

Classroom Oracy: The Key to Unlocking Potential

By Najiyah Rahman

Analytical questions plague all aspects of the English Curriculum and students are required from time to time to show this skill, but are they engaged in doing so? This last term I set out to change my practice as I had identified a key concern in my Year 11 class, which is a lack of fluency in analytical writing. My students know the basics of writing and have knowledge of the text but are not incorporating this knowledge in their writing consistently. My results from Inquiry 1 show that students prefer classroom oracy as a method of engagement.  It was also identified that they find structuring their answers difficult. 

In this inquiry, I will discuss how removing PEEL/PEE writing frameworks for paragraph writing in exchange for thinking frameworks like WHAT HOW WHY allowed my students to better structure their work and discussions. I aim to understand the correlation between using an optimal engagement tool (as identified via student voice) and improved performance in analytical writing tasks.

What did I do?
I had introduced debate and discussion lessons based on an exam question. We followed this format for other lessons leading up to the exam however below is an example: I wanted to hone in on Shakespeare’s purpose as a lot of their analytical paragraphs lacked in this area. They were able to make points and provide evidence but not explain why these choices were made. The aim of this task was to equip them with several different reasons as to why Shakespeare made particular choices. 

Students had 5 minutes to plan in groups on their tables. They needed to make three points. The way I had guided their discussions was through the WHAT HOW WHY thinking frameworks which I made explicit on the slide below. I made it clear that the screen was there for support but they could use the framework to shape their thoughts individually. 

Group 1 and Group 2 had three tables each. After the 5 minutes were up, they had 2 minutes to discuss their answers with the other two other tables and find the strongest point that each of them would argue. 

When the debate started, all students had to write notes from each point each table discussed. At the end of the discussion, students were given 3 minutes to order their 6 points and answer the debate questions. 

After they had written their responses, a student asked “This isn’t an exam question, how do we apply this to the exam?” to which I had responded, “You all identified that debates and discussion engages you the most, all of you identified you found structure difficult and all of you were unable to explain your points in detail. This task has allowed you to use a new thinking framework to answer any question, it has also provided you with 6 different points about Shakespeare’s purpose which you can apply to EVERY question!

How did I measure it?

I measured feedback via student voice, pre-existing and new mock data and observations to triangulate my data.

1. My primary source of data came from the mocks comparing what they achieved in the autumn pre-mocks and the winter mocks. Here is the table below:
   
   

Grades	Autumn Mocks	Winter Mocks
Below 4	52%	43%
9-4	48%	57%
9-5	39%	39%
9-7	26%	22%

The table shows the distribution of grades in Autumn and Winter Mocks. Here's a comparison:

• Below 4: The percentage of students scoring below 4 decreased from 52% in Autumn Mocks to 43% in Winter Mocks. This indicates an improvement in overall performance.

• 9-4: The percentage of students achieving grades 9-4 increased from 48% in Autumn Mocks to 57% in Winter Mocks. This suggests a significant improvement in the higher-achieving band.

• 9-5: The percentage of students scoring 9-5 remained consistent at 39% in both Autumn and Winter Mocks. This suggests that the proportion of students in this range remained relatively stable.

• 9-7: The percentage of students achieving grades 9-7 decreased from 26% in Autumn Mocks to 22% in Winter Mocks. This might indicate a slight decline in the top-performing group.

Overall, the data suggests a positive trend with a decrease in the percentage of students scoring below 4 and an increase in the percentage of students achieving grades 9-4. 

However, a slight decline is observed in the top-performing group (9-7). This may have been due to external factors such as revision and time-management (which a lot of them had informed me of after their exams). 

2. My second piece of data collection was through observations. I had seen a significant improvement in engagement, comments like “Miss, that was a fun lesson!” and “I’ve learnt a lot today!” and all students were able to write significantly more than what they previously were able to do. 

I am awaiting books to photograph evidence of this*

3. And my third piece of data, I am still awaiting student feedback via survey. 

Below are the questions from the survey:
Student Survey: Impact of Debates/Discussion on Analytical Writing

How engaged did you find yourself during these discussions/debates?

a) Not at all engaged

b) Slightly engaged

c) Moderately engaged

d) Very engaged

To what extent do you believe participating in discussions/debates helped you to: Understand the different perspectives on the topic?

1 (Strongly Disagree) - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 (Strongly Agree)

To what extent do you believe participating in discussions/debates helped you to:
Develop your own arguments?

1 (Strongly Disagree) - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 (Strongly Agree)

To what extent do you believe participating in discussions/debates helped you to:
Identify and analyse evidence to support your arguments?

1 (Strongly Disagree) - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 (Strongly Agree)

To what extent do you believe using the WHAT HOW WHY thinking framework helped you to: Structure your written responses to analytical questions?

1 (Strongly Disagree) - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 (Strongly Agree)

To what extent do you believe participating in discussions/debates helped you to:
Improve your use of language and vocabulary in your writing?

1 (Strongly Disagree) - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 (Strongly Agree)

Overall, how helpful do you think class discussions/debates and thinking frameworks were in preparing you for writing analytical essays?

a) Not helpful at all

b) Slightly helpful

c) Moderately helpful

d) Very helpful

Do you have any other comments or suggestions regarding the use of debates in class?

(Provide space for open-ended written responses)

So what were the challenges?  

There were many challenges I had encountered: 

1. Maintaining Focus: While the initial enthusiasm for debates was high, sustaining student engagement proved to be a challenge after a while. Some students, particularly those less confident in their speaking abilities, tended to disengage or become passive listeners.

2. Differentiation: Ensuring all students, regardless of their confidence levels, had an equal opportunity to participate and contribute to the debates was challenging. Some students dominated the discussions, while others remained silent and it was hard to force them to talk.

3. Activity Time Management: Incorporating frequent discussion into the lesson required careful planning and time management as often I had found we ran out of time to get to writing.

4. Assessing Participation: Accurately assessing individual student contributions within the dynamic context of a debate presented a challenge.

5. Revision:  While the debates improved student understanding of the text and helped them generate ideas, some students still struggled with effectively revising the scheme of work/what they had learnt about the text prior/forgot key moments of the text etc.

6. Individual Time Management: Students still had difficulties with time management during the writing process and being able to finish an answer within the allotted time. 

What are my key takeaways?

My 5 key takeaways from this inquiry were: 

1. The positive impact of classroom oracy: The initial data analysis suggests that classroom debates, when effectively implemented, can significantly enhance student engagement and improve performance in analytical writing tasks.

2. The importance of scaffolding and support: Providing clear structures, such as thinking frameworks (WHAT? HOW? WHY?), and explicit guidance can help students navigate the debate process and maximise their learning.

3. The need for ongoing evaluation and adjustment: I need to continue to refine my approach to classroom debates, addressing the challenges identified and exploring new strategies to enhance student participation and learning.

4. The importance of addressing individual needs: I need to implement strategies to ensure all students have an equal opportunity to participate and contribute to the debates, such as peer-to-peer support and differentiated questioning techniques.

5. The need for continued focus on revision strategies: I will need to provide more explicit instruction and support for students in the revision process, including strategies for time management and effective use of feedback.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blogpost! Feel free to share your comments and thoughts at n.rahman@westminsteracademy.org.uk

Bitesize Research: Enjoyment Of Writing

By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week! This week I was interested in some of the findings from the National Literacy Trust (NLT) about children’s enjoyment of writing. This furthers our ongoing thinking about disciplinary literacy and the role that different subjects may play in this.

Objectives: To understand the current state of play with children’s enjoyment of writing

Summary: 

• The study has found that just 34.6% of students aged between 8 and 18 say that they enjoy writing, and that this drops to 25% by the age of 16.

• Despite this, the study found that many students believed writing had a positive impact on their wellbeing, creativity, social connections and ability to support causes they care about. 

• The study found that girls enjoyed writing more than boys and that students receiving free school meals enjoyed it more than their non-FSM counterparts. 

• This is consistent with NLT research over time which suggests that students from lower income backgrounds tend to enjoy writing in their free time more than other students. 

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• What is important about writing in my subject? How am I currently promoting a love of writing?

• What opportunities for writing and building a love of writing might there be in my area?

• What further ideas or support do I need on this topic?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

Bitesize Research: Using Metacognition In Written Tasks

 By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week so far. Given its central importance in supporting student progress and learning, metacognition is something we’ve had lots of blog posts about. To add to this growing area, I was interested to see an Edutopia article focusing on the benefits of metacognition for writing skills. Objectives: To consider specific strategies for using metacognition in written tasks. Summary:

• The author suggests finding ways to encourage students to consider how they approach writing, what the barriers to writing might be, and strategies that help them to write successfully.
• The author suggests that these areas are important in addition to a rubric or success criteria
• The author recommends a number of ways to support metacognitive writing:
• 1) Keeping a journal or diary - this is where students take breaks during a longer writing process to write down their thoughts about the barriers, strategies and approaches they are taking.
• 2) Making a list of strategies - encouraging students to create an ongoing list of strategies they use when writing
• 3) Writing collaboratively - with the teacher, or with peers. Students can discuss the choices they are making in deliberate ways.
• 4) Using a graphic organiser - to collate thoughts about writing over time or during the writing process for a particular piece of work
• 5) Reflecting after writing - focussing on the ‘big picture’ with questions such as ‘what would you do differently if writing again? Why?’ or ‘what strategies did you use that worked well? How do you know?’

How does this impact me and my practice?: 

Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How am I currently using metacognitive strategies to support student learning?
• Which of these metacognitive writing strategies can I incorporate into my practice? What support do I need to do this?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

Bitesize Research: Impact Of Hand Gestures On Oracy & Retrieval

 By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week so far. As part of our ongoing thinking about oracy, this week I was interested to come across some ideas about the power of using hand gestures in the classroom.

Objectives: To consider the impact of hand gestures on oracy, clarity and retrieval, both by teachers and students.

Summary: 

• There is a large body of research that suggests using gestures are essential in the formulation of oral responses. 

• It has been shown that the greater the cognitive strain or the more challenging a conversation is, the more gesturing takes place. 

• Further research has suggested that encouraging gesticulating frees up cognitive space, and therefore it enables students to be both more creative and more fluent when producing oral and written responses.

• A 2011 meta-study suggested that students understand more of what teachers say when hand movements accompany words

• Students are also more likely to remember and retrieve things if they use hand gestures at the point of initial encoding or first encountering a piece of information. These gestures should be deliberate rather than spontaneous. 

• The article suggests the following key takeaways:

  
  

1. Teachers should practice deliberate gestures before lessons particular when considering their teacher expositions, e.g. using their fingers to count the order of the planets

2. Teachers can direct students to watch their hands when they are explaining something new, as it encourages better retrieval

3. Teachers should encourage students to use gestures when doing talk activities in their classroom

4. Teachers can encourage students to use their hands if they are struggling to recall a key piece of information or keyword e.g. ‘How about moving your hands to find the right words?’

5. Students can be directed to recreate the gestures of their teachers as a way of recalling key information

6. Teachers can direct students to use what are known as deictic gestures - e.g. tracing a map, or geometry figures, or pointing to an anatomical label

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How do I use gestures currently in my lessons? 

• How can I explore my own use of gesture, as well as encourage students to use it too?

• When I have someone observe me, or I am observing a colleague, what gestures are used? What impact do they have?

• Which of the key takeaways would I be interested to explore?

CPD Reflections: Pastoral Support To Empower Female Students

By Izzy Hilliard

I began my professional career as a teacher through Teach First, a graduate programme training teachers and placing them in schools which serve impoverished communities. I remember the headline data of the programme that “poorer kids are eighteen months behind when they take their GCSEs” and “the school achievement gap between rich and poor has not narrowed in a century” (Teach First). After being placed in my school where the majority of students were placed on free school meal; the difference between those children who had affluent backgrounds, and those who did not, often transpired in results. Therefore, since the beginning of my time as an educator I have always had an interest in closing the disadvantage gap.

When I joined my school in 2018 there was a clear group to target. The school had always been successful at targeting pupil premium and SEND students- it was one of its main strengths. The focus was shifting onto boys. Boys were doing worse in results and this trend has continued. It is a bias which is mirrored in headlines that we read today, The Irish Times writing, “Boys don’t try? Why so many boys are falling behind at school” (2019) and The Financial Times, “Why are boys falling behind at school?” (2018). In my first year as an English teacher, I also had a “male only” nurture group and therefore my primary concern in terms of achievement (and behaviour) was with boys. In addition, the English department ran a lunch time intervention for boys who were underperforming based on their SATs. 

Over the course of my teaching career, I have continuously reflected on my practice. Yet it was only as my third year began to end that I noticed my bias towards boys. The amount of one to one help within the lesson and the differentiation I offered, often went towards boys. My own preconceptions that boys were more boisterous; more challenging and more easily distracted were manifesting into my practice as asking boys more questions; checking male student work more regularly and punishing the boys more quickly. Whilst the girls were receiving less sanctions, they were also omitted from having any impact on my teaching. I conducted my research to see if this was a school wide problem. Whilst all teachers agreed many girls were eloquent in their answers it is much less likely to see them offer responses in class. Furthermore, in the 16 lessons I visited (2021) it was five times more likely that a boy would be asked to answer, than a girl. 

Therefore, I decided to begin focusing on the young women in my classroom and reading about the experience of young girls at school today, and I realised that the headlines of boys underperforming hid a plethora of problems facing girls. One third of British girls feel unhappy about their appearance by the age of fourteen (The Times); girl’s happiness plummets much further than boys during adolescence (The Times); 37% of British female students at mixed-sex schools have personally experienced some form of sexual harrassement at school (UK Feminista and NEU, 2017).   These facts conveyed the desperate need for female students, especially those in mixed schools, to have safe spaces within the school building where they could feel empowered and cared for. Subsequently, my focus moved away from within the classroom to outside of the classroom. 

A colleague and I had been training throughout 2020 to set up a female empowerment group within our school. This has been led by a charity called Be Her Lead. The programme trains teachers to be female role models in their schools and champions for girls throughout the school building. The programme focuses on ensuring that girls in low income areas, and especially those from BAME backgrounds have safe spaces within their schools to speak about issues that are important to them. However, the school year of 2020-21 was heavily disrupted by the COVID 19 pandemic and restrictions were placed on school clubs due to the disturbance of bubble systems. This stopped us from carrying out an intervention as we envisioned and we had to delay a year. Despite this, the creation of this group straight after the pandemic seemed like a  perfect opportunity. Undoubtedly, the pandemic has affected and continues to affect the lives of the teenagers within our care, with academics noting that, “compared to adults [the] pandemic may continue to have increased long term adverse consequences on children’s and adolescents’ mental health.” This will be discussed in greater depth later. Therefore in September of 2021, I set up a Be Her Lead group. 

How the intervention was run

For a group like this to feel safe, both the colleague and I agreed that a limited number of students was crucial. The Head of Year 10 and I discussed around twenty girls to invite to the first intervention. We wanted these students to be for girls who would really benefit from a safe space to discuss the issues they felt as they moved around the school and as they got older. I had not taught this year group before, so I was shocked by the students the Head of Year 10 had recommended. On first meeting, they are all bright and articulate, even if slightly shy. However, as the intervention group reaches it’s last few meetings of the academic year the amount I have learnt about the daily struggles they face in a modern day secondary school has shocked me. 

I teach in an average sized inner city London school, with each year group averaging about two hundred students. Therefore, many of the girls had never met before and thus our initial meetings could be tinged with awkwardness. However, what was important to my colleague and I was that this space belonged to the girls so we would respond to what they wanted to talk about. In our first meeting, this was exactly what we asked. Girls were supposed to write what they found difficult about being a teenage girl and what they wish they could discuss at school. We found a lot of recurring issues: insecurity; identity; social media; boys; body image; goals and ambitions; family struggles. 

From here, the creation of the agenda and the intervention was easy. It was run at lunch time so the girls would arrive at the same classroom every week, we would briefly, or not so briefly, discuss our weeks and then we would complete a creative activity which often led to these issues being discussed. From here I will discuss some of these interventions in detail. 

Intervention 1 (Appendix 1)

The first intervention we ran, it was important for us to not only understand what the girls wanted to be discussed but also how we could ensure that the group was a space that would feel safe and comfortable for the girls. The group made three core promises within their Be Her Head Code which were, “Empathy”; “Respect” and “Bravery.” They then made promises of how they would act within the group to abide by these key rules and goals. Each Be He Lead code should be individual to the group. It identifies the student’s promises to one another for the group to run smoothly and allow students to be vulnerable in a space where they know they are safe. It was important to my colleague and I that the group is inclusive to all and also to attempt to remove a sense of hierarchy between us and the students. This has definitely been a learning experience for both of us. Taking away the hierarchy is something that simply is not discussed at teacher training. Yet, how else could a space be safe if the students felt like they were constantly being watched by two people who had all the answers when it comes to adolescence? All the answers to the questions they were asking? Neither my colleague nor I know what it is like to be a young girl of colour, growing up in a city and therefore we wanted to be two people that the girls could trust to support them, rather than two women who were the oracles of knowledge. 

(Appendix 1) 

Intervention 2 (Appendix 2)

A problem faced by many of our students is that they simply do not know how to support themselves in moments of weakness and stress. The girls we were supporting had a worrying lack of resilience. This seems to have been exacerbated by COVID-19, where academic and personal problems were able to be ignored and hidden whilst simultaneously the unrelenting fear and worry surrounding the news cycle and outside world increased anxiety within many of our students. So in our workshop we thought about self care. This is a phrase that seems to have become a platitude in the twenty-first century, yet as a teenager the need to rest and reset is hugely important. So we had the girls write some of the issues they faced, many of them writing “looking good” and “PE”. We had students draw themselves, and think about what inner reserves they had to help themselves when faced by these problems. Then we also had them draw “survivor boats,” with their emergency supplies on board such as, “music; reading and binge watching.” Each island was supposed to represent the physical and mental struggles each student experiences. When you have fifteen students in a room, it is an experience for them to trust you with information that can often be private. Yet the group also allowed students to realise that they are not alone. Many of the problems faced by one girl were faced by another two in the group. 

Intervention 3 (Appendix 3)

To continue in the vein of problems experienced by them all, my colleague and I also ran a workshop focused on the theme of identity: shared and individual. Each student decorated a puzzle piece to represent different aspects of their personality- origins; dislikes and dreams- and then placed the puzzle pieces together which represented their shared identity as students of the Academy and members of Be Her Lead group. This illustrated to the girls that whilst they often speak about feeling alone and different, actually there are always commonalities between them and the other girls in our group. 

Impact

It was difficult to find definitive numerical data that supported how Be Her Lead had made an impact on our students. Many of them were not failing academically when they entered the group and whilst many suffered from SEMH issues, they were generally a group of girls that were present to school. They did not enjoy school, they found many aspects of the environment challenging, yet they attended. However I think the student voice that my colleague and I conducted with them, goes to show that they did find it made an impact. 

Case Study A- When I first came to Be Her Lead I was facing some tricky times at school. Whilst our school is diverse, I do not follow a Muslim religion and my background is Korean. So for a very diverse school, it was difficult to find students who were like me and I was being teased with racist comments regularly. When I finally told a teacher, the boys were told off and I got the apology I wanted but I still felt like I was not being heard. Be Her Lead is a space and time that I can talk about things and I know I am always being listened to. It doesn’t take courage to speak at Be Her Lead because all of us always feel happy and comfortable.

Case Study B- I found the beginning of Year 10 a really stressful time. Every lesson was a reminder that our GCSEs were not far away and the academic pressure really became a lot for me to handle, yet everyone else seemed happy and confident so I tried to act like I was too. Once I came to Be Her Lead and became friends with people I had never spoken to before, I realised we were all acting. Everyone was finding Year 10 stressful and this shared experience made everything seem so much easier. 

Next Steps

This group is supposed to be a springboard into long-lasting change at my school. Whilst it may not reach a huge percentage of a year group, or a large demographic at the school, the personal testimonies of Be Her Lead “alumni” show me that this is a group that needs to continue. Whilst my colleague and I plan to continue to support our group of students through Year 11, something that they have requested, we also with the train other female teachers to become leaders of similar female empowerment groups. Specifically, we both agree it would be good to have a more diverse group of teachers leading the groups. I feel uncomfortable thinking that my colleague and I, two white; cisgender;heterosexual females are the best teachers to continuously lead an intersectional female empowerment group. I feel putting diversity to the forefront of our future training is of critical importance. Both my colleague and I have tried very hard to limit hierarchical structures within this female empowerment group and thus, it is crucial that a system of privilege based on race does not manifest. 

The lack of focus on females within the community and the institutions we have is systematic. There has to be groups within schools that encourage girls to feel empowered and emboldened to not hide their feelings. As the girls said in one of our workshops, when the girls feel safe to speak, they “are free”. (Appendix 4).