Going Back To The Drawing Board -- By Samuel Mack-Poole

                                                   Going Back To The Drawing Board

By Samuel Mack-Poole

We’ve all been there – you’ve got the students in the optimum seating plan according to the impossible jigsaw* -- and a challenging class still persists in misbehaviour/ poor focus because the topic is too hard.

The thing is, you think you’ve done everything right. You’ve built solid relationships with your class, you’ve spent hours and hours (and hours) marking their assessments (getting them to reply in the colour your SLT insist on), you always plan your lessons, and you chase up discipline issues.

And then you have to read Jekyll and Hyde with your students. We’re talking verbose, turgid, loquacious literature. Your students can’t read it out, because their literacy levels are too low; it’s a university level text. Thanks, Michael Gove.

So, you start reading it out, your eyes focused on the turgid words, and that class start engaging in low level disruption (the kind where you can’t catch the kids doing it, but you so know who it is).

Now, rather than go bonkers at my class (very old school), I paused for deep reflection. I went home and obsessed on it. I needed a fresh approach. That was when it came to me...

I decided to use technology to the maximum – on both counts, I used my mobile phone. Firstly, I took a photo of every page of Jekyll and Hyde (not illegal as there is no copyright as it is over 100 years old) and annotated it. Secondly, I recorded myself reading the chapters, and then I uploaded those podcasts – which essentially amounts to an audio book – to soundcloud, so that they would never be lost.

The difference in behaviour was, and still is (as I haven’t finished teaching chapter 10 yet) amazing. My class went from frustrated and challenging to academic and focused. With my eyes free on the class, I could scan the room to see if anyone was talking – which they no longer were. With my soundcloud podcasts synchronised to the pages of the novel they were reading, backed up with my analytical annotations, the students felt extremely happy.

Incidentally, I use a pop song at the start of every podcast as a behavioural mechanism, as the students immediately listen to a familiar tune. I’ve attached a few photos of my annotations, as well as soundcloud podcast as an example.

Now, I’m not stupid, I know this is more work. Nonetheless, it’s a great legacy. Once it’s on the cloud, it’s there forever! Once you’ve made excellent, thoughtful, and engaging plans, utilising the technology we all have available on mobile phones, you’ve got a great scheme of learning, which means your planning load for future years is utterly diminished.

Again, I’ve attached a grid (us teachers love grids, after all), outlining my strategies for this, for ease of digesting information.

*The one which ensures that students remain focused and don’t talk to others, yet simultaneously ensures no one sits next to someone they find utterly repugnant.

Podcasts/ audio books	For me, this has to be your voice. Now, I don’t know why, but when it’s your voice, the same voice you have in class, but merely from the past, the students listen so much more. Maybe it’s the fact it’s somewhat of a novelty – maybe it’s because on some level, they recognise the extra effort you’ve gone to. It’s great for your auditory learners, and it creates a very attentive class.
Annotated pages	Having this on the screen really helps your visual learners digest the learning. By taking such a complex novel and synthesising it into absorbable chunks, you’re ensuring all of the class understands the narrative.
Musical starters for podcasts	Using familiar songs creates focus. Tell your students that at the end of 30 seconds, you expect them to be silent. You’ll even get requests! It’s great to build relationships this way, and one or two students might surprise you by having similar musical tastes to you.

https://soundcloud.com/samuel-mack-poole-302057744