Higher Leverage Strategies

High Leverage Strategies

Teaching strategies used by teachers of highly successful HSC students

Successful Teaching Methodologies

The selected teachers of highly successful HSC students used teaching practices – highleverage strategies (HLS) – which the researchers classified under the following headings.

• Note-making
• Assessment
• Resources
• Building understanding

• Classroom Climate
• HSC Focus
• Questioning
• Whole class discussion
• Group work and independant student work

Today's focus

Building Understanding

Multi-modal apporach to devloping understanding of content

Note-making

"Note-making" not "note-taking"

Assessment

Monitoring student progress

Building understanding

There were a number of strategies used to help develop students' understanding of content

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Applying knowledge and solving problems

Developing interrelatedness of different subject areas

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Games, simulations and stories

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Directed activities relating to text (DARTS)

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Developing interrelatedness of different subject areas

Trying to develop the big picture of what differnet areas of the subject meant to each other. This can be achieved through reviewing previous material to lead into a current topic or simply building on a previous topic in a sequentially logical way.

+ e.g. getting students to relate surafce area:volume ratio from Module 1 to repiratory structures in Module 2

Applying knowledge and solving problems

Students need to be able to apply knowledge, often by solving problems. Avoid students copying notes and being told answers too readily. The role of the teacher in the classroom is to challenge students and encourage independent thinking.

+ Instead of spending time copying down the formula, give students the formula and work on problems

DARTS

Directed activities related to texts (DARTS) are activities designed to have students engage deeply with the meaning of whole text. The point is deeper engagement with reading material. Some activities include:

• cloze passages - filling in missing sections of text
• prediction – using prior knowledge to predict upcoming sections of text

• categorising and labelling – supplying headings for sections of texts, or nominating the theme of a section

• sequencing – taking jumbled texts and through discussion and close readingre storing their original order.
• having students ask the questions of texts instead of the teacher – ‘What is it you need to know to make sense of this?’

Games, simulations and stories

Using small-scale simulations or games to build up understanding. Student are more likely to build a deeper understanding if material is interactive and fun becuase they are more likely to engage with it.

+ e.g. getting students to take on different roles for a crime scene

Note-making

"Note-making" not "note-taking". Assist students in the process of creating their own notes or summaries, as opposed to copying what's on the board.

Hand out notes that cover formulae, example etc, but class time is to be diticated to applying the knowledge.

Avoid spoon feeding material. Successful students build notes independently and pick out the important bits themselves.

Assessment

Provide students the opportunity to become assessment insiders by thinking summatively against the rubric.

Students stressed the importance of quick feedback, and provision of positive models. "WAGOLL"

Feedback on assessments is importance and so is the immediacy of feedback.

Please discuss. Question time is now.

Thanks for your attention!