Training guide

Activity 4.1: Learning from collaborating with others

In your Teacher Notebook note down four or five ways in which collaboration has helped you as a teacher over the past three terms.

Answer the following questions:

1. Who did you collaborate with?
2. Think of one time when you collaborated with someone. How did collaborating with a colleague help you?
3. What did you learn from that experience?
4. What are the challenges associated with working collaboratively?
5. What strategies do you have for addressing these?

Activity 4.2: Impact of collaboration on teachers

Watch the video which shows a head teacher, an Assistant DRCC and a DESO talking about the benefits of collaborative working for teachers, and therefore for learners. As you watch, make notes on how the speakers see collaboration helping teachers in Kabwe and Chisamba.

When you have watched, compare your notes with your partner. When you agree on all the benefits, share your ideas with another pair.

Finally, as a group, compile a list of the benefits of working collaboratively.

Activity 4.3: Reflecting on past TGMs

At the beginning of this SBCPD programme you looked at things you would like to see in an effective and productive meeting.  Revisit the list below and reflect on how many of these actions have regularly occurred in your TGMs over the past few terms:

• everyone felt able to contribute
• you have learned something new which will help you teach better
• the work done in the meeting has saved you time as you have planned some classroom activities for next week
• you have had the chance to talk about things you were concerned about
• people listened to each other
• the facilitator had planned the meeting and the time was used productively
• the agenda was shared in advance
• the people attending the meeting had prepared themselves in advance.

Highlight those actions that have taken place, and those which have not taken place.

In your Teacher Notebook make a note of how you can improve on the TGMs in your school, building on the things you do well, and developing aspects that could improve.

Example 4.1: Thinking about TGMs

SIC James ran the first TGM of the term. He planned the meeting very carefully – reading the materials he would use and trying the activities for himself before the meeting. He found some of the teachers reluctant to share their ideas but realised this was probably because they were usually just asked to sit and listen.

For the second meeting, he asked for volunteers to facilitate and Joyce volunteered. James was a little concerned because he knew that Joyce was extremely busy. She was also very confident and enjoyed leading TGMs as it provided an opportunity for her to explain her approach to teaching. However, James did not want her to give a lecture! So a few days before the meeting, he made sure that he had a cup of tea with Joyce and asked how she was getting on with planning the meeting. She seemed surprised that he had asked and reminded him that she was very experienced at running TGMs.

James explained he just wanted to make her aware of the resources she had access to, to assist her in planning the TGM. He logged on to the Raspberry Pi, in the staffroom and showed her the outline for the TGM about role-play and story-telling. He also drew her attention to the facilitator guide and asked her to make a plan and share it with him the next day. He also explained that the aim was to make the TGMs more participatory than they used to be and to actively involve all the teachers. If they were expected to do this in their own classrooms then they needed to experience some of the approaches for themselves!

The next day James noticed Joyce talking to a group of teachers, reminding them to look at the Training Materials in advance of the meeting. On the day of the meeting, she introduced the topic, but allowed the teachers plenty of time to talk in groups. By the end of the meeting, they had done two activities and everyone had a plan for an activity in their classroom.

She allocated teachers to groups and when James asked her afterwards how she chose the groups, she said she had purposely mixed up the subjects because literacy and social studies teachers were generally more confident in role play and she wanted them to help the numeracy and science teachers. James was impressed. He also noticed that teachers were more willing to participate than in the previous meeting.

Afterwards several teachers said how much they had enjoyed the meeting. That week, James also noticed lots of enthusiasm amongst learners as they talked about some of the activities they had done after the lesson.  

Activity 4.4: Reflecting on Example 4.1

After you have read the example above, make a few notes in your Teacher Notebook in response to the questions below to discuss at the TGM

• What preparation did James do with Joyce in advance of her TGM?
• What were the elements of the TGM that made it such a success?
• Why did Joyce choose the groups rather letting the teachers choose?
• What advice would you give to someone who was going to facilitate a TGM?

Activity 4.5: Reflecting and learning from TGMs

You may find it helpful to write your reflections on each TGM. This will help you see how the work you do in these meetings with other teachers can benefit you and your learners.

In your Teacher Notebook write a paragraph on each TGM. You can include a description of the activity/activities you carried out, the resources you used, the usefulness of the activity and finally how you could use it as part of your classroom practice. This record will help you transfer the learning from the TGM into your teaching.

Finally, think about your own contribution to the TGMs you have attended recently and write down two or three targets for this term. You might want to volunteer to be a facilitator, or you might resolve to try and contribute more, or to listen more if you are in the habit of talking a lot!

TESSA is a network of teachers and teacher educators, working towards improving learning and teaching in sub-Saharan Africa. As part of TESSA, there is a set of free and adaptable resources, linked to the primary syllabus and secondary science, which provide activities and case studies for teachers to try in the classroom. You can use them to get ideas for classroom activities which link to the teaching approaches.

Key Focus Question

This is addressed to the teacher and summarises the area to be studied in the section.

Learning Outcomes

Each section has up to three learning outcomes for the teacher. These focus on the development of classroom skills in the context of the curriculum of that module area.

Introduction

The introduction sets the scene. It outlines the classroom skills to be developed by the teacher and the curriculum content area for the section.

Narrative

The narrative provides a rationale for the case studies and activities and highlights the purpose of each.

Case Studies

A section has three case studies, each linked to a particular activity. The case studies illustrate ideas and concepts by describing how one teacher has approached the linked activity or similar activity in their classroom. They often focus on one particular aspect of the activity or on a particular classroom situation. 

Activities

The three activities are for the teacher to undertake in their classroom with learners or in the wider school and community. The activities build towards the final activity, known as the key activity. The activities are learner centred and engaging for learners. Some activities are very short, whereas others are projects taking several weeks. Most take one lesson to complete.

Resources

Each section has up to six supporting resources. These take a variety of forms including web links, articles, images, stories, posters, examples of learners’ work, detailed lesson plans, poems and worksheets and template documents. They aim to enrich the teachers’ learning and support the activities. They also support the development of different dimensions of a teacher’s knowledge base, including:

• content knowledge
• pedagogical knowledge
• pedagogical content knowledge.

A few of the resources are intended for use with learners.

Icons are used to show the core purpose of a resource. These are:

• learner use
• background information/subject knowledge for teachers
• teacher resource for planning or adapting to use with learners
• examples of learners’ work.

Activity 4.6: Getting familiar with TESSA

The purpose of this meeting is for you to work together to become familiar with the TESSA resources. Once you understand the format and the layout, you will able to find many examples of classroom activities that can be adapted for your age group and subject.

Watch the short video which explains the TESSA Resources.

Choose one TESSA subject. There are three modules for each subject. Working in a group of three, choose one of the modules and look through Section 1 in detail. You will notice that each section has three activities, three case studies and six resources. Each of you should read one activity, one case study and two resources. Write down all the teaching approaches that are used.

Now compare the list you have made of teaching approaches with your colleagues in your group. Write down at least one idea that you could use or adapt to use with your class. If there is time, look at Section 2.

Example 4.2: Using the TESSA Curriculum Guide

Florence is a Grade 4 Literacy teacher. Next week she will focus on Topic 2: Reading. She looks for references to the Zambian Revised School Curriculum (column 3 on the right-hand side) which start with the number ‘4’. She found that Sections, 1, 2, 3 and 4 from Literacy Module 1 might be helpful, but that Section 2 and Section 3 have specific reference to ‘4.2’. Section 2 mentions ‘4.2.1 intensive reading’ and Section 3 mentions ‘4.2.2 Reading aloud’:

• Section 1 – 4.1.6 poetry
• Section 2 – 4.2 intensive reading, 4.3 guided composition, 4.4 parts of speech
• Section 3 – 4.2 reading aloud, and 4.3 summary and handwriting
• Section 4 – 4.3.6 sentence construction

This means that if she looks at Sections 2 and 3 of Literacy Module 1, she will find something that will help her to actively involve her learners in her lessons next week.

She also noticed that Section 5 is mainly suitable for Grade 7 but she had a look as she thought she might find something to help with informal writing.

Activity 4.7: Using the TESSA Curriculum Guide

Fred is a social studies teacher. Next week he is teaching Grade 5. They will be doing Topic ‘5.1 Living in the community’. Which TESSA sections would be helpful for him?

Martha is a science teacher. Next week she will be teaching Grade 3. They will be doing Topic ‘3.4 Plants and animals’. Which TESSA sections would be helpful for her?

Remember, as well as looking at the main subject, it is always worth looking at the Life Skills Modules, especially for younger children as they have lots of ideas about how to teach skills and values.

Activity 4.8: Getting ideas from TESSA

The TESSA activities are not lesson plans, nor are they grade specific. Follow these steps to help you find what you need:

• make a list of the topics you will be teaching next week from the Zambian Revised School Curriculum.
• use the TESSA Curriculum Guide, to find a TESSA module which is likely to have some ideas relevant to that topic.
• read the module
• use the ideas to plan an activity in your classroom that will meet the learning outcomes for your learners. You might be able to use the activity as it is described, or you might have to adapt it. Use the examples below to help you understand how to do this.

Example 4.3: Science

Science Module 2, Section 3 (Looking at liquids) describes a brainstorming activity to elicit prior knowledge about water and where drinking water comes from.

A Grade 5 teacher could adapt the activity by changing the topic of the brainstorm to water borne diseases in order to find out what learners already know about them. 

A Grade 3 teacher could adapt the activity by changing the topic of the brainstorm to the three states of matter and build up a picture of a range of different substances that learners are familiar with, before classifying them and discussing their properties.

Example 4.4: Numeracy

Numeracy Module 1, Section 1 (Learning through games) has a bingo game, to help children recognise numbers 1-50.

A Grade 1 or Grade 2 teacher could adapt the activity to include numbers 1-100

Example 4.5: Literacy

Literacy Module 1 Reading and writing for a range of purposes has many ideas that can be adapted for different grades. For example, Section 2 has a case study and activity on reading aloud.

For a Grade 1 or 2 teacher, this would provide ideas for you to make reading aloud more interactive and more engaging.

A Grade 6  or 7 teacher, might encourage learners  to read aloud to each other, or work with a lower grade teacher and encourage older learners to read to younger ones.

There are also ideas about how to encourage learners to write stories themselves, which could be easily adapted for different levels.

Example 4.6: Social studies or Arts

Social Studies and the Arts Module 1, Section 4 (Investigating the changing environment) describes how the teacher asks her class to investigate the plants in their local environment and takes them on a field trip.

A Grade 6 teacher, could adapt this activity; instead of organising a field trip they could ask their class to critically review their local environment as they walk to and from school. They could gather the information together and discuss the role of different community groups in making improvements.

A literacy teacher would be interested in this work as learners could be asked to write a newspaper article, reporting on their local environment, or some campaign literature, highlighting the importance of disposing of rubbish properly. 

Developing learner-centred teaching

Teaching approaches

Date the approach introduced

Date of 1st attempt

Date of 2nd attempt

Date of 3rd attempt

Date of 4th attempt

Confident using this approach

1 - Questioning

2 - Pair work

3 - Local resources

4 - Group work

5 - Storytelling, songs, games and role-play

6 - Involving all learners

7 - Monitoring and giving feedback

8 - Eliciting prior knowledge

9 - Assessing learning

Activity 4.9: Focusing on your own personal development

Go through all nine approaches and identify the three that you find most challenging to use in your teaching.  Now reflect on each of those three approaches and, in your Teacher Notebook, write a short paragraph on why these approaches are difficult for you.

Share this paragraph with a colleague who specialises in the same subject as yourself or teaches the same Grade, and together come up with a plan to help you overcome the difficulties you have encountered. 

Compare your list with someone who teaches a different subject or grade. Try and identify someone who might be able to help you. For example, Numeracy teachers are often less confident about role play than Literacy teachers; Science teachers are often very good at using local resources. 

Activity 4.10: Reflecting on teaching

Take a look at these two examples of teachers’ reflections. Which do you think is the better reflection? Why?

Example 1 We had a pair work review in the TGM and each teacher discussed something on pair work on the successes and challenges faced during pair work activities. It was discovered that nearly every teacher appreciated the approach and it worked well because every learner was involved, but it can be time-consuming.

Example 2 In my English lesson on things that are found in the classroom, I divided students into pairs to practise ‘what is this’ and ‘this is a…’ and the words for objects in the room. I faced challenges because I forgot to demonstrate in the first place how the practical work should be done. I realised some learners did not know what to do. I gave some instructions desk-by-desk, but those I did not get to became restless. I think it would have worked well if I gave clearer instructions and perhaps encouraged pairs to help each other.  

What do you see in Example 2 that is not in Example 1?

What would you want to ask the teacher who wrote the reflections in Example 1?

Did you notice...

• In Example 1 the teacher just describes what they did. This passage will not be very useful when they look back on it – much better to have recorded some of the reasons for the successes, the challenges and how to tackle them.
• Example 2 moves away from just describing what has happened in the lesson. The teacher is reflecting on what happened and why. For useful reflection to take place it’s important to spend more time thinking about the ‘why’ than the ‘what’. This will be useful for the teacher when she looks back on her notes and will remind her about how to organise pair work.

Example 4.7: Developing an action plan

Last Tuesday, Monica wrote in her Teacher Notebook, reflecting on the lesson she had just delivered.  

Tuesday 7/9/2020 Grade 2 Social Studies Topic Neighbourhood

I planned a lesson using pair work and questioning where students had to first describe to each other where they lived and their neighbours.  I started with some questions to draw out important features of the neighbourhood: How many close neighbours do you have? How many shops are there nearby? Where can you catch a bus? Then I put them in pairs. While one was talking, the other had to make notes. Then they each had to write five sentences or draw a picture comparing their neighbourhood with their partners’ and read it to the class.

The successes were:

• for some learners there was a lot of interaction
• there was an information gap so learners had to listen carefully to make notes
• all students could take part.

But there were also problems:

• it was difficult to manage a large class of 62 learners
• the learners who find writing and drawing difficult got frustrated and couldn’t keep up
• there was a big problem with time management
• I realised that my questions were all closed questions. If I had asked things like ‘what do you like about your neighbourhood’ or ‘what would you like to change’ in the introduction, they would have thought more deeply about it and given better descriptions.

Way forward

From this I learned that:

• I need to think about how to better organise my pairs so that all learners can be involved
• I need to be more careful about time management.

My action plan is as follows:

1. My focus is on how I manage the pairs and my time management skills.
2. Plan my questions more carefully to promote thinking
3. Give learners a plan to work from on the board – eg number of people, ages, family relationships, animals – this will help all them keep to the task
4. Mix the pairs up so that the learners who lose interest or attention, or who find writing difficult are not together
5. Give them clear time warnings for switching roles, and when to start writing the sentences. Let them finish the sentences for homework.
6. Think about how to combine pair work with other approaches.

Activity 4.11: Developing an action plan

Like Monica, focus on an element of your recent teaching that you find challenging. You could focus on one or several of the teaching approaches. Write an action plan like the one in Example 4.7 to help you. Share your plan with a colleague.

Keep a clear record of your lessons and action plan so that you can revisit them. It’s important to write clear notes in your Teacher Notebook; hopefully it will have details of your successes (so you can try them again), your challenges (so that you can learn from them) and ideas you have got from your colleagues. 

Activity 4.12

Watch this Head Teacher as he talks about peer observation

As you listen note down in your Teacher Notebook:

• How peer observation works in St Edmunds Primary School
• How peer observation has helped the school
• What the impact of good lesson preparation by the teachers has been.

Did you notice...

• peer observation is less disruptive than formal demonstration lessons with lots of observers
• all teachers are involved in both teaching and observing
• teachers are preparing themselves more effectively which Alick suggests has led to improved attendance
• teachers are more confident in their teaching and more enthusiastic about being observed
• learners are achieving more.

Example 4.8: Peer observation

Remember Monica from example 4.7?

Before Monica teaches her next social studies lesson with Grade 2, she asks her colleague, Thomas, if he will observe a pair-work activity she has set up.  She shares her action plan with him.

My action plan is as follows:

My focus is on how I manage the pairs and my time management skills.

1. Plan my questions more carefully to promote thinking
2. Give students a plan to work from on the board – eg number of people, ages, family relationships, animals – this will help all students keep to the task
3. Mix the pairs up so that the students who lose interest or attention, or who find writing difficult are not together
4. Give them clear time warnings for switching roles, and when to start writing the sentences. Let them finish the sentences for homework.
5. Think about how to combine pair work with other approaches.

Before Thomas observes Monica’s activity, they agree that as he observes it, he will focus on how Monica organises a role-playing activity in pairs so that all the students are involved, and how she deals with her time management. She also asks him to comment on her questioning.

Activity 4.13: Organising peer observation

In pairs plan a peer observation based on the checklist above, where you both visit each other’s class.

• First plan a classroom activity. Write down all the decisions you make.  For example, what activity will the learners do and what do you want them to learn from it? Why are you pairing learners in that way? How do you plan to involve all? What questions will you ask? How will you respond to learners?
• Now imagine being observed. What would you like the observer to notice? What is the focus of the observation? Are there particular learners you would like the observer to focus on?

Remember, the purpose for the observation is to analyse learning and what the learners are doing.

Each decide on the focus of your observation and write down two or three objectives for your colleague to focus on when observing you. Then have a feedback session like in the next section and make notes in your Teachers' Notebook.

Activity 4.14: Reflecting on observations

Read the text below about Monica and Thomas as they discuss the peer observation. After you have done this write down the key outcomes of the observation. Take notice of the tone of the conversation – is it judgemental or supportive?

Thomas: How to do you think the activity went?

Monica: I liked how all the learners were engaged in the pair work activity – there was a lot of talking!

Thomas: Why do you think that was?

Monica: I think it was because I mixed up the higher and lower achievers?

Thomas: How else could you have divided them up?

Monica: Sometimes I will let them choose who they work with. I noticed today that Florence hid her work from her partner!

Thomas: Why do you think that was?

Monica: Maybe she was shy? They’re not particular friends.  If you think about it though, in the past they were shouted at for copying! Perhaps I need to explain the point of working in pairs more clearly?

Monica: I was pleased with the way I managed the time – by giving them warnings of when to switch roles, start writing etc they mainly stayed on task!

Thomas: Yes – and most of them finished writing the paragraph.  But about 15 didn’t. 

Monica: They’re the ones who have problems writing – they’re much slower than the rest of the group. Perhaps I could have emphasised the fact they could draw a picture instead a bit more.

Thomas: I thought you resolved that really well by ending the class with the paragraph writing. 

Monica: Yes, because by tomorrow they will have all finished it as homework and that will give the weaker students more confidence?

Thomas: That is a good idea…….I’m going to do that too

Did you notice...

• Thomas, as the observer asks questions rather than passes judgement
• the focus of both conversations was on what the learners were doing
• by thinking about why things worked or didn’t the teacher will be able to make improvements.

Activity 4.15: Drafting my personal peer-observation plan

Draft a personal plan for peer observation for the full year and make it an ongoing part of your professional development.

Remember to:

• observe a variety of colleagues in a range of subjects or Grades: we have seen through the activities in this course that teachers can learn from colleagues who teach different subjects and grades too
• arrange to observe others but also to be observed
• identify what you want your peer to focus on when they observe  you
• agree a time to share feedback with each other
• ask the question or reflect in the question: ‘How do you think the activity went?’
• focus on what the learners did
• focus on what worked well
• discuss ways in which the lesson might be improved.

Activity 4.16: Reflecting on your professional development

Look back through your Teacher Notebook and make a summary of some of the main things you have learned in this course.

What has helped you to learn? Are there any critical incidents that made a big impact on you? Think back to last term – write down any ways in which your lessons are different now.

Discuss your reflections with a colleague and set yourselves three targets each for next month. Think about the things that you think you need to improve and what you can do to achieve that improvement. 

Complete the quiz here