'When suddenly, thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This line constitutes part of a reading test that Upper Key Stage 2 may take this year. It is also the key information for what is actually a rather tricky question.
Why does Alice not hurt herself when she falls down the well?
So what do the majority of children do? They utilise the skills that we have taught them, locate the key information and quite rightly answer, 'Alice doesn't hurt herself because she landed on a heap of sticks and dry leaves'. WRONG. At least it is wrong so far as it isn't what the mark scheme wants you to write. We teachers speak often of different types of questions and how we can best arm our miniature soldiers for facing them and this gem is down to interpretation. The correct answer in this instance, according to the mark scheme, is that she was dreaming and therefore couldn't have hurt herself. I personally think that is a long stretch for a 9 year old to work out especially when you consider that most are going to be facing this text for the first time with perhaps only a vague knowledge of this story as a film. In fact I feel that many adults would perhaps have answered in a similar way.
Welcome to the wonderful world of interpretive questioning.
This is, not to put too fine a point on it, a minefield of misinformation and frankly a bizarre way to view reading. Many of our greatest stories are now pushed through to the big screen where many decry 'ah but it's not as good as the book'. Why? Why is that? Largely because it wasn't how they imagined it. We all had a different image of Hogwarts castle in our mind, a different understanding of how invisibility works when you wear the one ring and a different way to pronounce the BFG's wonderful idioms. This isn't to criticise those films in the slightest, but it is important to remember when discussing books with children that interpretation is individual. True there may be many views that are shared by the majority. However that doesn't prevent someone from seeing a situation in a different way.
The Alice example is a good one. One can interpret from the text that Alice is an adventurous girl and therefore likely to be an active child, one happy to climb trees and explore her surroundings. Therefore a perfectly legitimate interpretation as to why she didn't hurt herself in her fall is the fact that is experienced in climbing and falling and simply knew what to do upon hitting the ground. I know this is a somewhat exaggerated example but if we insist on telling children there is a right answer (at least in terms of tests) then we must explicitly discuss the difference between their own interpretation and one that is deemed universal.
During whole class reading we spend a deal of time looking at how we can interpret different stories. Take the opening chapter of Cogheart by Peter Bunzl. We examined who John was and why he was in an airship with a mechanical fox. As we read we naturally start making assumptions, this is true of adults as well as children. I stress to my class that as long as they can evidence their interpretation it is valid and worth discussing. We came up with over a dozen different interpretations, some are included here.
1. John is an escaped convict and the future police are chasing him. (We discussed how likely this was as our own knowledge of police would have suggested some sort of warning that he should surrender and that him being a bad person seemed unlikely as he selflessly allows Malkin to escape.)
2. John is running away because he has stolen Malkin and he must be valuable as he is a talking fox. (We discussed that Malkin seems to care for John as he tries to save him and that as they are in a flying ship clearly robotics have developed in the future.)
3. Lily must be John's wife because he sends his last message to her and asks Malkin to help her. (On the evidence we had at the time of finishing Chapter 1 this is an entirely sound interpretation of the facts.)
In fact Lily isn't John's wife, however we spent time discussing who else she could be and decided collectively that a perhaps more accurate interpretation would be that she is someone John cares about and has a bond with as he uses the term 'My Lily'.
This is what I refer to as the Second Layer of Interpretation.
The First Layer is simply walking alongside the main character, as we would in our daily lives. Alice didn't hurt herself because she landed on sticks and leaves. Straightforward, almost a retrieval question in it's simplicity.
In the Second we try to detach from the world we have joined in our reading and start to analyse what may have happened in the events prior to the ones we are part of. Alice didn't hurt herself as she is an adventurous girl and therefore experienced in climbing and falling. These are leaps and are often based on our own knowledge or experiences and thus individual.
In the Third layer we then talk about what is the most logical interpretation, have we considered all of the events in detail that could influence our understanding. Alice is a perfect example here, if we went back to the very beginning of the text it tells us that she is sleepy. If we were interpreting and analysing thoroughly then we may come to the conclusion that she doesn't hurt herself as she is in fact dreaming.
This is a very hard skill, it requires holding multiple themes and pieces of information simultaneously in the readers mind for perhaps the entire text or story. However it is a skill that is worth tackling. Not just to answer questions but to fully appreciate and understand themes, emotions and consequences in many texts. Imagine if we had known that Snape had cried over Lily Potter's body whilst Harry was still in his crib, our interpretation of his behaviour throughout the rest of the Harry Potter saga would have been entirely different.
It takes time to develop this way of thinking within a classroom, a lot of it is talk based and sharing ideas. I now give my class an interpretation and they must find evidence to disprove it. We do this together, we examine action and consequence and they are far better at empathising now than ever before.
Wednesday 25 October 2017
Sunday 15 October 2017
'You teach primary? But you're a bloke?'
'You'll be expected to lift things, get things off shelves and carry anything that's heavy. Say no. Do not let yourself be defined by your gender.'
This was the instruction I received at The University of Winchester in 2010 during my Men in Teaching lecture. It was held in a room built for 200 yet there were only 7 of us. 7 out of 75 on my course. For a few it was a second career. The whole thing, for me, felt farcical. Firstly the assumption that women are somehow incapable of lifting things and secondly that I would refuse to help. Why if I would help someone carry their shopping or get something off a high shelf in a supermarket would I not help future colleagues that ask for it? This kind of confusion over gender identity in schools is dangerous and has a real tangible impact.
Fast forward 7 years and the number of men teaching in primary schools sits at around 15%. Why? What prevents men from joining the teaching profession, from inspiring our youngest minds and from taking on an incredibly hard, but fulfilling challenge?
A significant part of the problem is pay. Let's not beat around the bush, teachers are not paid well. With men still representing 59% of the main earners in a household, pay naturally has an impact. This is why so many men want to climb the ladder so quickly. To maximise earnings in a sector that they love and wish to remain in. This is the quandary I myself am in. However this can't be the only reason.
It seems to me it's reputation. Or lack of reputation for male teachers in primary. Even more so if you want to work with our youngest children.
I genuinely feel that for many men primary teaching is simply not presented as a 'normal' career option. I have lost count of the number of sympathetic 'oh that's nice' responses when I tell people what I do, lost count of the confused looks and 'did you not fancy secondary?' It's not a joke, it's a real issue and many male teachers have got in touch with me to discuss their experiences. Lots of them unfortunately are rooted in safeguarding. Their is an underlying suspicion of men in primary, one that people do not speak of but is certainly there.
Once children reach Upper Key Stage 2 they generally split to get changed. This works fine if there happens to be a male and female in say a 2 form school. But what if it was 2 men? I don't enter the room when the girls are changing but teachers, and teaching assistants that are female, will think nothing at all of walking in on the boys? One teacher contacted me to say his TA actually entered the room saying 'it's ok boys I've seen it all before!' Let's be frank this is blatant sexism, there is an assumption being made that I am a risk or that I'm under suspicion. An assumption not made of female colleagues. It gets worse when changing for swimming or water sports is involved. I have been told of female members of staff that have stayed inside communal changing rooms whilst children change, admittedly this was several years ago and was to 'stop them mucking around' but it sent a shiver down my spine imagining the headlines if I were to do such a thing. Children routinely fling their arms round female colleagues, especially younger ones, I have fantastic support in my current school but in previous ones I've been told that I'm not allowed to receive a hug because I'm male. In a primary school in Liverpool a male teacher was told children couldn't sit on his lap if upset but could if it was a female member of staff. When he challenged this it was met with 'well you're a bloke.' Apparently we can't be trusted.
In pubs I've been drunkenly asked 'you teach primary, just enjoy hanging around with little kids eh?' and 'guy teachers always worry me, it's like vicars isn't it, they love touching kids too.' Disgusting and thank goodness rare but these kind of interactions are not unheard of and most male teachers you speak to will have had comments of a similar ilk directed at them.
Working in an industry dominated by women has many benefits but it can have its drawbacks. Many men report feeling isolated and locked out of conversation with staff rooms simply not worth visiting. Others that spoke to me about being mothered and treated like little school boys themselves having to leave their school in search of respect and to be treated as a professional, an equal.
WomenEd do a fantastic job in supporting aspiring and existing female leaders in schools but if I were starting my career again I see nobody supporting people like me. Nobody representing or helping young men who want to work with small children. The farce of 'don't lift anything for anyone' entirely misses the point, lifting something doesn't change anything. The negative assumptions that surround men in schools, the almost sympathetic attitudes from the public and the lack of awareness of male viewpoints among the faculty are all, I believe, impacting on numbers of men in primary settings. Being a man in a primary school can be very lonely.
I now work in a fanatic school where I feel respected, my opinions valued and I geneuinely believe that all staff are treated equally and have the support of SLT but sadly this is simply not the case everywhere. Within an hour of asking for thoughts and experiences from my twitter followers I received 12 messages of concern and 2 from people that have left the profession over related issues. They speak of feeling isolated and not fitting in. The vast majority of teachers of both genders are wonderful, fantastic people that would never mean to generalise men or women for that matter. However these issues are occuring, they are effecting moral and there are men leaving the industry because of it. Something needs to be changed going forward, conversations need to be had or the problems will persist.
All anecdotes have been anonymised at the request of those people that submitted them to me. They have come from teachers all over the country.
This was the instruction I received at The University of Winchester in 2010 during my Men in Teaching lecture. It was held in a room built for 200 yet there were only 7 of us. 7 out of 75 on my course. For a few it was a second career. The whole thing, for me, felt farcical. Firstly the assumption that women are somehow incapable of lifting things and secondly that I would refuse to help. Why if I would help someone carry their shopping or get something off a high shelf in a supermarket would I not help future colleagues that ask for it? This kind of confusion over gender identity in schools is dangerous and has a real tangible impact.
Fast forward 7 years and the number of men teaching in primary schools sits at around 15%. Why? What prevents men from joining the teaching profession, from inspiring our youngest minds and from taking on an incredibly hard, but fulfilling challenge?
A significant part of the problem is pay. Let's not beat around the bush, teachers are not paid well. With men still representing 59% of the main earners in a household, pay naturally has an impact. This is why so many men want to climb the ladder so quickly. To maximise earnings in a sector that they love and wish to remain in. This is the quandary I myself am in. However this can't be the only reason.
It seems to me it's reputation. Or lack of reputation for male teachers in primary. Even more so if you want to work with our youngest children.
I genuinely feel that for many men primary teaching is simply not presented as a 'normal' career option. I have lost count of the number of sympathetic 'oh that's nice' responses when I tell people what I do, lost count of the confused looks and 'did you not fancy secondary?' It's not a joke, it's a real issue and many male teachers have got in touch with me to discuss their experiences. Lots of them unfortunately are rooted in safeguarding. Their is an underlying suspicion of men in primary, one that people do not speak of but is certainly there.
Once children reach Upper Key Stage 2 they generally split to get changed. This works fine if there happens to be a male and female in say a 2 form school. But what if it was 2 men? I don't enter the room when the girls are changing but teachers, and teaching assistants that are female, will think nothing at all of walking in on the boys? One teacher contacted me to say his TA actually entered the room saying 'it's ok boys I've seen it all before!' Let's be frank this is blatant sexism, there is an assumption being made that I am a risk or that I'm under suspicion. An assumption not made of female colleagues. It gets worse when changing for swimming or water sports is involved. I have been told of female members of staff that have stayed inside communal changing rooms whilst children change, admittedly this was several years ago and was to 'stop them mucking around' but it sent a shiver down my spine imagining the headlines if I were to do such a thing. Children routinely fling their arms round female colleagues, especially younger ones, I have fantastic support in my current school but in previous ones I've been told that I'm not allowed to receive a hug because I'm male. In a primary school in Liverpool a male teacher was told children couldn't sit on his lap if upset but could if it was a female member of staff. When he challenged this it was met with 'well you're a bloke.' Apparently we can't be trusted.
In pubs I've been drunkenly asked 'you teach primary, just enjoy hanging around with little kids eh?' and 'guy teachers always worry me, it's like vicars isn't it, they love touching kids too.' Disgusting and thank goodness rare but these kind of interactions are not unheard of and most male teachers you speak to will have had comments of a similar ilk directed at them.
Working in an industry dominated by women has many benefits but it can have its drawbacks. Many men report feeling isolated and locked out of conversation with staff rooms simply not worth visiting. Others that spoke to me about being mothered and treated like little school boys themselves having to leave their school in search of respect and to be treated as a professional, an equal.
WomenEd do a fantastic job in supporting aspiring and existing female leaders in schools but if I were starting my career again I see nobody supporting people like me. Nobody representing or helping young men who want to work with small children. The farce of 'don't lift anything for anyone' entirely misses the point, lifting something doesn't change anything. The negative assumptions that surround men in schools, the almost sympathetic attitudes from the public and the lack of awareness of male viewpoints among the faculty are all, I believe, impacting on numbers of men in primary settings. Being a man in a primary school can be very lonely.
I now work in a fanatic school where I feel respected, my opinions valued and I geneuinely believe that all staff are treated equally and have the support of SLT but sadly this is simply not the case everywhere. Within an hour of asking for thoughts and experiences from my twitter followers I received 12 messages of concern and 2 from people that have left the profession over related issues. They speak of feeling isolated and not fitting in. The vast majority of teachers of both genders are wonderful, fantastic people that would never mean to generalise men or women for that matter. However these issues are occuring, they are effecting moral and there are men leaving the industry because of it. Something needs to be changed going forward, conversations need to be had or the problems will persist.
All anecdotes have been anonymised at the request of those people that submitted them to me. They have come from teachers all over the country.
Sunday 8 October 2017
The wonders of read theory!
Ok so I'm not normally one to leap on a fad or bandwagon but if you're into reading and you're not on Readtheory get on it now before it's too late and they start charging £500 and a highly understanding SLT per pupil. In all seriousness a fairly weighty pay per child must be on the way and relatively soon it, simply is that good.
So for those of you that don't know what it is let me give you a quick run through. Readtheory.org is an easy to manage and easy to use online reading bananza. Think mathletics with books and none of the razzmatazz that many children I feel have grown out of by Year 5. Readtheory centres on the idea that a broad knowledge of different text types and text content helps improve overall reading potential. But Mr King, I hear you cry (or yawn, let's be honest I'm writing this on a Sunday morn,) how does it work? Well my young padawan let me tell you.
Ok, so a child logs in using a username you assign them and a password you've given them (setting up is sped up inexplicably by the very logical fact they can all have the same password, thank you logic). They then tackle 8 assessment questions. These 8 questions are then analysed and a level is assigned. One negative here (yes they do exist) is that this is an entirely American site and therefore levels etc are listed as Grades not Years but as super talented teachers I am sure you can tackle that little cultural enigma. Once through some rather tricky presassessment questions the texts are then selected to specifically suit the level your child is operating at. Not only that but as over time as their performance improves the texts automatically become more challenging. Thus continually stretching them. All of this data, all of it, you can see in easy to read graphs and charts. You can see how every child has performed on every text they've tackled AND see which questions they've got wrong. This is the final hidden gem in the Readtheory treasure chest. When a child gets a question wrong, it tells them why, it's explains in a text box where the right answer can be located. Now true you don't know if the child's read this but if you're developing the right attitude towards reading then they should have.
This is not a bid to replace books; please don't kill me. However we are in an age where a world of information and knowledge has never been so accessible. These texts are short 5-10 minutes a piece and cover topics as diverse as The Burj Khalifa and mushroom growing. A variety of ways that we digest written content I feel is integral when developing life long readers.
That's about it. Going forward we will be using this in group interventions, whole classroom reading where I'll use Plickers assessment app to gauge how each child copes with a text. There are even free online papers you can print off and give to the children.
If you're keen to develop reading, make it fresh, exciting and fast paced then give Readtheory a go. You won't be disappointed.
So for those of you that don't know what it is let me give you a quick run through. Readtheory.org is an easy to manage and easy to use online reading bananza. Think mathletics with books and none of the razzmatazz that many children I feel have grown out of by Year 5. Readtheory centres on the idea that a broad knowledge of different text types and text content helps improve overall reading potential. But Mr King, I hear you cry (or yawn, let's be honest I'm writing this on a Sunday morn,) how does it work? Well my young padawan let me tell you.
Ok, so a child logs in using a username you assign them and a password you've given them (setting up is sped up inexplicably by the very logical fact they can all have the same password, thank you logic). They then tackle 8 assessment questions. These 8 questions are then analysed and a level is assigned. One negative here (yes they do exist) is that this is an entirely American site and therefore levels etc are listed as Grades not Years but as super talented teachers I am sure you can tackle that little cultural enigma. Once through some rather tricky presassessment questions the texts are then selected to specifically suit the level your child is operating at. Not only that but as over time as their performance improves the texts automatically become more challenging. Thus continually stretching them. All of this data, all of it, you can see in easy to read graphs and charts. You can see how every child has performed on every text they've tackled AND see which questions they've got wrong. This is the final hidden gem in the Readtheory treasure chest. When a child gets a question wrong, it tells them why, it's explains in a text box where the right answer can be located. Now true you don't know if the child's read this but if you're developing the right attitude towards reading then they should have.
This is not a bid to replace books; please don't kill me. However we are in an age where a world of information and knowledge has never been so accessible. These texts are short 5-10 minutes a piece and cover topics as diverse as The Burj Khalifa and mushroom growing. A variety of ways that we digest written content I feel is integral when developing life long readers.
That's about it. Going forward we will be using this in group interventions, whole classroom reading where I'll use Plickers assessment app to gauge how each child copes with a text. There are even free online papers you can print off and give to the children.
If you're keen to develop reading, make it fresh, exciting and fast paced then give Readtheory a go. You won't be disappointed.
Tuesday 3 October 2017
Get attached to the unattached
Like most teachers I've taught a range of children from a range of backgrounds. Some rich, some poor, some dirty, some clean, some happy and sadly, some sad. But without a shadow of a doubt the most challenging are those that haven't formed the appropriate bond with parents and primary care givers. Those that suffer from what we know as attachment disorder. The overwhelming and at times overriding breakdown of positive and long lasting meaningful relationships. This normally effects homelife but unsurprisingly all to often impacts on classroom behaviour.
So how does this look in class? Anything from silence, to downright violence. Many children and adults for that matter that suffer from attachment disorder would find it difficult to tell you what is 'wrong' if 'wrong' is even an appropriate way to phrase it. I've struggled with this, challenged my own pedagogy and read at length about ways to adapt my own teaching to help and come up with three steps I've taken that have brought some success.
Number 1. Hand shakes, I shake hands with every child as soon as they walk through the door, every single day no matter if they are clean or grubby, wet or sweaty we shake hands and wish eachother a good morning. Out of my current crop of 32, 3 knew how to shake hands on day 1. Now they line up eager with anticipation to grasp my relatively gorilla like paw (I'm 6:4 they are about 5 foot.) For many of these children they've never thought anyone would want to shake their hands or at least it just never occurred to them and sadly I've heard detractors of others doing this joking about needing hand sanitizer after doing it. This kind of emphasises the point, the idea of a seperation between child and adult, educator and pupil. Sadly an increasing number of children are seen as an add on to life rather than a purpose to it. Treat them as the most important thing in the whole world, just for that one moment, ask what they had for breakfast, check in as to how they slept. Show them that discussing printing with your TA or nipping off to grab a tea quickly can wait, it doesn't really matter to a child who may have never been hugged.
Number 2. Build in talking but more importantly listening. Last week I was sat on a table with two children that had been in the same class for four years. One the daughter of a vicar, one the son of a church organiser. Neither knew the other was religious. Why? Because we are too scared to embrace conversation sometimes and two scared to encourage a sinple chat (whilst doing work), we are too concerned someone will walk in and overhear me asking 'so what's the best bit of Sunday school?' and question what I'm doing. We've lost to a degree the soul of working with children, we are too apprehensive of becoming part of their lives and allowing them to be part of ours. Plonk yourself down next to a child you've not engaged with enough, open a fresh pack of colouring pencils and let them in for just ten minutes. Find the time. It's possible. It is. Because nothing is more important. For too long I've obsessessed over making sure everything's taught in exactly the right way and ignored making sure everyONE is taught in exactly the right way. For some children learning which Greek philosophers are significant today is totally irrelevant compared to you saying that you love their drawing or their trainers are really cool. If they don't feel you care about them you'll never understand them and you'll struggle to help them learn. I am still what I consider a strict teacher but I've never had so many children simply want to spend time with me as the bond is now so strong.
3. Be the sanctuary. I was recently being spoken to by an ed psych. Incidentally his name was Dr Xavier, I couldn't get a surname I was too wrapped up in Xmen puns to ask. But anyway, he was utterly on point. He knew his stuff inside, outside and anyother way his mutant students could go. I plucked up my courage and asked him, 'it's all well and good helping those with attachment disorder that have been removed from the home, but what about those still in it who are still living it?' He very simply answered, 'be their sanctuary'. Show them that there is light in what may be a pretty awful existence, nurture the flame of humanity that still flickers somewhere, ignore the snotty nose, the grubby top and let them just be them. With a world obsessed with data, acknowledge that sometimes just being in school each day is a great achievement. I hate the ultra cool trying too hard clichès that float around education these days (especially twitter) but it is sadly true when we say, for some of these children school may be the best time of their life, the only constant, their port in a storm.
It's easy to forget this till you're faced with a 9 year old who won't cry anymore because they learnt at 9 months nothing ever changes when they do.
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