Using Tarsia, TaskMagic and Triptico in music

We've been using Tarsia , TaskMagic and Triptico resources (the three Ts) for months - in some cases, for years - in our MFL lessons.  Today, we have run a full day of Theory Club with our students who are taking the ABRSM Theory exam next Tuesday.  We did the usual - had loads of theory sheets to hand, mini whiteboard pens laminated past-exam papers etc.  However, in addition, we had the trhee Ts to hand.  Thanks to @valleseco, we discovered putting pictures into Tarsia only this week (thanks!) and put images of tonic triads, of key signatures, key musical images onto the cards, to be matched to their "word version".  At the start of they day, they completed a Tarsia (against the clock) and then twice later in the day, tried to 'beat their time' - all recorded on the whiteboard.  A colleague prepared 'order it' and 'spinner' activities using Triptico which were brilliant to facilitte discussion with the children.  TaskMagic was brilliant for sorting other ways of matching definitions to 'header words'.  We teach music and MFL every day of the week, but in our Music room, we have no projector etc., as a result, we forget that the things we so readily use in MFL lessons are neglected in Music.  What a liberating day.  At the end of the day, we genuinely couldn't believe how quickly the four hours of theory flew by - engagement and involvement were both excellent.  Oh, and progress?  By the end of today, children who regularly attain 68-74 were attaining between 76 and 92!  Progress was definitely made.

Holidays

We all know that holidays aren't always 'away from school'. There are times when the children really want some extra help and the end of the day is not always conducive to great progress - usually due to their fatigue (and ours!) - many of our students have 6 hours of lessons in a day, with some Year 11s facing 7 hours on occasion. So, the holidays it is.

Today, I have worked with some truly admirable sixteen year olds who WANTED to spend a couple of hours developing writing skills and practising German grammar - out of CHOICE! That, for me, is the definition of job satisfaction. Children who are motivated and who want to learn more and more and more! I spent a fab three hours with a few of them today, and the motivation to study German post-16 is clear. I don't mind losing a few hours out of my holiday if that is the result. :-)

I've loved this week ...

... having read lots of people's snippets about ililc3 (I really MUST go next year - will have to hope for a concert-free weekend), it reignited my enthusiasm for a few things.  You forget so easily about ideas that you previously used really frequently.



This week, we've done tarsia puzzles, used the iPads to self-assess, explored other ideas within triptico, set lesson objectives using co-ordinates to get the kids practising their numeracy skills, done carousel lessons - it's been great.  One of my high points this week was when one of my Year 11 German group exclaimed that they must have learned 'stuff' this week, because the tarsia puzle took about 15 minutes on Tuesday, but when they did it again today, it took only 3 minutes - "it proves I've learned something, Miss!".  Loved it :-)

Learning about Learning Objectives

For years I've thought that there must be better ways to introduce objectives.  I'd never been that innovative with them.  A couple of weeks ago, I happened across a fantastic slideshare and have used several over the past few weeks.  I've told the children that I'm trying lots of different ways and that I want to know what they think.  They love the rebus idea, and really liked seeing Einstein tell them about their planned learning; however, they are not fond of deciphering pictures or of the 'order the learning' idea.  Today, however, I trialled the "arrow" with grade breakdowns - the feedback from the children was phenomenal.  My Year 11 'afternoon' group told me how they felt they had been able to track their progress and to see what they could do and where to go - they set their own 'personal objective' at the start of the lesson and built up to it slowly by the end.  I can't believe what a difference simply by introducing objectives in a different manner.

It's great to see others teach

I saw a colleague teach today - it was brilliant.  I really do consider observing colleagues as a real honour - it is a great learning experience and fantastic in the quest to promote the sharing of ideas.  I listen to lots of teachers, who talk about how examination technique lets some students down across a very wide range of subjects.  If they were all taught in lessons in which the activities and the processes involved required the students to think about things in an 'in an exam' situation - even without this being explicit - then, I am sure that this would not be such a regular feature.  Did this structure ruin the lesson?  No!  Did it turn the students off?  No!  A completely mixed ability class was wholheartedly engaged with the learning, with the materials, and most importantly, with the language - the children wanted to succeed.  This was clearly not a 'special' lesson, but was part of the group's ordinary routine.  They were engaged, motivated, encouraged and supported in an expert manner, which was, in turn, designed to help the children not only to use the langauge, but also to be able to answer examination-style question.

"Getting in the Examiner's Head"

My GCSE German class are working really hard, sometimes in the face of adversity.  We have one academic year in which to cover the specification, and some of the students haven't studied German before this year.  They are working really well towards their goals (each different, and some surpassing even their wildest dreams at the moment!).  I am really proud of them for their hard work and commitment to their learning; however, the nature of our course makes it a little tricky sometimes.  We try hard to do some special 'exam paper focus' in between units and modules, and we've just reached the end of a mini unit, so have spent some time this week looking at exam stategy.


In one lesson, I gave the children the questions for the reading exam paper and the German texts and asked them to match it all together - to recreate the exam paper.  Once they had decided which questions and texts belonged together, they had to consider the level of dificulty (and the cognitive challenge involved) of each question and try to reconstruct the exam paper in order from question 1 through to the end.  They worked together really well.

Once they had completed their reconstruction, they had to respond to the questions; however, their groups were complete mixed ability, with one B+ student, 2 C/D border students, and one level 1 student per group - to complete the paper in their groups, the B+ student was not allowed to 'answer' any questions, but could only offer advice, through the use of questions.  The others worked together to decipher the texts and annotated with how they had arrived at the answers.


We talked about what we had learned through the activity - one student stressed that he is always surprised that there are no "translate" questions(!), another commented that he had read more of the exam paper doing this activity than he does normally when doing exam questions, others talked about how they understood the examiner a little more because they had apparently 'done their job'.  My favourite was the child who told me that he had "got inside the examiner's head" and understood a little more about what made the examiner choose the questions that were written on the paper and was more conscious about the actual questions and what was being asked of him as the candidate.

I have never done this before, but will certainly be doing it again - it worked really well.  It is on days like this that I appreciate having 2 hour lessons.  I'm really pleased that I tried this activity :-)