TLA Key Priorities - Long Term Learning

Welcome to Topic 1, this topic will form the start of your journey in recapping LTL, starting with Planning for LTL. We will also look at the expectations on each and every teacher/assessor to support LTL.

When thinking about Long Term Learning you should ask yourself a number of questions:

• What do I want the learners to remember?
• How will I ensure the learners remember this for the long term?
• What can I do to make this happen?

Objectives

• 1. Discuss what to think about when creating your planning to include the sequencing and scheduling of learning

• 2. Assess how you implement the concepts around planning for learning already 

• 3. Devise a plan to start your scheme or schedule of learning, including any other planning documents that are required

DON'T FORGET TO WRITE THESE DOWN SO YOU CAN REFLECT ON YOUR ACHIEVEMENT AT THE END OF THE MODULE!

Starter Activity: Watch this video as an introduction to Long Term Learning and memory. In your opinion, what role does lesson planning play in this?

Planning is very important to learners’ developing and growing in the knowledge and skills they need. An effective teacher thoughtfully plans lessons ahead of instruction, defining goals and objectives, and developing engaging learning activities. Yet lesson plans only are one type of planning. They look at the short-term. Let’s not forget about the long-term view for curriculum over a whole school year or term. A long-term curriculum plan is a great tool to help you plan your terms with the end in mind and set the route for how learning will take place.

The Value of Long-Term Curriculum Planning
A long-term plan is a general outline of how to accomplish major curriculum goals of the academic year. It gives a big picture view, with the beginning of the year or term as your “starting point” and the end of the year or term as your “destination.” Think of it as a navigation plan that you might use to get to a store. A long-term plan, with major curriculum goals placed along the path, allows you to know where you are going and how you will get there. It is helpful in that you do not have to have every detail of the plan or pathway figured out for it to keep you focused and on-track towards your destination. It becomes a reference tool for the remainder of the term for which you planned.

Using a Long-Term Curriculum Plan
Remember, a long-term plan is a guide, meaning it is flexible. It provides the structure you need but allows you to create  lesson plans based on your students’ needs and other needs that arise.  When you know where you are going, you have the freedom and flexibility to respond to students’ needs and interests and not be frustrated by the unexpected.  A long-term curriculum plan is a powerful tool focused on bringing transformation to the lives of students.

What is sequencing? 

When looking at sequencing ask yourself the following questions: 

• 1. Do any of the topics (units) cross over?
• 2. Can you cross reference to support the learning process?
• 3. Do any learning topics flow directly into each other?

Think about how you are sequencing the topics/themes/units to ensure LTL and your learners memory increases. 

What is scheduling?

It is important to have a structure and schedule in planning for LTL.

You should think about:

• 1. How will you schedule your programme, area of study, topics and learning sessions?
• 2. How will you schedule your assessments to support LTL?
• 3. What type of assessment will you use? Why? (see more detail in the last topic within this area of study- "Assessment for Long Term Learning"

Remember the 7 Ps of Planning

PROPER PLANNING AND PREPARATION PREVENTS PAINFULLY POOR PERFORMANCE! 

Planning for long term learning is extremely important to ensure that learners remember the information we give them, therefore, your planning needs to be the best it can be.

Your planning documentation is essential for you as a teacher to ensure that the teaching, learning and assessment you facilitate is always of the highest possible quality. Any planning documentation you have (for Coventry College there are 3 key documents we expect) must be comprehensive enough for a cover teacher/assessor or someone checking this planning (e.g in the event of a complaint), to see exactly what you have done, are doing, and will be doing in the future. 

Planning for Impact  

When planning, thinking about when/where you want your assessment is crucial.

You should include 5 types of assessments:

1. Initial Assessment - For Coventry College this is done by the use of prior achievement data in order for us to enrol learners on the correct level of programme/area of study. 

2. Diagnostic of skills, knowledge and behaviours - in order to ensure that each learner is on the correct level of study and you are aware of all the areas for development/missing KSB, a diagnostic must be undertaken. This will ensure you have a 360degree view of each of your learners starting points, which can them be used to change TLA to support them. Each learner's diagnostic should the inform their initial target setting (facilitated by teachers at induction).

To clarify, all learners, within the first few weeks must have undertaken a initial assessment in each and every area of study within their programme, this includes vocational teaching. Teachers must use their skill to develop appropriate initial assessment/diagnostics where they are not already provided by a digital platform. It is expected that every teacher will create a diagnostic and this will be for all vocational areas of study in addition to English and maths e.g Level 1 Science. This will help learners create targets in ProPortal/Monitor and assist teachers to plan learning effectively.

3. Informal formative assessment (AFL/low stakes/in classroom activity)

4. Formal formative assessments (Dry runs/mock tests/formal practical sessions)

5. Summative assessment 

These need to be strategically placed within your planning to ensure you are assessing learners throughout, are giving every learner an opportunity to "get it right first time", and can therefore track learner progress much more effectively. Dry runs in particular, when done correctly, have been proven to save marking time. Who would pass that opportunity by?

You can find more information on the Assessment for LTL course. 

Markbook is currently the place to track summative assessment progress of learners.

By doing the above you will have created your Scheme or Schedule of Learning (which is your key planning document). Your next steps are to ensure the assessments dates you have created as part of your planning are recorded as part of the ProMonitor/Markbook system and therefore are shared with all of your learners. See Topic 3 on this LTL programme.

The below activities guide your through the expectations of assessment schedules. 

Welcome to Topic 2 - Teaching for Long Term Learning (LTL)

By now you should have thought about the sequence and scheduling of learning and started your SOL to show your planning. In this topic we will look at the next step, which is teaching for LTL. We will look at hints, tips and ideas for you to use within your your teaching/assessing to best support learners within your learning sessions. 

Objectives:

• 1. Give examples of how you can measure learners starting points, using teaching tools/TLA activities 

• 2. Explain the importance of regular checks on Long Term Learning 

• 3. Define the term Cognitive Science and give examples of TLA activities, explaining how this can improve LTL

DON'T FORGET TO WRITE THESE DOWN SO YOU CAN REFLECT ON YOUR ACHIEVEMENT AT THE END OF THE MODULE!

First of all you want to know your learners starting points, what do they already know?

• 1. How will you determine the learners starting points/what do they already know?
• 2. What could you use within your learning space to gauge what the learners know? Can you give an example?

REMEMBER - As mentioned in Topic 1 (Planning for LTL) teachers must use their skill to develop appropriate initial assessment/diagnostics where they are not already provided by a digital platform, and all learners need to have completed these and analysis done, so that the teaching you facilitate is the best possible. 

Cognitive Science 

Cognitive Science is the a study of the mind and its processes embracing a wide number of concepts. This is something we need to think about when we are looking at how learners retain information and develop their memory for long term learning. 

 Activity 5: Retrieval Practice

Retrieval practice is the process of trying to recall information without it being in front of you. It is an evidenced-based technique of regular dedicated learning time to retrieving information needed for a test and having this retrieval checked by testing and proper feedback.

Below are some of the activities that can be applied using retrieval practice.

Activity 5 - Pick at least one of these techniques and spend some time putting together a resource for your learners, experiment with it and embed it into your practice. Don’t forget to also share with your team!

Retrieval Practice - Bookmarking

Firstly, choose a different colour for each topic that you teach. Next, obtain different coloured post-it notes/coloured highlighters to bookmark your scheme of learning (or a print out of your interactive session plan (ISP) on Moodle). Now use a number of the same coloured post-its and put them throughout the whole learning programme – each time the coloured post it appears you must do an activity which helps to recall that topic that you taught before.

Activity 6: Dual Coding 

Dual coding is the process of combining verbal materials with visual materials. There are many ways to visually represent material, such as with infographics, timelines, cartoon strips, diagrams, and graphic organizers.

When you have the same information in two formats - words and visuals - it gives you two ways of remembering the information later on. Combining these visuals with words is an effective way to study (Meyer & Anderson, 1992).

Objectives:

• 1. Explain the 5 different types of assessment for LTL

• 2. Determine the difference between each type of assessment

• 3. Explore different examples of assessment and state at least 2 techniques for each type of assessment you will use in your planning for LTL.

DON'T FORGET TO WRITE THESE DOWN SO YOU CAN REFLECT ON YOUR ACHIEVEMENT AT THE END OF THE MODULE!

Diagnostic & Skills Scan 

As you now know, the first stage of assessment is "initial assessment". For our College, this is always done at enrolment to ensure that the right learner is on the right level of programme and each area of their study.

Diagnostic/skills scan is the second stage, as noted before in the previous topics. The best way to create a diagnostic/skills scan is to think about asking a series of questions to determine what learners already know, can do, and whether the behaviours they use are correct. This will enable you as a teacher to be able to adapt your teaching, learning and assessment to meet the needs of all the learners you are accountable for.

Open the below folder to see an example of a vocational based diagnostic/skills scan. Obviously the College already has a digital platform (BKSB/Century) that does this diagnostic for English and maths. The College is looking at investing in a digital platform for vocational subjects also, but in the mean time they must be devised by the teacher. 

Initial Assessment/Diagnostics/Skills Scans must be done at induction and cover the range of criteria/topics/knowledge/skills and behaviours being taught over the whole area of study, they can then be revisited at other points in the learner's journey to see progress. Initial target setting in ProPortal/Monitor (again during induction) should use this information to set personalised targets: 1 Voc/Main Qual, 1 English, 1 Maths and 1 Personal Development - in all cases). Teachers may choose to break down each qualification into bite-size topic initial assessment/diagnostics, this is also appropriate.

Useful tips for Formative Assessment:

Informal formative assessment takes place on a day-to-day basis during teaching and learning. It allows teachers and learners to assess knowledge and support long term learning in a low risk scenario for learners (i.e learners know the outcomes of this are not going to effect their final achievement). 

Below is a image taken from Matt Bromley that shows the BIG 3s OF INFORMAL FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

FORMAL FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT aka "DRY RUNS/MOCK TESTS"

A dry run/mock is a 'dummy' attempt at summative assessment.

THE ASSESSMENT METHOD/SCENARIO OF A DRY RUN/MOCK MUST BE DIFFERENT TO THE PLANNED SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT.

Think about a Summative assessment you have planned for the end of a topic, how could you spin it round to do a 'dry run' to check the learners have all the knowledge to complete the final assessment? 

Could you get them to complete:

• A presentation planned and performed in class
• A question and answer session/mock interview 
• A mock exam 
• Evaluation
• Compare and contrast/manipulatives task
• Paired/group task  

A way to formalise these types of assessment is to use a timer or much more formalised/controlled conditions. Remember the point of a dry run is to test knowledge, skills and behaviours before submitting summative assessment. There is a clear benefit to a learner of doing this: they are able to formally practice what they have learnt and receive comprehensive feedback and support by you the teacher/assessor. The benefit to the teacher is: less marking - WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

How will you actually assess them at this time? Will you give them formative grades? Will you get learners to peer assess? How will you keep track of progress and change the next steps for learners based on the information you gain from this dry run? 

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

This is the learners 'final' assessment, that is often done at the end of a topic or section of learning. Summative Assessment is used to assess the learners overall knowledge, skills and behaviours. This type of assessment is used to determine grades and future directions for learners and so therefore is critically important to a learners progression, highlighting the need to ensure the first 4 types of assessment are the best they can possibly be.  

It's important we get a good mix of both formative and summative assessment in our teaching to ensure LTL. We want the learners to retain as much information as possible and using a good mix of both of these will support that.

This image looks at how you can mix formative and summative assessment. 

Now click on the object below which will allow you to obtain your certificate for LTL.

We hope you have learnt something new or recalled something from your Longer Term Memory today...........!