An Ethic of Excellence in the Classroom

A Passion for beautiful work….

Just one teacher’s core belief?

• I believe that work of excellence is transformational – Ron Berger

• Because it leads to a new self image

• An appetite for excellence

• Builds pride in excellence

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/jan/23/books.usa

How do we aspire to this vision of excellence in action?

• Shift the focus of our work in the classroom from quantity to quality

• To enable an Ethic of Craftsmanship

• To enable An Ethic of Excellence

Essential First steps…

• Become an Archiver of Excellence…• Start your lessons with a taste of excellence.• Introduce your students to models of great work

by their predecessors – allow them to see themselves as standing on the shoulders of giants.

• Admire the work; explore and discuss its power. Set excellence as the aim.

• Carry portfolios of excellence forward into the future.

Three Dedicated Toolboxes

• A School Culture of Excellence

• Work of Excellence

• Teaching of Excellence

Quality Work

• Needs re-thinking, reworking, polishing.• Students who do this need to be celebrated for

their commitment.• Doesn’t discourage if it becomes the expectation

of how students will learn.• Allow students to choose a favourite version and

justify their choices through critiques.• Yearly presentations of the students best work to

administrators, teachers, school governors members, local officials.

Models – An ethos of Excellence

• Models set the standard for what student’s are aiming for.

• They excite interest.• Provide challenge.• Provide opportunities for analysing strengths

and weaknesses.• Joint exploration of what success looks like.• Your classroom itself can be a model of

excellence.

Critique

• Berger suggests that teachers take critique to a whole new level and make critique a habit of mind that suffuses the classroom in all subjects.

• Make them a cornerstone of your class practice and the informal culture of critique they spawn is at the core of work improvement.

• Mr.Hall’s experience of Maths!

The Power of Critique• Not just about the author• A primary context for sharing knowledge

and skills with a group• Analysing together in guided sessions• Build excitement for and understanding of,

the incredible learning potential in looking carefully at student work.

• Refining the criteria and vision of excellence.

A Protocol for Critique

• Be kind the environment must feel safe and free from sarcasm.

• Be Specific avoid comments like It’s good or I really like it ; these are timewasters.

• Be helpful the goal is to help the individual and the class, not for the critic to be heard, echoing the thoughts of others. This, too, wastes time.

The Guidelines

• Begin with the author explaining the ideas and goals, and explaining what particular aspects of the work they are seeking help with.

• Critique the work not the person.• Begin with a positive and then move on to

constructive criticism. • Use I statements I am confused by this…• Use a question format I am curious why you

chose to begin with this or Have you considered including…?

Two Distinct Critique Formats• Gallery Critique the work of every child

is displayed to be read. Generates desire to be involved , generating models of strong work, setting the tone for the whole class standard.

• In depth Critique Look at the work of one child or group and spend time critiquing it thoroughly. Allows teaching of vocab and concepts of the discipline the work emerges from and modelling improvement.

Making Work Public

• Using Assessment to build stronger students

• If students developed and presented portfolios of their work parents would get a clear picture of their child’s skill levels achievements and learning style.

• Year Nine book inspections

Assessment

• Assessment starts in the wrong place – it’s not done to students but goes on inside them.

• Is this good enough? Do I feel comfortable handing it in? Does it meet my standards?

• Changing assessment at this level should be the most important assessment goal of every student.

• The question is how do we affect self assessment so that students have higher standards for their behaviour and work?