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[Joseph Sanders Participant]

Thanks to Jenny for her explanation of the changes, with particular focus being drawn to the Cornell noting-style document she kindly created for student use during each debate. Though the jury is still out (the essay I set at the end of the debates is due in after half term), I believe the new style of student-noting has already generated two key benefits;

1. Students feel they can ‘dump’ their knowledge as messily as they want during the debate in the Investigate section of the sheet, before colour-coding each success criterion after the debate in the Construct column, to aid comparison of the factors for pressure group success.

2. The other, more subtle, benefit of the new noting sheet is the sense of freedom it gives to audience members. There is no longer the sense of guilt for not filling out a particular success criterion. Instead, I have made it clear to students that some pressure group debates might not need to reference a factor (let’s say ‘Membership’) as it is not relevant to their success/failure. The original incarnation of the Express record sheet forced students to shoehorn their debate findings into each criterion regardless of relevance. The new version allows choice and illustrates to students that each pressure group case study offers different evidence.

Having modelled the level of detail I would expect from audience members during the first debate of each group, I left it to students to take responsibility for their notes. It was abundantly clear from the off that the more evidence students gleaned, the better their essays would be.

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

The Pressure Group inquiry could not have come at a better time in our scheme of work this year. With remote learning the modus operandi for the foreseeable future, a guided inquiry is the perfect format for teaching in the Summer Term. Jenny and I have been revisiting this regularly for the past year, constantly updating our reflections and ideas on how to improve on the inquiry for Form 6 this time last year. The main focus would be to reinvent the second stage of the inquiry, which last year took the form of a ‘create your own pressure group’ task, in which students needed to apply the theory and evidence they had gathered during the first stage of the inquiry (investigation and debate on the two sides of ‘success/failure’ of a UK rights-based pressure group). Though this produced some breathtaking student work last year, we were concerned with how much utility it added in terms of exam-knowledge.

After some thought, we decided that the exam board specification called for a greater focus on different types of pressure group, and how they have evolved, particularly as one of the 30 mark essay questions on last year’s paper directly probed this area of the spec. The students will already have delved into rights-based pressure groups and the question of their success, so in the second phase of the inquiry, we would hone in on the democratic nature of the following different types of pressure group:

1. Trade Unions

2. Think Tanks

3. Cyberactivists

4. Lobbyists/Corporations

Jenny came up with the superb idea of an investigative journalism task early on in our reflection process. This would allow the creativity that we were so pleased with last year to remain, but would channel it into a specific aspect of knowledge acquisition for the pressure group topic. As time will be of the essence this term, we are minded to keep this second stage of the inquiry tightly-structured, useful, and student-led. Jenny has worked hard to redraft the frameworks for the student Investigation, Construct, Express and Reflect stages to ensure that students, no matter how good their remote learning access is, have a clear plan for their learning. The students will also have room to breathe in terms of following their own inspiration. All of the aspects we liked last year, such as the creation of a ‘product’, peer noting of the key elements of student work, and a meaningful reflection phase, are revamped into this new Orwell Prize task.

One more note on the remote learning aspect, which we are going to stress-test this year, is how well the debate (stage 1 of the inquiry) will work online, rather than face-to-face. Though stage 2 (sharing investigative journalism articles) should be simple enough online, the debate will be a good test of how classroom activities translate in the ether. My opinion pre-inquiry is that, with the well-structured and slightly-adjusted note-taking frameworks (more on that later, I’m sure) that Jenny has adapted, students will have the requisite structure to participate in the debate both as a debater and an audience-member.

The pressure group inquiry is due to begin during the first week of May.

 

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

Hi both,

I’m sorry I’ve rejoined the party a month late. I seem to a have missed a conversation that gets to the very heart of FOSIL and why I chose to approach Jenny about our Politics inquiry in the first place; how do I teach this topic through inquiry?

Sam, you raise a fundamental point about curriculum design and the pitfalls of tacking on a vacuous activity just for fun. I fear we partially fell into this trap last year, though the creation of one’s own pressure group did generate some of the most imaginative and engaging student work I have ever seen (granted, I see a lot of essays, so perhaps my bar is low!). In addition, it moved students up to the higher order thinking skills of application and evaluation, something I know FOSIL is so effective at doing across the board. Nevertheless, as Jenny says, this year, we will be altering the final phase of the inquiry into something that more closely-follows the Politics specification, by utilising real pressure groups. Indeed we have targeted think tanks, cyberactivists, etc owing to the focus the exam board places on these different brands of pressure group.

Coming  back to the main issue, that of knowledge-acquisition, which Jenny has already clarified so thoroughly from the FOSIL perspective (particularly in pointing out the teaching of core topic knowledge that we undertook within the Connect and Wonder stages) and in differentiating  problem solving from inquiry learning. From my Politics teacher standpoint, the thing that prevents inquiry overloading the working memory as the quoted ‘problem-solving’ based research suggests is that the cycle and resources we produce as part of FOSIL make it clear to students that everything we do is of ‘take-home’ importance. Each lesson follows a clear stage of the FOSIL cycle and, as Jenny says, we as ‘mountain guides’ scaffold learning in a way that allows student agency to flourish, whilst never becoming superfluous or overloading. For example, in our debate lessons for UK pressure groups (is group x successful?), the non-debating students are not passive audience members; they are actively completing notes that will prepare them for their exams, whilst also adding value to the arguments of the two debaters by using their own Express and Reflect resources. Everyone in the room knows that they are acquiring new understanding and developing their arguments, but the debaters are also inquiring (and problem solving for that matter) on the spot, in a live debate; pre-empting counter arguments and crafting their own rebuttals. The intrinsic and instrumental value of these FOSIL activities was plain to see throughout the process.

This idea of combining inquiry and knowledge acquisition is now something I strive to achieve as regularly as possible with my students.

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

Jenny is absolutely spot on in her two central assertions here;

1. The student-designed pressure groups were of the very highest quality. Some of the winning presentations were so good we found ourselves wanting to sign up for the pressure group membership quirks they offered! I believe the high calibre of this final express stage is the culmination of the deeper-level thinking that we have witnessed in the earlier investigate, construct and express stages (as seen in the debates). In the main, it is clear that students have engaged well with the success criteria for pressure groups, and produced at least the standard of work we expected.

2. Regardless of the wonderful final products (they really were superb), this task may have been an unnecessary ‘bolt-on’ rather than a vital end-product, central to the process. This has led us to instead consider a more useful (but still formative, inquiry-based and engaging by nature) task, with the two of us providing a selection of varying important pressure groups to focus on. There are some pressure groups that have not been sufficiently investigated and require greater depth of understanding, particularly the comparison of the traditional trade union movements, pitched against modern cyberactivists and think tanks.

The students have undoubtedly gained a mastery of the pressure group topic as a whole, combined with a much improved ability to self-regulate their learning. If we can direct this metacognition towards an improved final task the students will be even better off next time around. The brainstorming of new ideas has already begun!

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

To reinforce Jenny’s message about critical thinking above, a quick note on what the audience does during debates at the Express stage. Whilst the Construct sheets are used for the debaters, non-participants are busy completing their Express sheets, gathering evidence on each side of the argument for each pressure group as they are debated. These are structured in a similar way to the Construct resource; divided into the five success criterion for pressure groups, with space afterwards to form a judgement on whether success has been achieved by each pressure group. As Jenny says, the Express stage is about the quality of the argument, not just a regurgitation of facts in a non-discriminatory fashion. Though only one student has referenced the CRAAP testing explicitly, it is clear that the debates only gained their analytical edge due to the student’s approach to the Investigation before it.

In addition, students complete peer assessment with small Reflect slips for the audience to complete for each debater, providing successes and tips for the speakers. This has two uses; for the students and for us. We are interested to observe peer- and self-reflection as students honestly react to their debate performance, and the process leading up to it. But we also want to take a long view on this inquiry project, and will return to these peer comments when we review the success of each FOSIL stage.

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

Another few lessons into the Politics inquiry, and I am increasingly impressed by the quality of the Express stage. It is testament to the work done during the Connect, Wonder, and Investigate phases that the debates this week have been so informative, critical and demanding. Students made effective use of the blue Construct sheet to plan in analysis that was then implemented during the debates. With only limited guidance from me, students generated impressive back-and-forth arguments. In some cases, I essentially faded into the background as debaters collaboratively ‘argumentatively taught’ the class!

Prior to the debates, students were only provided with two instructions; their pressure group name and the investigative focus (how successful has their assigned pressure group been?). At the beginning of each debate, I then assigned a student to each side of the debate (successful/unsuccessful). Each side would be allowed a one minute opening and closing speech, with the central part of the debate left to students to unpick the different criterion affecting pressure group success from their opposing perspectives. Those who had best-utilised their Construct sheets found this uncertainly in viewpoint easy to handle, as they had already preempted the analysis required to win the debate at the Construct stage.

Students clearly appreciate the FOSIL resources on various levels, not only in their utility in ‘winning’ the debate. The planning sheets also allow the accumulation of relevant and accurate knowledge, vital in the exam. More important, though, is the AO2 Analysis demanded at A Level, which students have now practised on paper and verbally. FOSIL is proving highly effective in tying together inquiry with the assessment objectives of the course.

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

Though we are in the middle of our A Level Politics inquiry into Pressure Groups, I wanted to post a quick update on my collaboration with Jenny on FOSIL-ising essay planning. We still have some tinkering to do on the Connect, Wonder and Investigate stages of the essay wraps, and I need to recalibrate the wording and signposting I use.

Nevertheless, a throwaway student remark last week, about these FOSIL essay wraps, reminded me how valuable our collaboration thus far has been. An able student, who unapologetically has their ‘own way of learning’, said (through gritted teeth) “I don’t like it, but it works”. Fine by me! It is not the first time that resources that I have helped to create have been greeted with such ‘praise’. I have previously utilised the SOLO Taxonomy to produce planning maps for GCSE History. My most able students, who already seemed to have all of the necessary ingredients for success, put up substantial resistance to my new resources. But they understood the process it took them through, and utilised it to great effect.

Sometimes eating your vegetables isn’t the most pleasant aspect of the meal (though I have to say, FOSIL resources all look and taste delicious). If even the most sceptical students can see value in the structure provided by FOSIL wraps, then we are having a positive impact on their mindset and learning habits. The whole premise of the FOSIL cycle is that it becomes, after early scaffolding and modelling, second nature to the students. If we have to firmly nudge students into making good use of the amazing resources at their disposal to begin with, by, for example, marking not only the essay, but the entire FOSIL cycle of the wrap, then so be it. To produce effective metacognition amongst my students, I have to teach them how to do it in the first place.

And this brings me back to the value of FOSIL collaboration again; the FOSIL cycle and subject-specific assessment objectives complement each other – you just need to carve out that small piece of time in your term to get your heads together.

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

We are now right in the middle of the A Level Politics inquiry into Pressure Groups. This week, students have worked through the Construct phase in preparation for the Express stage (debates) in the next lesson. The overwhelming sense we have so far is of genuine, and deep-level, engagement with the inquiry. I believe this can be attributed to two factors;

The first is that I ensured students had a strong foundation of the key terms and definitions in the topic before embarking on the Connect & Wonder stages (although the resource I created to ‘teach’ this introductory element was implicitly Connect- and Wonder-based). This ensured that the Investigate stage was far more accessible.

The second factor affecting such strong motivation is the quality of the FOSIL resources themselves. The scaffolded, intuitive and vibrant direction that the resources provide are well-suited to the needs of all students, whether they are good independent learners already, or not. The standout resource at this stage is the Construct sheet, which not only brings together the content of the Investigation phase, but also begins to frame this newly-found knowledge in an analytical and useful way (both in preparation for the debates and external examinations).

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

Having just run my first full cycle of the essay wrap being used for Form 6 Politics students (an essay on the democratic nature of referenda) , I have a couple of interesting thoughts on the further development of the resource;

1. Could we rethink (merge) the Connect and Wonder stages of the wrap so it resembles a brainstorming page with two different colours?

2. I need to rephrase the connective phrases within the central planner itself, to closer resemble the A -level Assessment Objectives

More to follow…

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

Following Form 6 mock exams, I am now planning to place our FOSIL Politics essay planning wraps at the heart of my interventions for students. I have already set the next source-based 30 mark essay on Referenda, and have insisted that students use two of the planning wraps that Jenny and I have worked on in order to fully consider the process required for success. As is evident from their mock exam performance, many students require a framework in which to develop their arguments more fully. My hope and expectation is that these FOSIL wraps will be just that. We’ll know much more next week.

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

Jenny and I are now very close to beginning the pressure groups topic with Form 6 A-level Politics students. I will be teaching them some of the basic nuts and bolts of pressure group types, methods and functions first, before we then deliver the entire topic through inquiry. Jenny has worked incredibly hard on the creation of inquiry resources, and we have met frequently to ensure they stay true to both the FOSIL cycle and my aims within the subject. I’m looking forward to seeing how it unfolds – resources and initial reflections to follow…

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

I’m Joe, and I am a Lead Practitioner on the Teaching and Learning (T&L) Team at Oakham School. I have been teaching for 9 years, across state and independent sectors, in London, Essex, Lincolnshire and Rutland. My role allows me plenty of opportunities to engage with our incredible library team and with FOSIL, both of which I advocate as loudly and frequently as possible. I deliver TeachMeets throughout the year, covering issues ranging from metacognition and self regulated learning, to setting meaningful prep and self assessment. As a great believer in the practical application of pedagogy, I am actively engaged in experimenting with methods of teaching and learning. This often involves working closely with library staff in our quest to incorporate FOSIL in both the traditional inquiry setting, and in completely new initiatives, including as a framework for essay writing and source analysis at A Level. Being able to combine my subject specialism in Politics and T& focus with the inspiring work of the FOSIL gurus has been a real privilege.

Alongside my work as Lead Practitioner, I also coordinate Form 5 (Year 11) and teach in the middle school. Tracking the progress of younger students through the FOSIL cycle as they participate in a huge variety of projects throughout the school highlights the power of the process, mindset and framework it offers. I regularly combine my subject, T&L and pastoral roles in events such as learning walks, open doors weeks, and festivals of learning, where staff and students come together to share the best that teaching and learning has to offer.

I’m very excited about the future trajectory of FOSIL and the opportunities it affords me and my colleagues.

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

As is abundantly clear from the array of topics under this Inquiry and resource design forum, FOSIL is a highly effective tool for approaching any inquiry. But what I wondered was whether I could take the thought process and structure of the FOSIL cycle and overlay it onto the assessment objectives in A Level Politics as part of essay planning and Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time (DIRT)? I discovered a skills gap in my student cohort when it came to AO2 Analysis and AO3 Evaluation. My students do not seem to engage enough with the rigours of higher-order thinking, something the linear external exams now rely on so heavily; assessment is not a matter of memorising facts but of critiquing, explaining and justifying arguments. What Jenny and I have worked on over the last few months are (so far!) three essay planning wraps that aim to guide students through the cognitive stages of essay writing in a methodical, ‘FOSILised’ way. Therefore, students work through the Connect, Wonder and Investigate stages on the front of their wrap (unpicking the essay question, accessing prior knowledge, thinking about possible skills and knowledge gaps), before tackling the substantial Construct stage in the centre of the wrap (a comprehensive and clear essay planning map). Of course, the Express stage is the writing of the essay itself. The final page of the wrap focuses on Reflect, asking students to mark their own work and justify their self-assessment. Gone are the days of students being set an essay and handing in only the finished article (with no evidence of the thought-process behind it). Instead, students complete the wrap before they even write their essay and hand in both pieces to be marked. Not only is the content of the wraps effective as a scaffold for students, it is also presented in a  visually-pleasing format, involving clear colour themes and signposting for each stage, which I believe is essential for the overloaded teenage brain

Jenny’s work on our essay wraps has revolutionised the way I now approach essay writing and assessment. I’m so glad I embarked upon this line of thought and am excited to see where FOSIL can take us next. The evolving nature of our work means that I am now even trying to revamp my own Politics DIRT wrap using Jenny’s incarnations as my guide. I hope to do a Lesson Study into the impact of our FOSIL wraps in the Summer term and will report back with my findings.

[Joseph Sanders Participant]

The main reason I chose the topic of Pressure Groups for our inquiry design is that I was so dissatisfied with the way I delivered it last year. As a subject area that relies on research into contemporary pressure group activity, and with the new course demanding detailed understanding of the successes and failures of groups (and the reasons for these), I knew that students must engage more closely with their findings. However, in the past, students have garnered only surface-level understanding, which involved very little depth or critical thinking. The simple reason for this was that I had never properly thought about what made an effective inquiry. Thankfully, Jenny had, and does, on a regular basis. Since our preliminary planning meetings, we have met roughly once every three or four weeks. Admittedly, we did become quite sidetracked by other amazing uses of FOSIL. Nevertheless, we are now quite close to creating a final plan, which incorporates FOSIL through different stages and activities, spread across lessons and prep time. What has been enlightening throughout this process is how engagingly FOSIL can be interwoven through my subject area. Jenny would be the first to admit that Politics is (was) not her speciality, just as openly as I can say that parts of FOSIL were alien to me just a few months ago. However, our collaboration has illustrated just how powerful teacher-to-teacher resource design can be. I hope that, by combining our specialisms, we can soon publish the results of our inquiry design.

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