Is sixth form teaching that different?

You see I teach 3 sixth form classes. I have a year 12 class of 14 students, a year 13 RS class of 18 students and a year 13 Philosophy class of 11 students. I have to teach these wonderful students three 90 minute lessons per fortnight per group. Now, consider this:

1. They are mixed ability. We are talking an effective range of A*-E.
2. There aren't that many to make effective group work that meets the needs.
3. They have different literacy skills in a literacy intensive area.
4. Some of the RS students are put into RS because they need a 3rd or 4th A-level and they got a good GCSE grade.
5. Sadly most struggle with the step up to A level particularly in terms of study skills and self-motivation.
6. They have to meet the demands of long essay writing.

Easy? You'd hope so but not always. It would be lovely to say - there's the text and there's the questions. Get on with it. Let me tell you my experience this week.

On Monday, first day back after half-term, I taught y13 philosophy for period 1 and was expecting homework in. Did the usual thing - you know shared learning objectives, shared learning outcomes, etc and received, well basically, blankness and excuses for homework to be sent in later.

P4 - year 13 RS class. Again - learning objectives, learning outcomes and trying to have one to one discussions with students about their essays. (Some of these essays were good but some below standard.) Again? Blankness.

What to do? I had to teach a year 12 philosophy class a lesson to review an area they struggled with before half-term the next day and the year 13 philosophers the next day. I also have to teach the year 13 RS class on Thursday. So, time for thought.

Quite clearly, I couldn't come up with a one size fits all solution so need to break it down.

Priority one: Year 12 looking at ideas as to where we get the idea of God from - and they had struggled before half-term. However, not all students had struggled equally and some seem quite confident with the topic - plus, I have loads of notes on the students reflecting my thoughts and those of the other class teacher. Therein, I felt, may lie the solution.

The most basic learning outcome was the successful essay discussing the statement "God is made in the image of Man." but I needed to enable all students to get there. So, obviously, differentiate. At the top end I have two students who can just go with the essay and explore the topic. At the bottom end a handful of students who struggle to extract the info - these guys have a simple grid in which to place the info in a structured form. For the other 50% of students they needed support in either structuring an essay or using supporting evidence. The obvious answer was to break the question down into smaller questions to allow them to approach the essay. This I did, they did the work and the essay is due in Friday at a seminar. Was it successful? We shall see.

Problem 2: Year 13 philosophy - students targeted between A* and C. Not impossible but they're not they're yet. Again, obviously, the solution lies in differentiating the work in such a way that they can work independently whilst I wander and support. Here I took a different approach. Rather than working in a classroom I set an eLesson up for them.

First, they had differentiated objectives. Simple, you might say, but I sometimes wonder just how much we do such things at sixth for. (Note to self: go and observe more sixth form lessons.)

Second, I gave a good introduction to the philosophical issue with a link to exactly what the specification says.

Third, I provided plenty of learning materials linked to the learning objectives. (Thank you Michael Lacewing and Routledge press.)

Fourth, a clear description of the task

What happened? Well all the students from the A*s to the C targets worked happily at their own pace to address the targets that they felt they could do. I was then in a good position to monitor, assess and guide individual students in a way that they needed.

A big plus of this is that the struggling/shy students weren't hidden by the dominant ones. I was in a position to assess with an eye to improvement and development each student at some point.

Was it successful in terms of student progress. The answer is, qualified, yes. Why qualified? Although students made progress in terms of knowledge and understanding the final analysis and evaluation of the topic is not due til next lesson. Again, I will let you know.

Problem three: Year 13 exam technique. Well, I'm due to teach them tomorrow but my thoughts and feelings coming on from Monday's lesson is that they need practice in answering essay questions - especially those demanding their own reflection and evaluation. The problem here is that there are so many reasons essay answers can be poor. So, what is my solution? Quite simply I've turned it on them. Their homework is to identify what they think the top 5 tips for a good essay are and where they think they struggle. So the challenge is essay practice. Again, I plan on dividing them into groups of similar needs and again I will let you know.

I am far happier with the second two lessons taught than the first two but let's bring it back to the question I started from?

There are some differences between KS5 and KS4/3 teaching. They are more mature, in theory they all want to do the subject and they should have more independent study skills. However, the basics still remain.

1. Clear, learned sharing objectives and outcomes.
2. Clear tasks.
3. Good use of differentiation - here I used objectives and tasks.
4. Lesson based afl is a must
5. Know thy students

Is this all? Probably not and I know all teachers have different approaches. I would be fascinated to see what other people think on this.

An update.

I taught my year 13 RS today with pleasing results. I paired them up matching a weaker essayist with a stronger student trying to match the developmental area. Although this led to some initial moaning as established groups were broken up it I was gratified with how developmental dyads appeared where each shared thoughts and ideas with the other.

The focus of the discussions were not merely what do we do well or badly but what concrete action can be taken to improve essay technique. Each student needed to identify for themselves a solution.

It was also pleasing to see how students listened to each other in whole group discussion and suggested solutions.

The challenge now is for this to be put into practice. The notes I made in the lesson are available to all students via the college VLE and on Monday they have been warned that they will be subjected to a timed assessment. They are expecting a 50 minute exam - Part A is 30 mins and B is 20.

However, one of the common problems is time management with a lengthy Part A which may have gained a couple of extra marks being written at the expense of a quality Part B worth 10-15 marks. To be this is a nobrainer and so I will take their Part A off them after exactly 30 minutes.

Another common problem is poor planning and structure in evaluation and so, prior to them commencing part B, they will be given a planning grid.