On becoming a Boring Teacher - a reflection on John Tomsett's article

John Tomsett's article can be found here.

It was the late, great Muhammad Ali who said the following: " A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life". Whilst I might not quite be hitting the 50 mark (just yet!), the quote - coupled with John Tomsett's excellent recent article - has prompted me to think about how my own teaching has changed in the past 20 years.

I too, like John, have become a very boring teacher.

I remember well, in my PGCE year, painstakingly painting (yes - painting!) flashcards of the Simpsons Family for my Modern Language classes - Homer in all kinds of weather to teach weather phrases in German - Bart on top of tables, under chairs and behind doors in order to teach prepositions. Each flashcard would have taken an hour or two to make. I remember the ITT tutors liked them, and the kids responded well to them. Of course, when I secured my first full-time job and reality sank in that such laborious resource-creation was well-nigh impossible in the busy life of a teacher, I resorted to sourcing my flashcards via the internet, but still spent hours preparing Powerpoint presentations. I would stand at the front of the room with the flashcards and 'perform' -  prancing and dancing around the room when 'teaching' vocabulary, having pupils stand up / sit down / up to the board to draw vocabulary items /watching a Bart Simpson clip with a superficial link to what we were studying. At times of great sporting events my lessons would be completely skewed to focus on a 'sports' theme. All in the name of motivating the pupils. Cut-outs were IN, textbooks were OUT. I remember spending much time cutting out card dominoes for an activity which aimed to teach pupils the use of 'du', 'de la', 'de l'' and 'des' with food and drink items. Group work was 'de jour', pupils sitting writing independently for 15 minutes was unthinkable. I had my pupils in computer rooms creating Powerpoints on elements of the curriculum content. I very rarely sat down in my lessons - if ever.

And yet this was not some self-induced philosophy. The Revised Curriculum espoused group work and active learning which encouraged facilitation by the teacher rather than explicit direction. Tapping into topical themes such as sports' tournaments was encouraged. Kinaesthetic activities were supposed to cater for cohorts of pupils - boys in particular. Use of ICT encouraged research skills and self-management and 'being creative'.

Sadly, it appears that in our Revised Curriculum 'entertainment' equates to motivation, which in turn equates to engagement.

And yet, if I have learned anything over the past 20 years as a teacher, it is exactly what John Tomsett states in his article. Students enjoy lessons when they learn, not when they are entertained. And it is possible to teach in a way I perceive to be dull and the students still enjoy the lessons.

Let me put across why I think these last points are true. Four weeks ago I started using a visualiser for the first time in my 20 years of teaching. In the space of a month I am - quite simply - astonished at how much this device has changed my teaching. I correct retrieval practice tests with the pupils via the visualiser, I model excellence in written work with pupils via the visualiser, I sit and undertake textbook activities together with the pupils via the visualiser. On occasions I model pupils' own work via the visualiser. We discuss the work, ask questions, identify misconceptions and correct mistakes together - all via the visualiser. Not a flashcard in sight. I teach explicitly and directly and the pupils follow. With my Year 8 pupils (who all have Knowledge Organisers), we use the visualiser to rehearse and repeat the PROFS (Past / Reasons / Opinions / Future / Subjunctive) sentences with the pupils. We follow in our Knowledge Organisers with a ruler and use drill / repetition strategies to help embed in long-term memory. My Year 8 pupils can now confidently recite and recall 8 structures including future and subjunctive.

I don't now rush on with the curriculum for fear of getting behind or of 'boring' pupils. I use low-stakes formative techniques to gauge pupil understanding / misconceptions and modify accordingly. For example, on Friday I was teaching the structures for asking directions in French with my Year 9 class. Following some quizzing, it was apparent that a number of pupils needed further practice at the use of au / a la / a 'l and aux. So on went the visualiser and we spent another ten minutes doing examples together in our books - me with my own classwork book under the visualiser, and the pupils partaking of the construction of structures with me in their own books. Ten years ago I might have viewed this as 'dull', however what I know for sure is that those pupils left the room with an acquired grip on the structures and their homework for next week is to 'self-quiz' using a quiz set I created in Quizlet in order to assist with the embedding of the structures in long-term memory.

In my own school we are now placing great, great importance on low-stakes quizzing, and on pupil self-quizzing at home using sites such as IXL and Quizlet. And this brings me to quite an interesting anecdote of something which happened on Friday when I was teaching the above Year 9 class, and which suggests to me that this new approach I am adopting - which I may have considered ultimately boring ten years ago - is working - and that pupils are engaged.

When creating Quizlet sets, I try to ensure the Quizlet activity contains at least one aspect of knowledge not covered in the lesson - eg for the Year 9 directions set it was 'jusqu'au coin'. However I was really surprised that very few of the Year 9s remembered 'jusqu'au coin' during the retrieval practice test in class, despite seeing it extensively in Quizlet. I had been interested in why that was, and took the ultimate tack of then explaining to the Year 9s that there will be at least one element of knowledge in Quizlet sets not covered in lessons.This is, I suppose, what Peps McCrea would call 'orienting their attention' in his excellent book 'Memorable Teaching' and I am hoping that by alerting them to this and explaining that the knowledge will subsequently appear in retrieval practice tests, it may resolve the issue. Whilst explaining this to Year 9s in class on Friday, I lowered my voice as if I was drawing them into a class secret. They listened intently, eyes wide and all leaning forward in their seats to hear every syllable. It was amusing, and reminded me somewhat of the image of little puppies being dangled a treat just out of their reach. And I knew, firstly that some of them would be straight home to complete the self-quizzing and secondly, that they will be watching out for the nugget of new knowledge on the premise that it will appear in the retrieval practice quiz in class.

Despite my new teaching approach which favours direct instruction, use of a visualiser, rehearsal, drill, repetition, textbooks and self-quizzing, these Year 9 pupils are no less - and quite probably more - engaged than any Year 9 class I would have taught in my days of cut-outs, ICT use and group work.

Why? Bottom line is that the pupils know they are learning - they are constantly encouraged to push for the top of the pyramid (this Friday we are introducing a 'Mock Friday' whereby we will undertake a GCSE paper activity together each week using the visualiser for 5-10 minutes) and they are seeing the clear fruits of the self-quizzing.

So, as regards boring teaching....bring it on.