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High achieving pupils (HAPs) are an often forgotten about group. This is largely down to them being able to work more independently to the point where we let them go under the radar in favour of intervening with other groups of pupils such as those who are disadvantaged, or with special educational needs.

The issue I have with this is that the top become disenfranchised and those top grades you were expecting of them are no more. The students you expected to stay on in your sixth form decide to move on elsewhere instead.

To stretch and challenge students in the classroom is an art in itself. There is no Elder wand, or potions off the shelf to address the issue in a one size fits all scenario. It comes down to a series of fundamentals that need to happen on a daily basis to the point where it becomes your routine in the classroom.

I always get asked what it is I do with my classes to achieve positive outcomes each year. For disclosure I teach Film, and Media too. For additional context, I teach GCSE and A Level students, and in all cases, the classes are mixed ability. I have classes with students at the very top end in terms of expected grades according to their KS2 data, and in the same class, students at the bottom end. Balancing these different abilities is not easy. Therefore, understanding your subject is essential, and knowing how best your students learn becomes a necessity.

Where to start? First and foremost, teachers need to foster a love for learning, which is to set high expectations and remove barriers that obstruct the want for knowledge. For more on this, read my piece on my experience on fostering a love for learning in the classroom.

But then comes the teaching of the content. We all struggle at times to process information, becoming overwhelmed by it all. Cognitive load theory purposes that our brains slow down, or worse, stops processing content to the point where it's in one ear and out the other. Students become anxious, which can lead to behavioural issues and so their learning becomes impacted further. We need to look for ways to make the work manageable and reflective using strategies to allow the brain to cope with new topics and units.

Here are some stretch and challenge activities I use in the classroom:

Whiteboard Workout has students up on their feet working in small groups discussing a statement or topic area on whiteboards. This has them speak out-loud their ideas to each other, recording their understanding on display boards. Facilitate the conversations when needed, but ultimately, students are the driving force behind the task. On completion, ask each group to make a comment from their board to the rest of the class, explaining their chosen point. By doing this, it encourages each group to consider multiple options so as to not be stuck with ' they already said everything'. When they have had a turn, each student can then take an image of each other's boards, sharing in their findings to ensure ALL have the same collective information to devise revision documents from.

Example taken from one of my lessons

You are not only stretching the high attainers by affording them the opportunity to take the initiative and think critically, but you are also giving lower ability students opportunities to work with their peers, reducing their anxieties whilst providing them with the same diet of content. For more on the use of this strategy, read my piece here.

Network Grids are a useful tool to encourage independent thinking. Each word or image is specific to a given topic. Combined, they become flashcards with each one a 'memory trigger', which if explored in full, allows a student to pivot from one to the next to demonstrate their mastery of the topic.

This particular NG explores the context behind Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

Network grids are particularly useful at the start of a topic. It demonstrates to the teacher what current knowledge they have of it whilst building their confidence before delving into the new unit. Revisit the network grid at the completion of the topic and watch your students explore each grid – are they able to make links from one card to the next, demonstrating their mastery of the topic?

Transformation: Putting words into images lets a student process information differently. Students will need to think on a deeper level in determining which information is key to change into an image. For some students, being overwhelmed with large chunks of text can be daunting, so this works well for visual learners.

Story strips created by my students to tell of key moments from City of God (2002)

By transforming the text into a 6 image storyboard or comic strip so to speak can be a fun exercise too, sparking debate as to which film sequences each student thinks is most important. Remember, there is only a certain amount of time in which to answer a question – having mastered knowledge of fewer sequences in depth instead of many superficially demonstrates a greater understanding of the topic and will gain you higher marks in an exam. Try reducing the comic strip from 6 to 3 images, encouraging students to think more succinctly about their understanding (after all, it's easier to remember 3 items than it is 6). This can just as easily be adapted for other subjects.

Learn to Learn: in my most recent Ofsted inspection I was asked how I improve literacy in my subject. A strategy that I use is actually inspired by Robert Rodriguez, film director and self-appointed chef! In one of his videos he talked about how he would perfect a recipe. To do so, he would write down all the things he didn't do on the previous turn, so on the next go, the outcome would improve until he perfected the dish.

I took on the challenge by grouping my class into 4 or 5 students. They would each write an extract, analysing a text. They would pass their work to the person next to them and proceed to write down all the things they didn't do based on their peer's extract. Then they'd repeat the process until they had read all of each other's extract, and on each occasion, writing down what they didn't do in their initial analysis. Once they had all the ingredients, they would then rewrite their extract.

The finished piece would be a considerable improvement on their first, and reduces the teacher's workload in that marking and feedback is done in that exercise by students. It's important though that you consider your groups according to their ability levels with slight differences (1 notch up or 1 notch down) between them. The class appreciated the task and felt it should be used more often across all of their subjects. The Ofsted inspector liked it too!

Knowledge Organisers: There's been a lot of discussion about these, especially from those in favour of their use. However, taking into account cognitive overload, having a unit's content vomited all across one page serves to distract rather than engage. My suggestion is to turn content into infographics. There are free infographic templates available, particularly from Venggage.

Infographic created by my Media student

However, these templates only allow you to import 6 images before asking you to pay a premium to upload more to make your work more bespoke. You could use their predetermined set of generic graphics though. The idea is to utilise dual coding to align with the text to make the retrieval of information easier to process.

You could also create your own templates on open source software such as Photopea, an almost replica programme of Photoshop:

Infographic I created on Photopea

Infographics are great as a visual aid and can be used as displays in the classroom. They can also serve as a tool to help develop technical skills of your students by asking them to create the infographic knowledge organisers instead of teachers.

I've sat through various lesson visits and observations of other teachers in my time, and what seems to be a common occurrence is how a teacher feels pressure to run through content too quickly or else not be able to complete the scheme.

The underlying issue here is that if a student doesn't understand a topic or unit of work to a certain level then they will invariably fall further behind later on in the scheme, as, with all schemes, students are often needing to draw back on prior learning to make connections with current ones.

In addition, in some cases teachers can often present slides of text, overwhelming a pupil with too much content instead of breaking it up with varying tasks that looks to test the pupil in a manageable way.

This is where teaching to mastery comes into play, and the necessity of using diagnostic questioning in your lessons regularly.

Diagnostic Questioning: Craig Barton researched into knowledge retrieval practice and felt the use of multiple choice questions helped in that regard. The process is straightforward and important in addressing misconceptions of a topic. It can be done in various ways, and one way is to offer a definition in which four choices are attached. Only one belongs, but the other three must be relevant allowing you to practice retrieval of prior learning.

As with all examples of diagnostic questions, I will follow up by asking them to rationalise their choice

To further the process, the technique can also be used to determine the depth of the misconception with an open ended question. In the example provided, the question would then become: Choose a scene from the film and explain HOW xenophobia is represented.

By using diagnostic questioning, the teacher is able to determine the extent of what needs reteaching, making learning more bespoke.

Header photo by Gabriel Crismariu on Unsplash

For more of my content, find me @BurntEnds88

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