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Category Archives: Uncategorized

Effective formative essays – without marking every word

11 Tuesday May 2021

Posted by Mr B Toohey in Uncategorized

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Formative Assessment, Marking

Posted on 4 February 2014

We know it is excellent practice for students to write formatively. The down side of course is the huge amount of marking that it creates if every week you have to mark every essay for every student for every class. Say goodbye to your weekend!

For senior classes who need to practise handwriting essays under time constraints in preparation for exams, I get them to write formative essays quite regularly but tell them that I am only going to focus on one or two of the following aspects – and they are absolutely NOT going to be getting ‘a mark’ – they will get comments.

  • Introduction
  • Topic sentences
  • Plan (and adherence to it)
  • Specific historical information / examples
  • Historiography
  • Highlight each place where you used key words from the question
  • Highlight / comment where you tried to improve based on comments from last week
  • Referencing
  • Bibliography – format, academic, used in text etc.

The other way of marking essays is peer marking. Using the criteria used in the exam, get students in groups of 3-4 to mark and comment on each others’, then give feedback. This one is best done with prior warning: it is a great incentive for a little bit more attention if they know their peers will be seeing it. And they are often far more critical on things like handwriting than we ever are! Only after they have had some experience in marking work they are not emotionally invested in do I get them to mark and comment on their own.

As far as questions go, again I structure it from me giving the specific question, to ‘come up with an appropriate question on …’ until towards the end of the course it is even less structured ‘These are the syllabus requirements: you give me a plan of what and when you will be writing essays and what aspect you want me to look at.’

What I am aiming for is a self-sufficiency that will see them able to construct a study plan for when they are at university and the ability to be self-critical. Of course, the last few revision weeks before exams I will mark and comment on everything that they submit.

I hope this gets your students working, and gives you some spare time!

Leadership by chocolate

11 Tuesday May 2021

Posted by Mr B Toohey in Uncategorized

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Leadership

When I started my first leadership role (Pastoral Care Coordinator) my Principal told me that ‘time is never wasted if you’re talking with someone.’ She went on to tell me that as a leader in the school, I had a responsibility for both staff and students. It was great advice – while my job description talked mostly about my interactions with students, it was obviously impossible to provide pastoral care for 1000 students on my own. I had to have the staff with me. It was a great learning for me on how to balance being a leader of staff, students, captains and also continuing my role in the classroom.

Fast forward a few years and I hit upon the ideal way to unobtrusively provide pastoral care to my team, this time as the Head of Humanities: chocolate! On Friday afternoons, during report writing or just days when the wheels were getting squeaky, out would come the trusty party packs of Mars bars or Cadburys (nut-free, of course… um, even the nut-free Toblerones or Ferrero Rochers!). Those teaching period 6 on Friday? There’s no way they miss out! Most of us taught with an open door, so it was easy to wander in to their classroom with a bag of chocolates, with one for the teacher and a few for whichever students most deserved one at the end of the lesson.

For those in the department who I didn’t share an office with it was also effective. Walking in and saying, ‘Hey, need a chocolate?’ is a very low-key way of saying ‘I know things are hectic, and I appreciate it. But it’s ok – tell me.’ Invariably, these members of the department had positions of responsibility and were near a secretary or two – and every teacher knows who really runs the school! Teachers get one chocolate, secretaries get two is the general rule (‘You’ll need one later’). And if a POR in an office gets the chocolate treatment, then the others who are around also get offered one. There are also often a couple of teachers who have a History/English load and are seated with their English colleagues. English teachers (or their helpers!) make the best cakes, so it was well worth reciprocating with the occasional chocolate!

What’s all this mean?

It is relationship building without forcing it. I’ve often felt it fake or forced when leaders do the rounds of the troops – I’m here, and I’m being seen to be around. (Yeah, I’m terrifically cynical…). But who isn’t bought off by chocolate at stressful times – especially when you work out people’s favourites and dig a dark Toblerone out of a Mars packet? You have remembered what they like, and that means you are listening. But it is even more important to be around during times of high stress.

Perhaps more importantly, when bad news needs to be given, or a quiet word, or a complaint raised, we have a relationship. Which actually has nothing to do with chocolate. We’ve talked. We’ve shared what is going on in our classes. We’ve talked about our kids or football or given each other abuse based on whatever point of difference. But it means the pointed fingers stay curled in our hands, our voices stay (mostly) jokey, or we can express frustration and the other knows the depth of our feeling. And we work out an amicable compromise. We apologise. We buy each other a drink on Friday afternoon. And we continue as effective colleagues. There is no us and them.

Did I set out to be a chocolate leader? Of course not – I’m just a generous sweet-tooth who figured if I was going to get fat I was going to take everyone with me!

The author has no current affiliation to any brands indicated in this post. He is more than willing to accept offers of sponsorship, however!

Ethics & law: foetus deaths

04 Thursday Oct 2018

Posted by Mr B Toohey in Uncategorized

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https://theconversation.com/when-unborn-children-are-killed-how-does-the-law-deal-with-culpability-104222?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20October%204%202018%20-%201127810104&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20October%204%202018%20-%201127810104+CID_323ca95de8356a03e12ac55220cb16d9&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=When%20unborn%20children%20are%20killed%20how%20does%20the%20law%20deal%20with%20culpability

Great Lessons 2: Rigour

08 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by Mr B Toohey in Uncategorized

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teacherhead

Graduation-day-at-a-unive-001 Aiming High every day through rigour and scholarship

This series of posts is about the habits of teaching; the things we do every day; the strategies and attitudes that define our default mode. These are the characteristics of lessons that feel outstanding as soon as you walk in… no tricks, no gizmos, just embedded routine practice.

The first was about Probing Questions.  This second post is about the general pitch and tone of a lesson. At KEGS ‘Rigour and Scholarship’ is our phrase of the moment, taken from our Zest for Learning jigsaw.  It helps us to define the spirit of what we are trying to achieve and where we need to improve.  The idea of rigour goes to the heart of what I have described as a ‘Total Philosophy of G&T’.   In formal or drop-in observations, it is always true that great lessons are characterised…

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Romeo & Juliet Assessment Task

07 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by Mr B Toohey in Uncategorized

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OK, so I put it on IMMI trying to be good, but I keep forgetting I put it there so I will put it here too… 🙂

Task Sheet Romeo and Juliet Essay

Students will answer the question in critical essay form : “How does Baz Luhrmann’s cinematic interpretation change or reinforce the key ideas and themes of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet ? Reference must be made to specific scenes/episodes in the narrative. (1000 words)

Due Friday 17 June – email it to me by 4:00pm please 🙂

Location

12 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by Mr B Toohey in 11BUS, Uncategorized

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Review location worksheet homework.

‘Online presence’ (p367 old text)

Home-based businesses (p368)

Kogan:  https://www.kogan.com/au/about/

Revision

11 Business & Enterprise

09 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by Mr B Toohey in Uncategorized

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.

Term 4

13 Tuesday Oct 2015

Posted by Mr B Toohey in Uncategorized

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Well, for starters …

I guess that’s 2015 picture. Looks eerily similar to the last two…

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