It's December! I know you knew, but it is the first newsletter of the new month, so let me take some pleasure in remarking that my favourite month of the year is here.
It's not that I dislike the warmer seasons - I'm actually partial to the first spring blossoms and a good old summer's day, particularly in this part of the world where the heat almost never makes me want to rip my skin off.
But December, and the Christmas season, are a whole other level of enjoyment altogether for me - a constant source of small delights.
In The Book of Delights, American poet Ross Gay puts together a selection of short lyrical essays about the delights of ordinary life. He spent a year writing an essay a day about things that delighted him. These included: pecan nuts, espresso coffees, the silent nod of acknowledgment between the only two black people in a room, and cuttings from a fig tree¹.
The message is quite clear: we should pay more conscious attention to the small joys of everyday life that we too often overlook. I find that Christmas as a season makes a real effort to bring those little ordinary delights to our attention.
For me, they include, in no particular order: decorative lights, small children dressed as reindeer, wreaths, Christmas trees/markets/carols/books, children's faces when they see santa, the feeling of nailing the right present for the right person, the overuse of cinnamon, trashy Christmas jumpers, newborns in Santa onesies, Michael Bublé, Love Actually, the panto, being made fun of by husband for drinking Baileys (he claims it's a teenager's drink - like I would take offense at that?!), Poinsettias everywhere and the Christmas episodes of my favourite TV shows.
Does something about Christmas delight you? Even if it's just the thought of the upcoming school break, I hope there will be at least one ordinary delight in your day! And of course, stay tuned for next week, for all my Christmas activity tips are coming (but if you're already itching to start, here are 10 of my favourites).
This week, quite a few people have taken the PNRR3 quiz. I've been told in fairly unanimous terms that it was a lot harder than in previous years, to which I say: whether you studied for months or for a few days, whether you passed it with a low score or a high score, or you failed, I'm proud of you for the effort you put in in what can only be described as difficult circumstances.
And since it looks like the oral exams may be due to start soon, some of you have already asked me about preparing for the oral exam. Now, the self-study courses in English are all still available, but I'm also working on a new preparation programme with new content and this time, for more than just the English teachers (but of course, also for the English teachers!)
I'd like to design something truly useful, which gives you the competences to do three things:
Pass the oral exam of the concorso
Pass the final exam of the percorsi abilitanti (which is eerly similar to the concorso)
Now, in preparation for the preparation (sorry not sorry) for the oral exam, today I'm reflecting on some of the most frequent questions I get from teachers: do I always need to put assessment in a lesson? Should the lesson have technology? How much homework should I put in my lesson plan, if any?
As I like to say, there are always two versions of my answers to these questions: the pedagogically sound ones, and the ones that will likely make the concorso committees happy.
So, in this newsletter, I will share:
5 questions about lesson planning best practice (with a bit of myth-busting)
the pedagogically sound answers to these questions, as well as where they stand on the exam-o-metre
Ready to find out about the exam-o-metre? Get a festive beverage and let's go-ho-ho² 🎅🏻
The exam-o-metre
As you most likely know, the oral exams at the concorso and also in the percorsi abilitanti are assessed by committees of teachers and lecturers. They have some assessment rubrics, but in reality the exam results are greatly swayed by the characteristics and preferences of each committee. It may not be the most objective type of assessment you could think of, but it's what we're working with.
And since it's what we're working with, we might as well work the system. Which is why I've invented the exam-o-metre: the measure of how much something is likely going to be liked by a committee, based on my experience and regardless of how objectively pedagogically sound it may be³. It's an entirely unscientific and anecdotal metric that I hope will be helpful.
With this in mind, let's have a look at a few common questions, which I hope will help you start off on the right foot with the oral exam.
1. Should I include assessment in each lesson?
💫 The pedagogically sound answer: no, particularly if it's summative assessment. Summative assessment, which essentially gives a grade, is done at the end of a period of time or a substantial enough amount of learning about a topic or unit. Including summative assessment in each lesson is laborious and not something I have ever seen in practice (but do let me know if you have!)
As for formative assessment, on the other hand, I think the answer would depend on your definition of it and how formalised it needs to be. My personal take is that yes, each lesson should have some measure of how much has been learned. That is to say, there should be something in each lesson that tells you what has been learned, but more crucially, what hasn't been learned. You know all those teachers who "carried on with the syllabus" regardless of the fact that half the class wasn't up to speed and then half the class failed the test and this was taken as a sign of excellence and good practice? These teachers would not get a high grade from me (or the Italian Constitution, for that matter).
📏 Where my answer stands on the exam-o-metre: a pretty low score. Much as including summative assessment in all lessons is not very pedagogically sound, it's something I would recommend for your lesson plan at the oral exam. The oral exam is a quite a performative affair, where you have to put all your skills and knowledge on display. This includes your assessment skills, so: include assessment in your lesson plan. Depending on your committee, you may get away with just formative assessment, but many want something more summative-flavoured too.
2. Should I use technology in each lesson?
💫 The pedagogically sound answer: of course not, or at least, not necessarily. I'm sure you can recall some lessons you've taught or attended where no tech was used and they went spectacularly. Plus, as my colleague André wisely says: if you can't teach it, don't tech it. I see a lot of value in using technology, particularly because students themselves desperately need to learn how to use technology properly. However, I've yet to see evidence that technology is necessary in any lesson. In fact, the opposite may be true: for example, studies have shown that taking notes with a pen may be far more beneficial than doing so on a laptop (with some important caveats about Special Educational Needs).
📏 Where my answer stands on the exam-o-metre: extremely low. Competent use of digital technology for learning and teaching is one of the main criteria upon which you are assessed, so it's not even up to the committee. See the quadri di riferimento for the oral exam to learn more.
OK, they were slow, but how iconic was their design? Photo by Alan W on Unsplash
3. Should I use a particular structure for my lesson?
💫 The pedagogically sound answer: the structure of your lesson will depend to a large extent on the objectives of your lesson, which will dictate its contents. There are many structures to choose from, from PPP to TTT, to ESA, TBL and much more. As long as you vary your activities a little, proceed gradually and try to leave no student behind, you should be grand.
📏 Where my answer stands on the exam-o-metre: halfway through. For some reason I have yet to understand, many - and I do mean many - committees have a preference for Jeremy Harmer's ESA (Engage Study Activate) structure. What I have observed in reality, however, is that many teachers feel compelled to use this structure but are then doubtful how to make their chosen activities fit within the various stages of it. This often results in shoehorning. So my answer would be: yes, try to use ESA to be on the safe side, but only if it doesn't make planning your lesson more difficult than it needs to be. Experiment with it beforehand and see if it's your cup of tea. If it isn't, better to choose a structure you're comfortable with than one that will put you in a difficult spot on the day of the exam when they ask you follow-up questions.
4. Should I cater for specific Specific Educational Needs in my lesson plan?
💫 The pedagogically sound answer: yes, you should.
📏 Where my answer stands on the exam-o-metre: very high. Committees are often big on laws, and inclusion is (rightly, for once) a topic that has a lot of relevance in Italian school laws.
5. Should I cater for specific learning styles in my lesson?
💫 The pedagogically sound answer: you could, but it will likely be a waste of your precious time and cognitive space. Learning styles, i.e. the idea that people learn better when information comes in their preferred learning style – e.g. visual, auditory or kinaesthetic (VAK) – are a neuromyth. As we have known for a while, there is no proven relation between a student’s self-evaluation of their preferred learning style and the style teachers may attribute to them. Learning styles also do a poor job of explaining how the brain learns, and most importantly, there is simply no hard evidence that catering to different learning styles in the way we teach enhances learning.
📏 Where my answer stands on the exam-o-metre: unclear. Learning styles are still somehow part of the concorso syllabus for the written exam, and research shows⁴ that they are a very common misconception among teachers and learners, meaning you're at least likely to find a committee member that believes in them. I also see far too many university courses that still cover these topics, so it's something to bear in mind for the percorsi abilitanti too. So far, I've never seen anyone fail an oral exam for a lack of references to learning styles, so you might be fine simply omitting them (unless specifically requested in your traccia!)
6. Should I include homework in all my lessons?
💫 The pedagogically sound answer: not necessarily. Many recent studies, including the oft-cited meta-analyses by John Hattie, show that homework has negligible benefits on the learning of primary school children. Things are different at secondary school, as there are some benefits, but again, they are marginal.
📏 Where my answer stands on the exam-o-metre: low to quite low. You will likely plan 2 or 3 lessons for your concorso oral exam (or more for your percorsi abilitanti) and I would wager most committee members would expect to find a little bit of homework sprinkled in there.
And that brings me to the end of today's newsletter! Do you have any more questions about the oral exam that you'd like me to answer... in two versions? You can expect to hear more tips about lesson planning from me soon, as well as, of course, my Christmas-themed newsletter coming up.
As ever, I wish you a lovely and cosy Sunday with your loved ones.
Take care, dear teacher ✨
¹ This shouldn't give you the impression that, as Catherine Price puts it in her review of the book, Ross Gay is a Pollyanna: the book also discusses very non-delighteful topics, such as racism and grief. If you're interested in this book, find out more here.
² If you were expecting me to not exploit this delicious opportunity for a Christmas-themed pun, you vastly overestimated me.
³ With this, I'm not suggesting that the line between what is and isn't pedagogically sound is always clear; however, there are good pedagogical practices that will be good in most cases. That is what I would call "pedagogical knowledge". Examples include: eliciting knowledge before introducing a new topic, making connections between new and old topics, doing formative assessment to inform your future practice, Universal Design for Learning, asking instruction check questions.
⁴ See Torrijos-Muelas, M., González-Víllora, S. & Bodoque-Osma, A.R. (2021). ‘The persistence of neuromyths in the educational settings: A systematic review’. Frontiers in Psychology 11: 3658. Lausanne: Frontiers Media.
P.S.: My weekly suggestion for things to listen to/watch/read to improve your English while relaxing: I'm cheating a little this week because this is about education, but since I know how controversial the homework hot potato is, here is a BBC Radio 4 interview with John Hattie about what really makes a difference to a child's abilities.
✨Cool things I heard this week
I passed my written exam with 94! I thought the quizzes we'd done with you were too difficult but THANK GOD I did them because they prepared me for this new written exam so well. They even had an English question about a verb we'd done in your class. So grateful!
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