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Mark Scott:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽

So today we鈥檙e talking with the Principal, Paul Sheather, and the Deputy Principal, Ben Seldon, and students at Northern Beaches Secondary College Balgowlah Boys Campus. And we鈥檙e going to talk about explicit teaching, which is one of the eight effective teaching practice areas identified in the 鈥榃hat works best: 2020 update鈥�. So, gentlemen, what are the key features of explicit teaching at Balgowlah Boys? And why is it so important to use explicit teaching with all students?

Paul Sheather:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽

I suppose why it鈥檚 important is because it鈥檚 been very, very effective with a full range of students. Both the performance data and the value-added data emphatically support this. The full range of students of all abilities seem to perform better under explicit teaching. The school has, I suppose, experimented with a gamut of teaching strategies over the last 10 years, and explicit teaching has evolved to be the core, or the nucleus, of the way we deliver at Balgowlah Boys.

The key features of this mode is, firstly, teachers map out the learning outcomes, and generally this comes backwards from the HSC outcomes. So the concepts build accumulatively and systematically. These outcomes are very visible to the students. And secondly, most importantly, the teachers work to develop explicit models to deliver to the students. To enable this, teachers work collaboratively in teams to develop the very best model, answer or product they can. And in these teams, they also deconstruct the model so that when they鈥檙e in front of their class, they鈥檙e on song, confident and ensure that the best exemplified learning outcome is presented to the boys. And probably this is best exemplified in the English faculty, Ben?

Ben Sheldon:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽

Yeah. Look, we noticed quite a few years ago after coming back from the HSC marking that the boys were lacking the specific language that was required to leave high outcomes in the HSC, particularly in advanced level English. So what we realised then is that we needed, as classroom instructors, to exclusively teach that language to the students.

So we created a sentence scaffold, which is beguilingly simple, but it allows students to create very, very complex sentence structures and to manipulate multi-clause sentences very, very confidently. And we introduced that in Stage 4, and it鈥檚 taught consistently through to Stage 6, where the boys develop it. And it gives them an enormous amount of confidence, and we鈥檝e had an enormous amount of feedback from students who go on from leaving our school and say, 鈥淭hanks for teaching me how to write.鈥� It's a fascinatingly simple tool. It鈥檚 a very interactive process.

Mark Scott:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽

Do you find, Ben, this has been a key to student engagement? I mean, as you take them through this process, that kids are leaning more into learning?

Ben Sheldon:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽

Absolutely. English is a very, very popular subject, and there is a mindset that students have that if they don鈥檛 know quite how the subject works or what they鈥檙e supposed to do, they get a feeling of disengagement. And what this does is it breaks it down. It makes it very, very simple. It鈥檚 like putting a Lego model together. And the boys, they become empowered. We鈥檙e able to say, 鈥淭hose sentences that you put together in Year 8 replicate the kind of grammar that you use in Year 12,鈥� and we can show them a Year 12 essay, show them what they鈥檝e done, and the boys realise, 鈥淲ow, I鈥檝e got this.鈥� And that鈥檚 incredibly confidence-building for them.

It also, as Paul eluded to 鈥撀爄t鈥檚 very empowering for the teachers. So they go into the classroom with that exemplar in the back of their mind and are able to speak from a position of confidence and clarity. They can give explicit feedback about what kind of language the boys are using. They can give explicit feedback about what鈥檚 working, what isn鈥檛 working, and how to tweak that, and they use the whiteboard to show the boys how to put those sentences together. And the boys in the class sit there and say, 鈥淚 have confidence in this process because the teacher there is doing it. They鈥檙e showing me how to do it.鈥澛�

Mark Scott:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽

Charlie, Sebastien, Luke, thanks for joining us. We want to talk about what it鈥檚 like to learn at Balgowlah Boys. Tell me, how do you know what you鈥檙e going to learn, and where you鈥檙e headed in your learning, and whether you鈥檝e been successful? How do you know about the learning journey that you have in classes there?

Charlie Longmore:聽聽聽

It鈥檚 honestly a really easy process when it comes to objectives in English. Going off of knowing when you鈥檝e been successful, the scaffold provided creates a structure for us to build off. If what you鈥檝e produced is similar to the standard set by the teacher, or even better, then you definitely know you鈥檙e on the right track, and the teachers pick up on it. It really helps to have a sort of bar to reach when in class or at home. And you know where you鈥檙e headed and what鈥檚 next, because as you progress through different units in English, you pick up new strategies and tips, and it鈥檚 very easy to see the improvement from when we first started in Year 7.

Mark Scott:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽

So what are some of the practical ways that your teachers show you what to do, and to show you how to be successful in your learning?

Luke O鈥橠onnell:聽聽聽聽 聽聽

In the classroom, in the lessons, going through scaffolded responses, and the teachers usually prepare pre-written texts 鈥� pre-written deconstructions of the texts聽鈥� at a really high standard, so we know what we can achieve and what we can aim for. And it鈥檚 kind of like an, 鈥淚 do, we do, and then you do鈥� approach. She shows us exactly what she wants us to do and we do it together so we understand it, and then we have homework set so we can go and do it ourselves and put those skills into practice.

Mark Scott:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽

Brilliant, thanks everyone.

Mark Scott: 聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽

We want to improve teaching practice, school planning and see improvement across NSW education. There鈥檚 a lot more information available for you about 鈥榃hat works best鈥� in the NSW Department of 糖心vlog官网 website.