[Andrew Field]

I was perusing the marvellous http://www.johndclare.net website just now, and saw a section which I hadn't seen before. This, in my opinion, is one of the most useful webpages for any teacher to read, regardless of age and experience. A marvellous source of guidance and information:

http://www.johndclar...ng/Contents.htm

Quote

Over more than 30 years of teaching I have developed a whole boatload of prejudices about how to teach and tricks-that-work in the classroom, and recently I have dared to share them with other History teachers on the History Teachers' Discussion Forum.

All over the country, teachers are having ideas, developing practice, writing position papers, finding solutions ... re-inventing the wheel. And what they do gets lost, because they have hitherto lacked the means, and maybe still lack the confidence, to let others see their ideas. Well here - for what they are worth - are my ideas.

Do I credit them with any great weight? Probably not, I fear. I can't say that there is any deep pedagogical philosophy underlying them. I can't promise that they will work in your school, or impress the Ofsted inspectors. I sincerely hope that when you read them you will feel that you can improve on them, or at least adapt them to your particular situation.

So they are offered - humbly - for you to try out, reject, adapt and challenge at your will:

● Ideas about General Teaching Issues
● Ideas on the Teaching of History
● Teaching History to Special Needs Pupils
● Discipline in the History Classroom

[Carole Faithorn]

How marvellous to have all John's 'major' posts so conveniently in one place.

They ought to be 'required reading' for all PGCE students, NQTs and 'old lags' too.

Wonderful stuff and all offered with John's usual modesty.

[DAJ Belshaw]

My goodness - how did this escape us? Top notch, as ever!

If I ever become an NQT mentor this will be required reading - I hope archive.org's getting all this so that people in the future don't think we were all idiots...

Doug

[Andrew Sweet]

In this Rough Guide to Teaching History, John Claire has provided anyone starting this September as an NQT the necessary skills and insight to make their first year of History teaching that much easier. The area on Discipline in particular, will give anyone who is worried that behaviour can make the pressure to get through the course at GCSE or AS/A2 some healthy advice. I wish that more great ideas about teaching and learning were posted by teachers with as much practical experience. One question. Do these rules change for KS3 History?

DAJ Belshaw, on Jul 31 2006, 07:09 PM, said:

My goodness - how did this escape us? Top notch, as ever!

If I ever become an NQT mentor this will be required reading - I hope archive.org's getting all this so that people in the future don't think we were all idiots...

Doug

[Dave Wallbanks]

I remember meeting John when I first became a Head of Department and his advice then and some of the articles he'd copied for me to read became a sort of bible in my trying to improve my teaching and that of the people in my department at the time. I remember taking one article in particular with me http://www.johndclar...ing/Written.htm to the interview for my current job and showing it to the interview panel. I got the job!
I'd heartily recommend you look at these pages and steal as many of John's ideas as you possibly can. I'd love to have been one of John's pupils as my experience of history was someone reading notes from their booklet and us frantically copying with a test at the start of the next lesson to see how much we'd learned from the previous lesson.

Thanks John! You're an inspiration!

[DAJ Belshaw]

Andrew Sweet, on Aug 22 2006, 04:57 PM, said:

One question. Do these rules change for KS3 History?

I'm of the opinion that good teaching is good teaching at all levels. And part of that good teaching means tailoring your lessons to the students in front of you. But then sometimes it doesn't - my AS students liked lollipops and running to write on the board the same (if not more) than my Year 7s!

Andrew Sweet, on Aug 22 2006, 04:57 PM, said:

In this Rough Guide to Teaching History, John Claire...

Whoops! Don't let John hear you mixing him up with the until-recently Education editor at the Daily Telegraph. I have a feeling he doesn't exactly share his (almost) namesake's point of view...

Doug

[Carole Faithorn]

Andrew Sweet, on Aug 22 2006, 04:57 PM, said:

In this Rough Guide to Teaching History, John Claire has provided anyone starting this September as an NQT the necessary skills and insight to make their first year of History teaching that much easier. The area on Discipline in particular, will give anyone who is worried that behaviour can make the pressure to get through the course at GCSE or AS/A2 some healthy advice. I wish that more great ideas about teaching and learning were posted by teachers with as much practical experience. One question. Do these rules change for KS3 History?

As Doug has already said, don't confuse 'our' wonderful John D Clare with his near namesake. The two are as chalk and cheese!

Many of the links on that web page of John's are copies of posts he has made on this Forum over the last few years when offering help and advice. His site is for the AQA Modern World History course, but the advice he gives is general. The rules don't change for precisely the reasons Doug has given.

I am wondering if this message of yours, Andrew, is a copy of a review which appears/is to appear elsewhere? It rather reads as if the intended audience is not this one.

[Andrew Sweet]

First sorry for the misspelling of your name John. Totally unintentional. I have used your website many times and have adopted many of the ideas on this Forum into my teaching. My intention here was to address in fact some of the issues raised by my students. The students have been given a questionnaire recently on Teaching and Learning and it became clear that although the topics we teach are generally challenging, it was BEHAVIOUR of other students that was the main issue flagged up as stopping them learn. Your Behaviour section struck a cord. The positive learning that is happening across year groups, within History teaching can continue through KS3 TO 4 AND BEYOND only if we address issues students feel are stopping them learn. Essentially your general teaching section was great because it gave a set of advice that focused on how we teach rather than what we teach.



Thanks for the advice

Andrew

[JohnDClare]

Andrew Sweet, on Aug 25 2006, 11:44 AM, said:

The students have been given a questionnaire recently on Teaching and Learning and it became clear that although the topics we teach are generally challenging, it was BEHAVIOUR of other students that was the main issue flagged up as stopping them learn.

Absolutely agree - pupils LIKE a safe environment. That is why they often prefer us old and more boring teachers to the young and much more exciting teachers. And that is why CRYSTAL CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS about WHAT you want them to do, and HOW you want them to do it, are so very, very important.

Quote

... focused on how we teach rather than what we teach.

Agree - this framework for teaching model is the key, I reckon.

[Stephen Daughton]

I couldn't agree more with the two points that John pulls out here as crucial to the classroom in any subject.

1) too often these days we seem fixated about what do i ( the teacher ) want to do this lesson/week. Fundamentally it is where many classroom problems lie, i believe. I see it all the time. Lessons must always be focussed and planned around what the kids are going to be doing not you the teacher. I think almost all lesson plans i see are about what the teacher plans to do. It really does make a big difference to the engagement of pupils and their productivity to plan the other way up. It makes a huge, huge difference to classroom control and pupil engagement

2) Clear instructions are also key to helping the pupils avoid conflict and frustration with you. I have for several years been using a massive colour code above my board. The kids now take it second nature and it solves so many things and speeds up the lesson greatly. Now you really only get the single kid who is confused who asks for help instead of the 4 who never heard the 3 things you told them to do 5 minutes ago.

This will help the kids separate what you write or project onto a board into managable chunks instead of losing information or missing it. It also allows them to deal with it all better and if they forget something its easily findable. so anything written in the following colours means the following:

Black = instruction

Blue = Copy exactly into books

Green = A keyword or Concept they must know the meaning of ( they should ask if they don't)

Red = an example of how to do what you're being asked


I used this when i wrote on a white board and now when i use a data projector on my laptop.

i can't recommend this kind of colour coding enough


Stephen Daughton

This post has been edited by Stephen Daughton: 11 October 2006 - 10:45 PM

[DAJ Belshaw]

Stephen Daughton, on Oct 11 2006, 11:38 PM, said:

Black = instruction

Blue = Copy exactly into books

Green = A keyword or Concept they must know the meaning of ( they should ask if they don't)

Red = an example of how to do what you're being asked

Great idea Stephen - and I notice you've used it at Wild Melon as well...

I totally agree about the power of habit. When I was on my first teaching practice a pupil did a piece of homework that he didn't have to do because 'You wrote it on the homework bit of the board, Sir!'

Doug

[Christine Williams]

I really enjoyed reading this - thanks!
In particular the using drama in the classroom struck a cord. I have used drama in the past but only acting out set plays eg Battle of Hastings. I thought John's example was great and would love to try it. I will be teaching slavery imminently with year 8 and the example John uses (Kunta Kinte) seems relevant - however, I must confess to ignorance of the particular story - can anyone provide me with it?

[JohnDClare]

From Roots - rember that it is fictitious

[John Perkins]

New set up to the forum and I had my usual knee jerk reaction of not liking change. However, without it I would never have stumbled across this. Already I am rethinking about differentiation. Look forward to working my way through the rest.
Thank you John for sharing all of this.

[Dave Wallbanks]

12 years ago when I became Head of Department I went to see John at his place of work and he gave me an article he wrote on uses of writing that I've kept with me and used regularly in my teaching and planning. Sometimes it's great to revisit old posts just to remind ourselves about what really matters in the classroom. I'm glad someone found the chance to give everyone a chance to look again at these posts.Thanks JDC for your work. You've been a great inspiration!