An Roinn Oideachais agus Eolaíochta

Department of Education and Science

  

Subject Inspection of English

REPORT

  

Meán Scoil Mhuire,

Newtownsmith, Galway

Roll number: 63010H

 

 Date of inspection: 26 April 2006

Date of issue of report: 26 October 2006

 

This Subject Inspection Report

Subject Provision and Whole School Support

Planning and Preparation

Teaching and Learning

Assessment and Achievement

Summary of Main Findings and Recommendations


Report on the Quality of Learning and Teaching in English

 

This Subject Inspection Report

 

This report has been written following a subject inspection in Meán Scoil Mhuire, Newtownsmith, Galway. It presents the findings of an evaluation of the quality of teaching and learning in English and makes recommendations for the further development of the teaching of this subject in the school. The evaluation was conducted over two days during which the inspector visited classrooms and observed teaching and learning. The inspector interacted with students and teachers, examined students’ work, and had discussions with the teachers. The inspector reviewed school planning documentation and teachers’ written preparation. Following the evaluation visit, the inspector provided oral feedback on the outcomes of the evaluation to the subject teachers and principal. The board of management of the school was given an opportunity to comment on the findings and recommendations of the report; the board chose to accept the report without response.

 

 

Subject Provision and Whole School Support

 

Whole school support and resource provision for the teaching and learning of English is very good in Meán Scoil Mhuire.

 

Timetabled provision for the teaching of English in Meán Scoil Mhuire is generally in line with syllabus guidelines.  Students have four classes of English a week in the Leaving Certificate Applied programme; five classes of English a week in first, second and third year; and six classes of English a week in fifth and sixth year. However, TY students only have two classes of English a week. While it is acknowledged that public speaking and debating are other TY modules, the minimum number of classes recommended for TY English a week is three. Hence, it is recommended that the current provision of English and English-related activities for TY students be reviewed, so that an additional period specifically for English can be provided each week.

 

The distribution of English on the timetable is very good, with all pupils following Junior Certificate and established Leaving Certificate programmes being taught English on each day of the week. Students are placed in mixed-ability classes in first and second year, and are set for third, fifth, and sixth year. To facilitate student choice and inter-class activity, English classes are concurrently timetabled for third, fifth, and sixth years.

 

General resource provision for the teaching of English in Meán Scoil Mhuire is very good. All teachers have access to TVs and CD and VCR/DVD players. Some teachers have access to overhead projectors (OHP). While a computer has been placed in each classroom, that resource will become most effective when the school’s broadband connection is activated. Among the other resources available for teacher use are computer rooms, internet terminals and printers in the staffroom, and five laptops and data projectors. The department has a dedicated annual budget. During the inspection, small old-fashioned student desk-seats were observed in some rooms, which made learning a more cramped experience for some students and mitigated against group work. Lastly, in relation to the school’s book rental scheme, it is suggested that the English department may wish to plan for the purchase of additional class-sets of plays and novels to cater for the interests and life experiences of junior-cycle ordinary/foundation level candidates and for learners with literacy difficulties.

 

What was once the school library in Meán Scoil Mhuire is now used as a general classroom and meeting room. Shelving and some books still remain in the room. Also, shelving and more books are located in one of the school’s computer rooms. While the stock in that room is divided into sections, much of it is outdated. In addition to those base collections, a few English teachers have been created mini libraries in their classrooms. The other resource for promoting personal reading that the English department of Meán Scoil Mhuire has been utilising is the Galway City public library (which is within walking distance of the school). Junior-cycle English teachers direct all students to become members of the library. In 2005/06, a literacy promotion programme was co-organised by Meán Scoil Mhuire’s home-school-community-liaison teacher and an English teacher. Students in two classes were entered into a project where, on reading four books within a specified timeframe, they would be presented with certificates by a high profile Galway-based author in the public library. Having successfully piloted that project, the English department plans to extend it to other junior-cycle students. Such initiatives are examples of best practice and of the school’s developing culture of a whole-school approach to literacy development. To further enhance its promotion of personal reading, the English department is encouraged to deepen its links with the Galway City public library, by encouraging students to attend relevant talks/presentations and perhaps by requesting specific library skill presentations to student groups. Additional motivation to read for pleasure could also be provided by encouraging students to identify and collect newspaper/ magazine articles of interest to them, by involving students in “World Book Day” activities, by inviting students to participate in the M.S. Readathon or other suitable reading challenge activity and so on.

 

An array of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities supports the teaching and learning of English in Meán Scoil Mhuire, for which its teachers are highly commended. First years are encouraged to enter the NUIG Access competition. Debating and public speaking are modules studied by TY students. School shows are produced which provide students with insights into the mechanics of drama that support their reading of drama texts in the classroom. Students are taken to theatres to see professional productions of plays and to media production workplaces such as newspaper office and local radio stations. In 2006/07, a writer-in-residence will work with groups of students in the school. The department also plans to take advantage of more English-related local events and programmes in its vicinity in the coming years. The willingness of teachers to give of their personal time to organise and promote such activities is highly commended.

 

English teachers wishing to avail of continuous professional development are encouraged and supported in Meán Scoil Mhuire. All staff avail of in-school in-service organised by school management. In the past, the English department availed of the services of the Teaching English Support Service (TESS) to prepare for the introduction of the new Leaving Certificate syllabus. The department is encouraged to continue to avail of TESS courses periodically offered in the Galway Education Centre and to continue consulting the TESS magazine and website, http://english.slss.ie/Main/.  Lastly, another form of professional development that supports the teaching and learning of English in the school is the department’s informal sharing of practice. It is hoped that the process of preparing a subject department plan over the coming years will consolidate that excellent tradition of peer professional support.

 

 

Planning and Preparation

 

The English teachers of Meán Scoil Mhuire have been formally meeting as a subject department approximately three times a year for a number of years to discuss and agree organisational issues such as text selection, class setting for senior cycle students, class placement for incoming first years. Voluntary departmental representatives have disseminated information relevant to the teaching and learning of English to colleagues for a number of years. Hence, a subject department structure has been established and operating in Meán Scoil Mhuire for a number of years. Also, staff meetings are held for forty minutes every Wednesday (for twenty minutes of the last class and twenty minutes of free time) where information about upcoming school events, the learning needs of individual students, and so on are discussed, thus facilitating regular, consistent communication of information to all staff members. Previous and current school managements are commended for the scheduling of those termly and weekly meetings.

 

A collaborative, supportive team spirit was evident among Meán Scoil Mhuire’s English teachers during the subject inspection. By the time of the evaluation, the English department had prepared a powerpoint presentation on its collective aims and objectives. Other materials that had been gathered together as part of an embryonic subject department plan were Junior and Leaving Certificate syllabuses, teacher guidelines, school policies, and Integrate Ireland leaflets describing the cultural backgrounds of international students from particular countries. Also, even before the subject inspection was announced, school management had organised staff in-service on the preparation of subject department plans with an SDPI regional co-ordinator.

 

To prepare its subject department plan, it is recommended that the English department work through the exercises and templates advised by the SDPI regional co-ordinator. Using those completed templates and the individual teacher planning documents presented during the evaluation as a basis for discussion and decision-making, it is recommended that the department identify and agree appropriate learning outcomes for each year group, in relation to the different syllabus elements. Then it is recommended that the department produce collective schemes of work for each year group, guided by the principles of thematic planning, of the integration of language and literature, and of teaching elements of all aspects of the syllabus to each year group. (The department might choose to spend a year developing a collective scheme of work for each year-group, for example). In addition to those schemes of work and the materials already gathered, sections should be added to the subject department plan, over the coming years, on  topics such as methodology, resources, assessment expectations and procedures, agenda and minutes of departmental meetings, SEC Chief Examiners’ reports and marking schemes, Teaching English magazines, and so on. Ultimately, the sharing of professional expertise and resources will be the most important outcome of the process. The formalisation, documentation, and compilation in a single file of discussions and practices that are already ongoing is what is envisaged.

 

At present, the TY English course in Meán Scoil Mhuire is exclusively focused on the production of a school magazine. This is a commendable, active learning activity where students engage in media studies research; writing, re-writing, and editing for a purpose; and in learning the essential lifeskill of teamwork. However, the school magazine should not be the only outcome of TY English. Textual study of poetry, drama, and fiction through thematically-planned units of work; writing in different registers for different purposes and audiences; and more English-related projects, experiences, and excursions should also be included in the course. To reduce the TY English classtime spent preparing the magazine, the following suggestions are offered. First, it is suggested that through cross-curricular planning, parts of the magazine-preparation process could be completed in other TY modules (e.g. marketing in a TY mini-company/ business module). Second, it is suggested that if students in all year groups were directed by their English teachers to submit pieces of writing/art to the magazine (perhaps motivated by the promise of small prizes), then the TY English students would have less text to generate, thus freeing them up to engage in other areas of study. In revising the existing TY English plan, it is also encouraged that more formal cross-curricular links be formed between the English, public speaking, and debating modules. The department may find the article “The Teaching of English in Transition Year: Some Thoughts” useful in this regard (Teaching English magazine, Spring 2006, pgs. 11-12).

 

In all classes observed, the range of work planned was appropriate. Structured delivery and careful prior preparation of material (handouts and pre-prepared OHP transparencies) indicated that teachers were engaging in short-term planning. Detailed daily, termly, and/or yearly plans were presented for inspection. The best of them included evidence of review (such as brief reflective notes on how lessons could be improved/extended with future class groups). Such careful preparation shows great dedication and zeal.

 

There was evidence of a very good literacy and language-support service in Meán Scoil Mhuire. The learning-support co-ordinator regularly communicates with the school’s principal and guidance counsellor, with external agencies as necessary, and regularly networks with other learning-support/resource teachers in the Galway area. To cater for the language-support needs of international students, the learning-support teacher has attended Integrate Ireland Language and Training (IILT) sessions, and uses materials supplied by them in conjunction with other resources. The school’s resource room is well-resourced with print and film materials, internet-wired terminals, and literacy-support software. Additional resources are provided on request. The educational posters on display in the room make it an inviting, vibrant space. Subject teachers are made aware of individual students’ learning difficulties and support strategies by the learning-support co-ordinator. Tuition is provided to students in small groups and/or small classes. Carefully detailed in the school’s “Special needs policy” are holistic, success-oriented goals for students in need of literacy, numeracy, and or resource support. Strengths of that policy are its clear mapping of process through which students in need of literacy, numeracy or resource support are identified; its performance criteria; its clearly-stated review cycle; and its whole-school delegation of roles and responsibilities for the support of students with such learning difficulties across the whole-school community.

 

 

Teaching and Learning

 

Effective teaching was observed over the course of the evaluation. In all classes visited, there was evidence of short-term planning, lessons were structured, and content and pace were appropriate. Objectives were clear and were in line with syllabus requirements. Teachers’ ease and breadth of reference in relation to the texts being studied was impressive.

 

Teachers’ instructions and explanations were clear and precise in most classes observed. However, group work was sometimes an area where precise instructions were not communicated. It is encouraged that students’ understanding of the roles they are required to perform within a specific group, of the end-product that the group is expected to produce, and of the timeframe assigned for task completion be checked through questioning before groups commence working.

 

The resources used by the English teachers included handouts, blackboards, novels, pre-written OHP transparencies, and concrete artefacts (e.g. daffodils to introduce the eponymous Wordsworth poem). Where possible, it is recommended that more multi-media stimuli and concrete artefacts be utilised in the teaching of English, to cater for students’ different learning styles and ability levels. Also, over the coming years, the English department is encouraged to utilise the school’s laptop and data projector to support teaching (once the school’s broadband connection is set up). To anticipate the eventuality that broadband might not always be running when needed, it is suggested that teachers could “save” websites they want to show students as files, for use at a later point. In that way, film clips of poets reading their own work or being interviewed, maps and photographs of the places where texts are located and so on could be used to vivify texts, thus increasing students’ engagement in particular units of work. To help the English department become more confident users of the laptop and data projector, it is suggested that teachers teaching IT in the school and/or the ICT advisor attached to the Galway Education Centre could be consulted for advice.

 

A variety of uses of the blackboard/OHP was observed over the course of the evaluation, including recording student feedback to group assignments, summarising the characteristics of a specific genre, and spider diagramming character traits and actions. Also, student-volunteers recorded class feedback in one class, thus enabling the teacher to devote more attention to stimulating discussion and to monitoring student behaviour. All of these were sound educational activities and are commended. For the additional purposes of modelling how students might organise their ideas for writing tasks and of vocabulary reinforcement, it is recommended that the blackboard be used in a more consistent, structured way across the department. Other structured blackboard uses the department might find useful include the consistent use of vocabulary and homework columns. Such practices will equip students with an ever-expanding reserve of vocabulary, syntactical structures, and writing models.

 

All teachers used questioning to good effect to stimulate students and to structure the learning activity in their classes. A mixture of global (open for answer by all students) and targeted questions (appropriate, achievable questions directed to individual students across the class group) was used to review and elicit information and to trigger discussion and debate in most classes. In a few classes observed, the predominant questioning technique employed was a global one, resulting in whole-class answers. That technique was excellent for generating classroom discussion and debate. However, best practice involves the interweaving of global and targetted questioning to maximise the involvement of students across the ability range. Where best practice was observed, questions were carefully sequenced and graduated, leading students to higher-order thinking and encouraging them to make personal aesthetic responses.

 

A variety of teaching methods was observed over the course of the evaluation including question and answer, teacher/student reading, pair work, pre-reading (where difficult/unfamiliar words/phrases were defined in preparation for a particular text), group work (task teams for the school magazine), building on students’ prior knowledge and life experiences (through revision of material taught or linking texts to current events such as the Iraq war), encouraging students to use computers for drafting/re-drafting and for internet research, and peer learning (where students were asked to listen to and comment on samples of other students’ work). It was also reported that some teachers use film clips to illuminate their teaching of texts. A particularly good example of differentiated teaching was observed during the evaluation, where the teacher assigned written work to an ordinary level group so that she could teach the higher level group, before assigning written work to the higher level group so that she could orally correct the work of the ordinary level group before moving on to teaching  points. Catering for the different needs of learners in that way was best practice. Through the process of preparing a subject department plan, the sharing of professional expertise of this kind will become more formalised, thus leading to the consolidation of these excellent pedagogical approaches across the entire department. Over the coming years, it is also recommended that the department further develop its repertoire of active learning methodologies by experimenting with techniques such as visualisation, prediction, language games, role play, hot-seating, and cross-curricular links.

 

In terms of identifying pedagogical areas for further development across the department, it is recommended that the department pool its resources and strategies in relation to the teaching of writing and to differentiation. For example, building on the practice of getting students to listen to and comment on samples of other students’ work read out in class, it is recommended that anonymous written samples of such work spanning the grade continuum be occasionally distributed. Students could then be encouraged to identify the strengths and areas for development in those samples, leading to the introduction of criteria for assessment to help structure such peer assessment discussions. Also, it is recommended that the department demonstrate and encourage creative modelling in all junior and senior-cycle English classes and that it experiment with writing frames and cloze tests. Finally, it is recommended that the department, in conjunction with the learning support co-ordinator, pool its expertise and resources in relation to differentiation (samples of differentiated homework/tests, teaching the same play with different texts to cater for the needs of ordinary/foundation cohorts in mixed-ability classes, relevant LCA methodologies and sample assignments, and so on) and that it seek in-service from the Special Education Support Service (http://www.sess.ie/sess/Main/Home.htm) on this area.

 

Very good rapport between teachers and students was evident in all the classrooms visited. Teachers consistently affirmed students’ responses, integrating them orally into lessons. Almost all students were familiar with and competent in using the concepts and skills necessary to complete their courses. Discipline was maintained by all teachers and almost all students were attentive. In tackling this limited issue of unequal student engagement, it is recommended that audio-visual/ multi-media resources and active learning methodologies be more consistently used.

 

Motivational, print-rich environments had been created in most of the classes where English was being taught in Meán Scoil Mhuire. The resources displayed in rooms included newspaper and magazine articles and advertisements, “Irish writers” and “Shakespeare” posters, posters advertising studied plays, and some flowcharts visually summarising connections between characters in King Lear (character maps). Student projects were also in evidence in some classes. The group of projects on Sylvia Plath’s life and work was particularly vibrant. Also, some student writing samples were displayed, including a wonderful collage of functional and personal writing pieces arising from the study of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as a first-year novel. The production of such imaginative visual aids is highly commended and it is encouraged that this practice extend across the entire department. Other visual aids teachers may wish to display in their classrooms might be posters featuring key words associated with genres, key quotations from plays, posters featuring photographs and timelines of studied poets, photographs of writers working with students and/or book reviews of those writers’ works, and posters advertising literary events taking place in its locality. Also, it is encouraged that more student-work be displayed on classroom walls, to simultaneously reinforce students’ learning and celebrate their achievements. Such print-rich environments constitute a key motivational support for the teaching and learning of English in Meán Scoil Mhuire. 

 

 

Assessment and Achievement

 

A range of assessment modes is used to monitor student competence and progress in Meán Scoil Mhuire, including oral questioning, written assignments, class tests, and formal examinations. Appropriate class records of students’ results are kept. A few teachers even use assessments as diagnostic instruments, whereby the most common grammatical, spelling, and/or organisational errors of each student are identified and lessons are prepared to help remediate those problems. Such uses of assessments are examples of best practice.

 

A number of the classes observed began with a review of homework or of work done in a previous class, thus maximising the chances that students would retain their new learning. Homework was being regularly set and corrected in all classes visited. As the school’s homework policy states, “Time [was] allocated during class to give clear instructions re homework” in all classes observed. In most cases, homework assignments were called out orally at the end of class. For the benefit of students who are less academically inclined, and who tend not to remember homework tasks set orally, it is recommended that teachers write such assignments on their blackboard and allow time for students to copy down the assignment. Teachers may even wish to write homework assignments on the blackboard at the beginning of class, as a reminder to themselves of the task they want to set to reinforce classwork.

 

Evidence was noted in a number of classes of detailed, developmental feedback being written on substantial pieces of student writing, with teachers balancing the identification of student errors/omissions with affirmations of what students had done correctly and with developmental feedback on how they might improve their work. This best practice is commended and it is recommended that it be extended across the entire department. The school is also commended for communicating the significance of parents’ role in ensuring homework completion through meetings of the principal and first-year Year Head with the parents of incoming first years. Finally, the practice of assigning differentiated homework tasks observed in some classes is commended for helping to ensure that tasks appropriate to students’ abilities are assigned to them.

 

Copies revealed that students had completed a range of appropriate work. Folders revealed that students had a range of notes and resources to support them in their work. To help ensure that students will be able to easily access their notes and written work for revision purposes at the end of junior and senior cycle courses, it is suggested that the department discuss and agree copy and/or folder systems of organisation and communicate them to all students at the beginning of each school year.

 

Students are assessed five times a year. As part of the subject department planning process for English, it is suggested that teachers consider setting common elements in year-group house examinations. For example, reading comprehension and unseen poem sections could be common. Where different text choices have been made, generic questions could be set. Common criteria of assessment could be agreed. Such practices would facilitate comparison of attainment across year groups, thus helping to guide decisions on student placement for third-year classes and to confirm fifth-year students’ correct class-placement, for example.

 

The school reports that liaison with parents is good. The standard formal structures for parent-teacher meetings and for reporting to parents through homework journals are in place. Also, successful courses/events organised by the home-school-community-liaison teacher (such as an after-school course for parents on texts being studied by junior certificate students) have helped strengthen links between the parent body and the school.

 

 

Summary of Main Findings and Recommendations

 

The following are the main strengths and areas for development identified in the evaluation:

 

 

 

As a means of building on these strengths and to address areas for development, the following key recommendations are made:

 

 

Post-evaluation meetings were held with the teachers of English and with the principal at the conclusion of the evaluation, when the draft findings and recommendations of the evaluation were presented and discussed.