An Roinn Oideachais agus Eolaíochta

Department of Education and Science

 

 Subject Inspection of English

 REPORT

  

Coláiste Mhuire,

Ballygar, Co. Galway

Roll number: 62900M

  

Date of inspection: 16 February 2007

Date of issue of report:  20 November 2007

 

 

Subject inspection report

Subject provision and whole school support

Planning and preparation

Teaching and learning

Assessment

Summary of main findings and recommendations

 

Report on the Quality of Learning and Teaching in english

 

Subject inspection report

 

This report has been written following a subject inspection in Coláiste Mhuire, Ballygar, Co. Galway, conducted as part of a whole school evaluation. 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 principal and subject teachers.

 

 

Subject provision and whole school support

 

Timetabled provision for English is in line with syllabus guidelines. Students have three classes of English per week in TY; four classes per week in first and second year; and five classes per week in third, fourth, and fifth year. Also, the distribution of English is generally good. Junior and Leaving Certificate English classes are timetabled across all available days. Currently, the TY English classes are timetabled on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. It is encouraged that this distribution be reviewed, so that the three classes are spaced out over the week. Also, the TY timetabling choice of three single classes, a double and a single class, or a treble class listed in the subject department plan for English should be removed. Best practice is when students have multiple contacts with English during the week, to facilitate incremental learning and revision.

 

Students are divided alphabetically and placed into mixed-ability classes in first year. From second year onward, they are set in higher or ordinary-foundation level classes. All JC and LC English classes are concurrently timetabled to facilitate student movement.  School management is commended for creating these concurrencies. Not only do they support student choice, but they also make inter-class and or whole-year activities and team teaching possible.

 

General resource provision for the teaching of English in Coláiste Mhuire is very good. School management is commended for its general policy of having teachers based in their own or shared rooms, thus facilitating resource storage and the creation of print-rich environments. Rooms are variously equipped with shelves, storage cabinets, cupboards, notice-boards and with a mixture of blackboards and whiteboards. All rooms are wired for broadband reception. However, teachers reported during the evaluation that the school’s satellite-facilitated broadband service is often unreliable. Teachers have ready access to audio-visual equipment such as wall-mounted TVs, VCR/DVD and CD players, an OHP, and a computer room. Furthermore, the English teachers have access to two laptops, a data projector, and a six foot screen for projecting films in the assembly area (a gift from past students). While the data projector and accompanying laptop are generally based in one classroom, all English teachers can avail of the resource by swapping classrooms for particular lessons. Teacher requests for resources are transparently dealt with through a whole-school “purchase order form” system. Finally, the school is commended for the sensitive way it supports students through its in-house used book scheme.

 

Due to space constraints, the school library is currently located in a general classroom. It consists of wall-mounted display frames for paperback books. The book stock has been grouped under genre headings and is attractively maintained. One of the English teachers voluntarily acts as librarian. To borrow books, students informally approach the voluntary librarian, as there is no appointed weekly borrowing time. Given that the school is in the process of seeking funds for a dedicated library room, the following suggestions are offered for its development. First, students’ reading interests should be surveyed and analysed. Second, library stock should be broadened to include texts that support project work and that stimulate student enthusiasm in a variety of curricular areas. Third, to encourage reluctant readers to borrow books alongside their peers, texts suitable for students with low reading ages and Readalong text/CD packs should be included in the library stock. (The learning support team could be asked to suggest appropriate texts or text series for such students). However, if funding to create a stand-alone library is not secured, then the English department should still develop a departmental approach to promoting personal reading and should document that approach in the subject department plan. For example, first-year students could be directed to join the Ballygar public library or public libraries nearer their homes, the opening hours of relevant public libraries could be prominently displayed in the school, students could be offered marks toward end-of-term results for reviews of independently read books or researched topics, and the school could develop stronger links with the Ballygar public library and or the Galway county mobile library service to increase the range of books available to students for borrowing. Moreover, the English department could publicise reading events (such as World Book Day) and reading challenges (such as the M.S. Readathon) and could display downloaded lists of recommended books for different year groups and accompanying short blurbs on classroom walls, as a further stimulus for independent reading. As Circular M16/99 (“Guidelines for reading at Second Level Schools”) intimates, emotional, social, and academic benefits will accrue from such a whole-school promotion of reading: “Habitual reading arouses curiosity about, interest in and confident command of language. The reader takes delight in language and is versatile and comfortable in speaking and writing. These are the factors that develop the more able Leaving Certificate examination candidate.”

 

An array of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities supports the teaching and learning of English in Coláiste Mhuire. Students are encouraged to send out their essays for publication (meeting notable success in the school newsletter, local collections, and in the local newspaper). Approximately every four years, students and teachers in English, Art, Music, Construction Studies and other departments co-operate to stage a school musical. These shows give students practical insights into the mechanics of drama that support their reading of drama texts in the classroom. Similarly, English studies are also vivified by organised trips to theatrical productions and to cultural sites (such as the reconstructed Globe theatre in London and to sites associated with the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh). The management and teachers of Coláiste Mhuire are highly commended for their commitment to providing such stimulating co-curricular and extra-curricular activities for their students. 

 

English teachers wishing to engage in continuous professional development are encouraged and supported. All staff members avail of professional development sessions organised by school management. In the past, such courses have included basic computing skills and on the uses of PowerPoint software and of multimedia projectors and laptops. Also, one member of the department has recently attended Teaching English Support Service (TESS) courses and another has completed a course in librarianship. Some members of the English department were able to avail of the TESS in-service provided with the introduction of the new Leaving Certificate English syllabus a few years ago. To help those members who were not in a position to avail of that in-service, it is suggested that in-house discussions on the main methodological and assessment innovations contained in that syllabus be organised by the department. A collaborative examination of the LC English syllabus and of the associated Draft Guidelines for Teachers of English and Resource Materials for Teaching Language could be one method of facilitating that in-house professional development. Finally, the department is encouraged to continue consulting the TESS website (http://english.slss.ie/Main/), the TESS magazine (http://english.slss.ie/Magazine.html), and Looking at English: Teaching & Learning English in Post-Primary Schools, a 2006 composite report published by the inspectorate (http://www.education.ie/servlet/blobservlet/insp_looking_at_english.pdf?language=EN).

 

Planning and preparation

 

The English teachers of Coláiste Mhuire recently began formal planning as a subject department to complement and enhance existing practices of individual subject planning and informal consultation. This process has been supported by the timetabling of a subject department meeting during a staff meeting at the beginning of the school year. In addition, the English teachers’ decision to engage in departmental planning in their own time manifests their professional commitment to continuous improvement and is highly commended. Other necessary supports to the process will be the allocation of time for subject department planning during future staff meetings/development days and the organisation of a whole-staff workshop on subject department planning, facilitated by an SDPI co-ordinator.

 

A collaborative team spirit was evident among Coláiste Mhuire’s teachers of English. By the time of the evaluation, one teacher had been appointed as subject co-ordinator, and the English department had compiled a plan detailing how students are placed in particular classes, arrangements for facilitating student movement between classes, time allocations for the subject in all years, and the curriculum content plans of all teachers. The department is commended for this work. To help progress the English department’s planning even further, the following recommendations are offered.

 

First, it is recommended that a more formalised sharing of professional expertise and resources now take place, so that the good practices observed during the evaluation can be consolidated across the entire department. Arising from such discussions and exchanges, a section on methodology should be added to the subject department plan. (Handouts from professional development courses and copies of teaching strategies and resources being used by the learning support and resource team could also be included in this section, if considered relevant).

 

Second, it is recommended that the department work toward developing common schemes of work for all year groups. Starting with its various first-year curriculum content plans, the department should identify what it considers the most appropriate learning outcomes (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) for its first-year students. (See pages 8-14 of the LC English syllabus for exemplars of such statements). Then the department should select, combine and add new units of work, as it sees fit, to create a common first-year scheme of work that incrementally develops the specified learning outcomes. The knowledge that all first years have completed comparable units of work will be a great aid to teachers with whom new English students are placed in second year, after setting takes place. In planning such a common first-year scheme, teachers will need to agree the amount and sequence of generic coverage for the year. Furthermore, they will need to agree how they will incrementally set about honing first-year students’ writing skills (by developing their pre-writing, drafting, proofing, editing, and modelling strategies; by widening their vocabularies; and by developing their spelling, punctuation, and paragraphing competencies), reading skills (by teaching word and text-attack techniques and dictionary and thesaurus usage), and oral communication skills. Once the first-year scheme units and their sequencing are agreed, the same process should then be employed, over the coming years, to prepare schemes of work for the other year groups. As students are divided into higher and ordinary-foundation level classes, teachers will still have the freedom to select texts to suit their students’ needs and interests. However, it will be important for the teachers to collectively agree the content and sequencing of schemes for higher and ordinary-foundation level candidates, so that new teachers or established teachers who are asked to teach a level they have not recently taught will have a guide for organising their work. Individual teachers’ existing plans will be an important foundation for, and aid to, this work. The department may find pages 19-20 of Looking at English useful when undertaking this work.

 

Third, it is recommended that a section on homework and assessment be added to the subject department plan. Already included in the plan, the whole-school homework policy will be an important base document for that section. Other elements to be agreed and incorporated should include the department’s collective expectations for presentation standards for student work, appropriate types and amounts of homework (including the number of assigned essays per year), and samples of student work across the ability range for peer assessment and creative modelling purposes. Moreover, samples of common assessments and of differentiated assessments should be included. Finally, SEC chief examiners’ reports and marking schemes should be added to the section for teacher reference. See the “Assessment” section of this report for further guidance on this area.

 

Consequently, over the coming years, the subject department plan for English should bring together common year-group schemes, methodological strategies, assessment approaches and practices, a list of the resources available in the school to support the teaching and learning of English, agenda and minutes of subject department meetings, relevant teacher guideline and syllabus documents, SEC chief examiners’ reports and marking schemes, and TESS materials. What is envisaged is a planning process customised to the specific needs of the students of Coláiste Mhuire. Such subject planning will not only support the teaching and learning of English, but it will also support the process of school planning.

 

The current TY English programme incorporates the following elements: an introduction to the elements of film, the viewing and analysis of two films, student presentations on characters and themes from those studied films, a board-game design project, an essay assignment based on the studied films, a communications module, and film production workshops for students. The programme offers students good scope for active and student-centred learning experiences and uses a variety of modes to assess their work (written examinations, an oral presentation, project work and portfolio assessment). These aspects of the programme are commended. However, the programme is deficient in two respects: it does not expose students to texts from a range of genres and it does not plan for the development of students’ “basic competences in key areas according to the needs of individual pupils” (TYP Guidelines for Schools, pg 2). Part of the programme should involve the analysis of individual students’ language needs and regular remediation work focused on those needs. For example, devoting more time to helping students overcome their individual writing problems would be particularly beneficial to their senior cycle studies and to their general life skills. As for all other year groups, the subject department should collectively identify and agree aesthetic, academic, and life skills learning outcomes for the programme and units of work should be modified and added to achieve those outcomes. For further guidance in this work, the department is directed to pages 21-22 of Looking at English, to the article “The Teaching of English in Transition Year: Some Thoughts” published in the Spring 2006 edition of the TESS magazine, and to the TY Support Service’s suggestions for TY English programmes (http://ty.slss.ie/areas_study.html). Finally, providing students with a copy of the TY English programme (including the methods of assessment) is encouraged, as it gives them a measure of responsibility for their own progress.

 

In terms of individual teacher planning, weekly, termly, and or yearly plans and some accompanying resource folders and materials were presented for inspection. The best of them included evidence that teachers were reflecting on their practice (writing brief notes on how units could be improved/extended with future class groups) and that teachers were continually gathering contemporary, varied resources from reference books, the internet, and newspapers and magazines to enrich the study of particular units. Such careful preparation shows great dedication and zeal. Where weaknesses were noted, the time allocated for units of work was overly generous to some syllabus elements while disadvantaging others or the plans consisted of lists of areas for coverage only (with no indication of how language and literature were to be taught in an integrated manner).

 

What was evident from the individual teacher plans submitted was that the English teachers of Coláiste Mhuire have particular interests in different aspects of the subject. Through subject department planning, it is encouraged that these specialist levels of interest and expertise be rotated across class groups. For example, given that all year-group English classes are concurrently timetabled, it would be possible for teachers of a particular year group to swap classes to teach a lesson(s) on their particular specialty. This type of collaborative teaching would make best use of the department’s collective strengths and would give the maximum number of students the benefit of teachers’ enthusiasms and expertise.

 

[Planning, preparation, and provision of literacy and language support in Coláiste Mhuire are discussed in the main WSE report.]

 

Teaching and learning

 

In all classes, there was evidence of short-term planning and lessons were structured. In most classes, the learning outcome for the lesson was clear. Best practice is when intended learning outcomes are shared with learners at the outset of lessons. Such explicit sharing helps students connect new learning with previous work and also invites them to share responsibility for the lesson.

 

The resources used by the English teachers included worksheets, revision handouts, articles photocopied from newspapers, textbooks, blackboards and whiteboards, film clips projected using a multimedia projector, and OHP acetates used by teachers and students. Evidence was also gathered of the innovative incidental use of internet websites and of downloaded Teachers’ TV educational programmes to introduce, enrich, or revise particular units of work. (See http://www.teachers.tv/).  The use of such varied real-life resources is highly commended and it is advised that such practices be extended across the entire department. Most teachers already use film clips to illuminate key moments, setting, and characterisation in studied texts. Building on this foundation, it is encouraged that they would also incorporate into their work more audio sources (audiotapes or CDs of poets reading their work, of BBC audio or radio productions of plays) and more concrete materials (such as the use of props associated with texts as discussion and revision aids). By diversifying its resource bank in this way, the department will experience even greater success in addressing the range of learning styles and of student abilities in classes.

 

The uses of the blackboard/whiteboard/OHP observed over the course of the evaluation included recording new vocabulary encountered in texts, providing support notes on examination technique, setting homework assignments, highlighting key literary elements in a text (using a coloured writing instrument on an OHP acetate), and providing students with grids, spider diagrams, bar charts, and other writing frames to help them organise their information and ideas. These are sound educational practices and are commended. Written reinforcement of new vocabulary, grammatical and syntactical features and of pre-writing and writing strategies of this type is essential for the incremental development of students’ writing skills.  Other structured blackboard/whiteboard/OHP uses the department might find helpful would be the use of different coloured markers/chalks to help students discriminate between headings and sub points and the consistent use of vocabulary and homework columns. Lastly, the requirement that students transcribe board work into their copies (a practice already established in some classes) will provide them with an invaluable revision aid.

 

All teachers used questioning to good effect to stimulate and interact with students and to structure the learning activity. In the majority of classes evaluated, the exclusive questioning technique employed was a global one, resulting in whole-class answers or answers from the same group of eager students. It is advised that global and targeted questioning (directing appropriate, achievable questions to different students across the class group) be interwoven with each other, 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. Building on this shared methodological strength, it is encouraged that students occasionally be encouraged to answer questions after consulting in pairs/groups. Such a strategy would allow students time to develop multi-faceted answers to higher-order questions and enable those with literacy difficulties to contribute their insights to the formulation of those answers.

 

Varied teaching methods were observed over the course of the evaluation including question and answer, teacher reading, peer learning (where students were asked to listen to and comment on samples of others’ work read out to them), explicit examination technique instruction, and cross-curricular linking. Evidence was also gathered of the use of strategies such as visualisation (the comparison of film clips to elicit students’ personal responses and to help them identify different visual styles for portraying romance), creative interventions (asking students to compose from the perspective of characters in studied texts), and explicit vocabulary and semantic development. Teachers also built on units of work based on students’ prior knowledge and experiences. For example, a writing project titled “My Autobiography” was specifically assigned to first year students to give them a task they would all have ideas, feelings, and vocabulary to tackle. In another class, the essay title “After the War” gave senior cycle students scope to analyse their awareness of and opinions about ongoing military campaigns around the world. Such linking of lesson tasks with students’ personal experiences is highly commended.

 

In terms of identifying pedagogical areas for further development across the department, the following recommendations are offered. First, it is recommended that the department pool its resources and professional expertise in relation to the teaching of writing. For instance, the systematic departmental promotion of drafting/re-drafting approaches, of creative modelling, and of the integrated teaching of vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and punctuation through literary texts will help raise standards of writing even higher in all classes. Second, it is recommended that the department incorporate more pair and group work and other active learning approaches into its repertoire, to cater for the different learning styles and levels of ability in classes. In-service on differentiation and active learning methodologies from the Special Education Support Service (SESS) and or from the Second Level Support Service (SLSS) would be useful in this regard. (See http://www.sess.ie/sess/Main/Home.htm and http://www.slss.ie).

 

Very good rapport between teachers and students was evident in all classrooms visited. Teachers consistently affirmed students’ responses and integrated them into lessons. In some classes, students’ eagerness to understand a topic in greater depth prompted them to ask their teacher unsolicited questions. Discipline was sensitively maintained in all classes and almost all students were attentive and engaged in their learning. To activate the enthusiasm and interest of the few students who were disengaged in a few classes, it is recommended that the teacher-student talk/activity ratio always be more heavily weighted toward students and that audio-visual materials and pair work, group work and other differentiation strategies be more regularly utilised by teachers.

 

The teachers of English in Coláiste Mhuire are conscious of the motivational influence print-rich environments can exert on student learning. Examples of such environments observed in classrooms during the evaluation included a writer’s corner (displays of student reports on a trip to London and of student-composed limericks), revision aids (a Sylvia Plath spider diagram and a chain of colour-coded statements summarising the key moments of a studied novel), writing models (articles photocopied from newspapers), and commercially-produced materials (posters detailing the elements of imagery and of a formal letter). The department is commended for these efforts to provide motivational environments for its students. Other visual aids teachers may wish to develop and display in their classrooms, over time, could include more charts to reinforce the chief concepts and skills of courses (keywords associated with genres, key quotations from plays, strategies for reading unseen poems, flowcharts summarising key relationships between characters in studied texts, revision aids for the comparative modes and texts for a particular senior cycle year group). Also, it is encouraged that more writers’ corners and more commercial posters (advertising books, plays, films, and or literary events/festival) be exhibited in classrooms. Finally, if the school’s bid to secure a dedicated library room is successful, then the English department should ensure that its visual character showcases activities supporting the teaching and learning of English.

 

Assessment

 

A range of assessment modes is used to monitor student competence and progress in English in Coláiste Mhuire including oral questioning, in-class written assignments to support continuous assessment, and formal examinations. Additional assessment practices are also used by individual members of the department. Some teachers use assessments as diagnostic instruments, identifying the most common grammatical, spelling, and or organisational errors of each student and preparing lessons to help remediate those problems. Other teachers use additional assessment modes by awarding marks toward end-of-term results for student portfolios, presentations and project work. (Depending on the specific learning outcomes being targeted with a particular year group, some marks toward end-of-term results could also be allocated for spelling and or vocabulary tests; for copy and folder maintenance; for oral presentations; and for reviews of books read independently by students). Such assessment practices are highly commended.

 

In formulating its common approach to assessment, the following recommendations are offered to the department. First, it is recommended that common assessments be used to help guide students to appropriate examination levels. Second, teachers should introduce the LC criteria for assessment early in the senior cycle. A copy of the grid should be distributed to students and or posted on classroom walls as a visual aid.  Then students should be encouraged to use the language of the criteria when engaging in peer and self-assessment. (See http://english.slss.ie/resources/Appendix_1_HL_and_OL.pdf and http://english.slss.ie/resources/

Assessment_Advice_Students.pdf). It is encouraged that all teachers of senior cycle English would use the PCLM criteria when marking substantial pieces of senior cycle student writing. A simplified version of the criteria could also be introduced to junior cycle students, to help them identify the strengths and areas for development in their own writing. Third, in addition to listening to classmates’ work being read aloud in class and to reading commercial and or teacher-produced writing models, anonymous exemplars of student work spanning the grade continuum should also be occasionally distributed to students. Sources of such student work samples could include the Leaving Certificate (LC) exemplars of standard, the 2005 Chief Examiners’ Report on Leaving Certificate English, and saved samples of previous students’ work. Consequently, teachers are encouraged to identify suitable student exemplars on an ongoing basis and to seek student and parent/guardian permission for the anonymous use of those exemplars with later year groups. Those exemplars could even be gathered together in a section of the subject department plan. Presenting students with such samples will give them realistic benchmarks for determining how their current work measures up to that of their peers, thus sharing responsibility with them for the improvement of their own work.

 

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. In a few classes evaluated, homework assignments were written on the black/whiteboard and time was allocated for the transcription of these assignments into students’ homework journals before the end of class. In other classes, specific instructions were given to students on how homework was to be presented and on the criteria that work should meet (such as page length, number of points and quotations required). Furthermore, the alternation of recall/recognition questions and summaries with assignments that stretched students to compose for different audiences and in different registers was noted in a few classrooms. It is recommended that such practices be adopted consistently across the department.

 

From a review of student copies, it was evident that homework was being set and corrected in all classes. However, variations in the treatment of student work were noted. In some cases, students’ work was acknowledged by a tick and short comment (very good/excellent) or a tick and a grade. In other cases, the tick and mark/grade was accompanied by developmental feedback that affirmed the strengths in the piece of writing and gave concrete ideas for improvement. The department is encouraged to discuss this issue and to arrive at a consensus on it, so that teachers’ responses to students’ writing are relatively consistent from first to sixth year. In arriving at a common policy on the correction of mechanical errors and on the provision of developmental feedback on substantial pieces of writing, the department may find materials such as the NCCA’s “Assessment for Learning” web pages, the JCSP publication Between the Lines, and the relevant section of Inclusive Dyslexia-Friendly Practice useful.

(See http://www.sess.ie/sess/Files/Dyslexia_crossborder.pdf).

 

Appropriate class records of students’ results are kept using a teacher diary system. In first year, students sit October/November, December, March, and May in-class tests. In second and fourth year, they sit October/November and March in-class tests and formal house examinations in December and May. In third and fifth year, they sit October/November in-class tests, formal house examinations in December, and pre-certificate examinations in the spring. In the case of TY students, portfolio, continuous, and in-class assessments are used. Parents/guardians are informed of students’ progress through comments in students’ homework journals, through twice-yearly school reports, through annual parent-teacher meetings for each year group, and through individual meetings (either requested by parents/guardians or where parents/guardians are invited to the school to discuss a student’s progress).

 

Summary of main findings and recommendations

The following are the main strengths 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.