Duration: 10:34
This video showcases authentic examples of teaching practices outlined in the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO)’s Teaching for How Students Learn model of learning and teaching in 4 Australian schools.
Each example aligns with a consistent set of techniques teachers can use to monitor progress, demonstrated in a range of learning areas and with students of varying ages. These techniques include:
- Check for understanding frequently
- Use varied methods to reinforce active participation by all students
- Use predictable routines and provide constructive responses
- Respond to struggles or mistakes promptly
- Guide attempts to respond
- Frame feedback constructively
- Monitor errors to provide feedback, additional instruction or guidance
- Draw on student responses to check your practice.
You’ll also hear reflections and insights from teachers and students about how these techniques support learning.
We recommend watching this video after reviewing AERO’s Monitor Progress practice guide. You don’t need to watch the video in one sitting – you can pause to reflect, take notes, discuss the content with colleagues or consider how it applies to your own practice. Viewing this video as part of a staff meeting or professional development session can help spark discussions and collaboration within your team.
Acknowledgements
AERO extends its gratitude to the teachers, students and families from these schools for their support and participation:
- Aveley Secondary College (WA)
- Briar Road Public School (NSW)
- Riverwood Public School (NSW)
- Serpentine Primary School (WA).
We would also like to thank Professor Lorraine Hammond, Dr Nathaniel Swain, members of AERO’s First Nations Expert Reference Group, and the teachers and school leaders who reviewed and provided feedback on these videos.
More information
You can find more information about this and related practices in:
- AERO’s Teaching for How Students Learn model of learning and teaching
- Monitor Progress practice guide.
Transcript
[On-screen text] Monitor progress: What it is:
- Checking students’ understanding regularly using varied methods.
- Being responsive to the difficulties or misconceptions students demonstrate during checks for understanding.
- Reteaching or providing additional instruction to students in temporary and flexible groupings, or to the whole class as needed.
- Providing prompt verbal feedback, correcting misconceptions, and explaining correct answers and processes.
[On-screen text] This video demonstrates examples of the following techniques to monitor progress:
- Check for understanding frequently
- Use varied methods to reinforce active participation by all students
- Use predictable routines and provide constructive responses
- Respond to struggles or mistakes promptly
- Guide attempts to respond
- Frame feedback constructively
- Monitor errors to provide feedback, additional instruction or guidance
- Draw on student responses to check your practice
Stephanie Le Lievre, Principal, Year 4/5 teacher, Serpentine Primary School: Checking for understanding and monitoring progress within the lesson is one of the most important elements of a successful lesson.
[On-screen text] Check for understanding frequently throughout each lesson
Stephanie Le Lievre: Otherwise, what can happen, you can get through an entire lesson, and, actually, your students either have not understood the content and haven't achieved the learning objective, or it's been so easy that you didn't have to spend as long as you did scaffolding it for them. So, regular checks for understanding, as opposed just to at the end of the lesson, or just before they're doing an independent practice, is really important. So, that comes after activating prior knowledge. It comes after concept development, and at regular intervals in the guided practice.
Think about what could be the appositive in this sentence. Now, this time, A – sorry – Bs are going to tell As what they think the appositive could be in this new sentence. You only need 10 seconds for this. Bs tell As. And go.
Class: [Interposing voices.]
Stephanie Le Lievre: I give lots of live feedback in my lessons.
[On-screen text] Frame feedback constructively
Stephanie Le Lievre: And this serves 2 purposes. First – Firstly, it picks up any misconceptions that you are seeing across the room. So if students aren't, for example, putting the commas in the right spot, if you've seen a couple of students who are, or they've remembered their commas, by praising those students, it's a reminder for the other students, ‘oh, I need to put commas in those spots as well’ or ‘I need to make sure I've checked for capitalisation of proper nouns’. Whatever it may be.
One of Australia's most famous landmark. Brilliant, Vincent.
[On-screen text] Monitor errors to provide feedback, additional instruction or guidance
Stephanie Le Lievre: Because what does it do? What does that bit of information do to the subject? What's it doing?
Student: Telling them what the Sydney Harbour Bridge is?
Stephanie Le Lievre: It is. It's telling us what the Sydney Harbour Bridge is. So it's renaming the subject, isn't it? Brilliant. So that could form part of our appositive. Excellent.
Melissa Watson, Year 10 humanities teacher, Aveley Secondary College: By calling on a non-volunteer, means everyone's accountable. Everyone's engaged. But they know that they can share that answer with me and my feedback is going to help them grow and extend them. Never to say they're wrong, but just to keep them engaged with that learning.
[On-screen text] Use varied methods to reinforce active participation by all students
Melissa Watson: So, by varying those different questioning types, and methods of questioning, I can extend, I can support and I can check for their understanding before we move on.
Could I ask that Partner A please shares their response first? Off we go, Partner A.
[On-screen text] Use predictable routines
Class: [Interposing voices.]
Melissa Watson: And partner B in 3, 2, 1.
[On-screen text] Use varied methods to reinforce active participation by all students
Class: [Interposing voices.]
Melissa Watson: And we are ready to share in 3, 2, 1. Could you share your response with us please, Claire?
So I'm able to walk around the room and provide feedback. So that allows me to gauge if I've got that 80% mastery. If 80% of my kids are where they should be, then we can move on. If they're not where they should be at that point, then we reteach and we have another go.
[On-screen text] Use predictable routines and provide constructive responses
Melissa Watson: Fantastic. So Claire's had a look at outlining 2 causes. And she's done a great job. She has provided some description of what that concept is. And that would be a 3 out of 3. She's explained how population growth impacts spatial inequality and how legacy of history impacts spatial inequality.
[On-screen text] Reinforce active participation by all students
Melissa Watson: So when I'm asking a question, I deliberately put the student's name last. So I might say, ‘Can you please define spatial inequality for me, Jamie?’ If I worded that as ‘Jamie, can you define spatial inequality?’ every other kid not named Jamie has stopped paying attention, because they're not going to be asked.
[On-screen text] Guide attempts to respond
Melissa Watson: So by putting it last, you're keeping that accountability nice and high. Anyone could be asked. We don't know who it's going to be. So we're focused, we've got our answer ready because we've pair-shared it, or we've thought about it, or we've written it down in our guided notes so we're ready to go. And we're waiting to find out who that person who's going to be asked is.
Could I ask, in a nice, loud voice, could you read your answer for us, please, Hudson?
Lauren Vickery, Year 3/4 teacher, Riverwood Public School: So when I use those mini whiteboards, I can check straight away whether students have the correct answer. And if they don't, I can correct that misconception straight away.
[On-screen text] Monitor errors to provide feedback, additional instruction or guidance
Lauren Vickery: So what I do is I ask the students to put down their boards, watch me correct the misconception. Then they have a chance to fix their error. And then they chin it again. So I can make sure that everyone has the correct answer. And then I'll make sure they get to do a similar question again. So they can put that learning back into context. They can try that exact question again, making sure they have fixed that error.
[On-screen text] Respond to struggles or mistakes promptly
Lauren Vickery: I think someplace where we were getting confused here: 1 + 0 + 8. It is not 10 + 8. What is it? It is 1 + 0 + 8, not 10 + 8. Okay, so if you have not done that, can you fix your answers for me now? Just finishing off your question. Fix your answer.
[On-screen text] Draw on student responses to check your practice
Lauren Vickery: I know if I've pitched my lesson at the correct level – whether it's too easy or too hard. By looking at those mini whiteboards every lesson, I can see exactly what answers they have and whether they've got their answer clearly. I can also check their independent practice books at the end of a lesson as well, see whether they have all the answers correct. If they need further teaching, I can do a new lesson the next day reteaching the same concept. Otherwise, if they're doing the work too easily, so every single answer is correct, I might have pitched it too low. I can potentially speed up the pace a little bit and drop that scaffolding off a little bit earlier.
3,065 + 2,788. [Whispering] Okay, so write that first. 3,065 + 2,000.
Jessie Griffiths, Assistant Principal, Year 3/4 teacher, Briar Road Public School: So, during checking for understanding, if a student provides me with an incorrect answer, or they say they don't have an answer, you know, we believe in a no-opt-out policy. So all students are learning all the time.
[On-screen text] Guide attempts to respond
Jessie Griffiths: So, if students show me they are confused with the answer, I'll say, ‘I'll come back to you’ and I'll go and ask some other students. And that allows them to see – hear – correct answers as well and make sure they know I'm coming back, so they have to be engaged and listening in the learning. And when I come back to them, if they're still giving me an incorrect answer, then I might get the students to pair-share again or I'll have my anchor chart there for them to say, ‘Actually, let's look at the anchor chart. This is the answer, read it with me.’ And then re-ask the question so they can be successful.
Everyone, read with me. The …
Jessie Griffiths and class: Meaning: adjective – full of or having.
Jessie Griffiths: Read with me. Fill in the blanks.
Jessie Griffiths and class: The suffix, -ful means full of …
Class: Full of or having.
[On-screen text] Respond to struggles or mistakes promptly
Jessie Griffiths: Ooh, what does the suffix -ful mean please, Ryder? —— I'm going to come back to you, Ryder, okay?
[On-screen text] Guide attempts to respond
Jessie Griffiths: Ivan, what is the suffix -ful mean?
Student: It means full of or having.
Jessie Griffiths: Good. Ryder, what does the suffix, -ful mean?
Student: Full of or having.
Jessie Griffiths: Excellent. Okay.
Tim Shaw, Assistant Principal, Year 5/6 teacher, Riverwood Public School: So, this little movement [points to his temple] is all around students actually showing me that they are ready to move on.
[On-screen text] Use predictable routines
Tim Shaw: Making – Because we know all that students all process things at different times – making sure that all students have that thinking time and the ability to actually form an answer, for them to be able to turn, communicate and consolidate the information.
What is the queen actually asking Edmund here? —— What is the queen actually asking? When you have figured out, show me that you know. —— All right. Think-pair-share. Go.
Class: [Interposing voices.]
[On-screen text] Reinforce active participation by all students
Tim Shaw: There's also a lot of engagement norms that happen, that are always drawing students' attention back to the task at hand. And if the students aren't actually paying attention, they're not doing an engagement norm. So, therefore, we're always checking that students are engaged and understand.
[On-screen text] Check for understanding frequently
Tim Shaw: Before I continue reading, what do we notice about this? What do we notice about this? —— All right. Quick. Think-pair-share. Go.
Class: [Interposing voices.]
Tim Shaw: Five, four, three, two and 1. Okay, Isaiah. What do you notice about here, buddy?
Student: Parentheses.
Tim Shaw: Parentheses.
[On-screen text] Guide attempts to respond
Tim Shaw: And inside the parentheses, because these are the parentheses here, what is this? Abbrr …
Student: Abbreviation.
Tim Shaw: Abbreviation. Great job. It has taken the first letter of each word to abbreviate it.
Chloe Howard, Year 11 science teacher, Aveley Secondary College: So, when I'm checking for understanding, if my students are showing signs of difficulties or misunderstandings, that's where my effective feedback is really important.
[On-screen text] Monitor errors to provide feedback, additional instruction or guidance
Chloe Howard: So, asking them prompting questions or cues.
So think about the function of FSH [follicle stimulating hormone]. Think about if you had excess FSH, if you put more into the female's body, what effect would that have? And why would you want that? If a woman is struggling with infertility, she wants to have a baby, why would the doctor recommend additional follicle stimulating hormone?
[On-screen text] Monitor errors to decide whether to provide feedback, additional instruction or guidance
Chloe Howard: If there is any sort of misunderstandings or misconceptions, we go back and reteach it, because often our content is sequenced logically from simple to most difficult. And they're not going to be able to demonstrate success with those more difficult concepts or skills if they don't have a good foundational understanding of those.
Fantastic, I love how you stepped that out.
[On-screen text] Frame feedback constructively
Chloe Howard: So you started with the function of FSH. Then you went through what the effect of excess FSH be and why that would be suitable with infertility. So let's look at our marking key. Can you please mark your work?
Keywords: student learning, science of learning, observation, explicit teaching