Back to Basics: 3 Teaching Ideas That Still Matter

Hello everyone, Ross here at Teacher Toolkit. Welcome to this month's membership resource. Now, Mark Plan Teach is still a best seller and I still get asked to lead Mark Plan Teach training in schools all over the country and I want to explain to you why. Now, in this resource, there are five ideas. Okay, first one we're looking here at how do we develop coherence, not consistency. So, what do I mean by that? Now, all schools >> [snorts] >> would quite happily want some degree of consistency between classrooms, but here's a provocation. Not all schools tell me that they've achieved it. So, I believe that coherence is the thing that we should be chasing, not consistency. And what I mean by this is when I join your school, what's your hymn sheet? What does your policy say? What's your playbook of strategies? And how do we [clears throat] adapt these between subjects and year groups? This is what I mean by coherence. It's a shared language between teachers all across the school. Idea two, we're looking at one of the most popular strategies from the Mark section. Now, there are 30 techniques in the book, but here's one technique that has stood the test of time and can be used in early years right through to FE, I've learned. Lesson planning, one key resource better than any AI tool out there is the five-minute thinking process. Even if I put all my prompts into ChatGPT or an AI tool, I still need to think through is the details accurate. Why not do it first using this tried and tested methodology? Idea four is looking at one core technique from the 10 ideas inside the Teach section of Mark Plan Teach. How do you ensure that you sustain your students' attention span? And then what can we consider to roll out these techniques across a department, across a team, or across the whole school or college. Now, Mark Plan Teach is still a best-seller. Why? Because it looks at how schools develop that coherence, that professional autonomy. And the original book set out to reduce workload. It still achieves that, but stripping back that core classroom complexity, using neuroscience, using academic research to focus on what works in what conditions to have the best impact for teachers that strip back all those headaches. So, let me just put those here. And I guess today's answer is coherence, not compliance. So, we want to strip back all the faff across the deep professional. What techniques work and which are going to have the biggest impact in the classroom? So, there's your summary slide. I'll update this video screencast. It's just of last month, so I'll get that sorted after this recording and place this recording here. And I just want to spend 10-20 minutes going through the rest of the slide deck. So, idea one, we're looking at how the book developed coherence. So, in my own life, leading teaching and learning in secondary schools all across London, this top row explains the kind of journey to the original Mark Plan Teach. We turned Mark Plan Teach into a teaching and learning policy, our hymn sheets. And in box four here, we have our teachers talking about complex teaching and learning, sharing problems, trying to maybe think about, "Hmm, who teaches the most students? I do, 300 students a week." Oh, well, does this marking technique work best or make things worse for you? And then, if I just move myself out of the way here, the bottom idea is how I've lived the ideas in schools and colleges all around the world. Which ideas still stand the test of time? So, in the first section, just that reminder again, reducing workload, improving teacher well-being, stripping back complex classroom problems. How do we use research and to consider what works and what conditions? That's the premise behind the resources and the ideas. Now, the origin started way back in 2010 when we looked at the emerging teacher workload data. So, when we think about workloads, a good 50,000 people responded here to this survey. Are these things still a challenge? And how do they compare now? So, here are the most recent ones. So, this is from the teacher workforce survey. So, biggest shifts have been curriculum, marking and planning, data collection, but more recently, SEND and artificial intelligence is what the new data suggests. And when when I was going on my travels, I started to see the same problems in lots of different places. And this is best summed up here in this one slide, which I've not changed since I first published it. So, my question to you, which you might want to pause here and just reflect on, is when we talk about teaching and learning in your classroom, in your department, in your school, where do you fit on this scale? Are you on the far left? It must be done this way or else, or are you on the far right? Couldn't care less. And on the far right, this might be, well, there's no scheme of work, or I'm not sharing my resources with you. You're [snorts] paid to do it, do it for yourself. So, how do we get in the middle? How do we stay there? Rather than chase consistency, if we have a hymn sheet, we can try to seek some coherence. And what I mean by this is if I join your school, what's your hymn sheet? It's this. Here's our vision, here's our values. Oh, okay, that resource, that technique looks like this in early years, or looks like this in maths in a year 10 classroom. The challenge is how do you stay in the middle given all the different changes of school priorities and pressures and those kind of things. So, a key question to pause the video and reflect on is this, how autonomous is your school or college on that scale? Now, in terms of definitions, great piece of research published by John Hattie in 2020, are you trusted to make your own decisions? What does common progress look like or what does progress look like? Is it commonly agreed on across your school? Do you have shared beliefs about what effective teaching looks like? How do you address that last headache? How do you make sure each other is aware of what you're doing across different classrooms? And my suggestion here is short video clips of your teachers with your students sharing complex problems. And then the last two here, how do we all agree some goals and how do support staff help teachers get on with the job, not block them, and how do school college leaders protect teaching staff from the external forces such as parents, inspections, the media, those kind of things? So, this is how autonomy is defined. So, let me just pop back to that scale, are you in the middle? And how [clears throat] far are you away from achieving this in your context? So, let me pop over to idea two. So, in this section, we're going to look at one key idea from the 10 ideas inside Mark, 10 ideas inside Plan, and 10 ideas in Teach Room book. In the book Mark, Plan, Teach, there are 30 ideas, but what one technique would I say gets everything back to basics and works in early years right through to further education. So, here is the first resource. So, there are the 10 ideas, but this is the two that I want to focus on here inside the mark section. So, the first one is kind of looking at mind the gaps. Now, here's a nice little cartoon summary. You can pause the video, scan the QR code, and read this in 60 seconds, and then jump back on the video. And inside it recommends some research on how to provide effective marking and feedback strategies, and here they are here. Now, in the book, they're documented on pages 18 and 19, but I'm going to help you catch up. Now, one resource that I still continues to be very successfully delivered in schools and colleges is the yellow box methodology. So, scan this QR code, pause the video, scan the QR code, and look at some example assignments I've provided. Now, despite all the marking challenges, these ideas still work today. So, what I'll do here is if you just look at this example, you've got um over here the an example of Romeo and Juliet, the teacher has highlighted what area they're going to assess, and the students have responded here on a post-it note. In this example, if I move myself out the way, you can see in the bottom left-hand side there is a yellow box around an equation, and then the teacher has drawn another yellow box on the other side of the page, and the students responded find it and fix it. So, it's a zoning in on specific areas, and helping students take actionable feedback. So, all the all the research I've read about feedback and marking, doesn't matter what type of strategy you use, so yellow box or not, but does it help with teacher workload? Do students trust your assessment? And do they know how to act? And this technique helps students focus on one single action to take where they could do it immediately or homework or after school hours and those kind of things. So, there's a few other idea uh other examples in there. And here's how the yellow box works in principle. So, take a look through this. And what I'd encourage you to do is download the QR code. So, here it is again. Look at my examples, print an example, and test yourself across 5 minutes. Could you do these four stages? 1-minute skim read. Stage two, highlight and mark the work. And redraft and diagnose and see how you get on. Now, I've included an example marking code. All schools and colleges, it's tick, cross, SP, question mark. And then look at these two examples in the slide deck. A good example of yellow box working in practice, where the the teacher zones in on specific area, the student replies. And then a bad example of where the teaching technique is lost in translation. And we get bogged down by lots of minutiae and lots of silly marking methodologies that should not really be uh still existing in today's profession, but you never know. The last recommendation is the intervention. So, think of adaptive teaching and mind the gap. So, here are 10 techniques here. Let me move myself out of the way. So, top row here, you know, talk it through. Show students what a good one looks like. We're getting into modeling territory here. Narrate your thoughts out aloud. Don't play guesswork. Show students how to fix. Model the process if you have to. Use a visualizer. Just use your whiteboard. Show them how to do it. Never assume. Constantly check the learning would be a top recommendation here. So, my final question in this set of the resources is, what's the one marking feedback technique that you would use that saves you time and helps students take action independently? That's a really important question when we're thinking about all feedback research, do students trust it? And do they know to act that matters most? Now, the lesson planning idea. So, there's 10 more ideas in the plan section of Mark Plan Teach. Here are the top five. And I'm just going to zoom in on stickability. So, how do we make learning stick? And lesson planning being a thought process. So, number one here on the screen. And the why. Why are we teaching this content here and not at this point in the curriculum? So, there are three ways to plan lessons. Sometimes we still have to do a detailed lesson plan for observers, for parents, for inspections, for job interviews, for our teacher training days. Sometimes we have to turn up and make it up as we go along dawn of lessons because we haven't had time to plan. And then in the middle, one published this years ago, it's still a good resource and it still works today even in an AI era because the AI methodology sometimes we can't often trust what the AI throws back at us. So, the 5-minute lesson plan, I argue still a great resource that you can use in today's AI era. So, scan this QR code. Why does this content in your curriculum happen at this point of the year? That's a 60-second cartoon to help you get to the details of this stage of the video and the research. Okay. Here are some key questions to ask when you lesson plan. Where are my students starting from? What do they already know? How do I help them get to the next stage and why? Why does photosynthesis happen at this point in the lesson? Why not there? So, we're getting into the intentions behind your curriculum. How you develop knowledge over time. And two other important questions. How do you know your students are there? And how do you help them get there? So, in the resource pack, you have Let me just show it for you here. is the 5-minute lesson plan. And this is all articulated in videos and I'll include some links to it here as well. But, it still works. It's still better than any IIT tool. And let me just show it to you. I'll do it in less than 5 minutes. How do you plan a coherent lesson? Well, it's a habit process. So, what we have here is, you know, what's your lift pitch? What's happening in 30 seconds? Is Ross in your lesson? Have you changed different rooms? How long do you have? What are we teaching the students? How do we break down the content of the lesson into simple chunk objectives? How do I hook them in? What technique am I going to use? What story? What resource am I going to dress up in World Book Day character? And in this top recommendation, the first stage is tickability. How do I quiz what we did last month, last week, last lesson to help boost that retrieval? How do I activate that prior knowledge? Then over here, we have Let me teach you something new. Let me build your schema. Let me plan how to model some of the content to life. Let me introduce or fade away different resources as you build expertise. How do I plan for all the other aspects of our teaching, literacy, numeracy, British values, those kind of things? And if I need to, how do I effectively deploy a second adult in the classroom? How do I ensure that I'm meeting the needs of my high, middle, low attainers? And then at the end of the lesson, when they leave, whether I see them in a week or tomorrow, how do I ensure core content sticks? Because I know that all the things I'm sharing with you now, not everything's going to stick. So, how do I make sure the right content sticks? And how best to do that with my questioning methodologies and quizzes, so that sequence and flow gets you to consider the length of your lesson, where you pause, breaks, how do you factor in cognitive diversity, working memory, and time for practice in particular? So, there's lots to consider here, but I still believe that the 5-minute lesson plan, those stickability moments, what's happening today, what must stick, so let's call it photosynthesis, what's happening in lesson two, lesson six the week after, and so on and so forth, and where are we retrieving these key moments to help make content stick. So, as ever with all the things we do in teaching, there are often lots of traps. First trap is busy bees, they try to do too much, keep everyone busy, rather than focus on learning, I focus on activities. The shopping trolley, I fill everything up, a bit like supermarket sweep. I've got to teach everything before the end of the term, whether it sticks or not, and the problem with over-planning, trying to get through too much, is things fall off or by the way, and nothing sticks. So, I still believe the 5-minute lesson plan is a really important thinking tool, particularly for new teachers developing habits of thought. So, how do you currently plan without the use of technology? So, if I just come off the slide deck for me quickly, I used to always print this 5-minute lesson plan on paper, laminate it, so I had a permanent fixture on my classroom desk, and I would use it as a quick 5-minute prompt between break time and lunch time, or the night before I taught the lesson after the morning, as a thinking process to ensure that I'm clear and precise, to ensure that I'm focusing on learning, not doing. Okay. So, idea four, we're looking at the teaching ideas here. Now, inside this stage of the book, there are 10 more ideas, but what one idea is universal and works everywhere? It'd probably be the direct instruction idea. How am I clear and precise? How do I stop myself waffling? So, I often say to teachers on my travels, "How do you get your students' attention? Is it always shut up, or is it 5 4 3 2 1? How do you do it?" In primary schools, we're really good at it. Sometimes in secondary key stage three, we're not so bad, but then we start to lose that focus. It becomes, "Right, everyone." or 5 4 5 4 3 2 1. How do you have specific tips and scripts? So, let me just get this box out the way, these page numbers. Here we go. So, I might say, "1 2 Eyes on me." You say, "1 2 Eyes on you." The students reply in an oral recital. Or, I might say, "Zippity doo dah." And the students reply, "Zippity day." So, then I've got their attention. What do you do next? Now, this big QR code here, it'll take you to 69 command attention scripts. And when you get their attention, you need to ensure that I limit my instructions to bite-size content. I need to make sure I am clear and precise. So, again, in the resource pack, if I just move over to here, there'll be a blank template you can download in the slide deck. Looks like this. And then I give you a short code, which looks like this. >> [snorts] >> M for materials, I for inner outer seats, N for noise level, T for time. So, this acronym MINT gives me the script that I can repeat time and time again to ensure that I stop myself from waffling. And what it looks like is this. Right, kids, M for materials. Well, I won't say that to the students, but I will say you need a worksheet and a pen to write with. You'll be out of your seats. Move to each display. Quiet conversation with your friends. 7 minutes. Off you go. And that's it. They get really noisy. I go, "Zippity do da, zippity day." They reply, "I've got all their attention." And I remind them of what they need. I might give them more detail here in this example. I'll more details. But if I say to you, "Right, turn to page 17. You need a pen, a ruler, this pink worksheet. Answer question four, paragraph two, and reply with all your answers on this worksheet." Far too many instructions, and I lose the focus. So, what I need to achieve is this methodology to make my working life easier and to stop myself from waffling. So, this materials, I for are you in or out of your seat, N for noise level, T for time, is a good script that I would recommend, and I've used this my entire career. And then, just to squeeze one more in just for good luck, the modeling. So, this QR code will take you to a 60-second summary. It's important to model the learning process. And seven recommendations. You need to plan your modeling. I need to model live in the moment. >> [snorts] >> If students don't get it, I need to switch to plan B. And I need to exploit as many opportunities as I can throughout the session. And then, I need to think out aloud. And I need to simplify the concepts, break it down, because I'm an expert, they're a novice. And I need to use as lots of examples as I possibly can to help them see the learning, make it visible. And when we model the learning process, think out aloud, or we pose metacognitive questions, it's a powerful way to teach. So, my question to you is, what's your go-to technique? Okay, and then the very last resource, everyone, is whole school implementation. How do you roll these ideas out into lots of other teams, departments, colleagues? Well, as ever, I'm going to give you a bit of an implementation plan, but in a slightly different way this time. Here are eight recommendations for developing teaching and learning rather than monitoring it. And we often get lost in lesson observations, work scrutiny, those kind of things. So, I won't go through all these in great detail, but essentially, you know, what's your hymn sheet? What's your teaching and learning policy? What are you trying to achieve? Is it practical rather than theoretical? Who's in charge? Well, it's not just the teaching and learning leader, it's all teachers. Everyone should have a say in the process. And everyone being part of that process, how do we evaluate these decisions? How do you get all your teachers to be taking part in observations, work scrutiny? And how do you make sure that you focus Yes, the data is important, but developing teachers. And other things I go in here about, you know, looking at not just the data, but the teaching also. And how do we support colleagues and also use support staff expertise? And how do we keep our classrooms open as learning opportunities for one another while we teach each other, and while we teach our students? It's very difficult to do both. And coaching has a great tool for developing teachers. Where it fails is the logistics, the implementation of coaching, and the resources around it, the funding the time to make it work. Some schools do it really well, but most tend to fail in that logistical implementation. There's plenty of things on my site to help you with that if relevant. So, let me just wrap things up in the resource. You've got this autonomy scale again. Where are you in teaching and learning on this scale? What's the best fit? And then you've got a kind of a bit like a you can look at this as a kind of over the year uh methodology. What I would recommend you do to transform teaching and learning culture in your team across the school over time. Then as ever, you've got all the reflection questions. So, pause the video, discuss these in your teacher CPD sessions, use it for your own reflections. And I've given you this blank template here that you can use to just scribble down some key ideas in your current practice and what things you might change. So, my final question, well, there's a couple actually. But this one here, how can you turn these ideas into shared habits across your classrooms, your department, and that professional culture? And if I could summarize, we don't need two of me here. Let me get rid of this one. Coherence, not compliance. Coherence, not consistency. Small changes lead to big improvements and that professional autonomy is the number one thing that I see that improves teachers on my travels. So, in this short slide deck, this little video walk-through, if everyone adopted one technique, what would it be that makes the greatest difference to all students? That's what I would encourage you to think carefully about. And as ever, you've got all the academic references here. And then you've got your 5-minute CPD plan. If you want to look at this whole slide deck and translate it into your own teaching and learning CPD agenda, this is my methodology, how I bring all my teacher training days into into kind of life to make sure I don't drop any kind of hat, so to speak. So, I hope you found that useful. Um Mark Plan Teach, I've tried to just, you know, I've lived this for a long time. It's super popular, but there is ideas that I still share my travels that some people have not yet seen. So, it's always worth just reminding people of core key teaching ideas that stand the test of time, that make an immediate impact with your students, and reduce that teacher workload. Those would be those thought three key ideas I've shared to you here in stages two, three, four, and five. So, you've just got me setting scene stage one, and then how to grow this across the school kind of stage five for you to consider. Hope that short walk-through's helped you. Uh any questions, let me know. Otherwise, I'll see you in a August resource, August 2026, to keep you hungry and ready for the new academic year, and in September back to detailed business. Bye for now.