ACERT Conference 21 March 2015 Demand High: Are we challenging the full learning potential our students ? Adrian Underhill Related links: demandhighelt.wordpress.com facebook.com/demandhighelt

What is Demand-High?  Are my learners capable of more?  Are we “covering material” rather than focusing on the potential for deep learning?  Do we attend to the task rather than to the learning?  Do I rely on the task do the teaching?  Would they learn more if I demanded more?  How could I do that?  Could I tweak what I do to meet each student at their learning edge?

Demand High involves…  Using any activity to challenge each student at their own learning edge  Making doable demands  Differential responses rather than differential tasks  DH is a teacher quality rather than a resources quality

A place to start Demand High is… in the oral phase “Checking the answers” when students are sharing their responses during an activity aloud, with each other or with the whole class

Four low demand ‘traps’ in this oral phase: Ping Pong Extinguish T question with only one St response Rubber stamping Saying good when it isn’t Famous last words Teacher saying it last ….instead of upgrading The pointless drill Mechanical repetition without practice

Upgrade v Correction An upgrade: improves whatever is offered (mistake or not) into the best the student can do at that moment. A correction: makes something ‘wrong’ into something ‘correct’

What’s an upgrade: 1. You don’t need a mistake to do an upgrade: If there’s a ‘mistake’ - the upgrade includes it. If there’s no ‘mistake’ - we still upgrade. 2. Everybody gets a personal upgrade, taking them from what they just did … to the next better, quicker, clearer, more interesting, DO-ABLE version… 3. In this way we remove the ceiling,

Upgrades are not new … But taken together, and for this purpose, they can open up an interesting direction Here are some examples…

Upgrades 1: Simply collect different responses  Who has another one / something different?  What do you think?  What did she say?  Did you hear him?  Listen to the differences  Is that the same as his?  So how many different ones have we got?

Upgrades 2: What upgrades can the class offer  Is that Ok?  Do you want to change it?  Are there any mistakes in that?  Yes? What?  Who likes this one?  Do you want to change it?  Can you write yours / hers on the board?  Ok let’s put these different ones on the board…  OK, now one of them is correct…which one?

Upgrades 3: Micro technique for self upgrade  Pause (gesture… St thinks…)  “Is that OK?” (invitation to review?)  “Could you say it again?” (opportunity to ‘hear self’)  “Say it very slowly…” (To prevent blurting)  “Do you want to change anything?”

Upgrades 4: Multiple ‘do-able demands’ To St A: How many words …? To St B: Say it faster C Slower and more clearly, D Where is the stress? E Yes, now join the words together … F You need another word… G Take a word out… H Say it with interest!

Upgrades 4: Continued I Whisper it, J Make it a question, K Change it! L Change one word M Look at your pronunciation N That’s correct, but now In English! O All of you…find another way to say the same thing… Options: individual; 121 ITG; whole group

Inner Workbench: Pre-installed DH facility The inner ear to work on a model given by the teacher Inner voice to create and rehearse a spoken response In-depth observation of the form of the utterance

Further Demand High Interventions Finger correction: Word order to fluency Fat grammar 1: Substituting words Fat grammar 2: Playing with word order

Demand High tips Employ 121 in a group Mistakes ARE the syllabus Treat mistakes like friends – revisit them Practice without repetition

ACERT Conference 21 March 2015 Demand High: Are we challenging the full learning potential our students ? Thank you! Adrian Underhill Related links: demandhighelt.wordpress.com facebook.com/demandhighelt