Reflect on the principles and characteristics of AfL, as described in Activity Resource 1.

Discuss as a department the extent to which these principles and characteristics are part of your current practice. To support this process, use the first two sections of Appendix 1: Prompts to support departmental self-review of AfL.  51kb

Use the grids from the first two sections to help focus your discussions on:

• learning objectives;
• learning outcomes/success criteria.

Consider together how you might plan to address those aspects of AfL that, on reflection, need further development.

In the light of your discussions, your department may wish to consider exploring learning objectives and learning outcomes in more depth before proceeding with this unit. If so, you will find the following publications helpful:

• Unit 1: Structuring learning for musical understanding
• Unit 2: Structuring learning for musical engagement

• Music subject development materials for AfL, Unit 3: Objective-led lessons (DCFS 1101-2005 GCD)

Ask a colleague to observe your use of feedback in two or three lessons that require pupils to learn through a variety of interrelated performing, composing, reviewing and evaluating activities.

You can give the colleague a copy of the key features of effective feedback, to use as a guide to inform their observation. Agree in advance the specific focus for observation so that your discussion afterwards concentrates on these areas.

Discuss or analyse when feedback has been given, and which of the features outlined in the table are strongest and which aspects require some development.

Reflect on the findings, and use the last section of Appendix 1: Oral and written feedback  51kb to consider how practice can be developed to include more positive use of feedback in a wider range of situations.

Agree how this will be incorporated into future work this term.

Consider a lesson or series of lessons that you will be teaching soon that requires pupils to compose.

When pupils are exploring creative ideas, consider the ways by which you can gather evidence of their progress. Identify a time for ‘pausing to scan and survey’ before offering support and encourage pupils to recognise that this is a necessary time for creative experimentation.

Listen in to various conversations, improvisations and musical explorations until you are satisfied that you know what processes are being followed by pupils.

Scan, survey and take stock of the learning across the class and then decide which groups and which pupils in those groups need feedback, and use one of the strategies identified in the previous section to support them. Case study 1 shows how these were used in a lesson.

After the lesson or lessons, analyse the impact of the ‘pause’.

• Were you able to gauge more accurately pupils’ learning processes and identify more clearly the specific next steps pupils needed?
• Was your feedback more effective as a result?
• Did pupils understand more clearly where they were in the composing process, and how to take the next steps?

The statements provided below are examples of the types of oral feedback that are sometimes given to pupils in a music lesson. In order to understand the nature of positive/negative or specific/non-specific feedback, place the numbers for each statement on the diagram in appendix 2  220kb.

Some answers already appear in the diagram. This should provide clarity about the differences between negative/positive and specific/non-specific feedback in order for the rest of the task to be completed.

1. ‘You are not taking this seriously, Andrew.’
2. ‘You have forgotten what we said about marking chords on the score, Sarah.’
3. ‘Well done, that melody has some really nice features. Can you tell me why it sounds totally different from everyone else’s, because it’s really good? Do you think it has something to do with the way you have repeated some of your material?’
4. ‘That’s coming on nicely, it’s got some really good passages, but how about using a change of sound sources for the final section?’
5. ‘Great! Well done. You’ve developed the dynamics and phrasing, but are there other musical elements you could perhaps change? What would those be?’
6. ‘That’s nearly OK, but does it sound like a Christmas carol? Have you used the right sort of sounds to make people think of Christmas?’
7. ‘You have used a very limited amount of notes, in terms of pitch and duration – can you vary them some more?'
8. ‘That’s a good try, Amy, well done.’
9. ‘You played your piece so well I would like to record it and then we could listen to it together. Can you tell me if it finishes in the same way as it started? What would you have to do to make it sound the same? Do you think it’s in the same key? Did you intend it to be in the same key? Let me play for you an ending that is in the same key and see what you think. Pass me your composer’s notebook as I would like to write down one or two ways in which we have decided to improve your piece.’
10. ‘That’s good, Daniel. It’s coming on.’

Use a tape recorder or video camera to capture two or three episodes involving oral feedback in your classroom.

Use a similar diagram to the one found in appendix 2  220kb to analyse your responses. Is your feedback mainly positive and specific?

Identify any aspects of your feedback that you would like to improve and record your next steps.

Plan an opportunity to repeat the exercise in a few weeks to see if you have achieved your targets.

Look at a unit of work for Year 7 pupils that you will be teaching soon.

Identify the challenges that occur and consider the oral and aural feedback opportunities that could be planned to further support the learning of your pupils.

Complete the grid to identify planned oral and aural feedback that will support pupils’ learning at specific points within the unit.

Now plan for these oral and aural feedback opportunities. Prepare any new resources that you will need and use them during the relevant lessons.

To what extent does the advanced planning improve the quality of the feedback given? Can you now identify similar opportunities in other units of work, and produce over a period of time the resources for any extended aural feedback?

Select three exercise books or composition notebooks that represent a range of achievement in a class that you teach. Read through the written feedback that you have given.

Now read the following characteristics of constructive written feedback and, using traffic-light colours, code those statements in terms of how they reflect your own practice (red: rarely; amber: often; green: typically).

The written feedback:

• focuses on the learning objectives selectively;
• confirms that pupils are on the right track;
• stimulates the correction of errors or improvement of a piece of work;
• scaffolds or supports pupils’ next steps;
• provides opportunities for pupils to think things through for themselves;
• comments on progress over a number of attempts;
• avoids comparisons with other pupils;
• provides pupils with the opportunity to respond.

Oral and aural feedback can often be ephemeral: once removed from the learning experience, it can sometimes be difficult for pupils to remember the details of what was said or demonstrated. This is especially true when the feedback is related to performance work and in particular when there are no visual support mechanisms for the performance (i.e. a score, some lyrics, a chord sheet).

A performance record card or log could be a useful way of recording the key messages for improvement and individual targets. This could be considered a two-way dialogue record, where the individual pupils also log their decisions about the route to improvement. This will obviously support the long-term goals for performance and become an effective way of monitoring and recognising progression within this key aspect of the music curriculum. It could also form the basis of a very effective self-evaluation tool for pupils.

For a unit of work or a substantial piece of work, design a generic proforma that could be developed into a performance record or log. It needs to identify the positive progress of individual pupils, give specific support on the ways to progress and set fresh targets for improvement. It also needs to retain its focus on the intended learning outcomes and provide opportunities for pupils to give feedback to teachers.

Identify a unit of work for a year group of your choice. Reflect upon the learning outcomes for the unit and identify the oral, aural and written feedback opportunities.

Using the Feedback for different purposes grid as a template, develop some feedback sequences that could be developed for the unit.

Consider being selective with the written feedback so that it supports the ‘learning milestone’ approach to effective feedback (this is particularly important in music, given the number of pupils each teacher sees every week).

Using information gathered in Task 2 (Developing practice in the classroom), develop a generic proforma that could be used to inform the various providers of feedback about the key factors that contribute to effective feedback. This should encourage all providers to reflect upon their role and consider the learning objectives and outcomes for pupils.

Consideration needs to be given to the type of language used on the proforma, particularly when describing the context for the task and the expected outcomes from it. This should enable all providers to acknowledge their role and the type of support they can offer.

Consideration also needs to be given to the way that this proforma is introduced to those who will use it. You may want to:

• explore with your school’s senior managers the current expectations of teaching assistants across the whole school, and how the ideas for the feedback proforma can be best introduced for those assistants working in music;
• liaise with the local music service on the extent to which direct connections with classroom learning are being promoted, and how the suggested proforma might be best introduced in order to be consistent with existing practice;
• include the technician in a departmental meeting that explores feedback, the purposes of the proforma and the role that technicians and individual teachers can play;
• include the use of the proforma in the planning sessions with any visiting musicians, before they undertake any work with pupils.

Appendix 4  40kb has an example of a proforma that could be adapted to suit your needs.

Document 6a  33kb is an extended version of this form, created by a team of class and instrumental music teachers. They worked together to identify how they could collaborate more effectively in order to support the musical learning of their shared pupils; this version of the proforma was one of the outcomes.