Teaching

 Towers Core Principles for Teaching

At Towers, we sign up to a set of Core Principles which inform the way that we teach. 

• Culture: we create the culture and make the weather for our students
• Curriculum: we maximise curriculum impact through retrieval and careful sequencing
• Ratio: we ensure everyone is thinking through rigorous questioning and focusing attention
• Delivery: we deliver content through teacher led explanation, use of examples (and non examples) and live modelling
• Practice: we give time for effective and deliberate student practice, including academic reading, writing and communication
• Response: we check for understanding and close gaps

Explicit Instruction

At Towers, we focus on some key pieces of research which show that, for novices (which all students are - particularly when learning something for the first time), direct, explicit instruction is more effective and efficient than minimal guidance and that teachers are more effective when they provide explicit guidance accompanied by practice and feedback. 

Explicit instruction is not just ‘chalk and talk’; it is about clear explanations, succinct pieces of reading, teacher led clarification, planned and targeted questions, retrieval and recap, well chosen and sequenced examples, purposeful practice. We promote carefully planned teacher talk as a teaching tool. However, we also know that it requires students to hold information in their heads while listening and trying to make sense of what is said. So, we build in pauses and chunk the new information down. Explicit instruction usually begins with a detailed teacher explanation and modelling using well chosen examples and non examples, followed by extensive practice of routine exercises with teacher support, and later independent practice.

Knowledge Booklets

At Towers, we believe in the power of knowledge. To this end, we have created knowledge booklets which act as the basis of our curriculum content. These are deliberately pitched at a high level in order to stretch and challenge, improve reading ages and widen vocabulary. The booklet is the routemap - but it is not the lesson. It is our teachers’ delivery, their knowledge, their passion and enthusiasm - they are the lesson.

One thing that we don’t do is plan around activities or include something just because it is ‘fun’. The mastery of knowledge is its own reward. In the hands of a great teacher, the material students need to master is exciting, interesting and inspiring - even fun - just as it is.