Inverclyde Council Education Services

Introduction

These ‘snapshots’ were produced between March and June 2007 by practising teachers across three sectors. Their aim is to give classroom teachers a clearer idea of what Curriculum for Excellence might look like in practice. They are not meant to be lesson plans that someone should use. Rather, they are descriptors intended to give teachers more of a feel for what is wanted from Curriculum for Excellence: the sort of methodologies that should become increasingly common in our classrooms.

There are many different initiatives under way at present. Apart from Curriculum Excellence, there is Assessment is for Learning and the Enterprising Classroom work that is part of Determined to Succeed. In fact, there is a great deal of commonality between these initiatives, and the ‘snapshots’ incorporate overlapping elements of these: challenge, choice, decision making, employability skills and more.

At the time these were being written, only the science outcomes were widely available. However, as the outcomes are meant to illustrate ways of teaching, approaches to learning and a range of techniques rather than content, this is not seen as a problem. Content remains important, but that is not what these examples are specifically about. The background and whole-year planning sections that follow provide a brief overview all of the snapshots of the Excellent Classroom.

 

Background

It will be assumed that the teacher is aware of the following:

• The 'Black Box' information
• Assessment is for Learning (AifL)
• Developments in enterprise in education (EiE), including the characteristics of the 'enterprising classroom'
• The four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence
• The (national) outcomes of this curricular area and level
• Cross-curricular or cross-cutting themes such as literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing, ICT and citizenship
• 'Talking Round Corners', the Inverclyde guidelines on developing classroom talk.

The teacher will be familiar with these through school, education authority or national in-service, or through personal reading.

Whole-year planning

The lesson does not exist in isolation. It is one part of a planned, whole-year programme. Planning cannot be too rigid, as there has to be flexibility to react to pupil needs or choice, changing circumstances or topical events. However, there has to be an overview of progression through the year, and steps must be taken to allow opportunities for pupils to acquire skills and informed attitudes as well as knowledge. The table below highlights some of the elements that have to be planned for across the snapshots.

The authority Curriculum for Excellence steering group is continuing to explore ways to help schools and individual teachers implement the national recommendations. The group would value your views on the ‘Snapshots of the Excellent Classroom’ as this could inform what it does next. We would be grateful if you would complete the evaluation sheet with your comments. 

 PDF File: Snapshots of the excellent classroom (176 KB)

 PDF File: Snapshots of the excellent classroom: Evaluation Form (12 KB)

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