About the Book
Teaching Backwards is just that. It's packed with case studies from primary and secondary teachers, and it's punctuated with reflective questions that invite teachers to slow down and do some thinking about how they currently teach, so that their teaching can have an even more powerful impact on learners. Well-informed by research and with a clear action plan of what to do, and what not to do, Teaching Backwards is a guide to ensuring that learners make outstanding progress, lesson by lesson and year on year. Develop learners' knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits (KASH) and help shape the class any teacher would love to inherit. It is not just about results, but building the resilience and mindsets in learners that will enable them to master any challenge they may face, in the classroom and throughout their lives.Discover the powerful effects of teaching backwards for yourself. Topics covered include: setting high expectations, starting points, defining and demystifying the destination, looking for proof of learning, challenge, feedback. Foreword by Professor John Hattie.Teaching Backwards is the follow-up to the best-selling Outstanding Teaching: Engaging Learners. It is based on the analysis of thousands of hours of primary and secondary lessons, part of Osiris Educational's Outstanding Teaching Intervention programme over the last seven years.For primary and secondary teachers.
About the Author :
Andy Griffith is the co-creator of the Outstanding Teaching Intervention (OTI) and is a director of MALIT Ltd. He has helped teachers and whole schools move up to Ofsted's Outstanding grade by offering practical advice and getting teachers to try new ways of working with their students. Andy has won a national training award and has written and consulted for a number of organisations including LEAs and Comic Relief. Mark Burns is a leading trainer with Osiris Educational and a director of MALIT Limited and has a wealth of experience from his twelve years of teaching. He contributed significantly to the development of the Outstanding Teaching Intervention (OTI) and his work with both individual teachers and schools has helped them move up Ofsted levels. This work has been recognised by Ofsted as well as being shortlisted for the TES Awards.Andy Griffith is the co-creator of the Outstanding Teaching Intervention (OTI) and is a director of MALIT Ltd. He has helped teachers and whole schools move up to Ofsted's Outstanding grade by offering practical advice and getting teachers to try new ways of working with their students. Andy has won a national training award and has written and consulted for a number of organisations including LEAs and Comic Relief.
Review :
''Teaching backwards'' is another superb demystification of exactly what outstanding teaching looks like.Mark and Andy have the clearest vision of how to describe outstanding teaching that I have yet come across and the book is littered with practical tools to use in the classroom the next day.To suggest to a teacher that they start with the end in mind is the easy bit. The book goes on to give a step by step approach to how to do it.I particularly like the use of humour and metaphor and I will be looking for more hob nob teachers and more black belt assessorsEnjoyed it and still learned things. Always a great sign.
James Kerfoot, Principal, Childwall Sports and Science Academy
aTeaching Backwards' is perfect for the busy classroom teachers eager for practical strategies for improving the planning, delivery and appraisal of their lessons. Helpfully illustrated with plenty of real-life photographs of classroom displays and student work, it is full of useful tips that can be used for immediate inspiration. Not only that, it also contains rigorous discussion about the latest educational thinking that can be considered in quieter staffroom moments and applied more fundamentally to transform classroom practice.
Russel Tarr, Head of History, International School of Toulouse and author of www.classtools.net
All teachers want to improve their practice and this book is essential reading. It is Practical! Practical! Practical! And packed with ideas you can immediately implement in the classroom alongside little pearls of wisdom in the form of memorable stories. Based in evidence, Teaching Backwards will make a difference to school leaders and teachers alike. A must read.
Carel Buxton, Executive Head Teacher, Redbridge Primary School and Snaresbrook Primary School
Backwards Teaching does not literally mean standing with your back to your class whilst you waffle on impart your knowledge and wisdom to your pupils. Created by Andy Griffith and Mark Burns, the pedagogical approach advocates to teachers planning and teaching backwards from a clear and well-defined destination. At the heart of this approach is a philosophy that four main ingredients are key in the teaching and learning process: feedback; autonomy; challenge; and engagement. Teachers are asked to have high expectations, to plan, to watch for where students might go off route and where they may misunderstand, and to provide multiple opportunities for the learning process. The book provides the methods, the meat and vegetables, for the journey and lots of practical advice about how to understand success, work backwards from success to where the students are now, and then plan how to navigate (with all the usual twists and occasional wrong turns) the route to this success. The book looks at each point with chapters on Setting High Expectations, Starting Points, Defining and Demystifying the Destination, Looking for Proof of Learning, Challenge, and Feedback. Who is this book aimed at? There is a lot of detail in this book, with plenty of ideas which will suit primary or secondary teachers. If you're looking for a new pedagogical approach to implement within your classroom, department or school, then Teaching Backwards gives you the foundations and confidence. Newly Qualified Teachers and Student Teachers will also find the ideas of use. See the full review here: https: //ukedchat.com/2014/12/05/book-review-teaching-backwards-by-oteaching/
UKEd Chat, ukedchat.com
Griffith and Burns have provided classroom teachers with a thought-provoking insight into teaching backwards. They have achieved a highly accessible balance of philosophy and practical approaches, which are totally credible since they are based on years of fieldwork with outstanding and improving practitioners. This variety of fieldwork in a variety of settings means their thesis is clear, coherent and credible and will make sense to all teachers looking to improve their pedagogy. Their practical suggestions range from quick fix templates and techniques to deeper approaches, but all are explained in a down to earth, real-life fashion, which makes them all the more appealing to a time poor practitioner. Their prose is good humoured and has the learner at the centre. Teachers are encouraged to see learning from the perspective of the learner, and, by developing the techniques outlined in the book, provide them with the clearest support possible in how to succeed. The graphics and layout help make the ideas accessible and of practical use, especially through the summaries at the end of each section. References to works and ideas by other writers offer the opportunity for the reader to explore concepts in greater depth.The accessible, real-life nature of Teaching Backwards will undoubtedly encourage many practitioners to experiment with its techniques and produce better crafted and more stimulating lessons.
Graham Aldridge, Head Teacher, Range High School, Formby
The authors have produced a stimulating and thought provoking text for practitioners at all levels. It is overflowing with excellent strategies and ideas to promote learner participation, enjoyment, learning and understanding. The emphasis is upon re-thinking the focus and starting point of lessons from a aclear and well defined destinationa. I particularly liked the emphasis on the aBig Foura steps on feedback autonomy, challenge and engagement to ensure that learners achieve to their full potential. The authors effectively draw the readers' attention to effective implementation of techniques within a wide range of schools to promote resilience, and potential the section on feedback enables the learner to focus on their own apersonal gapa between their current level of performance and the destination they are working towards. This is an outstanding book which will promote more effective [in schools, colleges of FE, and higher education.
John T Morris BA(Hons), MEd, MPhil, CertEd, Director JTM Educational Consultants
The follow up to Outstanding Teaching: Engaging Learners, and produced by the same authors, this title is similarly practical and engaging, focusing on how teaching and learning can be improved when planning begins with the end in mind - in other words, when educators stop trying to deliver packages of content in a linear fashion, but instead, define a destination, with the highest expectations, then work out how best to help individual learners reach it. Case studies, exercises, analogies and checklists are generously scattered throughout the pages, ensuring that the book is considerably closer to a workshop than a lecture, especially given the relaxed, chatty style in which the advice is delivered. It''s possible to dip into Teaching Backwards for ten minutes in the staffroom, then instantly make a small but significant change to the way you present your next lesson; CPO in action, indeed.
Teach Secondary, issue 4.1, January 2015
Vintage Griffith & Burns: an impressive melding of anecdote and outstanding classroom practice, which provides countless strategies for ensuring that busy teachers see learning through their pupils'' eyes. Simultaneously compellingly readable and rigorously research-informed, this book is the unlikely but deeply attractive love-child of Wilbur Smith and Hilary Mantel.
Barry J Hymer, Professor of Psychology in Education, University of Cumbria in Lancaster
