3. Creating a Coherent History Curriculum with Mapper: In Conversation with Melissa King

Ever wondered how every academic subject can contribute to literacy development? 

This episode promises to enlighten you, as we chat with Mel King, Assistant Head and Subject Lead for History at St Simon Stock Catholic School, has worked closely with Bedrock champion school, St Anselm's Catholic School (case study here) to develop the use of Bedrock Mapper in her history curriculum. 

Mel shares her experience with Mapper, a revolutionary tool that has profoundly improved students' literacy. Inspired by Catherine Mortimer's "Disciplinary Literacy," Mel's story reveals how Mapper’s successful implementation across all subjects significantly enhances students' grasp of essential historical terms.

Mel walks us through the impressive progress in reading ages and the sense of fulfilment students experience when they earn badges and certificates.  We really address the nuts and bolts of implementation, and how Bedrock Mapper has supported Mel's learners to become true historians. 

This episode is a goldmine of practical advice and insights on implementing change in schools and boosting literacy skills.  Look out for the killed/murdered/assassinated discussion! 

Transcript

Andy: 0:16

Hi everyone, welcome to Literacy Works, the Bedrock hosted podcast, where we try and speak to some of the best people around the country who are implementing Bedrock and who are just interested in all things literacy. Today we have Mel King from Simon Stock Catholic School, and what drew my attention to Mel was obviously we have a look at our usage figures all the time and the mapper figures in terms of the rollout and the success in the school is outstanding. So I got in touch to say that I don't suppose you would mind being on our podcast today to kind of discuss some of these things, and I'm delighted to say that Mel is here. So thank you so much for joining us. I really do appreciate that. So first of all, could you just give us a sense of your role at the school and the type of school it is and that sort of thing, just to give everyone a bit of a sense of where we're at.

Mel: 1:09

Okay, yes, so we are a faith school, a Catholic school, in Maidstone down in Kent. We have about 1200 students from year 7 to, year 13. My role is I'm one of the assistant heads responsible for the implementation and developing of literacy throughout the school and obviously I'm also subject leader of history, which naturally is quite a literacy based subject as well.

Andy: 1:39

I think you've got a really interesting kind of double edged role there, really, in terms of the whole school piece around literacy and that type of thing, but also for something very subject specific. And it's nice that we can speak to you as someone who actually isn't an English specialist, as someone who is not doing this in English but is doing this elsewhere and really showing how this can be so successful elsewhere as well. So, in terms of how you were introduced to Mapper and your journey with it, what does that look like so far? How has it come into the school and how did you go about doing what you did?

Mel: 2:13

We work very closely with another school in our we are an Academy Trust, a Catholic school with me trust down here in Kent and I work very closely with the literacy lead for the entire trust.

Mel: 2:27

Somebody called Megan and she had implemented we're a year behind her effectively from her school so she implemented it in the school she worked in in Canterbury from the last academic year and started rolling out. So we had long conversations about this and how it could work. I also attended some talks at the Education Festival that were run by Bedrock and being used to introduce Mapper and how it would work and how it could work in the setting and found it would be something that would be very, very accessible for every department to be able to use especially Mapper to develop literacy within individual subjects that had discrete subject, specific words to promote the literacy there. We also decided that one of the reasons I was given the role is we wanted to, as a school, to take out the impression that literacy was only an English thing and only something that should be done within English lessons or by English teachers, and so the fact that I'm not an English teacher was one of the reasons that I was given this role.

Andy: 3:49

I think there's a really interesting point being made there, I think, about the fact that Mapper allows subjects to kind of have some skin in the game. It allows subjects it's not just you know because it's easy. It's an easy thing to say, well, it's an English thing, that is an easy cop out, if you like. But actually, by giving subjects this really powerful knowledge, this repository of over 37,000 words, you're saying alright, then over to you, because you've got this knowledge here that you can choose, sequence, check, you know, and it's that and what I heard there, what you were talking about in terms of the whole school piece as well. What was the attraction across the school for being able to use it across the school as a literacy lead?

Mel: 4:37

Because, you know, my job entailed developing literacy across all subjects and we initially were. I initially was introduced to the book Disciplinary Literacy by Catherine Mortimer yeah, catherine Mortimer, yes, I couldn't remember her surname for a second. And we read that and every subject was given the relevant chapter for their subject.

Andy: 5:03

Yeah, really good yeah.

Mel: 5:05

Kind of inspired subjects to get on board with.

Mel: 5:08

Literacy and Mapper is sort of straightforward. You can sort of aim it at Key Stage 3 or Key Stage 4 for core subjects. It's something very, very good that the terms, the literacy terms that are being used at Key Stage 4 in science or maths feed in all the way through to GCSE. So once the students get really really familiar with those terms, that takes a whole pressure off to the final exam. When they get to that at the end of year 11, which we felt was a way of building and I know Bedrock sort of used the term building blocks through and doing that, and that's something that Mapper enables us to do really really well as a school and within departments. Because every department is different, using literacy is common in every single department, whether whether you're a literacy based subject about history or whether you are a more practical subject such as PE or maths, for example, where you think there are less literacy words, more mathematics strategies to use. So it's something that we have embraced as a school very, very much so.

Andy: 6:39

There's a couple of things there that just pulling out that I found really interesting. The number one thing you said this is what I talked to schools about a lot is inspiration so inspiring, but yet that book, using it to kind of inspire teachers into saying this isn't an add-on, this is about you kind of assimilating your pupils into your gang, into your discipline. So thinking like a historian, thinking like a scientist, thinking like a mathematician, it's about being one of the gang and I think there's almost that you can get other off the shelf solutions. That will you know, quizzing and all that sort of stuff that you know and that's fine. But I think in some ways some of those platforms seem to be a bit seductive in that you think, oh, they can watch a video, they can do some of this, and then we can see whether they understand what they've got quizzes right.

Andy: 7:26

But actually is that content in those programs, for example, even for something like, let's say, gcse bitesize, is the content in the Romans or the Norman conquest or whatever? Is the content that those programs are teaching the same as your specific curriculum offer in your setting? And I think what you've said there is really interesting because you've gone away. You've asked your subjects to become inspired and to take control of this, and Mapper allows you not just to say, right, yeah, great program, I'm going to set these quizzes and then walk away. It's kind of really putting the power in the hands of the teachers to say, yeah, you've been inspired about your gang and how you can assimilate pupils into that, but then here's a load of a massive bank of subject content that you know. You can pick the 10 most important things that are going to unlock the learning in that. You see what I mean. A Mapper allows you to do that in a way that probably other things don't. Is that, would you say, that's fair, because that's certainly my experience as the head of English.

Mel: 8:28

That that's extremely fair, and they may come across a word in history that they also come across in another subject Empire, for example. They might come across a geography or something and being able then to Put the word into context with ease in any situation they find themselves in Really gives the students confidence. And what I've noticed in my lessons is that students, when I'm asking questions verbally in class, students are using those terms and they're readily put in their hands up and they are saying things like Trigger or assassination, rather than just saying you know, transfered now and was killed.

Mel: 9:17

They're using them actually the, the historical terminology within that, and what is?

Andy: 9:25

I just sorry to drop. Can I just ask you something there? You know you said about this is as a historian, I'm just desperate to know you know you said a assassination rather than killed as a history to me, as an English, assassination just sounds more dramatic. That's, that's what that means to me, but as as a as a historian, what's the significance of that word assassination?

Mel: 9:47

assassination. It's a sort of planned political murder. Effective me. Yeah so the ultimate thing is somebody dies, so equally you can then you get. It's not correct to say transfered. And I was murdered. Yes, interesting. Was, but he was assassinated. He was, he was murdered because yeah, it's killed.

Andy: 10:14

I mean one stage back from that killed. It could have been hit by a bus. You know, it's actually it's not killed, it's not murdered, it's assassinated it and I always say the same thing, the one I always.

Andy: 10:22

I mean people are sticking tired of me hearing this one but saying this one, but it's screwed. I always say screwed isn't just miserable, he's Misanthropic because I'm miserable this morning because I haven't had my coffee, but missanthropic means anti-human. He's not just a bit miserable because he's missed his morning porridge, he's, he's got a deep disdain of humanity and that's important because the books and allegory about Humanity and and capitalism and and and Victorian Britain and all that stuff. So I think you're right about unlocking and I had this really interesting conversation with Kate Stockings as geography teacher About you know, I embarrassed myself, I said something about GDP and I gave some really embarrassing kind of loose. You know, definition of GDP should no, no, no. Actually it means this and I think if me and you would talk about GDP, we could throw that term around and be all right with it. But in the subject discipline, they need to know the specifics, don't they?

Mel: 11:18

And I just think that's so important they really do, and there are differences between words as adults, as literate adults, we can use words, correct words in the correct context, with ease, but that's because our literacy has been developed since we were at school and beyond Some of us. That's a long time and it is, but students, we're expecting them.

Mel: 11:48

We have a five period day, so the students go to five different subjects in a day and the words, sort of the amount of words they are hearing from the teachers, especially 11 years old in year seven, is significant. And they're being expected to put all of those words into context immediately.

Mel: 12:12

And teachers, you know we're all a little bit guilty of thinking the students can are able to do that. But what Mapper does? It allows the students to see into context when they are practicing at home. And a really good thing in Mapper is where they get sort of the what I term the recall question, so they link their open history and they'll get a geography question thrown in or a mass or a science question, so that allows them to practice what they've already learned, practice what they've already been doing, when they're not expecting to do it. And the fact that they can do that then it helps, very much helps to put these words and these terms into their long term memory.

Andy: 13:03

That's a spaced retrieval.

Mel: 13:04

Yeah, absolutely.

Andy: 13:06

And I think you're so right. And also there's also another reflection here about teachers, I think, which is that you know it's always really interesting when you're a demo Mapper. You could say, right, we've got 60 words for whatever this topic is. You can't, yeah, select them all and lob them all in. I always say, put them all in and then sequence the ones you want. And I always think it's really interesting. It's the conversations and the thinking that Mapper facilitates around. Well, I'm going to sit with my colleague here and we're going to talk about I don't know, the third riker or something like that, and what are the 10 key terms that they have to understand in order to unlock that knowledge. And I think it's facilitating not just the pupils learning but also the teachers learning as well and constantly giving those insights back to you about where the gaps are. I mean, have you used much of the reporting dashboards in your own teaching?

Mel: 13:56

Have you used the?

Andy: 13:57

reporting dashboards. Have you know? When you look at the reports and having looked at where the gaps are, is that something that you've done?

Mel: 14:03

I do, and a good number of our teachers are. We had a bit of an issue with our IT system when we first implemented it.

Mel: 14:14

If for some reason the reporting emails weren't going through. They were being filtered by our filter system and lots of teachers saying you know, can we have access to these and can we do it? So the teachers are doing that and what it allows us to do then is feed back I've got is we can see that students don't aren't really understanding the difference between censorship and propaganda, for example in history, because they're very, very linked. But those finer differences between them are the students are struggling with. So we can then incorporate that in lessons as we go through and help embed that. So it's very much. We're using Bedrock very much as part of our lessons.

Andy: 15:04

Interesting.

Mel: 15:04

And sort of plan our lessons. Some teachers, because every subject has a Bedrock champion is the term that we've used. Some teachers want to have more control themselves. Other teachers are happy for the champion in subject to do it. So that means you can adapt it to suit the teachers in your school and the different subjects. Obviously, some departments are bigger than others, but everybody is using it to tell their own teaching in, inspire their own teaching. So, to inspire their teaching, to make the lessons better and to make the students more comfortable with those terms that they are using.

Andy: 15:54

And so, in terms of the kind of, there's a couple of things to unpick this. So first of all, I'll teach, would you say, that in your setting and there's no real wrong or right answer to this at all would you say it's more used as a planning tool for teachers to look at where the gaps are, or are they pulling it up on the screen front of class to demonstrate certain things? What, would you say is going on?

Mel: 16:18

For me. I'm using it as a planning tool and I think that's where most subjects are going. However, what we are doing is picking out the words, the main words we would need to know, like a sesame, for example, and using those on the board. But Interesting. I do need you to remind me that I really need to get some Star Voice back on this, because we're going into Term 2 now and find out how many teachers do actually project it on the board and use it in that way.

Mel: 16:57

The maths department do. I think the maths department are very good at that.

Andy: 17:00

Interesting. I would love to speak to them as well, because I think that and that's part of the thing with Bedrock as well is that we have a teaching and learning team here, and if there is some Star Voice that comes back about, we're struggling to do X, y or Z, we're here to figure those solutions out together. You know, I think one of the beauties of Mapper and the system is its simplicity, so we can make that work. Whatever it looks like, in whatever subject, whatever setting, we can adapt, we can make it work and we can think flexibly about that, I think. And so the last thing I really want to touch on really is kind of students' access to it. What does that look like? And is it a homework thing? Is it checked up on? What do you do to facilitate that?

Mel: 17:43

Yeah, it's homework, because we have a policy in our school where they don't use their phones in lessons. It's kind of blanket across the school, which is something that I'm trying to maybe get relaxed a little bit, because a lot of subjects are said. Can we do Bedrock as a starter? Can we choose these words and so the students can access the terms as a starter, which would be a really, really useful tool and they can join Bedrock and the lesson in one.

Mel: 18:19

And it is something that I know, Megan Dunn, at St Anselm's, they do that. They use their devices in lesson with Bedrock. But we say that they should be spending 20 minutes or so per subject per week on Bedrock. For year seven, that's all of them. We, for our year eights and nines, we've got the membership which gives them access to history, science and RE. So two core subjects RE is a core subject for us and history because I'm in charge of it. So they do that for 20 minutes per four and a half, and obviously the vocab and the grammar sections. All students are expected to be spending about the same time on those.

Andy: 19:12

Yeah, I mean there's a couple of bits there, I think. When it comes to the devices, I mean different schools will have different policies around mobile phones, one-to-one access in iPads, chromebooks. Some schools have a real paucity of our device equipment and I think it almost it's immaterial. In an ideal world you could have one device per pupil at the start of a lesson. That's really nice. They just give insights into the vocab. But actually, if it is IT access for breakfast clubs or for once a fortnight in a classroom, or it just simply was a homework tool and a revision tool and an understanding tool for accessing the curriculum, it works in any of those contexts, doesn't it?

Mel: 19:54

It really does and student things back. Students, especially the year sevens, love it, I mean. Wow but the year eight and nine also, they are a tech inspired generation, aren't they? Yeah yeah, they use technology for for most things that they do, yeah, and so they really, really love it. So I have students coming up to me saying, oh, I've done my bedrock for the industry. Can I have some more? And equally, the feedback from parents has been extremely positive.

Mel: 20:29

Fantastic how much their child is engaged with it, how they're finding it easily. What the parents like, especially on vocab and grammar, is that it's individualized for their child, so it doesn't matter what level the student is working at, they can access it and it looks the same to them. So they could be sitting, they could be in block four and their friend in block eight, but it will look the same, obviously that's really important, yeah, and it is really really important when you, when you're a teenager, and care about what people think of you and how it looks.

Mel: 21:13

So so that feedback from parents has been very, very positive and the fact that the students are engaging. I still have students come up regularly and saying Can I have this for bedrock? Can I have extra words? Can I do this? There was a bit of confusion about where they logged into history and were finding a science word because they didn't quite comprehend it. So once I clarified that from parents to, they thought it had gone wrong. And once I'd clarified that that's why we do it, everybody could understand and the feedback has been positive.

Andy: 21:54

And just the one last thing I'd ask about in terms of implementation is maybe I've misunderstood, but when the people's in seven or eight or seven or doing that, they do core as in grammar and vocabulary, as well as map for their homework.

Mel: 22:08

Yes, seven do mapper for every subject and core for vocab and grammar. Year eight do, Core and Mapper for history, re and science.

Andy: 22:21

I would. I would love to look at the reading age data over the course of the year and sort of really understand and triangulate. You know how we've done reading.

Mel: 22:30

We've just done the reading tests. We do NGRT reading tests, so we've just done those. This year we're in the process of, by Christmas, doing the, the bottom, sort of few percent or 10% again, and then we will retest in the summer or nearer the summer.

Andy: 22:54

And one thing I would like to share that?

Andy: 22:57

yes, oh, that's. I would love to see that, because one thing I often used to do is if you put your users into quartiles so high bedrock users, medium low, medium low or zero users and then you have a look at the average reading age change for each and it's always really interesting. Sometimes it's a really neat correlation. Well, a lot of the time, the more bedrock, the more the reading age, but often as often as well, you see, in particular, micro populations. They might not have done bedrock every single week, but the impact on their reading age is huge. So it's really interesting to start to sort of unpack the correlation between usage and improvement. It's really interesting.

Mel: 23:37

The one thing about core is it gives different lists each week, so who's been the most time, who's made the most progress, who's learned the most words? And they are different students and quite often it enables. When I before we implemented bedrock here, I did a trial with a year 10 class.

Mel: 24:00

I was teaching and the students really, really like to see those weekly leaks tables effectively and you could see people that have made the top for whichever one it was. You could see some sort of rise in their chair with pride and the certificates. What I haven't mentioned is how much the students like to get the certificates of badges as they go through, and it does instill a little bit of competitiveness between students in a positive way, because you don't have to get 100% to get those badges and certificates and, like I say, you can get a badge even if you're a very different level to your friends.

Mel: 24:49

So it's not about just rewarding those who are finding it easy?

Andy: 24:54

or easier. Our founder, aaron, speaks really passionately about this. He was from a disadvantaged background and until a teacher changed his life, and that's what the whole platform is built on. Is that democratization of knowledge? It's this idea that every people can make progress Every people and in the system actually it's hard-widened as the DNA of the system. If you're looking for, for example, to praise time spent, or you're looking to praise points or progress, there's always something to find, and there's always nice surprises as well in there, which is really important, I think.

Mel: 25:41

The students, really. I mean, we all like to be praised, don't we? For whatever it's for, and I did find it was students that wouldn't. Maybe the quiet students that come into the classroom, get on with it, leave again? That weren't that were making tops of these lists, rather than the students that are confidently always put their hands on they're always.

Mel: 26:14

So that was really really nice. And in going back slightly sorry to the reading ages, what I can say for certain is last year, the 20, 22, 23 academic year, our reading ages that our school in the trust were slightly higher, or in some cases significantly higher, than some ourselves because they use Bedrock. By the summer that had switched over. The only difference was bedrock, so we hadn't been implementing it. We've only just rolled out implementation for this academic year. We weren't using it then.

Andy: 27:00

I mean, there's been so much that you've given us today and I really do, I really sincerely appreciate your time and I know that there'll be lots of schools around the country who'll be listening to what you've said today and who'll be taking inspiration from that about how you can scalably start small and move this massive transformative instrument out across the school settings and thanks, so thank you for helping to inspire others to do that as well. It's been lovely talking to you. Thank you so much.

Mel: 27:27

Thank you very much.

Andy: 27:30

That was absolutely brilliant.