HSAEL News

In this series of posts, we will share the wonderful practice that is developing at HSAEL, as well as reflect on our distinct style and approach to lessons.

It’s 1959 and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is visiting the USA to meet President Eisenhower, a rare occasion of cooperation and diplomacy between the Superpowers during the Cold War; an attempt to build bridges (not walls). On a tour to a Mid-West meat packing district, Khruschev was presented with his first ever hot dog complete with a dash of mustard. He pronounced that the hot dog ‘was wonderful. But not enough.’

During GCSE History lessons, I would promptly share the anecdote mid-exposition when teaching the summit meetings of 1959-1961; the story exemplifies the positive relations before the breakdown of talks in Paris in 1960. In the forthcoming assessment, regardless of the student and the remaining 58 minutes of the lesson the student sat in, everyone would write in extraordinary detail about Khrushchev’s first hot dog. 

The conclusion: it was a concrete example all students could relate to free from tier two and three vocabulary such as thawing, negotiation, diplomacy, concession. Low and mid-attaining students knew Khrushchev was enjoying himself at the Camp David summit because he had eaten and enjoyed a hot dog just as they may have done at indoor play as a child, at someone’s birthday party or a BBQ.

GCSE specifications can be a maze for students with low reading ages, EAL or limited vocabulary. With reading ages of GCSE specifications being typically 16 years plus, many students end up lost in the swathes of new content with nothing relatable to grasp on to apart from well… the hot dog itself.

Abstract ideas exist in thought. They are theoretical, vague and difficult to grasp. To understand an abstract idea, students need to solidify it. A quarter in Maths makes much more sense once you picture a pizza cut into four with a slice taken out. Moving glaciers transforming landscapes in Geography, are difficult to comprehend until you refer to them as nature’s bulldozers. In Religious Studies, the concept of the reconciliation between God and humans is straightforward when you remind students of the restorative conversation they had with a teacher following a detention. The use of concrete examples to exemplify broader ideas improves the retention of the learning in a lesson and helps students develop their thinking. Memory is the residue of thought.

I learnt the hard way with the hot dog- multiple concrete examples should be provided to build a schema so students grasp the overall concept being taught as not to latch on to the specific example.

Lower and mid-attaining students can excel. However, as teachers we must help them understand and this means finding the quickest possible route from A to B with language and concepts that are familiar and therefore meaningful to them. Tell them what you mean in basic terms with language and examples they will know. Academic vocabulary can be introduced later once the ideas have been grasped and mastered. Memory is the residue of thought. And what a memorable hot dog that was.

Emma Connolly,

Assistant Principal