Extend and challenge: Primary and secondary

[On-screen text] Extend and challenge: What it is 

• Designing learning activities after explicit teaching and practice to help students transfer learning to new or unfamiliar problems or contexts. 
• Students using their knowledge and skills in increasingly complex situations deepening their understanding and strengthening their skills. 
• Providing opportunities for all students to demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills they've learned via problem-solving in real-world tasks. 

[On-screen text] This video demonstrates examples of the following techniques to extend and challenge: 

• Use generative learning activities  
• Provide open tasks relevant to students’ prior knowledge and lives 
• Provide examples and frameworks for independent practice 
• Model approaches to problem-solving 
• Establish protocols for collaborative problem-solving 
• Prompt and scaffold self-regulation and evaluation 

Tim Shaw, Assistant Principal, Year 5/6 teacher, Riverwood Public School: In the science lesson, I asked a lot of extension questions where students were able to extend their knowledge, and I knew students were ready for this because of all the prior learning that had happened beforehand. So, students were able to look at this lesson, understand and comprehend what was being asked of them, attaching it to what they had already known to be able to answer those extension questions. 

[On-screen text] Provide open tasks relevant to students’ prior knowledge and lives 

[On-screen text] Use generative learning activities (summarising) 

Tim Shaw: So, we are at our big question now. All right? And we wrote ... we read the question at the very beginning of the lesson and it is: How do sustainable timber plantations support local communities and our animals? 

[On-screen text] Provide exemplars and frameworks for independent practice 

Tim Shaw: So, we're going to do a write-pair-share. All right? When I'm walking around and looking at your write-pair-share, will … will we be using complete sentences? 

Class: Yes. 

Tim Shaw: Yes. All right? When you are structuring your response, you need to restate the … 

Class: Question. 

Tim Shaw: You need to restate the question. 

I might start it off with – ‘Sustainable timber plantations support local communities and animals by …’ and then finishing off. I'm going to set a timer. So we have 4 minutes to respond to our question. Markers up for me, please. Starting your task in 3 … 2 … 1 … go. 

Jessie Griffiths, Assistant Principal, Year 3/4 teacher, Briar Road Public School: The reason I asked an open-ended question with the word ‘immense’ was because I wanted to really see – do students have a really deep understanding and can they apply that to a different context? So, using have they felt or have they seen something? That's 2 different things with that vocab word that they learnt. 

[On-screen text] Use generative learning activities (imagining) 

Jessie Griffiths: All right. This time, describe a time when you have seen or felt something ‘immense’. I'm going to give you some thinking time. Think about a time when you have felt something or seen something that is ‘immense’. Okay. Now I want you to pair-share with your partner. Off you go. 

Class: [Interposing voices.] 

Jessie Griffiths: Yes, you do. Have you seen something big before? 

Student: The whole … a planet. 

Jessie Griffiths Okay. Yeah. What is big about … immense about a school? 

Student: An ocean. 

Jessie Griffiths: The ocean. ‘I’ve been to the beach’? Yeah. 

I'm going to pick you out, hands down. And … Lily? 

Student: A park that's 10 times bigger than our classroom. 

Jessie Griffiths: Ooh. A park that's 10 times bigger than our classroom. Great example. 

And … Mackenzie.  

Jess Lacey, Year 12 Chemistry teacher, Merici College: I think by encouraging students to use concepts that have been taught previously and link them with the concepts taught in that lesson, it really allows them to show that they truly understand not only the concept from today, but also they understand chemistry more broadly or whatever subject you're teaching.  

Choose one. Either describe ‘heterolytic fission’ or if you're up for a challenge, have a go at our red question. 

[On-screen text] Provide exemplars for independent practice 

Jess Lacey: So, this question was a little bit tricky because it draws on your prior knowledge of bond enthalpy, as well as the topic that we covered today. But I think most of you got the correct one who wrote it. So well done. 

Daniel Flood, Year 7 Industrial Technology and Design teacher, Wilsonton State High School: Sharing student work, I think, is one of the most valuable practices in any classroom. It demonstrates student work at their level, in a way that they can understand. When we share it, we can work through misconceptions and ways around how we can solve our problems. And when you see them find a way to solve that problem, is some of the most valuable time in the classroom. 

Student: How do I fix that?  

Student: No look. 

Daniel Flood: How do we fix this one? All right. Do you mind if we share this soon so we can talk about fixing it? All right. In about … in a few minutes – maybe at that end of the timer – we'll share this and then we'll talk about fixing it. 

Student: No, but look at mine. 

Daniel Flood: Really, really good work, guys. I saw people using the chisels nice and safely. I saw the sanding blocks getting used well. Before we move on, and we go back into it, we're going to share a couple of techniques as to how we can prepare our pieces for assembly.  

[On-screen text] Establish protocols for collaborative problem-solving 

Daniel Flood: I'm going to get Grace to come over with her piece to share, and we're all going to come up for demonstration formation, please.  

All right. Grace is going to share … She's going to share and tell us –What is the issue you are having, Grace? 

Student: It doesn't fit.  

[On-screen text] Prompt and scaffold self-regulation and evaluation 

Daniel Flood: To me it looks like it fit. What do you mean, it doesn't fit?  

Student: It's not, like, circular around that bit.  

Daniel Flood: Oh, it's a little bit round.  

Student: Mhmm.  

Daniel Flood: And sorry, what were you gonna say after that?  

Student: I don't know.  

Daniel Flood: What's happening in here?  

Student: There's too much happening. Wood.  

Daniel Flood: Oh. There's still a bit of wood stuck in there?  

Student: Mhmm. 

Daniel Flood: Nice. All right. What do you guys think we're going to do to fix this? Yeah?  

Student: Can you just do it and try and saw it away?  

Daniel Flood: We can. That is a great answer.  

[On-screen text] Model approaches to problem-solving 

Daniel Flood: So, we're gonna use a saw to try and saw it down this way. Now I was having this issue, too, so I prepared mine as well. Would you like to do your one or would you like me to do my one?  

Student: You do yours. 

Daniel Flood: I'll do mine. All right. So I was having this issue on this one here. You can see there's a little bit of material in here. So, what I can do is, I can get my saw. There was one other one. 

Kerry Marriner, Classroom teacher, Lake Colac School: The big focus of that lesson is obviously to provide the school with a lunch at … at … at lunchtime. It's about drawing on and bringing all those skills that they've been learning right from when they've started here. Our students start cooking in the classroom from Prep, and they're starting to learn those skills then. And it's just that accumulation of all those skills that they've been learning through explicit lessons in the classroom and bringing it all together for something that's actually a life skill and a real-life situation. 

[On-screen text] Provide open tasks relevant to students’ prior knowledge and lives 

Student: But you gotta make sure to get the …  

Kerry Marriner: We don't want to hurt our fingers, though. 

Student: Okay. Okay. We got our shaved carrots … [inaudible] … a bunch … a lot of carrots. 

Student: You don't need more carrots. 

[On-screen text] Model approaches to problem-solving 

Kerry Marriner: It was really good to see the students applying those math skills that they learn in the classroom. So, having to think about cutting the pastry up into halves and then thirds, thinking about what is half of 6. Double 6 is 12. So, applying those skills in a situation that's actually different from what it looks like in the classroom. So, are they transferring those skills across into the kitchen. 

[On-screen text] Prompt and scaffold evaluation 

Kerry Marriner: So, what we want is 6 sausage rolls all together. But what's half of 6?  

Student: Quarters. 

Kerry Marriner: No. What's half of 6?  

Student: 3? 

Kerry Marriner: So, we're going thirds. You’ve gone to the right spot, though. 

Student: Yeah, that's what I was doing. 

Kerry Marriner: Beautiful. I thought you said ‘quarters’. All right. And then you can pop them straight on the tray. I'm going to get you to do those ones. Good job.  

Kerry Marriner: So, it's obviously really important that they're making that connection to what they're learning in the classroom in … in the real world. And even though they're still within the safety of the school – so, for example, the kitchen – they're … they're seeing how what they're learning in a maths classroom or an English classroom actually is applied in a different setting that is more likely to be something they'll experience when they grow up and leave and head out into the real world.