McKie Mastery
We use an approach called McKie Mastery in these lessons:
• Power EYFS,
• Power Steps (early reading and writing),
• Power English,
• Power Maths.
The approach is designed to limit cognitive overload and enable children to know and remember more.
Details can be found on the McKie Mastery website.
Power Lessons
Each of these lessons uses a cycle of activities designed to support children and develop fluency, leading to independence.
New learning is embedded through;
- Talking with others helps pupils understand and remember concepts;
- Cognitive processing helps transfer information from short to long term memory;
- Interaction amongst children around appropriate tasks increases their mastery and retention of critical concepts;
- Children learn from one another because in their discussions of content as cognitive conflicts arise.
- Inadequate reasoning is exposed, and higher quality understanding emerges.
Each piece of learning has 4 elements or tools -
1 Modelled
Children will watch and listen to the teacher model and 'think aloud' the concept the children are learning.
The teacher provides worked examples of new learning that lasts no longer than 5 minutes, ensuring that cognitive overload does not happen
Detailed success steps help pupils understand new concepts
2 Guided
Children then will be guided through the learning by the teacher, with support from their class partner using carefully planned success steps to help them.
New material is presented in small steps using the success steps with student practise after each step.
Guided Practice limits the amount of new information at any time. This allows working memory to process new information effectively and does not overwhelm pupils.
3 Partner Practice
Children then practise with their partner, teaching each other the concept and checking each other's work, ensuring greater engagement with concepts being taught.
4 Independent
Children then apply the new concept independently, without any support from a teacher. Effective success steps allow children to learn difficult tasks.
They form a temporary scaffold that is gradually removed as learners become more confident and can apply the new learning unsupported, in ‘Independent Practice’