Instructional Model

The "H" Model

The Heathmont College Teaching and Learning Model

The H Model is Heathmont College's Teaching and Learning Model - it articulates the ways we ensure our lessons are structured in such a way as to provide quality teaching and learning. The model has four block elements: pieces that should show up in every lesson. These are: Bridge, Discover, Achieve and Reflect. The model also has two over-arching elements: Feedback and Differentiation which become part of one or more of the four block elements in each lesson. All six pieces of the model should occur in each lesson at Heathmont, though they can (and sometimes should) occur in a different order and for different lengths of time in different lessons. In some lessons there could be many iterations of Achieve and Reflect, while in others you may start with an Achieve section before using Discover to explain the next idea or skill.

Summary of the Model

From Term 1 Curriculum Day

  • Non-linear model without a prescribed start and finish

  • Blocks -> Can be thrown into different arrangements

  • Feedback and Differentiation need to be present in each lesson, however these are incorporated into each of the other elements (hence a different colour)

  • Elements can occur concurrently

  • Making the learning visible to students

  • Provides common language between staff and students

Bridge

  • Connects this lesson to the students' experience

  • Answers the question: ”how does this lesson relate to everything else?”

  • Building links between you and your students, this lesson and their prior knowledge, the curriculum and the world

  • Feedback in Bridge could be focused on gathering evidence of prior knowledge, or identifying which areas of this lesson hold particular interest for students

  • Differentiation could look like presenting differentiated success criteria or giving alternate ways to participate in an introductory activity

Discover

  • Communicates skills and knowledge for this lesson to students

  • Modelling, explicit teaching, demonstrating, reading

  • Feedback in Discover could include hinge questions, explicitly seeking feedback

  • Differentiation could involve using alternate methods of instruction for different students, or focusing on changing the content for groups of students

Achieve

  • Students should achieve something in every lesson

  • Writing, making, drawing, speaking describing, doing…

  • Feedback in Achieve might look like observing student work, students clarifying their approach, students and teachers asking

  • Differentiation might mean giving students different processes to follow, products to produce or content being covered.

Reflect

  • Everyone needs to regularly reflect on the learning process and plan to improve

  • Revisiting Learning Intentions, reviewing the learning, identifying strengths and planning to improve

  • Feedback in Reflect might include asking students for areas they still need work, ways in which the class has operates, or opportunities

  • Differentiation might mean giving students different processes to follow, products to produce or content being covered.

Feedback and Differentiation

  • These belong everywhere in the H model.

  • Each lesson should include opportunities for students to receive feedback on their learning AND for teachers to receive feedback on how the lesson is taught

  • Differentiation is all about “meeting students where they are” and can occur at any point in the model.

  • Feedback and Differentiation feed off each other: feedback on student learning drives our differentiation, and differentiation provides better opportunities to give meaningful feedback on student learning.