ACERT Conference 21 March 2015
Demand High: Are we challenging the full
learning potential our students ?
Adrian Underhill
Related links:
demandhighelt.wordpress.com
facebook.com/demandhighelt
What is Demand-High?
 Are my learners capable of more?
 Are we “covering material” rather than focusing on
the potential for deep learning?
 Do we attend to the task rather than to the
learning?
 Do I rely on the task do the teaching?
 Would they learn more if I demanded more?
 How could I do that?
 Could I tweak what I do to meet each student at
their learning edge?
Demand High involves…
 Using any activity to challenge each student at their
own learning edge
 Making doable demands
 Differential responses rather than differential tasks
 DH is a teacher quality rather than a resources
quality
A place to start Demand High is…
in the oral phase “Checking the answers”
when students are sharing their responses
during an activity
aloud,
with each other
or with the whole class
Four low demand ‘traps’ in this oral phase:
Ping Pong
Extinguish T question with only one St response
Rubber stamping
Saying good when it isn’t
Famous last words
Teacher saying it last ….instead of upgrading
The pointless drill
Mechanical repetition without practice
Upgrade v Correction
An upgrade:
improves whatever is offered (mistake or not) into the
best the student can do at that moment.
A correction:
makes something ‘wrong’ into something ‘correct’
What’s an upgrade:
1. You don’t need a mistake to do an upgrade:
If there’s a ‘mistake’ - the upgrade includes it.
If there’s no ‘mistake’ - we still upgrade.
2. Everybody gets a personal upgrade, taking them from
what they just did … to the next better, quicker, clearer,
more interesting, DO-ABLE version…
3. In this way we remove the ceiling,
Upgrades are not new …
But taken together, and for this purpose, they can open
up an interesting direction
Here are some examples…
Upgrades 1: Simply collect different responses
 Who has another one / something different?
 What do you think?
 What did she say?
 Did you hear him?
 Listen to the differences
 Is that the same as his?
 So how many different ones have we got?
Upgrades 2: What upgrades can the class offer
 Is that Ok?
 Do you want to change it?
 Are there any mistakes in that?
 Yes? What?
 Who likes this one?
 Do you want to change it?
 Can you write yours / hers on the board?
 Ok let’s put these different ones on the board…
 OK, now one of them is correct…which one?
Upgrades 3: Micro technique for self upgrade
 Pause (gesture… St thinks…)
 “Is that OK?” (invitation to review?)
 “Could you say it again?” (opportunity to ‘hear self’)
 “Say it very slowly…” (To prevent blurting)
 “Do you want to change anything?”
Upgrades 4: Multiple ‘do-able demands’
To St A: How many words …?
To St B: Say it faster
C Slower and more clearly,
D Where is the stress?
E Yes, now join the words together …
F You need another word…
G Take a word out…
H Say it with interest!
Upgrades 4: Continued
I Whisper it,
J Make it a question,
K Change it!
L Change one word
M Look at your pronunciation
N That’s correct, but now In English!
O All of you…find another way to say the same thing…
Options: individual; 121 ITG; whole group
Inner Workbench: Pre-installed DH facility
The inner ear to work on a model given by the teacher
Inner voice to create and rehearse a spoken response
In-depth observation of the form of the utterance
Further Demand High Interventions
Finger correction: Word order to fluency
Fat grammar 1: Substituting words
Fat grammar 2: Playing with word order
Demand High tips
Employ 121 in a group
Mistakes ARE the syllabus
Treat mistakes like friends – revisit them
Practice without repetition
ACERT Conference 21 March 2015
Demand High: Are we challenging
the full learning potential our students ?
Thank you!
Adrian Underhill
Related links:
demandhighelt.wordpress.com
facebook.com/demandhighelt