The Friday Mindset - Issue #30

November 05, 2021

It's Friday... and what's this? It's already dark? Ah yes. November the fifth. Across the country, in municipal parks from Berwick to Brighton, mountains of unwisely stacked wooden pallets will be fenced-off and torched while crowds of spectators consume cheap cake, distribute their particular variant of COVID, and watch the fireworks.

But in the stillness prior to the shenanigans beginning, let's take a moment. Get yourself a spinny-chair and perform a rudimentary 360, then kick back and checking out this week's newsletter before you buy something random on Amazon to celebrate the arrival of the weekend.

OK let's go!

Something to try...

We've been thinking about problem-solving over the last few weeks. This time of year often marks the beginnings of some seriously tricky study problems for students, and we're always trying to figure out new ways of exploring problem-solving with them. This half term we'll probably all come across...

  • the child who's withdrawn their effort after a setback

  • the teacher-learner relationship that's fallen apart

  • the student who can't hit deadlines

  • the kid who can't focus because of an obsession with social media/gaming/phones/destructive peer group

  • the low vision student who's wondering why bother?

We had a go at a problem-solving activity in The GCSE Mindset and it's been one that's worked well for us, but recently we've been experimenting with this one. It's the ODA model; Observe, Decide, Act.

What we've tried to do here is assemble some really useful questions under each heading so that we can structure a conversation around the problem as well as explicitly model an approach to problem solving.

This is very much a work-in-progress, but it's been more successful (so far!) if the student first tells the story of the problem from start to finish - spends a good five minutes over the whole thing - then takes a look at the questions below, one stage at a time, and begins talking around them.

Observe first - plus follow-up questions. This might take five minutes or so, you and the student together both making notes as you talk.

Decide next - plus additional ideas and discussion...again, another five or ten minutes of discussion and note-taking,

then Act. Here, the student takes responsibility and sets their own course of action, making a note of what they're going to do.

Feel free to give it a go yourself. Any feedback would be very gratefully received!

OBSERVE: Why does this problem or situation exist?

Tell the story of the problem as if to a stranger, taking five minutes over it.

Describe the problem again, this time from someone else's perspective.

Summarise the problem in one sentence.

Why does this problem matter?

How important is it, on a scale of one-to-ten? Why?

Why does it exist in the first place?

What are the underlying forces, the larger issues at play?

How can I see this with fresh eyes?

What do I keep coming back to?

What might be an interesting new way to come at this challenge?

What might I notice if I were encountering this for the first time?

Am I prepared to truly listen, as opposed to just acting as if I am listening?

DECIDE: What am I really trying to achieve here?

What matters most? What’s most important?

What critical information do I have and not have?

What am I inclined to believe about this particular issue?

What might I be assuming?

Am I rushing to judgment?

What am I missing?

Would I rather be right, or would I rather understand?

Do I solicit and seek out opposing views?

What is the evidence behind this claim and how strong is it?

Does this evidence come from a solid source?

What’s the other side of this issue? (Is there actually another side?)

ACT: My plan is…

(fill in the blank!)

So there you go - a rough-around-the-edges first attempt at an activity that is consuming our interest at the moment. Let us know what you think.

Something we've been reading...

We've gone back to a favourite text over the last few weeks - Scott Belsky's Making Ideas Happen. Belsky takes Edison's famous phrase about genius being 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration - and places his focus firmly on the 99%. Most ideas, he argues, flounder because we can't find a way through the '99% perspiration' bit of creative work. The book's subtitle, 'Overcoming the obstacles between vision and reality', says it all.

Belsky's book was a big deal for us when it was first pubbed in 2010. We ended up borrowing an activity from it for The A Level Mindset... but all the other systems advice that hit home too, particularly the chapter called The Action Method, which was full of leadership advice, as well as advice we could pass straight on to students at GCSE and A Level, and the chapter titled Prioritization, which was stuffed with insightful observations.

It's ten years old now, but for us, Making Ideas Happen still stands up. Dipping in again this week, it was interesting to see which bits we'd added notes too a decade ago; the sections we'd starred or underlined. There were lots!

Hit the link below to find out more.

Ideas are worthless if you can’t make them happen. Generating new ideas is easy, it’s executing that is hard. Whether it’s an everyday problem or […]

Our latest offer(s)...

OK - the niche one first. Did you know the Martin-half of VESPA is a novelist? Well it's true. And he's co-written a textbook about teaching narrative writing in KS3, 4 and 5 English classrooms. It's called Storycraft; 51 tried-and-tested practical activities for getting kids writing better fiction. Martin has three free copies to give away. Fancy one? Just get in touch at [email protected] and we'll post one out to you. You could give it to your Head of English as an impromptu pressie or pass it on to your son or daughter. Or keep it!

OK number two - and this is for the last time and then we'll stop bothering you - we’re delighted to let you know we’re running a training day in central London on December 14th. We love these days; we cover the model (with new activities as well as some old favourites as examples) we look at coaching students (with new material here too) and we cover implementation (including successful approaches we’ve seen in schools across the UK and abroad.)

It’s an exciting one for us, particularly after two years in which it’s been very hard to run face-to-face training in a room together. There’s nothing quite like the connections, ideas and possibilities that arise when fellow professionals get together and leave behind the whirlwind of the day job.

Plus there'll be giveaways!

You'll find the link at the bottom of the newsletter.

And that's it for this week. Have a restful weekend, enjoy the treacle toffee, and we'll be back next Friday!

Steve and Martin

p.s. If you want an 18 minute introduction to Scott Belsky's Making Ideas Happen delivered by the man himself, treat yourself to his TED talk. We've dropped the link in at the bottom there for you to check out.

Eventbrite - Steve Oakes & Martin Griffin presents VESPA - Full Day (London Course) - Tuesday, December 14, 2021 at Union Jack Club, London, England. Find event and ticket information.

Scott Belsky has committed his professional life to help organize creative individuals, teams, and networks. He is the author of the national bestselling boo...