Three - pens down everyone. Two - eyes this way. One - track me, please.”

Wait, what? Tracking the teacher? Is this a new data system where pupils measure the progress of the teacher towards performance management targets?

Thankfully not. When you visit a classroom at Trinity Academy Sowerby Bridge (TASB) in West Yorkshire, pupils and teachers have their eyes on whoever has been asked to speak. We track the speaker, whether this is the teacher, a pupil or a visitor to the room.

In doing so, everyone who is part of the learning experience is showing that they respect each other by listening attentively to the speaker. This attention ensures pupils feel valued when they are giving answers - and they are therefore more likely to give an answer.

This technique is not without controversy. Some claim that it discriminates against certain pupils or is counterproductive. But our classrooms are more inclusive than they have ever been.

Attention deficit

Here’s why and how we introduced tracking the speaker, and a breakdown of the impact this technique has had on TASB.

If you walked into a class at our school 12 months ago, you would have noticed the teacher having to frequently repeat questions and suffer pupils repeating each other’s answers (sometimes, they would even repeat answers that had already been revealed to be incorrect). This made phases of questioning seem protracted and too great a struggle for too little impact. Pupils could also easily move their attention away from the learning taking place without being challenged.

The teaching and learning team at TASB frequently visits classrooms and collects data to inform CPD. After we spotted the above issue, our initial target for improvement focused on time wasted in lessons.

We turned to Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion books and website to tackle this. We watched some of the videos from the website in CPD sessions, and noticed pupils turning to look at whoever had been “cold-called” (where a teacher randomly asks a pupil for an answer rather than waiting for “hands up” ). The pupils were tracking the speaker, something that Lemov frequently cites in his writing about the approaches of the most effective teachers - it essentially just means looking at the person who is talking.

Last summer, with the principal’s backing, we decided that we would introduce the technique of tracking the speaker.

We needed to convince staff that this was a great idea. The teaching and learning team planned an Inset session about the tracking the speaker process, demonstrating it by getting staff to pretend to be pupils and actively try it out on each other within the session.

We also made sure that pupils received the same message as staff in their first vertical tutor time session (and subsequent assemblies) before starting their new timetables.

Over the autumn term, during learning walks, we monitored the consistency of how the technique was used and engaged with feedback from staff about pitfalls.

Challenges and gains

The main problem was staff getting into the flow of their lessons and simply forgetting to ask pupils to track - you have to force yourself to adopt new habits and that takes time. Staff who frequently forgot were reminded by those who were completing learning walks, and some were encouraged to watch other practitioners who exemplified the process.

Where we see the most inconsistent practice, we arrange one-to-one weekly coaching to support the staff member’s development as quickly and effectively as possible. Alongside this, in routine CPD, we model the use of tracking to immerse everyone in the process in a supportive way, because we believe that it is the right thing to do for our pupils.

As for the pupils themselves, actively disrespecting others leads to consequences as part of our behaviour for learning policy, so choosing not to track the speaker falls into this category. Some young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have elected to be exempt from being tracked but are happy to track others; we class this as a reasonable adjustment to meet their needs.

A few of our pupils have hearing impairments, so they watch their signer as opposed to tracking the speaker.

Senior leaders ask staff to track the speaker in briefings; this consistent attitude towards tracking from all staff groups has helped to make it part of our culture.

Over that first week of implementing tracking the speaker, the intensity of attention from pupils felt very different to before. Previously, staff used a countdown to gain attention. But having experienced the focus that results from this technique, I now believe we didn’t have pupils’ full attention before - they just went quiet after hearing “three, two, one”. They weren’t necessarily listening.

One of the most pleasing effects of introducing tracking the speaker, though, has been on behaviour. A multi-academy trust review in November 2018 fed back that “in all lessons seen, the levels of focus and purpose were impressive. Students listened well to the teacher and to each other demonstrating respect”.

Staff perceptions were gauged via a survey in December 2018, in which 95 per cent commented that they had seen a positive impact on behaviour, increased levels of respect and less passivity after the introduction of tracking the speaker. The same percentage also reported an improvement in pupils’ listening skills and 87 per cent perceived positive developments in speaking skills.

In our most recent data collection, we found that 95 per cent of staff were consistently using the cold-calling technique, 95 per cent were allowing adequate thinking time and 89 per cent were using questioning to probe for depth of understanding. These are all significant gains on previous results.

We also asked young people what they thought. One boy said that, although he doesn’t like tracking, he does understand why it’s important. His reluctance echoes a concern, raised soon after the introduction of the technique, that it might knock pupils’ confidence. However, in the lead-up to the Christmas holidays, we asked a group of young people: what is better now that we do tracking? The responses included:

“Everyone hears what you think and you understand other people’s ideas more.”

“The respect you are shown and the respect you give.”

“Behaviour has improved massively.”

“I understand more of what is happening in lessons.”

These views were shared with all pupils through assemblies to demonstrate that we do listen to them and that we are staying on course as it’s the right thing to do.

Track to the future

In reality, consistent tracking still needs to be fully embedded; we will be putting further CPD in place to support teachers in habitually ensuring that pupils demonstrate attentive listening and respect by tracking each other.

The other emerging issues, which using tracking the speaker has revealed, are the need to ensure pupils’ answers are audible and in full sentences, and the need for staff to utilise opportunities to boost vocabulary.

We continue to collect data as a teaching and learning team, and share our findings with staff. We’re planning assemblies on the importance of articulating yourself clearly and whole-staff CPD on developing pupil oracy to continue TASB’s journey towards being a truly transformational place to learn.

Ian Taylor is a science associate lead practitioner at Trinity Academy Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire. He tweets @MrTSci409

This article originally appeared in the 10 May 2019 issue under the headline “On the hunt for attentive learners? Track the speaker”