What do you ask students to do to/with information in order to make it more likely that

they will understand it?Reduce it

Connect it

Arrange it Assemble it

Prioritise it

Apply it

Simplify it

Meta-cognition Literacy

Making Learning Stick

Stretch and Challenge

Numeracy

The Magenta Principles

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Challenge

DepthEngagement

The Magenta Principles

Mike Hughes

Challenge

DepthEngagement

The Magenta Principles represent a pedagogy underpinned by a belief that…

• learning is the consequence of thinking… therefore our job is to get them to think

• language is central to thinking… therefore our job is to get them to talk

• learning is an active process… therefore our job is to get them doing

The principles

“We need to think less about subject/content- specific strategies and more about generic principles. These principles can then be applied to any particular context.”

We talk about The Magenta Principles– in reality there is just one principle; in order to make sense of the information that comes their way, children have to do something to / with it. Receiving it, retaining it and eventually regurgitating it is insufficient – in short they have to think about it!

The question therefore becomes, what are children required to do to / with the information they encounter in the classroom?

It is central to the approach and the answer gives us The Magenta Principles – children could be asked to reduce it, change it, assemble it, add to it, arrange it, sequence it, classify it… the list goes on and on.~ Extract from The Magenta Principles by Mike Hughes

Strategies v principles

It is not about strategies, but about the principles that underpin them.What is the principle that underpins the strategy? What is the strategy that illustrates the principles?

• Reduce it• Change it• Assemble it• Search for it• Connect it• Arrange it• Enlarge it• Simplify it• Classify it• Compare and contrast it• Deconstruct it• Apply it• Prioritise it• Act it out

The Magenta Principles: Mike Hughes

• Reduce it• Change it• Assemble it• Search for it• Connect it• Arrange it• Enlarge it• Simplify it• Classify it• Compare and contrast it• Deconstruct it• Apply it• Prioritise it• Act it out

The Magenta Principles in your teaching?Think about a lesson you are teaching tomorrow- does it include one of these

principles?

Magenta Dice

Left hand/right hand page

Flexible thinkers

But lack motivation

IdealNot keen & motivated

Spoon fed thinkers

Work hard but are spoon fed by us!

Get them active!

Active

Passive

Active Passive

ATTITUDE TO THINKING

ATTITUDE TO LEARNING

It may look the same but there is a fundamental difference between:

A) Read page 7andB) Have a look at page 7 and tell me which you think is the most important sentence

Pupils are simply receiving information in scenario A but in scenario B they have to do something to it.

Magenta Challenges

Have a magenta principles challenge wall…

REDUCE

5-5-1 today’s lesson into your book(see sheet)

OR

Sum up your last piece of work in 5 key bullet points and justify why you have chosen them.

PRIORITISE

What are the three most important things to know about our current topic, for example, a grammar point

that we have covered?

OR

Out of today’s lesson, what was the most important piece of language used and why?

CHANGE

Change your last piece of written work into a picture/diagram/storyboard/flowchart/cartoon

ORTranslate your last piece of written work into English to

show understandingOR

Change your last piece of written work from the first person ‘je’ to someone else, for example il/elle/nous

ASSEMBLE

Create a mind map about the topic we are currently studying

ORCreate a vocabulary test with the words that you have

found most challenging today. Test yourself!OR

Use vocabulary sheets from previous topics to create a vocabulary test. Test yourself!

CONTRAST

Use the A* Mat to compare two things from today’s lesson.

OR

Use the A* Mat to compare something from today’s lesson with something from another topic.

IMPROVE

Improve your last piece of written work by using the A* Mat or AS/A2 Mat to add detail or modify.

OR

Use feedback from a previous piece of work to improve this piece of work.

CONNECT

Describe where you have seen this vocabulary/grammar point before in another topic

covered

OR

Describe where you have completed an activity or used a skill from today’s lesson in another subject.

ARRANGE

Design a contents page putting your work so far in order (see sheet)

OR

Make a list of 10 keywords/phrases from the lesson/topic and categorise, for example, nouns,

adjectives,verbs.

Want to know more?

How do you or could you incorporate The Magenta Principles into your classroom practice?