Assessment Feedback Lessons

With a little time having passed between the end of term and now, and with my mind turning its attention back to work mode, I've had a little time to collect my thoughts about leaving and come back to assessment feedback lessons.

Not every assessment feedback lesson can be ideal, due to time constraints, school events, school holidays, lack of technology, and other issues, but this is where my thinking is at in terms of how I'd like to do assessment feedback moving forward.

1. Assessment is completed.

2. Assessment is marked and scores are entered into a QLA document.

3. 'WAGOLL' provided to pupils.

4. Key points are fed back.

5. Identified areas are revisited.

Each of these steps is briefly outlined below.

1. Pupils sit the assessment. There's an argument that sitting assessments is a poor use of curriculum time, and whilst I see that all classroom time would be best spent teaching pupils content, I also want my assessment data to be as reliable as possible. For me, this is that it's sat in (as close as possible to) exam conditions, in front of me, so I know that I can trust it.

2. Marking is time-consuming, but when it comes to assessments, I think this is an appropriate use of time. I want to see the misconceptions that pupils still hold, I want to be able to feedback on common incorrect answers and the remedies for these, and I want to see the effort that pupils are putting in terms of resilience (answering every question) and presentation (taking pride in their work).

QLAs also seem to split the profession, but I like them. I get a feeling for how well pupils have done on a specific question when I mark, but after QLA'ing, I get cold, hard data that I can use to direct my intentions, and I love cold, hard data.

I don't see much value in the QLA document only providing information to the teacher, so I like my QLA to provide a printout for each pupil to give them a visual representation of their scores (in terms of Red, Amber and Green). This printout will also include three questions that are directed at the pupil, identified as being the three most important questions that I'd like them to be getting correct. Some pupils may have more that I want them to be getting correct, but these are the priorities.

I've been working on a new QLA spreadsheet recently, to 'supercharge' the information that I get. I might blog about that at another time.

3. If you're unaware, 'WAGOLL' stands for 'What a Good One Looks Like'. This could be in the form of a handwritten completed assessment, or it could be in the form of me completing the assessment on video. It could even be pictures of their own work, collated, to make a 'Best Of...' compilation. This allows pupils to re-engage with the questions and see what their answers should have been. The improvement in tech over recent years would probably see this uploaded to Google Classroom for pupils to access.

4. Whilst completing the QLA and preparing individualised printouts, I identified three key questions for pupils to complete, but in doing so, I've identified all of the key areas of deficiency within the understanding of my class. 

In my assessment feedback lesson, I would be sharing common wrong answers, why they're wrong, and what pupils should have done, and what's important here is that I'll follow this up with an opportunity for them to correct their mistakes in the form of example-problem pairs or backward faded activities. 'Going through the paper' with pupils annotating with the correct answers isn't enough - copying doesn't engage pupils in thinking, so it's important that we follow this up with pupils having something to 'do' with the feedback.

Following the example-problem pairs and backward faded activities pupils will be given their scores and printouts (these have been held back to increase curiosity and engagement), and the time to complete their targeted questions mimicking the exam conditions, allowing pupils to be successful with something that they previously weren't. I'll then mark these questions to check whether pupils have responded to the feedback they have been given.

5. The most important part of these lessons is that they should be focused on learning, rather than performance. We should all be well aware that simply because pupils are getting questions correct, doesn't mean that they've learnt it. Learning happens over time, rather than in the moment. With this in mind, it's important to provide opportunities for pupils to revisit this understanding at spaced intervals, to maximise the chance of pupils learning this stuff rather than just performing with it in the moment. I'd be adding these to my medium-term plans, to incorporate spaced retrieval opportunities a day later, a week later, a month later and three months later.

My aim is to provide pupils with many opportunities with which to learn from their mistakes. The 'WAGOLL' gives pupils who are keen and enthusiastic the opportunity to engage with the whole assessment. The individualised printout forces those who are less keen and less enthusiastic to engage with key material. The spacing of the ideas in terms of retrieval is the key aspect here, as learning occurs over time and performance is a poor proxy for learning. I want pupils to perform with the ideas many times, in multiple representations, which will imply that they've learnt the idea that they were previously struggling with.

This blog felt a little quick and short. If you have any queries, or if you have any suggestions to enhance this procedure in any way, please let me know how!

The Plan

So, my thoughts have settled, my plans are somewhat in place, and I'm hamstrung by events beyond my control.

Following their mock exams, I've seen my Year 10s once (immediately after their last exam, which was a maths paper) and they had a 'mock results day' on Friday (July 7). I had a timetabled lesson on that day and could not strike due to my union choices, but I was staffing a rewards trip for Year 7 and Year 8. My next lesson with them is on Tuesday (July 11) which is cut short by staff training, but I am also on an induction day at the school I am joining in September. I then have a lesson with them on Friday (July 14) and Tuesday (July 18) before we break up for the summer holidays.

The lack of time and a proper opportunity to follow up going into Year 11 has impacted what I intended to do, but here's the plan of action...

They sat two OCR papers for their mocks - a calculator and a non-calculator. They were given a revision list to aid their revision, a revision course on TUTOR, a practice paper geared towards their mock papers, and the opportunity to join us in the dining hall on the morning of their exams to settle their nerves. Paper 1 was the better-answered of the two papers, but both highlighted the need to revisit some key topics over the next year.

Due to the rewards trip and my induction day, I have had 150 minutes of cover to set, and I've been leaning on Backward Faded Maths, and the associated techniques, to resource these lessons.

The questions that I've chosen from paper 1 are questions on 'Reverse Compound Interest' (11% of the marks achieved), 'Angles in Polygons' (42%), 'Proportional Reasoning' (54%), 'Calculating With Bounds' (40%), 'Algebraic Proof' (36%) and 'Equation of a Circle' (39%).
The rest of the paper was better answered, but there are a few areas that I'll be reminded pupils about in a lesson (probably on Friday July 14), as well as a note that pupils need to revisit 'Circle Theorems' (26%) in more depth.

From paper 2, I'll be leaving backward faded activities on 'Writing Ratios in the form 1:n' (36%), 'Using Relative Frequency' (51%), 'Probability' (52%), 'Simplifying Surds' (18%), 'Multiplying Recurring Decimals' (51%).
These aren't the only needs, but they're the ones which are most suited to backward fading, and in my lesson on Tuesday, July 18 we're likely to spend some time looking at 'Calculating Percentage Increase' (51%), Indices and Powers (60%) and Rearranging Formulae (56%). I've also got more notes, with pupils needing to revisit 'Using Kinematics Formulae' (32%), 'Constructions and Loci' (37%), 'Enlargements from a Point' and 'Describing Transformations' (54% and 23%), 'Plotting and Using Quadratic Graphs' (28%) and 'Forming and Solving Equations' (14% and 10%).

The 100-minute cover lesson, with a non-specialist cover supervisor, that I set for Friday started with a 'Do Now' with solutions left, followed by six activities from Backward Faded Maths with 'follow-up' extension questions. The 50-minute lesson has been assigned with the same structure.

When I get back to seeing the pupils, I'll give them a 'Do Now' to be completed in exam conditions and then we'll mark them (comparing the mark schemes from their mocks to the 'shadow' questions), seeing the improvements made and adding these to their scores. We can then compare these to grade boundaries, to see if anyone tips over to the next grade. I've also, whilst marking, made scribbles of 'W' and 'M' within papers, where writing (more of) their Working would have had an impact, or where they've made a silly Mistake that they shouldn't be making. We'll add these to the scores we've just calculated and compare them to the grade boundaries again. The aim of this is to give them a confidence boost to increase motivation over the summer, as I hope that their first experience of sitting a 'formal' exam has been a learning process.

I'll finish up the lesson with a Q&A about their papers, where I'll answer any queries they might have about what they did in their exam and what they should have done, before sharing what this might look like as GCSE grades if they follow 'average models of progression from their Year 10 mock to GCSEs from our recent outcome data.

The lesson for their second paper will follow the same structure. This isn't what I'd liked to have done, but with time limited and a lack of an ability to continue this into next year, I hope that I've given it the best I can!

I might follow this up with an ideal structure for an assessment feedback routine, because I know that this is far from ideal!

Developing Students' Revision Strategies

 A while ago, I came across a tweet from @Lucyjc1612 regarding 'cheat sheets', liked it and had a glance over it before forgetting about it.

It had been doing some distance in the back of my mind, because I then tweeted a poll on Tuesday night which got a decent number of interactions, many of whom were interested in the idea having not tried it. I've collated the responses to deliver to our department at some point soon, so thought I'd share my thought process in a blog for the 400+ people who haven't used the strategy but are interested in where it might go.

From the poll, 139 people said they had use the strategy of 'cheat sheets', with 88.5% of people who have suggesting positive outcomes. By comparison, 57 people dismissed the idea with or without evidence, so I think this might be worth looking into.

I have my own concerns about the use of 'cheat sheets in exams', and I'll share those as well as the positives.

Positives

- Students' motivation to keep neat/coherent notes in their exercise improves as they'll be used later to create their 'cheat sheets'. (@MissNorledge, @MathematicalH, @gkgmaths)
- Students engage with content, deciding which are the most important aspects for them to write on their sheet. Students are even discussing what the most important skills are. (@cushlat)
- Revision strategies can be developed over time through feedback and evaluation of students' 'cheat sheets'. (@MrChapmanMaths, @CantabKitty)
- Students who experience a 'wobble'/anxiety in the build up to assessments are calmed. (@unclekirk)
- The process of creating the 'cheat sheet' develops student understanding. (@UnaCumiskey)
- A dramatic shift in the atmosphere in assessments with problem classes. (@floralmaths)

Concerns

- Students can spend too long creating them. (@MrChapmanMaths, @UnaComiskey)
This is a great concern of mine too. I'll go on for far too long, with anyone who'll listen, about how inappropriate 'Make a poster' tasks and homeworks are for conscientious students. I wouldn't want students working on these until late or night, or for extended periods of time.
- It goes against the profession-wide focus on memory. (@mansbridgemaths)
Again, a big concern that I have, but is there an opportunity to develop some success and motivation in the short term that can lead to longer term success?
- Students may attribute short-term success to their 'cheat sheet'. (@mansbridgemaths)
Another concern, and one that would need to be well managed for students to feel that their success is down to their understanding rather than their reliance on a piece of paper.
- A limited amount of time is spent by students working on 'problem solving' questions in their revision, as their time is taken up creating their 'cheat sheet'. (@brendonrjones)
My response would be that this should be part of a number of activities aimed at revising for their assessments and shouldn't be the sole revision technique that students are using.

Notes

- Students should identify which questions they've used their 'cheat sheet' to help with, so they can see their success with and without their sheet. It will also help to identify areas where students lack confidence (not necessarily the understanding, but they have needed to refer to their sheet)
- More able students might refuse the 'cheat sheet', or more conscientious students might want to know where they are without the use of one.
- "I'm going to let you use a 'cheat sheet'" could be misconstrued as "I don't think you can pass this test without the use of a 'cheat sheet'", which can be a dangerous and toxic message for your classroom relationship.
- @MsEScott shared that her school had the best GCSE results ever for the two years this was in use, before the strategy was lost in a change of leadership.

My Proposal

I'm suggesting that we implement the use of an 'assessment aid'. I'm not a fan of the term 'cheat sheet', as it implies that this is 'cheating' and cheating is negative. This is a strategy that we'd be utilising to develop the revision strategies of our students from Year 7 to Year 10.

We'll start using the 'assessment aid' from our first assessment in Year 7, introducing the idea in a full 50-minute lesson, sharing good examples to get them started on a single sheet of A4 paper. Students can complete this for homework and bring it in for use in their assessment.
The structure of my assessment lessons will change. I typically give about 20 minutes of last-minute practice, run through it, and then students work on their assessments. I'll start to give 10 minutes of quick practice, have students complete their assessment, and then have students evaluate their own 'assessment aid'. Students are to list What Went Well with their 'assessment aid' and Even Better Ifs for next time on sticky notes. I'll collect these following the assessment, provide my own feedback alongside their assessment results and store these until their next assessment - so they can act upon my feedback and their own evaluation with their next 'assessment aid'.

This will be repeated for their assessments throughout Year 7 and Year 8, but in Year 8 we will move to an A5 piece of paper to make sure that students are considering which information will have the greatest impact on their own performance.

As we move into Year 9, the 'assessment aid' will still be set as a homework, collected before their assessment and not used in their assessment. Following the assessment, we'll hand time over to evaluating their revision to continually improve their revision techniques. The idea is that students are becoming more proficient in revising over time. In place of the 'assessment aid', we'll offer students the opportunity to make small improvements to their assessments where they've made silly errors.

In Year 10, the 'assessment aid' will be removed as a scaffold, with the intention being that revision skills have been developed over the previous 3 years. Time will be spent evaluating the amount of revision they've completed, but students won't be offered the opportunity to make small improvements as they move towards their GCSE exams.

Year 9 Trial

I teach a group of low-to-middle attaining Year 9 students who I'm developing a decent relationship with. I explained the idea to them today, and they were keen to try it out - giddy, even, to be the test group and told each other not to tell anybody else that they're the only ones doing this in the school. 
I shared my experience of school and revision with them, offering strategies to get the best out of their A4 piece of paper and they've gone away with it to complete before they're assessed on Wednesday.
In Wednesday's lesson, we'll review how theirs helped them and the things they could've done to improve it, before we use an A5 piece of paper in the next assessment following the feedback I share.

I'm looking forward to seeing what they create.

Breakfast Revision

In the run-in to the GCSE exams in 2018 we invited 23 students to morning revision sessions.
"If you can get to school for 7:45am (we're aware of a large proportion of our students travelling across Leeds or acting as carers to siblings in a morning), a minimum of two members of staff will be available for half an hour every morning to make a difference to your GCSE maths grade."

Unfortunately, nine didn't take us up on the offer at all and three students only attended one day out of the four weeks. Fortunately, word spread and a good number of students asked if they could join us and we ended up with about 10 students every morning for 3-4 weeks.

As part of the provision, we offered breakfast. Toast, specifically. Plate-loads of it - that the students never bothered with, so I ate a lot and so did my year 8 form!

It was really easy to run. We subscribe to Mathsbox.org.uk, so printed a booklet of their Skills Check worksheets. 2 pages from each of sets 1 to 6 at three different levels to suit the needs of the students that we'd invited.
Students came in, were handed theirs and worked through it - asking for help where they needed it and were directed to the same problem on the next sheet to check that they'd taken in what had just been said.

www.mathsbox.org.uk

The question is... did it work?
Was it worth rushing in and being there from 7:30 because one student couldn't wait for 7:45?!
I'd like to think so.

Our data suggests so. The average progress made by all students in our Year 11 cohort last year between their second mock exam and their GCSE exam was 0.2 grades. Using the 11 students who achieved for at least a full week, the average progress in the same amount of time 0.4.

Will we be doing this again this year? Absolutely.

We're running it two mornings per week from the first week back after half term - 30 students have been invited with students already asking why they haven't been invited ("It's not that you're not welcome, you definitely are, but we haven't identified a need to tell you that you need to be there.")

I'm hoping two mornings per week is more sustainable over a longer period of time to maintain engagement and progress. It also gives me the opportunity to identify different needs throughout the year.

How to teach (the 'disadvantaged'...)

I saw an article on The Times via Twitter the other day/week (I've lost track of time!) titled "Disadvantaged pupils fall behind despite funding". My initial response was 'You mean, there's a problem that can't be solved by just throwing money at it, and your response is that the funding is the issue?!'. My more thoughtful response was 'The issues that disadvantaged pupils suffer are not due to their schooling, but down to society. The (approximate) 14% of their time they spend in schools is not the deciding factor on their disadvantage and throwing money at that time in schools won't change that.'

I decided to blog about this due to the size of our 'disadvantaged' cohort, the discussions that I've been a part of around the 'disadvantaged' and my record with classes over the last 3 years, as well as a few conversations I've had throughout this year.



I work in a school where approximately 50% of our students are 'disadvantaged'. We're compared to schools whose 'disadvantaged' cohort isn't almost 500, but is 5 or 15, and we're expected to churn out the same results as them with a drastically different intake (but that's a different issue altogether, isn't it?!).
For what it's worth, our school results are approximately 50% 5 A*-C incl. English and Maths and whilst I'm aware that this isn't good enough, it's a bloody good effort given our circumstances.


In 2013-14 I taught our set 2 of 8, with 91.7% of the students in my class making 3 levels of progress. (45.8% 4LOP)
In 2014-15 I taught our set 5, with 80% of my students making 3LOP. (10% 4LOP)
In 2015-16 I taught our set 1, with 93.1% of my students making 3LOP. (65.5% 4LOP)

In 2015, "36.5% of pupils classified as disadvantaged received five good passes including English and maths, compared with 64% of all other pupils", so we're looking at a 27.5% gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students.

In 2013-14 I taught our set 2 of 8, with 100% of the 'disadvantaged' students in my class making 3 levels of progress. (80% 4LOP)
In 2014-15 I taught our set 5, with 80% of my 'disadvantaged' students making 3LOP. (20% 4LOP)
In 2015-16 I taught our set 1, with 87.5% of my 'disadvantaged' students making 3LOP. (50% 4LOP)


Whilst out on interview this year, I was told that the figures for the 'disadvantaged' students in my classes are excellent and challenge 'non-disadvantaged' figures in schools up and down the country. I was also asked 'What do you do for your disadvantaged students that makes a difference?'.

I couldn't say - not because these are my methods and secrets, but because I didn't know. I've thought long and hard. I still don't know. I teach them, I guess.

'What do you do for your disadvantaged students that makes a difference?'

It's tough to answer that when your 'disadvantaged' cohort for the school is 50% of your students, and not just 5 kids in a year group who you can identify what you do differently for them. I've sat through training on 'narrowing the gap', where the question is 'what can you do differently for your disadvantaged students?' and I've come to the conclusion that there are no definitive answers. It's a question that has been asked, multiple times, without giving any answers. I've not come across one person, training session, blog or book that can tell me (or anyone else in the same situation) how to narrow the gap when 50% of your cohort/class is 'disadvantaged'.

I came to the conclusion that the only option you have (with 'disadvantaged' and 'non-disadvantaged' students) is to give them everything you've got. Teach them like their lives (and futures) depend on it. If you're doing it for 'disadvantaged' Doris, why aren't you doing it for 'non-disadvantaged' Nicky?

With that in mind, here's what I do with/for my GCSE classes:

• Get them organised from day one. 'These are your exam dates, write them in your journal'. First mocks, second mocks, exams. 'Who needs a revision guide?' Schools can buy revision guides from CGP for about £3 a pop. Pass these savings on to your students - send a letter to parents offering them revision guides and collect the money before ordering. Have their revision night organised from day one. 'On Wednesdays, we have revision. Be there!'.
  
• Challenge them from day one. 'Here's your target: 20 A and A* grades. I don't care who, just make it happen!'. It turned out to be 18, but would've been 23 without an increase in the A/B boundary.
  
• Offer them help from day one. 'This is work. This is my job. If you need help, before, during or after school, come to my classroom. Struggling on an evening, weekend or holiday? Send me an e-mail. My job is to help you get the grade you want, so ask for help.'
  
• Have routines. No - not, Alan gives out the books and Betty gives out the textbooks. Have routines, which give children the opportunity to consolidate learning and maximise progress. I have work on the board at the beginning of EVERY lesson. I give them about 15 minutes of my 100-minute lesson to recap a few of the things we've done a few weeks ago - they did in lesson, they did it for homework and now they're doing it again.
  
• Fill in their gaps. It's tough when you have no data. You just start with the scheme of learning and hope it all goes well. But once you have data, use it. 'You did an assessment last Friday and I can see that as a class we can't do X, Y and Z. We're going off-menu and we're doing that again. I need you to be able to do that. We'll do it 5 times if we need to!'. There is no point trying to work out the surface area of a cone if your class is not comfortable calculating the area of a circle, or using pi.
  
• Help them to fill in their gaps. Use a QLA. I don't care if you don't like completing them, your students can get more from them that you know. After every assessment give them a printout of their scores pointing them to a video (Mathswatch, Hegartymaths, Corbettmaths) that they can watch with some work they can do. 'The things in red and yellow - these are the things you couldn't do. It might be an easy fix, it might take longer. This is yor revision list from now.' In 2013-14, a girl got a C in her November mock. Totally disheartened. Her printout showed her she lost 10 marks on solving equations, having missed out by 8 marks. Fixed that, carried on, and got an A.
  
• Point out their mistakes. Your students make too many of them. Even your best ones. They think 10-1 is 8 on their calculator paper. Highlight 'silly mistake marks' (marks they should definitely have scored) on their mocks, or have them do it themselves when you run through it. Add them all up and add it to their score. Compare it to the grade boundaries. 'This is the grade you would have - should have got - if you cared a little more, checked your work and didn't waste your time in your exam.' One student was 1 mark off an A* in their March mock, and scored 4/5 on an AQA best value question, working out the prices perfectly but writing the wrong bike as his conclusion for the cheapest - that's an A, not an A*.
  
• Point out their improvements. If, between mock 1 and mock 2 hardworking Helen or silly Sean improve by a grade, shout about it. Challenge them to do it again.
  
• Give them choices. I usually give them the option of doing one last mock at the beginning of May, in class, or to continue with normal lessons. They choose the last mock (this is how much they value the individual feedback and direction that completing the QLA offers them).
  
• Count down. Have a countdown to their GCSE exams. Number of days, number of school days, number of maths lessons. Show them that it's crunch time. Remind them that they need to be doing - now more than ever.

Why would you only do some of these things for some of your students?! To use a phrase I heard a few years ago, your work should be 'a relentless pursuit of excellence'. Not for some of your students, but for all of them - 'disadvantaged' or not.

Disarm The Bomb - A revision activity...

My fiancée has been going mental at me for a couple of months now. 'Why's this not in the recycling bin?' 'Need it for work' 'Well... when are you going to use them?' 'When I get 'round to it...'

She's talking about the cardboard tubes from inside kitchen rolls. And I do have a plan for them.


I love my Race to Treasure Island activity, as well as the 'For British Eyes Only' one, that I use for revision (blogged here). The combination locks that I have allow for 3-digit combinations for the codes, which is quite limiting, however.

I had an idea towards the end of last year. What else uses a code? A mobile phone! Could I make something up that I can use a mobile phone's lock code for? Do I have a spare mobile phone? Apparently, no, but my old man did!

So, here is the idea!

I took 7 kitchen roll tubes. I had 6, so I took all the kitchen roll off the one that's currently in use and used that too. I made a (well, an 'as good as can be using kitchen rolls') regular hexagon after covering them in red paper. I taped them all together at the top and bottom, and created a flatter area to attach a mobile phone to. I bought black pipe cleaners to go in the top and sticky-backed velcro to attach the mobile phone to the flatter bit. The result is this:

It looks better in real life... Honest!

So, the lesson...

Write a number of questions. I have created a PowerPoint file to put 7 questions on the board (with an eighth for the code), which automatically continues to a second slide with a 'BOOOOOM' sound after a set amount of time.

I've also created a .notebook file to outline the activity with a link to a bomb countdown timer online, which runs alongside a worksheet with space for 16 questions and a final expression for the code.

You can download these resources on my Maths Resources web page at http://taylorda01.weebly.com/maths-resources.html#revision.

Be careful with the questions, have students round to whole numbers to make it a bit easier if needed, and sit back while kids work individually, in pairs, or small groups in an attempt to save their school from destruction. You could even honour the child with a short ceremony and offer a bar of chocolate as a 'key to the school'.

My students survived a zombie apocalypse...

I've blogged (somewhat) recently about circus time. (Link). Short story: Pupils spend 5 minutes working on different skills by working in groups and move to the next table to complete a different recap activity, until they have completed 6 (or so) recap activities within the hour.

Here's my new idea for themed revision. To make it a bit of a laugh/an experience.

Recently BBC Three started showing a reality show with a zombie theme. I decided that this would be my new theme for a revision lesson.

Setting the scene: I'll block the window with a 'don't open dead inside' board with a hat tip to the Walking Dead. 

The door will have caution tape across it requiring students to step into the room, creating an atmosphere. 

Blood spatter will decorate the room and the tables will be set out as 'rescue points'. Students sit at a rescue point whilst a video plays.

You will need the video (removed from my Dropbox due to the sheer size of it and it having my links suspended. I have uploaded to OneDrive, but please DM me on Twitter - @taylorda01 - for a link). It's a little large (about 800MB!), is 45 minutes long and runs the lesson. You'd also need 6 5-minute long activities (exam questions/quick skills recaps) and your tables in 6 groups.

Here's how the video works:
3 and a half minutes or so of 'broken TV' multicoloured screen and beeping.
Warning siren followed by the opening credits from BBC and a back story explanation from Greg James (also from the BBC).
Instructions are given: write the rescue point, you'll have five minutes at each rescue point, complete the work in the time given, move to the next rescue point when a new public address video plays.

Press play when kids start arriving. Allow kids to take a seat and have a pen out. Give them a piece of paper or put activities in piles on each desk. The beeping will make your board look broken - say that the technicians are on their way! The introduction will play, instructions given. The main part of the lesson starts now with intermittent zombie noises whilst students work. After five minutes the address comes on and kids move to work on the next skill.

The beauty of this, I find, is that this is massively open to any skills or recall of knowledge. With year 7 we can practice basic skills, but with year 11 it could be timed exam questions. Themed would be great, but not totally necessary, right?

I'd love to get your thoughts on this and any uses. I'll upload any themed revision resources that I make too! I'm thinking zombie tree diagrams, stratified sampling, averages, speed and others...!

My Favourite Recap Activities

I like a good recap activity and my classes always seem to do well in their assessments. I think it's because of the way that I prepare them during the week or so prior to their end of unit assessment, or in the case of GCSE classes, during the month or so leading up to a mock or the real thing.

'Revision' seems to be a dirty word at our place. 'Boosters' and 'Catch up' are always used, but why are we not 'boosting' and extending during lessons, and why are we needing to 'catch up'? How have they been allowed to fall behind so much that they need a 'catch up' session?

I do revision. It's an opportunity for kids to revisit what we've done in lesson. They'll be told that they're expected to have learnt it, and I won't reteach something after school. I'll give them hints, but that typically sees kids recalling what we'd done in lessons and them carry on individually.

Unfortunately, when left to their own devices, a large proportion of our cohort lack the necessary skills to revise properly, even after sitting through 'Learning to Learn' workshops and 'This is how to revise' (not their actual name) sessions.
I think it's right to make allowances for this, especially at Key Stage 3, and make sure that I've allocated 'learning time' to recap what we've been doing before they are assessed.

I have two 'go-to' activities that the kids seem to enjoy a great deal.

1. The Locked Box
I've blogged this before, but Chris Smith (@aap01302)'s newsletter brought a wonderful activity to my attention. Take some goodies, lock them in a box, and set some questions - around 8 seems to be enough for an hour. Label each question A - H, and set a 9th question based upon the answers from the previous 8. The 9th question gives a code (3-digit for me, as I have 3-digit combination locks) and the kids race to get their first.
Sometimes, nobody will get there. That's when I get the goodies.

A typical lesson would start with a short trailer (a different one for each of the different activities - I currently have two), and giving them a short 'storyline', before setting them to work on the activity. About 15-20 minutes before the end of the lesson, I stop them (even if nobody has the code) and go through the solutions, suggesting that anyone that doesn't understand where they've gone wrong speaks to me about their issues.

My two activities are called 'For British Eyes Only' (a reference to a show called Arrested Development, which is very difficult to explain as a concept to 14 year olds) and 'Race to Treasure Island'. My trailers for each are 'Johnny English' and 'An Adventure with Pirates'.

'For British Eyes Only' looks like this, and the goodies are locked in a silver canister:

These are printed A5, two-sided. The example above was set for my 9 set 2 within the past fortnight.

'Race to Treasure Island' looks like this, and the goodies are locked in a small treasure chest with gold-painted pennies in the bottom for authenticity:

The map is printed A5 and the A - H table is shown on the board. The example above was given to my 7 set 1 at the beginning of last year. I haven't done Race to Treasure Island this year yet. but when I do, I get an inflatable parrot and cutlass out and walk around shouting 'YARGH! How ye doin' there matey?'. My colleagues have concerns about me.


2. Circus Time

Circus time is great for the kids, but your classroom becomes very loud and you have to trust them.

I bought 8 of these photoframes from IKEA:

I have made a Word document where each page is a table made of two cells, the size of standard photographs, where I type in one side 'Carousel Activity 1', the title of that activity and the questions for that title and copy this into the other side when done. I print these 7 activities, cut out and put in the frames.

I rearrange my tables in to 7 groups of 4 seats, give each child a piece of paper and have two timers on the board: one at 4:30 for the task and one at 00:30 for moving. This means the activity takes 35 minutes and gives the opportunity to recap the answers and address any misconceptions prior to the end of the lesson.

Here are the activities I gave my 7 set 3 during period 5 yesterday:

I'm also currently playing with...
3. Pub Quiz

Put your pupils into teams of their choosing and have them compete against each other. There doesn't even need to be a prize. I did this with 10 set 1 regarding their understanding of calculations with decimals. I put in a few silly rounds, like missing letters in band names and which jokes was the best at the Edinburgh Fringe, but it let me know where the kids were and allowed me to plan appropriately for the next lesson (a bit of work on multiplying and dividing decimals and we were away!).
I'm going to create a pub quiz for my classes this week prior to their half-termly assessment.

5-a-side.

A number of a days, weeks or months (I forget, as everything recently has turned in to one big mess) I came across the Corbett Maths '5-a-day' resource on the Corbett Maths web site. A fantastic idea, but something that I wanted in a more 'usable' format in mixed ability forms so that our students are getting a diet of 'little and often'.

I threw something together (linked to Brazil 2014) and tweeted them, but wasn't entirely happy. Since deleting them, I've thought long and hard about how I want them to work and come up with... '5-a-side' (a proper rip off of '5-a-day', sorry) but the questions are taken from (or heavily inspired by) the 1 or 2 mark questions from the first ten questions of AQA papers from 2009 and 2010. The 'First 5' section comes from the first 10 questions of the foundation papers and 'Last 5' from the first 10 questions of the higher paper.

Rather simply, display it on the board through registration and allow students to work through at their own pace. I intend to e-mail answers out to form tutors that can be easily displayed too.

Here are two others that I've currently got through:

Any feedback gratefully received...

What I'm doing with Year 11...

I teach our Year 11 set 2. There are 22 kids in my class and 19 of them achieved a grade C at the end of Year 10 - the other three achieved theirs in November (three of only eight or nine kids we ended up entering due to Michael Gove and his reforms). I teach them four times a week and in December they sat a higher paper as a mock examination. Unfortunately, due to way we work it, they haven't been given these grades yet. Tomorrow is our mock examination results day, so period 5 all of Year 11 will be out of their timetabled lesson, receiving an envelope to inform them of their achievements in their mocks.

Of my 22 pupils, five have a target of a C, 16 have a target of a B and one has a target of an A. In their mocks, one achieved an A, 10 achieved a B and 11 a C. 14 of those were on target or better (one!).

After tomorrow's mock results day, during Tuesday's lesson, I get to have some wonderful conversations:
Of the three who got their C in November, one was one mark off a B, one was a solid B and one was three marks from an A. I can't wait to speak to all three about it.
One of the girls was 11 marks from a B, all of which could have been achieved if she'd been able to solve equations confidently.

I intend to give them their papers back, with a handwritten note and this print out:

The numbers in brackets are the clip numbers on www.mathswatchvle.com for each of the topics, so pupils can go back and review their understanding of topics with which they struggled.

I'll go around, speak to all the kids about their marks and give them the answers to some of the questions that were answered poorly on a wider scale. Disappointingly, this includes questions 1a and 7 on paper two, 4b on paper one.

My aim with this class is to spend the next 14 school weeks (about 50 lessons) urging them to improve their score by 32 marks - a score that would give a one grade improvement to every child and potentially push some kids towards two grades improvement.

A quick note of topics to teach before the end of the syllabus in my planner suggests that we'll be revising by March 10, giving us a good three months of focus on improvements.

Here is the plan:
* Bi-weekly 90-minute long revision sessions. At the moment we're focusing on topics we've covered in class and will continue to do so. When we reach the end of the syllabus, we'll focus on troublesome topics from past papers.
* A second past paper over February half term. I'll be looking for improvements from their December mocks and celebrating those.
* Targeted revision from March 10 based upon their mock exam papers.
* A past paper in class to check progress made and identify areas for development prior to Easter.
* A 30-4-10 resource for revision over the Easter break.
* Continued targeted revision during the last half term.
* A 4-hour revision day during May's half term break.
* Personalised revision based on past papers in the week back to school.
* Revision breakfast on the morning of the exams, starting at 7:30am with a view to being done by 8:30am allowing pupils a 30-minute walk prior to their exam.

Target 32 starts on Tuesday... One A*, 11As and 10 Bs from set 2, please.