How to create a knowledge organiser

Full post: https://mrhistoire.com/2017/01/25/createkos/

Introduction

Making a knowledge organiser

The KO is like a scheme of work, but simpler and more effective. It doesn’t need ‘Do Nows’ and chunked activities; it doesn’t need to be differentiated; it doesn’t need lots of detail. It is a whole course and a two-minute quiz, a revision timetable and a cover lesson.

It is not a bolt-on. The only thing that should come before it is what we want children to learn. It should underpin every single thing we do in every single lesson at every single moment. If we’re teaching a lesson and nothing on the KO appears then one of two mistakes has happened: either we’ve not planned a coherent curriculum, or we’ve just made the KO because we have to, in which case the whole thing is pointless.

A KO is the curriculum map, driven by the requirements of the assessment, but that itself rests on what we want students to learn.

Full post: https://mrhistoire.com/2017/01/25/createkos/

Why Formative Assessment Matters - The Power of Prior Knowledge

With the Teaching and Learning Focus being Assessment for Learning this half term, I found this blog post quite timely.

In essence:
"Formative assessment matters because it focuses our attention on students’ prior knowledge and provides us with the techniques to bring this knowledge to light.
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"Ignorance of students’ prior knowledge leaves us fumbling in the dark.  Without it, we cannot choose where to pitch a lesson, identify who will need help or evaluate who has learned anything new: our plans and responses will be insensitive to the differing needs of students familiar with the Reformation, those needing a brief reminder and those fresh to the topic entirely.
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Full post:
http://improvingteaching.co.uk/2017/02/12/why-formative-assessment-matters-the-power-of-prior-knowledge/