Too Much Teaching is Wasted

An interesting blog post on attempting to embed learning so it’s not just surface learning. This is key in helping our students to achieve success longer term. The key here is ‘retrieval practice’ - keep expecting students to recall information to create more links in their memory.

Here’s an extract from the blog and the link to the post in full:

Link to full blog post

Let me give you some information: (Try to imagine that you’re going to learn it.)

• The Earth-Sun distance is used as unit of distance called the Astronomical Unit. 1 AU.
• The Earth-Moon distance is 0.0026 AU to 2 significant figures.
• The nearest Star is Proxima Centauri (part of the Alpha Centauri system. Pronounced ‘Sen-TOR-eye’). The distance to Proxima Centauri is 270,000 AU to 2 significant figures.
• On a scale we can relate to, let’s say 1 AU is 1 metre. The length of a metre ruler.
• This makes the Earth-Moon distance 2.6 mm; the Earth-Sun distance, 1 metre, and Proxima Centauri 270km – on our scale model.
• In fact the Moon is 384,400km away.  This is about 30 times the diameter of the Earth.
• The International Space Station orbits 400km above the Earth which has a radius of 6371km.
• The moon is about 1000 times further away than the ISS.
  

It’s quite easy to imagine the gap-fill worksheet in a typical classroom:

1. The nearest star is called  ____________  _____________  
2. The distance to the moon is  about 10 / 30 / 100/ 3000 times the Earth’s diameter.
3. If the Sun is 1 metre away in a scale model, the distance to the moon is 0.26mm / 2.6 mm/ 2.6 cm/ 26cm.

Students who complete this worksheet during the lesson minutes after being taught about the information will happily fill in their sheet, answer a few questions, stick the sheet in their books and skip off to break.   They may never encounter this information ever again. Even if they were asked to pronounce Proxima Centauri in class, they may never say the words again.  They may never be asked to recall the distances, in absolute or relative terms ever again.  What have they learned? … What will they remember in an hour, a week, a month, a year?

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/

10 Social Media Accounts to Aid Revision

A quick post from Teacher Toolkit with a Top 10 Social Media Accounts to Help Students and Teachers with Revision.

Original link: http://www.teachertoolkit.me/2017/02/13/accounts-to-aid-revision/

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Here are the revision accounts – in no particular order – that I have found on social media for short, precise revision ‘on the go’. These could equally work for you and your pupils.

Twitter:

10. JustMaths Revision @ReviseJustMaths (GCSE Maths):
JustMaths Revision tweet past paper questions along side annotated answers. Everyday there is a new foundation and higher tier question with an answer on the next tweet.

9. German Everyday @GermanDailyWord (GCSE German):
This twitter account posts a German word a day to expand pupil’s German vocabulary. The words posted are not too complex which is great for GCSE level. I am still searching for a French equivalent.

8. Science Revision @Sci_Revision (GCSE Science):
Science Revision accounts are available to follow on multiple social media sites (Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat). They tweet a flash card a day about a key scientific word. The definitions that they provide are “pupil friendly” and easy to understand – perfect for my pupils revision.

7. MathsRevision @MathsTopTips (GCSE Maths):
This Twitter account tweeted some great Maths exam and revision tips last year.  I am hoping that it starts tweeting again so for now this account will remain in my top 10!

Instagram:
6. English_Tcha (GCSE English):
This is Chalk Hill Academy’s Instagram page for their pupils (what a great idea). They regularly post about exam technique, annotated texts and how to use key terminology.

5. ScienceRevision (GCSE Science):

The same as Science Revision above but on Instagram (I like their flash cards so much I included it twice).

4.  StudyWell (A-level Maths):
Upload images of A-level questions with annotated answers to show pupils how to achieve the correct answer. They regularly post their clear steps a couple of times a week.

YouTube:

3. HegartyMaths (GCSE Maths)
This YouTube channel is found by UK teacher of the Year, Colin Hegarty.  The channel uploads videos about key topics with straight forward steps on how the achieve the correct answer. Allowing pupils to watch videos at their own pace can aid in supporting pupils of different abilities.

2. Mrs Whelan’s English (GCSE/A-level English):
Mrs Whelan creates videos which concentrates on exam technique. She often uploads clips of her explaining command words within past papers and sharing model answers. I am a massive believer that exam technique needs to be taught and this channel supports this ethos.

1. Christopher Thornton (GCSE Science):
With the tag line of “Get that C in your GCSE” Christopher Thornton explains key topics within Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Clear explanations and clear images used – perfect to break down complex scientific ideas.

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Mini TeachMeet 7

1. History Memory Game (JDe)

• JDe shared an example of an interesting example from trench warfare in WWI. This was based on ‘Kim’s Game’ where students are put in groups (by ability to aid differentiation) and one student comes up at a time to view the diagram of trench warfare for 30 seconds. They returned to their group and had to describe the image to the rest of the group and one person drew what they were told. After 1 minute, they then go to the front to view the diagram and so on.
• Stretch and challenge questions would then be employed at the end of the activity
• It was noted that this would be a useful activity in many subjects. This was a very ‘accessible’ activity as you could choose to focus on labels, overall structure, small details etc.

2. Playposit.com (FD)

• FD shared a website that would be useful if a teacher were attempting a ‘Flipped Classroom’. 
• A common problem when setting students a video to watch as their homework is in knowing whether they have done it or not in preparation for the lesson.
• This website allows the teacher to insert questions into any YouTube video and track responses, thus knowing whether pupils have completed the activity.
• FD demonstrated the website and it was quite straightforward to crop videos, embed questions etc.
• At first glance, it did not seem possible to upload your own videos to the website, but it may be possible to upload videos to YouTube as ‘private’ videos and then use them.
• The marks from the questions can be imported into Google Classroom.

What do top students do differently?

Here is a video from TEDxYouth that FD has used to good effect with his Year 11 tutor group. They found its ideas very motivating.

Thinking Keys

Following the January Training Day, a colleague shared these 'Thinking Keys' and some example activities that tie in well with the material from the Lazy Teacher.

Find the full set of keys below:
Thinking Keys Presentation