April 2018 INSET - Mark. Plan. Teach.

In this session, DO attempted to summarise some of the strategies described in Ross Morrison McGill’s book. There are three things that every teacher must do: mark work, plan lessons and teach students well. This book is packed with practical ideas that will help teachers refine these key elements of their profession.

Access the resources from this session here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1U01ryPZL1qsi60Cjs1NZ9E5ViFJeLvm4

April 2018 INSET - Cognitive Load Theory

We’ve all been there. Carefully thought through a brilliant activity designed to push pupils, only to observe the resulting car crash in despair. Either pupils lack the resilience to engage with independent thought without constant teacher intervention or what little they actually end up learning requires you to spend the next lesson (time you don’t have!) re-teaching the material. In this session I’ll run through some of the most widely accepted theories of “cognitive overload” and how, if certain practices are incorporated into your teaching repertoire and SOWs at KS3 a really challenging curriculum can help pupils learn, increase pupil motivation, and also be a real joy to teach. There will also be some time to discuss ideas with colleagues and think through what it might all mean in your own subject.

Access the session resources here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=11AmimsedSvuVnqXOZt-W-qYCE267-8Cj

April 2018 INSET - Interleaved Learning

As we all progress through our ever expanding syllabuses, both in terms of content and complexity, it is an increasing challenge to help the students remember it all. Interleaved Learning is a simple strategy that can be used throughout the year to help the students transfer information from the short to the long term memory in the hope that they can retrieve it at the vital moment.  It is all about mixing it up!

Here is a link to the resources from the session: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SfFSMS-uz5c2H4r-Zh_4fkx4o2T5dlrD

April 2018 INSET - Motivating Intellectual Curiosity Effectively

There are many reasons why pupils switch off...but there are also many different ways to get them to switch on and engage with their learning. In this session we will look at some of the theory behind motivation, the impact of mental health and lots of practical and applicable ways of increasing student motivation.

View the session presentation here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1n7nyp9aE7qruz7-Xnyid9WmbJuU9CWAJ5wwLiTtF6ng/edit?usp=sharing

April 2018 INSET - Revision Clock and Spaced Learning

A simple way of structuring revision that is appropriate to years 10-13. It involves how pupils structure their time in revision lessons and study periods. The session will include evidence on spacing revision sessions and retrieval practice (exercises that can be built into lessons to aid memory).

Find the presentation from the session here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sQgaqMyuhpC_z_xJCxiG6SVAI0HbodsRjCHu7-qb1wc/edit?usp=sharing

Make your marking count

Just a short article in the recent 'Insight' newsletter on marking which makes interesting reading. I've saved just this page from the newsletter and linked to it below.


Make your marking count article

Top 10 Revision Strategies

With Year 11 starting to ask about when they should start their revision I though it would be timely to share this post from January.

https://www.theconfidentteacher.com/2018/01/top-10-revision-strategies/

Do read the full post which gives more details on each of these, but the 10 strategies are:

1. Quizzing
2. Flashcards
3. Graphic organisers
4. Cornell note-taking
5. Exam wrappers
6. 'Just a minute'
7. 'Prepare to teach'
8. 'Select, elect'
9. Topic ranking
10. Past questions