'Teachers tell us what to study, but nothing about how to do it!’
Helping students prepare for controlled assessments and examinations
Top Tips
1. Cramming doesn’t work! Revision should start early, in short bursts and be revisited regularly.
2. Teach the process of revision explicitly! How do students learn? What’s their style? What’s worked in the past? What hasn’t worked?
3. Demonstrate a variety of revision methods and techniques! Give the students the tools.
4. Teach the language of exam questions. What are the ‘process’ words? What skills are being tested? How are the questions worded? What is expected? If students don’t understand what is being asked, how can they be expected to give the right answer?
5. Teach the ‘pattern’ of the exam. Which questions are testing which skills? How are the marks allocated? What does the examiner want to see?
6. Teach how the mark scheme is applied and key points from examiners’ reports. Students who understand how their work will be judged will be more likely to focus their efforts on showcasing their skills. Get the students to be the examiner.
7. Use past exam papers wisely! Use them as learning resources, not just to test. Past papers can build confidence or destroy it.
8. Use exemplars and model answers and get students to self-assess their work against it. What does an A* or Distinction answer look like?
9. Teach time management throughout the year. Support students to create study and revision plans and timetables. Timed tasks and assessments build time management skills. Use short assessments, building up to the time that the exam is.
10. Insist that students proof read their own and others’ work. All the time, every time. Proof reading for meaning, accuracy, SPAG… make a game of it.
11. Build resilience in concentration and writing gradually. Physical discomfort because the student has writer’s cramp will not result in good performance in the exam.
12. Get the students to practice the exam in the same format that they will be sitting it. If it’s online- can they use the software? If it’s written- is their writing legible?
New Year- Start as you mean to go on
Ready to Learn? Ready to Progress?
It’s getting towards the end of the first term and we’re all looking forward to a well-earned rest. The students are settled, we’ve got to know them and productive classroom routines are well established.
They’re ready to learn and we’re ready to teach. (Or we will be, after we’ve recovered in an armchair for a couple of weeks)
Is that true? Look around your classroom and observe your students. Go on-look. Really look.
Are you able to start every lesson on time with all students present, punctual, properly equipped and ready to get started? Do your students pay attention, maintain concentration, show respect and co-operate with you and their peers?
Really? Are you sure? Look again.
How many of them arrive late and enter with a mumbled apology, go and sit next to their mates and enter into a discussion about any random subject, totally unrelated to the lesson, interrupting your fascinating discourse and distracting those who have turned up on time?
How many of them are wearing coats and hats and look as if they’re about to leave, even though the classroom is warm and they’re complaining about being hot?
How many of them have earphones hanging out of their ears, never to be removed in case their ear drops off?
How many are furtively (or indeed openly) texting, listening to music, watching YouTube clips, brushing their hair, eating or consuming energy drinks?
How many turn up without pens, correct equipment, uniforms or PPE?
How many are wearing lanyards?
Are we really doing ourselves or students any favours by tolerating or ignoring these behaviours? Would those behaviours be acceptable in a meeting at work with their boss or in a customer focused profession? Are we preparing them for progression? Is the learning environment a positive one? Are students ready to learn?
Classroom rules ensure that principles and responsibilities are established.
Students need to experience the consequences of their behaviour, both positive and negative.
For information and tips to maintain those high standards:
https://staffnet.snc.ac.uk/departments/tla/classroom/Forms/AllItems.aspx
Fabulous Feedback
Use constructive criticism to provide positive suggestions for improvement.
Write a brief summary of your view of the work.
Ask questions that encourage reflection about the work – in the text and in the overall comments.
Explain all your comments.
Suggest follow-up work and comments.
Suggest specific ways to improve the assignment.
Explain the mark or the grade and explain why it is not better or worse.
Offer help with specific problems.
Offer opportunity to discuss the assignment and your comments.
Balance positive and negative comments.
Remember BTEC regulations do not mean you cannot give feedback.
Great maths and English ideas and resources
- Theme the learning - Think about ways in which you can use themes or projects to introduce and develop learning of required English and maths skills and rules – not just teaching the skills and rules in isolation. Think about how these skills are applied in the real world.
- Keep it visual – Use resources that look (or sound) interesting to help engage the student more quickly (see the English and maths Toolkit on Interact or E & M Resource Padlets for some inspiration! https://padlet.com/richard_buckley/mathsdump https://padlet.com/richard_buckley/English_Dump).
- Highlight the real world – Encourage the students to keep an English and maths ‘experience journal’. It can be a simple document where they can record when and where they have used/experienced English and maths. You can use the information to support your lesson planning.
- ‘Maths’ your world! Use the classroom, the corridor, the canteen… Plan activities that find the maths in everyday places and situations.
- Get Action Bound – Actionbound (https://en.actionbound.com/) is an online app which allows you to create fun and engaging, purpose built scavenger hunts. Send students to different locations and give them real problems to solve in the real world (works fantastically well for English too!)
- Earn the break – Just before the break set a mini-challenge that has to be achieved before the student can leave. Small, bite-sized English or maths activities (for example, use alliteration in a sentence about why you should be allowed to go on break or a maths problem regarding the best way to divide up your 15 minutes for optimal break appreciation!)
- Scaffold! Don’t give the students all the information they need up front. Break the process down into a series of tasks/activities that build the students' skills. For example, don’t run through how a letter of complaint should be formatted and structured all in one go. Try splitting letter writing into planning, formatting and checking.
