Diagnosis, Therapy, Testing: Nathan Francis
It has been shown note making / reading are not the most effective revision techniques.
Diagnose – A relatively short activity designed to identify areas of weakness, such as a 15 minute self marked test with PLC.
Therapy – Revision activity working on specific weaknesses identified in the diagnosis.
Test – Check you have fixed the area of weakness with an assessment.
Fast marking: Pip Deacon
A strategy to make marking time-efficient whilst also still effective for students to know what they are doing well, how to make progress and to immediately react to their work. The use of consistent target banks puts the onus on students to write out their targets and demystify what it is you want them to do in your subject. Creating three differentiated react tasks when marking a set of books allows you to address misconceptions at the beginning of the next lesson and students can work together to improve their work.
Session Resources
KS3 Target Bank
KS4 Target Bank
REACT Slide Example
Marking and React Sheet
ClassDojo: Amparo Monfort
It is a digital classroom management tool where each student gets an avatar. Students can personalize the avatar and teachers can create goals to track. Teachers can give students scores and display them on a smart board, and then generate reports and send them to parents.
To set up an account:
- Go to https://www.classdojo.com
- Sign up and select “Teacher”, enter your details
- “Add a class” to get started. Name your class and click “add class”. You can add your students manually or click “import students list” (from SIMS: export any class register, copy from Excel document and paste student list in Classdojo. Click enter and then import list).
- When you click on a particular student you can add points (“positive” tab) or remove them (“needs work” tab)
Enable Box: Heidi Loveland
A box of resources to use as additional stretch and challenge activities such as articles, revision guides, worksheets. You could differentiating the questions by targeting different MEGS. You could also set students activities as homework to find articles and write questions on them to put in the box.
Visualizer: Lisa Emerson
I demonstrated how a Visualiser could be used in the classroom. I shared how I use it in the classroom, but also my ideas for how others may use it. For example….
- Walking Talking Mocks (without much talking) – I find this powerful as students can see how I annotate the question and how I go about answering it within the constraints of an A4 page – it also enables them to see the necessary formula book and calculator skills – the calculator shows up really well. It also doesn’t interrupt their train of thought as much as a normal WTM with me at the board;
- Annotating text;
- Live marking – works well for A-Level – choose the work of the student who normally does the best/ writes the neatest (as this also models how other students should set out work) and then use the split screen function to show how the mark scheme is applied;
- Comparing student work – use the split screen to show two student answers side by side and open up class discussion about the respective strengths and weaknesses;
- Practical demonstrations (such as shape transformations and constructions in maths) – both art and music thought this would be invaluable for them
Screencasting: Mark Fisher
A short demonstration of how to use the Movavi screencasting software and how these videos can be used to incorporate a flipped learning approach to teaching and fostering independance for learners as well as freeing up time to work on application of skills in the classroom. For more information see screencasting
Spreeder: Caroline Whitehead
- Delete the text in the box and paste your own text in.
- Press ‘spreed!’
- Click on ‘settings’ and change the speed/number of words displayed/background colour/text size
- Click save
- Press play
I trialled Spreeder with this class to see if I could increase the level of focus on case study texts. As a bit of a technophobe I was anxious about how to use Spreeder and I have been pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it is to set up.
To use it I opened the website and deleted the text in the free text box. Then I copied and pasted my text into the box and pressed play. I was then able to change the speed at which the text appeared. I changed the background to pale yellow and the number of words to 3. The students were given mini whiteboards and given 1 minute after the text had played to write down 1 fact from what they had read and a critical argument.
We then played the Spreeder text again at a faster speed. After the second time they could edit or add to their whiteboards. Then in groups of 3 they compared their learning and condensed it into their notes. Students were much more focused. They enjoyed the challenge. It brought a much higher level of pace to the learning. The use of mini-whiteboards meant notes could be rough and quick. Students could not look away at each other…they quickly realised they would miss something. I could see at a glance on the mini-whiteboards if they had ‘got it’ Their retention of the information was higher.EAL/SEN students can have the printed article if reading speed is lower. Set up time for me? 2 minutes – copy and pasted the text from an online article, adjusted the settings and press play…
