Using The ShowMe app to develop source analysis and AfL - GCSE History

Over the past week I have been using the iPad app ShowMe to develop my students source analysis skills at GCSE. ShowMe is an app that allows the user to combine photo, VoiceOver and annotation. It is very similar to quite a few apps on the market and I therefore believe that what I have to say about developing source analysis and AfL could apply on a wider scale than just ShowMe.

The Process
I set my students a source analysis question for homework. They had to compare the two sources below and explain which source they believed gave the more accurate view of the government towards immigration.

I then collected the answers in and skim read them. I selected five. For these five I took a photo of an aspect of their answer. I then used show me to highlight what was good about each piece and what could be improved. In the next lesson I gave the students back their unmarked answers, watched the ShowMe's with the group and asked them to put targets onto their work based on the feedback I had given. I then collected their work in, checked the targets and gave the students a mark.

The Results 
Using this process had several positive results: 

1) It was engaging; seeing the iPad on the 'big screen' was engaging. The students "loved it", "thought it was fun" and "liked that it was real examples from the class". They liked the modern approach to feedback.

 2) It was a powerful praise tool; the students whose work was selected were visible pleased and when I picked out what was good about it in front of everyone they were proud and some of the students complemented each other on their work.

3) It was an excellent AfL task; all the students were able to add accurate targets to their work irrespective of whether their work had been chosen or not.

4) It got the students involved in the assessment process; rather than simply handing the work in and waiting for it to be marked the students were involved and took responsibility for their own targets.

5) Virtually all of the targets given were accurate; this reduced my workload and improved the students understanding of their own abilities. It felt like some really good formative assessment was going on.

Below is an example of one of the ShowMe's I made for this activity.


Below is a ShowMe I made today to help my A/S students improve their source comparison skills:



I made this to help my students reflect on their mock exam. They have to watch it for the start of next lesson where we will be going through their papers (you can watch ShowMe's anywhere, you do not need the app and this video played on my HTC Desire phone). I will start by asking my class how they each could have improved their answer to this question. I will then give the papers back and see if their ideas match up with my targets. If the students think that this is a good vehicle I can see myself producing a resource bank of these to help them anytime-anywhere with their revision.

I encourage anyone with access to an iPad to download ShowMe, or an app like it, and get some formative feedback going on the 'big screen'.

"Flirting with the Flipped" - YouTube and the 'Flipped' Classroom

This post is appropriately titled because I believe I have been using a 'flipped' classroom on different occasions but without intentionally setting out to do so. I have used my YouTube Channel as the vehicle that has allowed my students the chance to use 'flipped' elements of their lessons anytime-anywhere.

Firstly, I believe a 'flipped' classroom is when the learning element of a lesson takes place outside the normal time constraints of a classroom and the formative assessment, the checking of that learning, takes place inside the conventional classroom. Those who believe in this theory feel that it is a far more effective use of classroom time.

The 'Flipped' Referencing Video - A2 History
My first inadvertent step in this direction came when I was trying to get my A2 Historians to footnote and reference their 3,500 word personal studies. I only see this group of students once a week and spend most of that time one a 1:1 basis looking at the individual studies. I judged that the footnoting could be completed outside of our contact time and produced the following video.

I then checked that the referencing and footnoting had been done correctly when I saw the students individually, during the our regular contact time. This, I believe, is the 'flipped' classroom in action and it brought several benefits:
1) The students could work on this whenever they chose.
2) They could pause, rewind and replay the video as many times as they wanted to suit their individual needs.
3) This method freed up time in the regular lesson and allowed me to focus on more important issues whilst still having the opportunity to check that the referencing had been done correctly.

The 'Flipped' Revision Room - GSCE History
I have used my YouTube channel to help my students with their revision and this has struck me as having elements of a 'flipped' classroom. Students can access these videos from several Wiki or RealSmart (School programme kinda-like-a-VLE) sites, watch them anywhere-anytime and revise and recheck (or for some learn in the first place!) their understanding. If they have any questions they can ask/tweet me. An example of this is the following video which goes through an exam past paper for GCSE history. I wouldn't watch it all but you can quickly get a feel for the idea by skipping through.

This brought several benefits:
1) It allowed students to check through the paper at home at anytime before the exam (This video was primarily watched during the Christmas Holidays).
2) It could be shared with all our GCSE students not just the ones in my class.
3) Several students told me that it had had a really positive affect on their revision.

This said, if I had adopted a more directly 'flipped' approach and set the video as a homework, and built time into the a future lesson to review it, I may have increased the impact.

The 'Flipped' Interpretations Lesson - Year 8
As part of our Year 8 scheme of work we compare two different interpretations of the Great War. Looking at both Blackadder and Birdsong I asked the students to work out which interpretation helps us best understand the plight of the soldiers. In the past we have read an extract from Birdsong and watched an extract from Blackadder in lesson and then compared them for homework. This year (partly in a effort to be more inclusive) I videoed myself reading out the extract of Birdsong:

The lesson was similar as before with students watching this (or reading the book as I spoke) watching Blackadder and then comparing them. The difference was that when the students completed their homework (On Realsmart) they could watch again the clip of Blackadder and the clip of Birdsong. See the link below for the students' responses:
Interpretations of WWI
Obviously there was nothing directly 'flipped' about this approach however several students were absent from the lesson on a maths challenge. Being a top set they all found the homework out and completed it. When I compared the quality of the work of the students who had missed the lesson with other comparable students who were present in the lesson it got me thinking. Both were of a similar standard. Had I played this wrong? Should I have set the homework at the end of the previous lesson, got the students to complete it and then started my lesson with their homework as a base? I feel the answer to both these questions is "Yes!" because it would have allowed my students to finish up with both a greater understanding and higher level of thinking. They wouldn't have spent any longer on this topic but they would have achieved higher.

Why didn't I do this? Because I was caught up in the traditional method.

These examples have opened my eyes to this way of working and whilst I will not be creating a Yorkshire Kahn Academy I will be looking to try and adopt this approach a little more. Their will be obvious technological challenges but these will be perhaps more easily overcome than the challenges my traditional mindset might pose.