Using video feedback to increase the impact of sixth form marking

This is the video blog detailing my TLC focus and the impact it has had.

Below are the feedback videos that I made:

Below are some photos of the students DIRT. One student is targeted a grade A the other a grade C:

Using Socrative to Connect the Learning and Develop Understanding

I have been using Socrative for two years. For the most part this has primarily been to Turn Students into Teachers by getting them to make quizzes and then test each other using them, this was primarily a type of plenary for the end of the lesson. However, I have recently developed my use of this app to use it more at the start of the lesson and to show progression in the students' understanding.

This blog post features both an explanation from me and a video to show the activity I am describing taking place.

My GCSE class complete a source question

For the last couple of months I have being using the short answer function on Socrative. This allows students to respond to a question and then vote on the responses showing which answer they feel to be the best. Recently, during the revision season I have developed this further using Socrative to both connect the learning and allow the students to develop their understanding.

Are you surprised by this source?

At the start of the lesson I have projected a source up on to the board along with a question and asked the students to answer the question using Socrative (see the picture). Individually they complete the question. I have found that this has engaged the students as soon as they have entered the room and got the lesson started very quickly. Whilst they are completing this activity I can set up the rest of the lesson or take the register.

I then ask the students to submit their answers to Socrative. Some of the students write their answers in their notes app as Socrative can be a bit clumsy and it is easy to send your answer in before you are ready to.

Once all the entries have been submitted I then send the entries back to the students using the app. Once they have received entries from the whole class the students then have two tasks to complete:

1. Make a list of the points you have not included: the students have to look through the other entries from the rest of the class and note down the points that others have made that they have not. This acts as a kind of mini-plenary as the students have to reflect on their own responses and work out how to improve them. For some it might be simply facts and figures that they have missed out on. For others it may be more of a style issue. 
2. Vote for the three best answers: Socrative allows the students to vote on the best answers (to vote more than once simply ask the students to log out and back into the app). My current GCSE class have been especially good it picking out the best responses. The votes are sent back to my iPad / PC. The entries are completely anonymous so the students are forced to judge the quality of the answer and can't just vote for their mates.

To finish the activity I ask students, at random, to explain a point that they have picked up from looking at other students' responses. In the video below you can hear Lucas explain how he would improve his answer based on what he has read from his peers. This is obviously another mini-plenary as it allows the students to explain how they would improve their answer. This alternatively can be done as a Kagan style activity in pairs.

Finally, I read out the answers that got the most votes and the winners stand up. We have no idea who they will be. This is always a good moment as the students know it was the quality of their answer that got them the votes. You would expect that it is the same students who would get the votes but this is not my experience as a real mix of students end up winning.

Below is a video documenting what happened on one occasion when we did this activity:

 

Reflections

• This activity really gets the lesson going as the students are working straight away and is good for  pace. 
• It can be used as both a starter to connect the learning or as an activity in its own right depending on the context of the topic. In this case as it was revision I used it as a starter and something to get the students thinking about teenagers in the 1960s which developed in the rest of the lesson.
• The anonymous nature of the activity is great as it makes the students work do the talking.
• The students enjoy it and are always engaged by it, I hope that this came across in the video.
• It allows the students to develop their ideas in a supportive way. I am not just looking for the best answers but I am also looking for the students who can explain how they would improve their work.
• It is a great tool for both revision and practicing exam technique.

The students really enjoy this activity, they enjoy seeing whose work is the winner and they are able to explain how they would improve their own work showing both progress and a developing understanding of the topic/skill.

Below are the thoughts of some of my GCSE students:

Closing the Gap - Personalising Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time (DIRT) to Improve Exam Performance

For a number of years I have been setting aside DIRT after I have marked an assessment. This time has allowed students to re-write / re-draft their answers to show that they have understood the targets that I have set and can now apply those targets and improve their work.

I have struggled to make the experience truly personal though. Yes, I have always set targets that are specific to that student and allowed a variable amount of time so that students working at different rates can complete their improvements. But I don't believe that this has been as personalised as it could have been I also believe that the process has been too reliant on me as a teacher. Having done the marking the focus should be on the students, not me, to improve their work.

With this aim in mind I marked a set of GCSE history mock papers. I have 20 students in the class. There were six questions on the mock. All were based around source analysis. There were not any direct marks for students knowledge. The topic was Britain 1945-75. The focus was the growth of the teenager. The students would have a two hour lesson to complete their DIRT. Their final exam was 5 days away.

As I marked the paper I simply placed a mark, and nothing more, on the vast majority of responses. That said I noted down on my mark scheme specific students who had really struggled with each question to guide me in the lesson. I wanted the students to take responsibility for their targets and their improvements.

At the start of the lesson I emailed the students the links to the two clips below. These clips are created by me using an app called ExplainEverything. This app allows you to talk over a PowerPoint/Keynote and makes a video for you.

 

Also at the start of the lesson I handed back the mock exam papers. I asked the students to look through their paper and identify which questions they had struggled most on. I asked them to rank their questions in order of priority with the ones that they found the hardest at the top.

Once the rank order of questions was established we got into the main part of the lesson. 

The stamp I use for point 5

1. I asked the students to watch the part of the video that applied to the question they had identified as the one that they had struggled the most with. 
2. Once they had watched this part of the video I asked them to write out a suitable target that would allow them to improve their answer. 
3. The students then had to check this target with me. In most cases this appeared as simply a rubber stamping exercise but in asking the students to articulate the problem and solution to me I was getting them to reinforce their understanding. This conversation acted as a mini-plenary.  Obviously, some of the students required more support, especially the ones I had previously identified, and I spent more time working with these students.
4. Then the students re-wrote / redrafted their answer to show that they had understood how to improve it.
5. The students checked their answers briefly with me. If I was happy then I stamped the answer if not I could offer further guidance. Again this process acted as a mini-plenary.
6. The students began the process again on the next question within their rank order.

 Literacy Focus
This lesson coincided with a literacy walkthrough at my school. Question six on the exam is an essay which the students can achieve an additional three marks for spelling and grammar. On this question I provided a literacy target as well as a mark and asked the students to ensure that their improvements (point 5) allowed them to show that they had acted on this literacy target. Working in this way allowed the students to showcase the progress that they had made on both the wider exam and on their literacy.

My class work independently on improving their work (DIRT)

 Reflections

• It was personal: Each student's work in the lesson was different. After rank ordering the answers based on the marks the scored the students were able to personalise their journey through the lesson.
• I felt like I was at two places at once: I was able to be the teacher, on the screens via the iPads, and be a offer 1:1 support to the students when they needed it. This meant that the students were more on task because they were getting support from me in different ways at the same time.
• The mini-plenaries ensured I could measure progress: I feel that we are always been asked to measure progress. The fact that I was able to check both the students targets and the improvements they had made to their work allowed me to know how much individual progress was being made.
• It was student led and independent: I really felt like the activity was student led as they chose their route through the lesson, my job was to provide resources and support. Once I had provided the resources (the videos and the marks on their exams) the students were able to work independently through parts 1-3 and 4.
• It was well placed in the year: my GCSE class had done a lot of this type of thing before and it really showed. Although this lesson was a step further (in being more student led) the students saw it as a natural extension to their work and assessment.
• The students were engaged: this might have been because of the immediacy of the exam but I would like to think that it was, at least in part, down to the activity.

One students redraft of part of one question

Results
All of the students made progress in the lesson and all produced at least two rewrites of their answers. Obviously, the proof will be in the pudding on results day, and it will be hard to tell how much this lesson contributed, but judging by the atmosphere in the room and the quality of the student work the personalised DIRT was successful.

The fact that this lesson was so close to the real exam I was expecting the students to ask about learning content but the fact that they didn't shows that they understand how important these type of activities are to improving performance.

DIRT isn't a new concept for me and has formed part of my lessons for a number of years. The videos the students were using were made two years ago. That said delivering the lesson in such a personalised way felt like a breakthrough as it allowed the students the ability to really tailor the DIRT to their specific needs.

Student Led Learning - The Power of YouTube

A students watches another group's video and completes her worksheet

Today my lesson was completely student led. My GCSE students produced videos on one aspect of Intolerance in 1920s USA, having produced the videos they then watched each others videos and filled in a large A3 sheet on the topic.

Whilst they worked on competing the sheet they had the advantage of working completely at their own pace (with their headphones in) and I was free to move around the room and offer individual support and advice where it was needed.

This is a similar activity to one where you would get the students to create presentations and then present them to the whole class. The difference here is that the use of YouTube allows the students watching the presentations to work at their own pace and rewind where necessary without holding the whole class up. Learning becomes more personalised.

The students had a lesson to research and prepare their videos and then about 40 minutes of the next lesson to complete the video and upload it to Edmodo so all the students in the class could watch it. They then spent the last 20 minutes of the second lesson and their homework completing the table by watching each others videos.

Each group had to showcase what they had learned in a video which answered the four questions I had set for their topic.

The A3 sheet that I created that all students had to complete.

The students were told that they had to make their work both memorable and filled with information. As this was the first time the students had completed this type of activity I created the questions that needed answering. When I do this later in the year I will get the students to create their own questions and thus put more of the emphasis on them.

The students led the learning and I was able to support those students that needed it. These topics vary in difficulty which allowed me to differentiate and pick groups relative to the difficulty of the topic. By having to explain to others and teach their peers in this way all of the students deepened their own understanding.

After they had completed the sheet the students had to think of two or three questions they still wanted answering and we discussed those in the next lesson. The aim was for them to pick 'bigger' questions than just those on the sheet.

PowerPoint slides were included by all groups to add detail.

Aims

• By making the work student led it meant that they had to take responsibility for it and this encouraged them to be independent. 

• It encouraged the students to be creative. I explained that they needed to make it memorable but also genuinely informative and the results were interesting. This hopefully made the work more memorable for both the students making the videos and those watching it.

• It allowed me to give help where it was needed and not be 'tied down' by having to 'give' the lesson.

• It was a great method to showcase teamwork and leadership.

Reflections
• The students were engaged throughout the series of lessons.
• The resulting videos were really creative and informative. My concern is always that the students will make something fun and amusing but not produce a video that actually aids learning. This was proven wrong as all the videos were tightly focused around the information and all were memorable as well as explaining key content.
• This type of activity always allows students to shine. This occasion was no exception. The video on the right is one of my students singing about the 'Red Scare' of the 1920s.

A student watches a court scene from the 'Monkey Trial'

• It was obvious from the subsequent lesson that the students had understood a great deal about the topic of Intolerance. They asked really thought provoking questions that showed both a deep level of understanding and a genuine engagement in the topic.

I am a big believer in using technology in this way. The sight of all my students working at their own pace, with their headphones in, is something to behold. It frees me up to address any problems of understanding.

That said even if you don't have 1-1 iPads like we do @Rossett you can still complete this type of activity, as I have in the past, setting the watching of each others videos as homework.

The Value of Independent Reflection

My GCSE class working independently in lessons.

At Rossett our new timetable has started and last week I had my first lessons with my new GCSE class. This class is exclusively Year 9 students and I teach them for 5 hours a week. Obviously, this group of students will take their GCSE history next summer as part of a cohort of students that will, for the large part, consist of students two years older than them. With this in mind I began this timetable thinking of ways I could close the gap between the potential of my evidently very hard working group and those other students who will be, in the main, two years older than them.

One of the ways I am seeking to do this is through a weekly homework task that the students independently complete. They are tasked with spending 30 minutes developing their understanding of a topic we have studied that week. They can chose the topic (although I strongly advise them to pick the topic they have found most difficult) and they can chose how they go about improving their understanding. The only rule is that they must produce something that I can see. It can be physical or digital. I do not mark this work, I simple check it has been done, give out merits where appropriate, and oral feedback where necessary. The work is set on a Thursday after our final lesson of the week and is checked by me on Monday at the start of the next week. The 30 minute time limit is absolute, and I have explained to the group that they cannot work longer than this even if they are really into the topic. This is obviously difficult to police but I want them to show how much reflective work they can produce in a 30 minute time frame.

I must also say at this stage that this 30 minutes of independent work sits alongside the two formal homework tasks that I set each week. These are obviously traditionally marked.

Aims

• The main aim of this work is to get the students to reflect on the work they have done that week. The simple action of choosing the topic that they have found most difficult gets the students to reflect. The aim is that they also reflect on their understanding and develop it.

• The second aim is to give the students ownership of the work they produce. By choosing what they do I hope that the students will be more committed to ensuring it is as good a quality as it can be.

• The work produced will be brilliant for revision. All of the examples I have seen so far (and particularly the ones in this post) make fantastic revision aides. The aim is not just to shore up the understanding but to help close the gap come revision time.

• The aim is for the students to creatively develop their understanding in a way that best suits their own learning. By being creative and active my aim was to ensure the students consolidated their understanding. The examples in this post have all done that.

Examples

The first example comes from Sophie. It is a video she has made to show how Republican Policies of the 1920s caused the Boom. The second half in particular is very impressive as she relates the Policies to the Boom. When I watch this back I am struck both by the quality of the work and the fact that you can almost see the cogs whirring as she explains it. There is no doubt that this work fulfils all of the aims I set and is work of a remarkable standard for a student who is essentially still in Year 8 (although technically in Year 9 they are not really until after the summer).

The second example comes from Katie who has produced an Educreation on the Republican Policies. Again this is another fantastic piece of work which fulfils the aims. I like here how she has combined a mind-map with her own explanation. Such is quality that it is the sort of resource I could easily use within my own lessons.

Katie's Educreations Lesson

The next example comes from Matthew who produced this Keynote on the 1920s using a LACKPANTS video that I found online and embedded in my wiki mrwestusa.wikispaces.com I am impressed with the creativity here and how Matthew has found a resource that he could use to help develop his understanding of the causes of the boom. It was not a resource we used directly in lesson so it is good to see him using his initiative (and the wiki) to develop his understanding.

The final example comes from Lucas who produced revision cards, on the other side of the card is the  relevant explanation. I particularly like this as it is an old fashioned example but one that works well. It has minimal glamour but is still a very effective tool.

Reflections

• Clearly it is only the second week of this but I can already see the quality of both the work and the creativity that has been displayed. I firmly believe that the students will have a much better grasp of the topics they chose than they would have done simply from my traditional teaching.

• I also believe an air of competition has developed with the students keen to produce better work to show themselves in the best possible light.

• Even at this early stage of the course setting this type of activity has allowed me a de-facto look at how my students revise and I have been able to guide them to more worthwhile activities than simply just re copying out what they have already learnt.

• The quality of the work from my Year 9 class in the first week of their GCSE History speaks volumes for this approach. I think the freedom here coupled with the traditional standard homework tasks works really well.

Going forward

The aim is to have a mini learning fair in the last lesson of term, the students will have completed three separate 30 minute pieces of independent work by then, the aim of this is to show off the quality of the students and their work. The students will have to lay out their work (digitally or physically) and the students in the group will go around the 'fair' and see all the creative ideas that have been produced. If this is a success I hope to replicate it regularly throughout the year.


3 weeks later...

The Learning Fair

Well the learning fair has just finished. The students brought in three different examples of the 30 minute independent learning work they had completed so far. they then set them out on the desks in a 'u' shaped fashion. The students moved around the fair in a clockwise fashion watching, reading and listening to their peers work, they then commented on what was good about the work produced.

I asked them to give specific comments not just general vague ones like 'detailed.' At the end of the fair the students all gave one reason why their independent work was good. An example of the work produced is below:

This is about prohibition and Al Capone, I love the creativity and drama.

 

 

Reflections on the Fair

We held the fair on the last period of the final Thursday of term. It was really hot. Despite this the quality of the work was outstanding. I was completely blown away by the students and I could easily have put an example from every student on this blog.

 

My students are a huge credit to themselves, in just 4 weeks they have really got into the idea and importance of this independent work. Without any input from me they have produced fantastic work.

 

I believe that the fair will spur everyone on at the start of next term to be even more creative and to use some of the excellent examples they have seen from each other to make their work even better.

 

The work produced will be invaluable for revision.

 

I set this independent activity up to help close the gap between my year 9 GCSE class and the older students taking the exam and I believe it has already gone some way towards achieving that.

 

I would urge everyone who teaches a group more than 3 times each week to try this approach as I believe it has yielded some fantastic results.