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.

Closing the Gap - Student Feedback on my Feedback

This year I have tried to improve the feedback that I give to the students in all of my classes. I have tried to develop efficient feedback techniques to aid all of my classes. I blogged about this at the start of the year (see link). The aim has been to try to increase the impact of the feedback that I give in order to help the students close the gap between their current performance and the desired performance . I was happy with the quality of the feedback I was giving but felt that the impact of the marking and feedback could be increased. I also looked to do this in a more efficient manner.

The first page of an A/S assessment book

One of the ways I have looked to do this is by having specific assessment books for both my GCSE and A/S classes. The aim of these books is to keep all the assessed work, all the feedback and all the improvements, in one place. This allows the students to show understanding and ultimately progress and keeps the feedback in one accessible place.

The first pages of the A4 book are taken up by the students copying out their feedback and explaining how they are going to improve their answer. The parents also sign this page.

The rest of the book is taken up with assessed answers, my feedback, and then the improvements/re-drafting that the students have completed to ensure they have understood. The final part is me checking that the improvements are correct.

Feedback from my students
Last week I asked my A/S and GCSE class to complete an anonymous GoogleForm to give their feedback on the assessment books and my feedback more generally. Below is a Tagxedo of what they said:

Words that stand out from this to me are easier, good, helpful, improvements, think and useful.

Below are some comments from my GCSE students about the assessment books:

"I think it's quite good because you have all of your important work in one place and not all mixed in with the other stuff that doesn't have as much priority."

"It's easier having all of the more 'important' pieces of work being written in one book because then it's all in one place and it isn't likely to get lost; it's clear where everything is when it comes to writing targets or looking back to compare pieces of assessed work."

Lots of comments were similar to this in mention the organisational benefits and many also said how easy it was to look back over their work and targets.

Below are some comments from my A/S students about the assessment books:

"I like completing my AS work in the book as it allows me to keep it all in one place and easily look back on past questions / essays. It's also good for teacher feedback and discussions with parents over how certain tasks have gone."

"Great idea! We can keep all our work in place, see where we need to improve, do the improvements and get feedback easily."

"I like been able to keep track of all my essays and i can see improvement across the book,
However i feel getting it signed and filling out the front is a bit over the top "

My A/S students focused more on the impact of the feedback and moving forward. It seems that getting parents to sign the book has divided opinion but my reasoning behind it is to keep parents informed and ensuring that any performance is seen be all parties. I also think getting it signed increases the seriousness with which the students take the assessed work.

Moving forward
It seems that the students feel that the assessed book is worthwhile. None of the comments were completely negative about it and the vast majority were positive.

That said one reaccurring theme was obvious; the students would like more positive feedback.

"Give positive feedback as well as improvements (particular things we did well)."

"Give more positives."

In light of these comments, and others like them, I am going to increase the amount of positive remarks I give. Looking back through the books I realised that I gave out merits but did not specifically say what the students had done to earn these merits. I am obviously going to make this a New Years Resolution.

Finally, though I am pleased with the reaction from my students to the assessment books. It has made my feedback more meaningful, it has allowed the students to show how they have acted upon the feedback and finally it has been organisationally efficient.

A final word from one of my A/S students:

"I don't really have any improvements, it's the best feedback I receive on homework."

Improving A-Level essay and exam feedback

My AS students study the different feedback to work out which one is theirs.

This year I have looked to develop the process of giving feedback to my A-Level classes. I have often found that the pressure of time, of completing the course, has meant that I have not looked to develop the process of giving feedback. I believe I have missed a trick in the past by simply giving students targets. The successful students have acted on their targets but, too often, sections of the class have made similar mistakes in future work. I have therefore looked to develop several processes that have improved the retention of the targets I have given.

1) Not naming essay feedback.
My AS class is roughly 15. When I have marked an essay I have written the feedback and targets on separate sheets of numbered card. I have then handed the 'unmarked' essays back and put the feedback around the room. My students have had to select which card they think belongs to their work. I have then read out the numbers and the students have said which card they have picked.

One of my students compares two different sets of feedback to see which one is hers.

Teacher "Whose got feedback number One?" student "Louise".

Me "Two?" student "James".

Me "Three?" student "Matthew". Etc...

At the end of reading out the numbers I tell the students how many have got the correct card (I do not tell them who is correct and who has the wrong card).

I then repeat this process several times in the hope that more of them get the correct feedback.

Reflections

+ I have found that this works really well.

+ The students are engaged, one student said "Yes! I love this!" When they walked into the lesson the second time I did the activity. I think the combination of trying to work out a puzzle and the competitive element of the activity help promote engagement.

+ The students actually read the targets on the cards! In the past I don't think that this has always really happened.

+ The students help each other. Comments like "Well you've put this in your conclusion so these can't be your targets."

+ In the next piece of assessed work the students have remembered more of the targets I had set. One student even wrote their targets out from their last piece of work along with a detailed explanation of how they felt they had met them in this essay!

2) Producing exam feedback videos

Last year I started to produce some ExplainEverything exam feedback videos for my GCSE students. I found that they worked well in promoting independent reflection. Developing from this I produced a series of six videos for the AS mock exam. The students had to watch the videos and produce guidebooks to help them improve in the future. This took them two lessons. Whilst they were watching the videos (on iPad's) I was freed up to go around the class and offer one-to-one help. Below is an example of one of the videos, the rest can be found on my MisterWestylish YouTube channel.

Reflections

+ Again this was an engaging task. All the students were on task for both the lessons on this.

+ It was independent, personalised learning as the students were able to pause, rewind and replay sections of the clips to suit their own needs.

+ I benefited from being in two places at once. I was able to offer individual help and answer specific questions whilst the rest of the group got on with their own work. In the past (with a kind of exam lecture going on) the whole group would have to stop so that I could deal with individual questions.

+ After the first lesson the students were tasked with re-writing one of their answers. In the second lesson I was able to mark all of these one-to-one with the each student whilst the rest of the class got on with their exam guides (again I felt like I was in two places at once).

+ Progress was made. The quality of the exam guides was excellent and the re-written answers all represented significant improvements on the original work.

3) Videoing essay feedback

Like many A-level teachers I often give back essays that require further improvement and re-drafting, especially at A2. In the past I have found that students can often forget what I meant by the feedback I have given. They either are conscientious and come back to check, or they don't and their work doesn't improve. This year I have trialled videoing the essay feedback. The students video their essay using their phones/iPads whilst I give the feedback. If they then get home and have forgotten exactly what I have said they can simply replay the video and here it again.

Reflections

+ This is pretty simple but it seems to have worked. I have not used it in every case but think I will next year.

+ I don't know why I haven't done this before.

Overall, I believe that the students have focused more on the feedback I have given than in previous years, this has led to less repetition of targets and hopefully greater progress. The students have also been engaged in these activities and it has allowed me to develop the different types of activity I set within an A-Level lesson. 

All of these activities have made essay and exam feedback feel more formative than summative and helped students to see the process that goes into improving exam work.

I hope you have found this interesting and I welcome any comments.