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 - 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."

What makes a good staff training environment?

On Monday 3rd September I was asked to go and speak to staff at another school. Several staff members had witnessed the Teacher Learning Communities (TLC) that we have at Rossett (our vehicle for staff training and development) and were preparing to adopt a similar approach. I had already been and spoken to the new TLC leaders and this visit was to speak to the whole school staff.

The aim of this was not to simply explain what we do at Rossett with relation to staff training and development but was to try and get the whole staff to think about what it is that makes a successful training environment. The staff had KWL grids to fill in but I emphasised at the beginning that the 'learning' element of the grid could come from themselves and others on their tables rather than just from me. It wasn't going to be much use to them if they just heard 30 minutes of 'what works for us' I believed that it would be much more useful for them to establish 'what will work for them'.

Throughout the session the aim was to also showcase some simple straightforward activities that could instantly be used in any classroom.

This was only a short 30 minute 'presentation' and the central activity revolved around the staff completing a card sorting activity:

The initial aim was for them to establish 6 essential components of good staff training. They could then put the other six in a column of 'ideals' or, as some of them did, they could remove some of the suggestions altogether.

The secondary aim was for the staff to get into discussions about what makes good training. They were sat in tables that would form their TLC groupings for the year to come and the aim was to feedback to their new TLC leader some ideas that were essential for their staff development.

Throughout the session the staff filled in their KWL grids beginning by showing what they knew already about TLC and developing to show what they had learnt. I thought that this approach was particularly useful as there was different levels of understanding and knowledge at the start of the session and in order for me to attempt to show some personalised progress this tool worked well. 

At the end of the session I asked the staff to share what they had learnt on a central grid in the middle of the table. The grid was split into sections. One was to be used to show what they had learnt from me. The other, more important part, was to show what they had learnt from each other.

Reflections

+ Ensuring that the training occurs in a supportive, non-judgemental environment was highlighted by  every group.

+ The importance of, and opportunity to, collaborate was also something that featured very highly in most groups.

+ Virtually every group placed 'Linked to Performance Management' as the least important and some groups found that it was actually counter productive.

It seemed that this kind of activity worked well at the start of the year. It provided a base for discussion about what is important when delivering staff training. Arguably all the points are very valid but this activity gave the TLC leaders clear insight into what their groups would most value. Whatever the vehicle for staff training it seemed to me to be a worthwhile activity to begin a year with and to allow staff to think about what is important for them.

I also believe it is a good activity for groups of students who are looking to deepen understanding of a particular topic. At GCSE for example, I could see an activity with 12 causes of American Involvement in Vietnam being used in a similar way.

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.