Within our CSI we are looking into further developing Retrieval Practice across the department, however we are also looking at how to back this up by using Spaced Practice.

Their new book ‘Understanding How We Learn’ identifies a few key strategies that we can adopt and explicitly teach our students to aid them with their own independent learning.

Rather than immediate study or homework during a topic, why not leave that homework for a week or two and space it out over time. This way students are revisiting past work and retrieving that knowledge which is proven to be more effective for long-term deeper learning. Typically, the benefits of spacing out practice are seen after a few days, so why not set homework tasks that are delayed by a week, two weeks or even more? If it is proven to improve “storage strength,” aka deep learning, perhaps in 2019 we should make this our plan. Food for thought!

Mark. Plan. Teach

Recently I read Ross’s book Mark. Plan. Teach. and what struck me was that we could be more time efficient, the scourge of many a teacher! Many of the strategies in the book are backed by research and while they aid the learner they also better enable the teacher. One strategy that is of key importance, in all subjects, is modelling our thought processes to demonstrate and explain learning. In order to do this some sort of visualiser is needed, while we don’t all have one of these we do have a set of department iPads which all have Office Lens installed on them. You can read about how Office Lens can be used as a visualiser here. Looking ahead to 2019 and reflecting on how we can save ourselves some time, we will start the year off by developing a deparment marking code and looking at how we can develop focused marking (marking against one or two key criteria) to reduce our workload and zero in on student progress.

On the right is an info graphic that covers many of the themes in the book, if you wish to borrow my copy then please don’t hesitate to ask! You can visit Teacher Toolkit’s site by clicking the button below.

Many of us across the department have been using Seneca Learning as a tool for homework and to promote independent study in the build up to mock exams. Students have all given positive feedback on the platform and now that teachers can set assignments it proves another excellent #edtech resource to have at our finger tips to aid retrieval and spaced practice! Speak to OLE/DSE for more information on using the platform, we are going to roll this out across Key Stages 3 and 4 in 2019.

Flavia, from Seneca, also wrote an interesting blog on how leaderboards increase student engagement. You can read her post here.