Teacher Feature:
or an answer is generated, it in essence changes that original memory to make it stronger’, which allows the students to both recall and retain information in larger chunks. In all my lessons, across key stages, I start with retrieval practice. Students are given 6 questions to answer, two of the questions are based on the previous lesson, 2 on the previous week’s lesson and 2 on a previous topic. Students have commented on how they understood the usefulness of the starters and the revisiting of this previous knowledge. Due to the content-heavy nature of the new GCSEs/A Levels I viewed retrieval practice as an effective way in supporting my student’s retention of knowledge over time. This led me to asking myself how I can help students effectively organise their revision. Retrieval practice was at the forefront of strategies I wanted to get students using. I have implemented this by creating multiple choice quizzes organised per GCSE/A Level topic on Google Forms. I then used these self-marking quizzes during lessons. We also had discussions around the answers, ensuring students were fully aware of the content required to answer the question. I gave the students access to use the Google forms in their own independent revision. Through marking the quizzes together and re-teaching of areas where there were many misconceptions I wanted to provide students with a model of what they could be completing independently as revision. This technique is effective as it allows the students to not only memorise and retrieve key content but also understand the deeper meaning of the content.
Revision lessons can be much more than just exam practice By Sultana Parveen With summer exams fast approaching, a complaint I hear a lot from my students is: ‘I just don’t know how to revise!’ Initially I found it surprising. I had not thought much about the teaching of revision skills before at all. I was also keen on creating a more fun and engaging approach to revision, giving the ownership of learning to the students, to enable them to become independent learners, and understand the benefit of effective revision. As a reflective practitioner I am always looking at different techniques to incorporate into my practice. Post-covid exam stress has been of the highest I have witnessed in my teaching career. Below are some of the most effective techniques I have explored and implemented in my teaching of revision skills in the past 8 weeks. Retrieval practice technique A method I have found to be incredibly effective is the Retrieval practice technique. I have had a keen interest in this technique for many years. This technique has also grown in popularity in the last few years. The term 'Retrieval Practice ‘refers to the act of recalling learned information from memory (with little or no support). Each time that information is retrieved,
08
The Pomodoro Technique A common challenge faced by many students whilst sticking to revision plans is their attention span. I have found that many students express how they are easily distracted away from their revision work, and it often becomes hard not to give into the temptation of opening up social media apps or scrolling on tiktok for hours! A method to deal with this problem of procrastination and hence become the most produc-
