Teacher Feature: Revision

Teacher Feature:

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, 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.

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-

tive one can be, is called the Pomodoro Technique. I have exercised this technique in my revision classes with great success. The way I have implemented this technique into my lessons is by allowing students to study for 25 mins, with a 5 mins break and repeat this again. When students are working independently outside the classroom setting they should repeat this 3 times before having a bigger break. Students find this helpful as 25mins doesn’t seem like a long time to study for, therefore it is a much more achievable task. During this time, students work independently alone, not getting distracted by their peers until they have a 5 min break. In a classroom setting this 5 min break could involve stretches, listening to music or any other activity deemed appropriate by the class teacher. When at home or studying during free periods in school it would mean they would not look at their phone for this duration, until the 5 min break. This technique is very effective as it keeps students' mental energy levels up high but also allows them to have frequent breaks, therefore students are less distracted because it’s never too long until the next break. When using this method in revision classes I use a timer whereby students can visibly see the time left before the 5 min break.

The science behind this technique is simple. Traditionally at school and throughout our lives we have been taught that we should study for a few hours at a time, which means that quite often we tend to spend hours sitting at desks, not actually being as productive as we need to be. The reason why this happens is because our brains work the most effectively for about 25 minutes before our performance starts to drop. Hence our performance decreases over time. However, if we have a break after 25 mins it leads to our performance levels increasing, and we are ready to be productive again.

Peer learning

Peer learning is a technique I have long been favourable of using in my own teaching practice. During my teacher training I was able to carry out a study showing the effectiveness of peer learning. Peer learning allows students to go over their previous understanding of content, something that they wouldn’t normally do. This technique allows students to question their knowledge, which enables them to identify hidden gaps in their knowledge, which otherwise would only be exposed in an exam I have found that Peer learning is particularly effective when students are provided with support to ensure that the quality of peer interaction is high. I do this by ensuring students are using questioning frames for peer learning lessons with feedback provided back to me. The successful implementation of this technique relies on close interaction between two or more students. An academically strong student is encouraged to take responsibility for aspects of teaching as well as evaluating their own success within the delivery of the content. Peer learning allows students to develop metacognitive understanding of previous topics. To ensure peer learning has been effective in my revision classes I have done the following:

• I have carefully paired students together for the appropriateness of what the content of delivery is.

• I have played a supportive role in these lessons by carefully structuring tasks so that the revision lesson focuses solely on existing knowledge.

• I have created teaching aids and learning frames to both guide and support students on how to structure learning, particularly focusing on questions to ask to check learning.

There are many other revision methods being used and implemented successfully in classrooms. Such as flash cards, past papers, group revision mind maps, posters and revision stations. It is important to take a holistic approach when planning revision classes as “one size” does not fit all. Having a number of techniques has allowed me to plan and deliver my revision classes more effectively. Whereby I am not only creating an inclusive environment, but most importantly engaging my students in effective exam practice to help with their upcoming exams.