‘Twas the night before GCSE results day, when all through the flat
Mr McKavanagh sat nervous, fidgeting stroking his cat
The exams had been sat, the planning done with care;
In the hope that the results wouldn’t make him lose his hair.
I could go on but fears of plagiarism and my questionable poetry skills prevent me from doing so.
I had actually managed to switch off for most of the summer, but the day before GCSE results day the nerves kicked in. This was likely triggered by the tone of Edu-Twitter shifting towards exam worries as well (something deserving of a blog post itself), I tried distracting myself with a film – choosing Martin Scorsese’s’ Silence – a film about Jesuit Priests in Japan (a description which undersells the film, but shows that Religion must have been on my mind. Although I would welcome any direction on the historical accuracy of the film as it seems like a fascinating topic)
Well, the results are in and whilst it’ll take a bit of time to fully unpick the lessons learned, it was definitely a reassuring indication that what I’ve been working towards has been working, whilst highlighting areas in which things can be improved.
I’d decided to spend the end of my summer (or maybe I should call it the run in to the new school year – that might sound more positive) redesigning my GCSE scheme of work. If you’ve not read my previous blog Rethinking the Curriculum, then I recommend that you do, it explains the rationale behind what I’m doing.
Now, I’m sure that what I’m about to describe is nothing new, and it might be something that you’ve heard a thousand times before. This is not meant to be something revolutionary, but it builds upon some of the things that have worked well for me and my students so far.
The death of exercise books
Firstly, I’m scrapping exercise books.
I feel like that one needs a bit of space to process it. When I’ve mentioned it to other teachers it normally takes them a while to pick their jaws up and muster up some kind of response about how dreadful folders are, how they’ll end up in a big mess, things will get lost, pupils don’t know how to use them and that they’re actually the work of some evil magic.
Now, I should clarify, I’m not completely getting rid of exercise books, we’re going to have an ‘assessment book’. This is something which fits in with the wider school policy and I can see the benefit as it’ll make it clearer and easier to see the progression and development of a pupil’s work throughout the year, being able to really pick out their strengths and weakness, without having to leaf through pages of notes trying to get to the last assessed answer that they completed.
However, for notes and handouts, we’re going for folders. Now, I’m sure that it won’t be a completely smooth process and I’m sure some of my colleagues’ concerns will come true, but in the past I’ve also had pupils losing their exercise books and it was a lot more effort and work for them to copy that all out again than it will be for a missing sheet or two.
Yes, I could live to regret this choice, but I believe that with careful modelling of how to use a folder it will make the use of them far more effective. The material that pupils are collecting in their folder isn’t just to be an artefact of what happened on certain dates, it is an evolving and changing body of knowledge, folders will allow for information to be moved around, to be adapted and to be compared. I don’t want the information learnt to be static and isolationary, I want pupils to explore the knowledge, to play with it and to see how the whole body of knowledge fits together.
Take note
Now, part of my motivation for folders links to, probably, the most controversial change that I’ve made. In the new spec the Islam paper was the most difficult part for our students, they’d come through a KS3 which did not fully prepare them with the basic grounding in knowledge that they really needed.
So, I started giving them the notes. This is something I had started with the cohort that have just finished their exams and proved to be successful and popular. I can imagine the outrage that something like this would cause amongst teachers and I can appreciate some of those concerns, for example what am I teaching pupils about the skills of note-taking? Am I not just doing the work for the pupils? Am I just too concerned with exam results? These were not my motivations, I realised that note-taking was taking up much too much time and often pupils would miss some of the key points, now this could be remedied by more effective modelling of how to make notes or designing comprehension activities to focus their note taking.
Giving them notes I discovered several benefits; we saved an enormous amount of time in lessons, we were able to talk through the notes giving us time to unpick ideas, define terms and for pupils to ask questions; the time saved meant that we have been to get to terms with the knowledge and crucially I’ve been able to ask pupils lots of questions, use low-stakes testing and getting them to link and relate bodies of knowledge much more than I ever had been able to before. Given the time constraints that we have, I’ve found this approach to be a much more effective use of time than asking pupils to make notes.
Going deeper
This move towards notes fits into the wider vision of what I’m trying to do with knowledge. I want to embed a deep knowledge and understanding of the material in my pupils, moving away from a more superficial, exam focussed knowledge that the older exam specifications ‘encouraged’. I believe (and have seen) that pushing towards this deeper understanding leads to a greater enjoyment and engagement from the pupils.
This deeper understanding is coming from a greater focus on questioning and quizzing pupils, not only on the material that they are learning in that lesson, but from the previous lesson and from lessons even further in the past. I don’t pre-warn them that they’ll be quizzed, there is an expectation that they will be tested on any material that they have studied and at any point. I’m far from the only one making this kind of move, many teachers of Religious Education (or other subjects) are following the latest findings from neuroscience and there are some brilliant resources that can explain it far better than I ever could (www.learningscientists.org are one example, and have provided really clear and concise information on lots of research-informed ideas).
Sticking to the plan
If you’ve read my earlier blog, you’ll see that I posed a series of questions that I would be keeping in mind. These weren’t definitive and had no hierarchy, some you might want to disregard altogether, but I thought it important to return to these ideas to let you know how they informed what I’ve created.
What do I want pupils to know by the end of KS3, KS4 & KS5?
For this, I’ve worked backwards. I started with what pupils would be expected to know at the end of an A-Level exam in Religious Studies, I’ve then added on other skills that I want them to know, things like Critical Thinking, I then thought about how that reduces down to KS4, what would pupils need to succeed at GCSE, then what things do I need to add in, things like Biblical interpretations and the origins of Christianity and Islam and the reasons for the formation of different denominations.
How is this going to fit with the locally agreed syllabus?
I found this much harder than I thought I would, maybe it is because of the order that I tackled things in, this was the second or third thing that I tried to add in and it has certainly made things busier. I’ve currently only attempted an overhaul of KS4 where we will have GCSE Religious Studies running as an option subject as well as non-examined core Religious Studies, this has certainly helped in delivering the locally agreed syllabus, whilst complementing the examined Religious Studies. In KS3, which is a project for the future, then it the biggest frustration will be trying to fit everything in, whilst giving enough depth that pupils start to get a proper understanding of the material. Something that is not going to be easy at all.
How is it going to prepare pupils for what we will be looking at in GCSE?
The move to providing pupils with notes will really help with this, where I’ve done this before it really frees up time, that means that in a lesson we can comfortably cover the material, develop pupils recall of information on past topics, assess that they have an understanding of the new material and to apply it in an exam style question.
The extra time available in lesson means that we can do some deliberate practice of how to apply the material that we have learned. This is something that many teachers do, but some of the best application of this approach I’ve seen in sporting contexts, in a previous life I have had the opportunity to be coached and to coach alongside some really skilled rugby league coaches, and the way that they would deconstruct a piece of play or a skill to the basic parts and to create drills in which that deconstructed part of the skill was practiced in isolation before being built into the full skill and eventually game play, gives a great template for teachers. For example, in our subject, a pupil would be expected to answer questions which would require them to display several skills such as recognition of the views of different denominations, selection of appropriate religious teachings to support those views, amongst others. Instead of tackling the question as a whole, it would be appropriate to break this down into its constituent parts and therefore getting pupils to practice.
How will it prepare pupils for their GCSE exams, but avoid the subject being an exams-factory?
This is a tricky one, obviously there is an exam focus, they’re doing their GCSE, but it isn’t just about doing an exam, it’s about having students buying into what you’re doing. That’s not happening if the focus on exams is too heavy. Whilst none have happened yet and are currently only in the planning stage, I’m wanting to enrich the students as much as I can. Lots of you do this so brilliantly already, but I want to organise as many trips, talks and experiences as possible for the students, I want them to really care about this subject and for them to be lifelong learners and lovers of this subject.
How am I going to assess pupils?
Assessment is such a complex field, that it is deserving of several blogs of its own. The way I’ve structured things puts a huge emphasis on assessment, more so than I ever have before. Low-stakes testing plays an enormous role in what my classroom looks like. Almost every lesson involves a multiple-choice test of some sort, and topics will be interwoven throughout the GCSE course. To oversimplify it, that means testing pupils on the material that they have just learned, some material that they have recently learned and material that they have learned some time ago. I want to know that pupils know the material now (if not, it gives me ample opportunity to address it) and I want them to know it later on. If we can keep working on this then there won’t be the usual GCSE run-in panic or expectation of after-school intervention classes. Needs are addressed straight away and emphasis is placed on establishing a long-term knowledge and understanding of the material.
Alongside this, we will make use of assessment books. These are to keep their notes separate from their exam question practice. The idea is that the book is split into question types, that way it is easier for pupils (and myself) to quickly and easily see how they are progressing on different question types – meaning that more purposeful conversations can be had with pupils to help guide and direct them towards making improvements.
Do I try to cover more topics in the same time to give breadth, or do I cover less but give depth?
This came up in my planning but is more of a factor for my future plans for KS3, the way that I’m designing lessons has certainly meant that there is a clear move towards depth of material and not just breadth. However, the ‘breadth’ was in some ways constrained by the exam specification, but the desire to give them the fuller context behind aspects such as; why there are different denominations, or the life of Jesus has meant broadening their curriculum to ensure that depth can be provided.
How do I ensure that the lessons and teaching are research-informed, rather than just doing what we’ve always done?
This is never easy, I’ve been working towards this point for several years, one of the main obstacles is access to research and even if you do have it, it’s about having the time to understand it and then to implement it. We’re very fortunate that we now have access to websites like Research for RE (https://researchforre.reonline.org.uk/) which presents straight-forward and easy summaries of research that has been conducted.
I’ve based my practice heavily upon research relating to neuroscience, such as retrieval practice and spaced learning (coming largely from the Learning Scientists blog) and from research that I conducted during my Masters (https://www.reonline.org.uk/news/an-offer-you-cannot-refuse/) .
How do I make my life easier?
I’m certainly working less, well at the moment anyway. I’m also in a position where I’ve planned and have resources for what I’m teaching up until around Easter, including the quizzes that I intend to use with pupils. Now, I feel like this is a potentially high-risk strategy – if I decide that big changes are needed, I’ll have to redo work. I’m also finding that with this format lessons themselves are far more enjoyable to teach and the pupils seem to be getting much more out of it – due to the greater depth at which we are exploring the material and the focus on low-states multiple choice questions gives me real insight into what the pupils are getting to grips with (or not) and to provide effective feedback.
If I can find a suitable way of distributing these resources, then I’ll ensure that I distribute them (and hopefully make your lives easier as well).
How do I create something that is academically rigorous, but can still be taught by non-specialists?
Luckily at GCSE this is not an issue that we are facing, at KS3 it is and that is an obstacle that I’ve not yet been able to figure out in a satisfactory way. I’ll certainly come back to this when I tackle our KS3 curriculum fully.
So how is it working out so far?
The folders have gone down a treat, the pupils were really excited about receiving them (although some were disappointed in getting red rather than blue) and although it has only been a few lessons, the pupils are quite keen to ensure that things are in the right place. They also seem to feel a bit more grown up, a real goodbye to KS3.
It is still early days for the notes, it certainly seemed to work for those who just sat their exams, but we are starting from the beginning with our new cohorts, this approach is definitely freeing up lots of time in lessons for deeper discussion of the material and it is allowing us to build in a good grounding of the context that they need to really get to grips with the material, but isn’t on the exam specification itself.