The ethos behind my department's use of knowledge organisers:
In my previous blogs, I have discussed the elements of a good knowledge organiser and I have explained the process I use to write knowledge organisers. My school creates knowledge organisers on the principle that they should contain the foundational knowledge needed to be successful in a topic. However, unless knowledge organisers are effectively woven into a unit of work, they serve as add-ons which very few pupils will independently take advantage of.
The humanities department in my school has developed a system which ensures that knowledge organisers can be used to their maximum benefit and that their use is underpinned by methods advocated by contemporary research into cognitive science, specifically self-testing, interleaved practice and spaced practice.
The process which we use to give feedback is also designed to minimise teacher workload while ensuring pupil accountability.
The general uses of knowledge organisers:
While knowledge organisers take time to write properly, once made, they are extremely versatile. In our department, knowledge organisers serve four purposes:
In my previous blogs, I have discussed the elements of a good knowledge organiser and I have explained the process I use to write knowledge organisers. My school creates knowledge organisers on the principle that they should contain the foundational knowledge needed to be successful in a topic. However, unless knowledge organisers are effectively woven into a unit of work, they serve as add-ons which very few pupils will independently take advantage of.
The humanities department in my school has developed a system which ensures that knowledge organisers can be used to their maximum benefit and that their use is underpinned by methods advocated by contemporary research into cognitive science, specifically self-testing, interleaved practice and spaced practice.
The process which we use to give feedback is also designed to minimise teacher workload while ensuring pupil accountability.
The general uses of knowledge organisers:
While knowledge organisers take time to write properly, once made, they are extremely versatile. In our department, knowledge organisers serve four purposes:
- An extra support for pupils during lessons.
- A method to ensure that pupils who are in isolation do not miss content and use their time effectively while they are outside the classroom.
- A tool to ensure that pupils who have been absent or who have joined the school late in the year can close gaps in their learning.
- The basis of all homework tasks to reinforce taught knowledge.
The primary use of knowledge organisers in my school is for homework. All pupils are given a knowledge organiser for the current topic (we emphasise the importance of retaining them) and an A5 'quiz book' for each subject.
How we use knowledge organisers for homework:
Homework tasks based around knowledge organisers are always one of two tasks:
- Writing quiz questions and answers about sections from the knowledge organiser.
- Quizzing on previously written quizzes to recap content.
Before setting any homework, we spent an entire lesson with all pupils going through the process of writing a quiz and testing on that quiz. By the end of each 'homework lesson', pupils had a model quiz in their books and a model piece of scrap paper with an example of how effective quizzing.
How we mark knowledge organiser quizzes:
Having two books for each child can sound overwhelming. However, the marking policy in my school focuses on function over form: I never touch any quiz books with a red pen and I never take quiz books in.
Instead, whenever a quiz is due in, I spend the first 10 minutes of the lesson checking each quiz book (they put them, open, in a pile at the end of each row), finding examples of excellent quizzes, and collecting common errors, missed questions or administrative issues which need to be addressed. I do this while pupils are completing their "Do Now Quiz".
Once I've collected the feedback, I write it on the board, explaining each point to pupils as I type. I also use this as an opportunity to show any models I have found. Pupils then have 5 to 10 minutes to correct any errors and to add further questions to their quizzes in green pen. I then use this time to help any pupils who need one to one support with their quiz.
If pupils do not have their quiz, I give them a sheet of lined paper which they write further quiz questions on. They are then expected to use those questions to improve their quiz at home.
At the moment, this process does feel quite time consuming. However, I have found that as pupils before more comfortable with quizzing and build up more corrected quizzes in their books, the errors they are fewer and my checking is becoming more efficient.
Instead, whenever a quiz is due in, I spend the first 10 minutes of the lesson checking each quiz book (they put them, open, in a pile at the end of each row), finding examples of excellent quizzes, and collecting common errors, missed questions or administrative issues which need to be addressed. I do this while pupils are completing their "Do Now Quiz".
If pupils do not have their quiz, I give them a sheet of lined paper which they write further quiz questions on. They are then expected to use those questions to improve their quiz at home.
At the moment, this process does feel quite time consuming. However, I have found that as pupils before more comfortable with quizzing and build up more corrected quizzes in their books, the errors they are fewer and my checking is becoming more efficient.
How I track quizzes:
One of the biggest mistakes I have made with quizzing in the past was not centrally tracking quiz books. I also wanted to create a way to track quizzes which wouldn't add to my workload.
As a result, when checking quizzes at the beginning of the lesson, I 'green off' the relevant square for each child while noting down feedback.
This is not only a powerful tool in terms of feedback and discussions with parents, but I've found that it's had an unintended benefit for the pupils as well: many of my pupils now independently catch up on quizzes they have missed. One of them told me that they knew I was going to set a quiz they'd missed as catch up homework, so they figured they'd do it before I set it. Obviously, not every pupil independently catches up. However, its a powerful message that Miss knows what you've done so far, she knows what you haven't done yet and you're going to have to do it at some point.
Quizzing:
A common complaint of pupils about homework is they don't see the purpose of it. This is something which we have tried to solve with quizzes and quizzing. Once pupils have written their quiz and improved it, it becomes a revision tool. After all, revision doesn't begin a week before the exam; it should start as soon as the pupil has been taught content.
Once pupils have checked their quizzes, they fill in the "Quiz: number of questions" section in the sheet at the front of their exercise books. It is then the teacher's discretion which quizzes they set pupils to quiz on and when.
As a rule, we don't set writing a quiz and quizzing at the same time. I tend to wait until three or four weeks after pupils have written a quiz before I ask them to quiz on it, thus ensuring that practice is both spaced and interleaved.
When this homework is handed in, I insist that the questions have been marked and corrected to ensure that pupils have not reinforced incorrect content. Pupils then fill in their "Score-attempt" section. These boxes are not designed to be filled in during one homework, but rather to be spaced out over the course of the entire school year.
One of the biggest mistakes I have made with quizzing in the past was not centrally tracking quiz books. I also wanted to create a way to track quizzes which wouldn't add to my workload.
As a result, when checking quizzes at the beginning of the lesson, I 'green off' the relevant square for each child while noting down feedback.
This is not only a powerful tool in terms of feedback and discussions with parents, but I've found that it's had an unintended benefit for the pupils as well: many of my pupils now independently catch up on quizzes they have missed. One of them told me that they knew I was going to set a quiz they'd missed as catch up homework, so they figured they'd do it before I set it. Obviously, not every pupil independently catches up. However, its a powerful message that Miss knows what you've done so far, she knows what you haven't done yet and you're going to have to do it at some point.
Quizzing:
A common complaint of pupils about homework is they don't see the purpose of it. This is something which we have tried to solve with quizzes and quizzing. Once pupils have written their quiz and improved it, it becomes a revision tool. After all, revision doesn't begin a week before the exam; it should start as soon as the pupil has been taught content.
Once pupils have checked their quizzes, they fill in the "Quiz: number of questions" section in the sheet at the front of their exercise books. It is then the teacher's discretion which quizzes they set pupils to quiz on and when.
As a rule, we don't set writing a quiz and quizzing at the same time. I tend to wait until three or four weeks after pupils have written a quiz before I ask them to quiz on it, thus ensuring that practice is both spaced and interleaved.
Key tips:
- Number your sections/sub-topics: This avoids any confusion about what pupils are expected to write quizzes about and ensures that even those pupils who write slowly can easily write the task in their planners.
- Don’t skip the “explanation” stage: Most pupils will want to sit down straight away and start writing questions. This results in shallow quizzes which may only cover the first seven sentences. Reading and explaining the knowledge organisers to someone else forces pupils to engage with all of the content.
- Devote a lesson to modelling how to write quizzes and how to quiz: This is a good opportunity to ensure that pupils have a model of both types of homework in their books. This also allows you to model the correct technique for reading the knowledge organiser. I ask different children to read, stopping to summarise the content and to check any difficult key words.
- Encourage pupils to view the key terms as separate from the knowledge organiser: When I first set quizzes (incidentally, at this stage I also skipped the 'explanation' stage of writing quizzes), most pupils wrote one question for each key word and then saw their homework as complete. Again, this resulted in extremely shallow quizzes. I don't allow questions about key words unless the pupil can explain why they've included it.
- Keep track: Writing quizzes and quizzing can quickly fall apart if you don't monitor it effectively. One of my biggest mistakes last year was checking whether pupils had done the homework, but not checking the content or keeping track of which quizzes pupils had written. The result was that a few pupils wrote incorrect quizzes and I felt so overwhelmed by the mess I had gotten myself into that I avoided the issue.
- Write model quizzes before you give class feedback: Live marking the quizzes can feel quite intimidating; you have to come up with effective feedback there and then while also setting detentions and making sure the pace of the lesson doesn't slow down. I write a model quiz which I use as the "Do Now Quiz" at the beginning of each lesson. This means that when I start checking homework I have a clear idea of what I want and often pupils will ask me to go back to the quiz so they can use questions which I have included.
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