Knowledge Organisers and Quizzing: Minimising the Matthew Effect

I believe that knowledge organisers can be the ultimate tool of inclusion. However, used poorly they can amplify the Matthew Effect, supporting most able while simultaneously disadvantaging those who need the most support. Put simply, they can cause the knowledge rich to get richer and the knowledge poor to get poorer. Over the four years which my department has used knowledge organisers, we have developed a number of techniques to minimise this effect and ensure that knowledge organisers benefit as many pupils as possible.

Quiz questions:

In order to encourage pupils to engage with the knowledge organisers, all of our homework is based around either answering quiz questions or practising quizzes which they have already completed.

Originally, pupils wrote their own questions and answers. They were required to write a minimum of 7 questions and answers which the teacher would collect feedback on while they were completing their starters. Pupils would then have a set amount of time to improve their work.

Problems with this approach:

• It was difficult to meaningfully check 30 sets of questions and answers during the starter. Taking quiz books in would have massively increased teacher workload and would have delayed both feedback and further homework.
• The variety of questions and the differences in quality, particularly in lower sets, meant that improving questions often took up a significant portion of lesson time, meaning that some classes were continually behind their peers.
• Pupils who needed extra support with literacy often found reading the knowledge organisers and writing high quality questions extremely difficult during the time limit set for homework tasks. This often resulted in short quizzes, poor quality quizzes or avoiding the piece of work entirely.

Solution:

We now give all pupils a set of questions for each section of their knowledge organiser and pupils who wish to add extra questions to their quiz they are free to do so. Pupils answer the questions with the knowledge organiser next to them and we emphasise that the purpose of this type of homework is engaging with the knowledge organiser, rather than completing the questions from memory.

Having a consistent set of questions makes it much easier for teachers to identify and correct misconceptions while collecting feedback during the starter and ensures that all pupils meet a sufficiently high ‘floor standard’.

Presentation of information:

I originally saw knowledge organisers as an opportunity to teach pupils content beyond my wildest dreams. I packed as much information as possible onto the knowledge organiser and wrote the information in paragraphs in order to encourage them to practise reading.

Problems with this approach:

• The lack of clearly explained key words meant that some pupils either gave up or developed large misconceptions when reading the information due to difficulties understanding the content.
• The text was often far too small for pupils to read.
• The amount of information which needed to be covered in pupils’ quizzes was huge. As a result, many quizzes were vague and many only covered a small portion of the information contained within the knowledge organiser. Some pupils found the amount of text overwhelming.
• The lack of clear sections meant that pupils were often unsure what they were supposed to be writing questions about, meaning that some areas were missed.

Solution:

All knowledge organisers within the department are now written according to a standard format: there is a keywords box in the same place on every page, all notes are written using diagrams, bullet points or tables, all sections are numbered (which matches up to a quiz with the same title and number) and, wherever possible, we use dual coding. All of these strategies are designed to make it as easy as possible for pupils to read the information and to check any terms they don’t understand.

Accessibility:

When I first made knowledge organisers, I wrote them during term time as I planned the accompanying lessons. I would give pupils a paper copy of the knowledge organiser at the end of the lesson.

Problems with this approach:

• Pupils who were absent did not get a copy of the knowledge organiser page. They were often unaware that the homework had been set and would not come to collect the sheet.
• If pupils lost their sheet, they would be unable to complete the homework. While they could come and see me over the course of the week, most pupils who needed extra support did not do so.
• The knowledge organiser pages were specific to my groups, meaning that pupils who were in other groups did not benefit from them and there was a certain amount of inconsistency between different teaching groups.

Solution:

All knowledge organisers are now written before the unit is taught by the person who is responsible for the medium term planning of that topic. Knowledge organisers are pre-printed as an overall set and every pupil is given a copy at the beginning of the unit. The knowledge organiser is also available on the school website.

This minimises the risk of absent pupils missing sheets and gives them opportunities to close gaps in their knowledge independently. If pupils lose their knowledge organisers or have to complete their homework in multiple possible locations, they are guaranteed access to the information so long as they have access to the internet.