I like the idea that revision should be uncomfortable. I wish that had been explained to me at school as being a natural part of the process.
It’s that time again. Year 11 have completed their mock exams and the data is in. The results are analysed, and action is taken.
Often, the action amounts to lunchtime ‘booster sessions’ which are, quite frankly, well-intentioned but ineffective. There’s never enough time.
Revision and consistent retrieval - that’s the stuff that works.
Term two can be the best part of the year when it’s ultra focused and purposeful - but only if you’ve already created a foundation of regular, spaced retrieval practice. You see the confidence in some students begin to solidify as they internalise the fact that, yes, they did bat away a set of mocks and produce a series of high-quality essays under timed duress. Everyone’s on board the good ship Progress!
Something worth considering when putting together a revision plan; recognising that students sometimes don’t know what they don’t know and subsequently struggle to prioritise. Daniel Willingham writes about this in terms of ‘familiarity’, connecting recognition with information stored in memory is the piece that’s sometimes missing in the revision equation - these connections need to be periodically refreshed and directed, otherwise knowledge is just untethered, nebulous, future pub quiz trivia.
With the above in mind, we’ve changed our approach over the last couple of years. Retrieval practice is embedded throughout our KS4 units and, as part of a wider secondary school initiative, a study skills programme runs during form time. Students are expected to audit their knowledge periodically and trial a range of revision strategies. We’ve also had success with a department website as a revision repository - an ongoing, Ghormengastian site that will never be finished nor win any prizes for aesthetics. There’s a section on academic writing and various models, knowledge organisers and additional contextual reading links for our core texts. An example of a question bank for the Edexcel Poetry Anthology for IGCSE English Literature (which can be used after the poems have been covered) can be found below.
It seems to be working!
Reading
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