Encouraging students to revise?!

Students at my school need an awful lot of chivvying along to revise - they will come into school on a Saturday morning for revision sessions, but getting them to revise in their own time and on their own is really very hard.  This is why this year we have decided to try and reach them on their own terms - we have relaunched our department blog (previously only used to send information about our blog from France to the students' parents at home) and fill it with - hopefully helpful - bits of advice for the students.  So far, we've tried sharing a walk-through of the writing CA mark scheme, suggesting apps for their phones and other gadgets; we've just started a hints and tips feature which we intend to run every other day for the next three weeks as the exams get closer.  On our twitter feed (@CHTSMFL), we are trying to offer hints and tips regularly for how to approach certain bits of the exams, and some revision ideas for the students.  I just want to encourage the children to revise for their exams - those with really supportive parents who understand the importance of the exams will revise, and a few of their friends will as well, but I really want to start to tap into the others ...

Analysis of German Unit 2 (Reading) - AQA

Having been through all of the Foundation Unit 2 (reading) papers from the GCSEs since the current incarnation of the AQA requirements, I have put together a table which I intend to share with the students so that they can request the relevant questions to help them with their revision.  I have saved each question from each past paper in a separate pdf file so that the students can work out what they need to do and can then work out how well they are doing, by looking at the most appropriate questions for their needs.  I haven't looked at the higher tier papers, because all of this year's students are sitting the foundation tier.  I hope that the students can see the value of this - perhaps we can use it earlier in the year in future as well!

I have put a copy of the table that I have put together here:

Past Paper Breakdown of Questions (AQA) - Analysis by enlimcharas

The final hike is on the way ...

... so I sit here with 43 days to go until the GCSE listening and reading exams take place this summer.  On 11 of those days, I see our students for 2 hours.  It is at this point in the year that I am now grateful for the timetabling - 4 hours a week over one year for a GCSE seems harsh, until we are left with 22 hours of teaching still at this stage of the year! 

What to do for the best?  Well, I have learned from last year; I need to make sure that I have planned around the other GCSE exams and that I have systems in place for the inevitable absences.  I have set up groups on Edmodo for my two classes for this half-term (I thought they would be good 'trial groups' - I may be wrong!).  There is the obvious medium-term plan/block plan in place - but I find myself asking lots of questions -

• What is most important?
• Should I teach some things before others?
• How much more exam technique practice can I pack in?
• When is the best time to do the past paper - do I do it sooner, so it doesn't demoralise any who have a bad day? or do I leave it until later, so that they have more opportunity to succeed, having learned more?
• What is the right balance between building knowledge and building understanding of the way the papers work?
• How can I ensure that they still 'see the point' in speaking activities, even though the speaking CAs are all complete (and they know it!)?
• What do I do for those students who are absent - the work missed is so vital?

They are questions we ask so regularly and every year; however, somehow it seems so important at this stage of the year for Year 11 students.  I am so proud of what they have learned - many of them only started learning German in September - in real terms, that is only 7 months ago ... I just want to make sure that they get a fair deal and that they have every opportunity to succeed.  I always find this the most challenging half-term of the year - so difficult to know if you're doing the right thing.

I think, no matter what, I will be asking the same questions next year (my big relief for next year though, is that 60% of the students studied German in KS3, and 30 of the 80 have chosen to spend one hour in Y10 'practising' German every week after school so that they didn't forget everything from Y7-9!), I just hope that we get it right for this year's students :)

Trying to move with the times

I was genuinely 'chuffed', when our headteacher agreed that we could launch a department twitter account - we had to have lots of e-safety policies etc (but we know that protects us as well as the children).  We launched a department blog last year, but only used it for the trips - we decided that we should probably use the launching of our twitter account as a reason to 'relaunch' the department blog, but to use it to really support learning.

It's going to be small steps - our twitter account is followed by 13 students so far ... we don't expect to have hundreds overnight - in fact 13 represents just over 10% of this year's GCSE cohort, so I suppose really after 7 days, that's not too bad!  I've updated the blog a couple of times too - it has been viewed on 4 occasions - hopefully the children will see the benefit and want to access all of the information that is available to them.  We haven't got it right yet, but I am learning from loads of others in the 'twitter world' and am trying to use ICT not just in the classroom, but to help the children to develop their learning, 'on their terms' - I'll keep trying - nothing is perfect!