Case studies
How schools are making the most of Smart Revise
We start to use Smart Revise after the first topic has been taught. Using the class configuration options, we set the teacher to be controlling the topic filters. This enables us to fine tune how Smart Revise is used by students during the course. Quiz, Terms and Advance are enabled, and we disable any resources our students are not using. For example, if you are not using Paul Long resources, disable those advice references.
Every lesson:
We unlock all the topics taught to date and ask students to use Quiz when they enter the classroom. We don’t waste time with them lining up outside. Students are trained to log in and get on with it without prompting. Having a slide on the board that says, “Do Smart Revise Quiz” can be useful. We unlock more topics one-by-one as they are taught and don’t disable the previously taught topics. This increases the number of questions over time. It is about beating the forgetting curve, keeping previously taught knowledge in student minds.
From time-to-time:
We use the Quiz analytics reports to see how well students are engaging and use the top 10 least understood questions to inform a short teaching recap. We focus on just one question in a lesson. The recap session is short and snappy to highlight any misconceptions.
We sometimes use Tasks to set one 8-mark question for students to complete in class. We then use this as a class discussion about the answer. The mark scheme is displayed on the board and we use selected student answers to exemplify exam technique. We delete the task afterwards so that it doesn’t have to be marked! We keep Advance open to students, but if you want the exam-style questions to remain unseen, disable Advance mode.
At the end of a topic:
We set the topic filters to be only the topic that has just been taught. Students use Terms reflective to capture their confidence with the subject specific terminology from the unit using the RAG indicators. It is important students are honest in their self-assessment. This is not a test. It is to learn what we need to recap. Remember to reset the topic filters ready for Quiz afterwards!
We use Tasks at the end of each topic to set an end of topic test. Approximately 30 minutes. Four Quiz questions, Three Terms questions, Two Advance 1-3 mark questions, Two 4-7 mark questions. One 8+ mark question.
At the end of the course, during holidays or in preparation for mock exams:
We unlock topic filtering to give students full control over their own revision.
At Archway School in Gloucestershire the leadership team have decided that every lesson in every subject must start with a low-stakes quiz to recap prior knowledge. This makes more work for most teachers, but in Computer Science not only is this generated automatically using Smart Quiz, but even better, it is the only subject where every student has a differentiated, personalised question playlist.
The low-stakes quiz takes 5-10 minutes and is ideal as a starter activity while waiting for other members of the class to arrive. As the questions presented are never-ending, adapting as students answer them, the teacher can stop everyone at the same time. Unlike in other subjects, no student is left with nothing to do because they have finished.
Students are also set goals to complete a minimum number of questions for homework which the teacher monitors using the analytic reports. In subsequent lessons, the teacher uses the reports to discover the top 10 questions that have been answered incorrectly by most students and this leads to a targeted recap, effectively nipping misconceptions in the bud.
At Stroud High School, at the beginning of the academic year students were asked to use Smart Terms to RAG rate themselves against each key word for the topics taught so far. They each evaluated their knowledge against each definition presented.
The teacher used the data to report to the senior leadership team where the priorities were for each class, and the scheme of learning was adapted to enable more time to focus on weaker areas.
At Newquay Education Trust students are set 100 questions a week to complete for homework up to Christmas of year 11 from all the topics taught so far. After Christmas this increases to 200 questions a week. Students that don’t complete the assignment have to complete the work at lunchtime.
Advance is sometimes used in lessons for students to practice exam-style extended answer questions on their own, making use of the guided marking facility.
At the Judd School students use Quiz in every lesson as a starter activity. This begins after the first two topics have been taught. The data is periodically downloaded from the analytic reports to keep as an archive to demonstrate progress over time.
This saves a lot of time and facilitates spacing and interleaving. Using an accidental control group of students who chose not to use Smart Revise, teachers were able to prove that Smart Revise made a real difference to results.