Step 12

Catch up planning

When you take over a class in year 11 or 13 it is essential to know what they have covered with their previous teacher, but just as important is to understand where every student perceives their strengths and weaknesses to be with the subject content. Identifying the trends across the whole class and for individual students enables you to tailor your teaching and interventions for maximum impact. Smart Revise Terms provides an effective solution.

Teachers can also use data to inform revision lessons at the end of the year by identifying topics students need to go over again.

find out where students are

end of year progress summary

formative and summative assessment

returning from long-term absence

find out where

students are

end of year

progress summary

formative

assessment

returning from

long-term absence

Ideal when you join a new school or take over a class you have not taught before in the middle of a course.

Catch up

How

1. Review

When you return from a long-term absence, or when you join a new school, or when new students arrive to the class mid-year, dedicate one or two lessons to a progress review.

2. Topics

Set the topic filters for the class to "teacher controlled" and only include all the topics taught so far.

3. Deck

Ask students to select "Terms" and use the deck builder to select Reflective terms, regular mode, all coloured cards, including "not assessed".

4. Activity

Ask students to look at each term and think about the definition / characteristics. Flip the card and record a RAG rating in the “regular assessment” box.

- Red if they don't remember anything.

- Yellow if they had some understanding.

- Green only if they confidently knew all the points listed on the card.

5. Follow-up

Use the Analytics Terms reports to review the data.

Why use Smart Revise

Terms is a quick and easy way to get an up-to-date snapshot of where students think they are in their learning. This is especially useful for subject leaders planning catch-up sessions, returning from maternity / paternity leave or when you join a new school.

Having an overview of the perceived strengths and weaknesses allows teachers to reflect on areas of teaching that could be improved for subsequent cohorts.

This is also a very useful activity for individual students who join the school during the academic year.

Terms data is updated through baseline assessments, end of topic tests, tasks, and end of topic reviews. Frequently revisiting subject specific terminology is hugely beneficial for students.

Top tips

Don't forget to reset the topic filters back to how you had them set before the review.

This is the end of the journey. Once you have implemented all twelve steps consistently you will be raising attainment and reducing workload. However, Smart Revise is a sandbox system, so you can use its Quiz, Terms, Advance and Task mode in many different ways.

Have a look at "I'm a student" on this website to see how students can use Smart Revise independently of their teacher.