Step 5
Monthly reviews
Terms mode can provide insightful data about the confidence students have with the subject-specific terminology from a topic they have recently been taught. A simple RAG rating from each student for each term allows teachers to see perceived strengths and weaknesses at a glance. This is useful because students may guess answers to questions, but getting their honest opinion about what they feel they need help with most is beneficial.
review subject terminology
simple RAG rating
quick and easy
student feedback to teachers
formative assessment
review subject
terminology
simple
RAG rating
quick and easy
student feedback
to teachers
formative
assessment
Easily collect data from students about their perceived strengths and weaknesses throughout the course and use this to inform revision sessions.
How
Set the topic filters for the class to "Teacher controlled" and include just the topic / subtopics that have just been taught. Remember to select "Save changes".
Ask students to select "Terms" mode and use the deck builder to select reflective terms, regular mode, all coloured cards, including “not assessed”.
Ask students to look at each term and think about the definition / characteristics before flipping the card and RAG rating their understanding.
In the “regular assessment” box, students should select:
- Red if they need more support with this term.
- Yellow if they had some understanding.
- Green if they confidently knew all the points.
Use the Analytics Revision reports to check the progress of each student and the Terms reports to see more detailed data.
Why use Smart Revise
The subject-specific terms for each topic have already been identified for you and are unique to each course.
A simple RAG rating against each of the subject-specific terms by students is quick and easy to do, and if done each month will only take a small part of a lesson. The data it provides is useful for parents’ evenings, revision lessons and assessing how well a topic has been taught.
There is no preparation for the teacher to do and the results are automatically collated into easy to read reports.
The research says that:
- Checking the understanding of students and obtaining a high success rate improves attainment.
Rosenshine, B. (2012) Principles of Instruction: Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know. American Educator, 36(1), p12-39.
Top tips
Remember to change the topic filters back to everything that has been taught to date after the review.
Terms mode is a useful way to learn directly from students what they perceive to be their strengths and weaknesses.
You can conduct a subject-specific terms review for any number of sub-topics at any time.