When I started teaching, weaving social media into learning was fairly common: we used Facebook profiles to test understanding of characterisation and one of my GCSE groups undertook Twitter discussion as characters from Of Mice and Men, tweeting quotations and viewpoints, and enjoying the occasional foray into light-hearted hashtags: #whostolemyglove #heaintheavyhesmyLennie. 

But more recently, as students have moved to Instagram, I’ve found further opportunity to engage them in continuous revision. It’s been a game-changer, particularly at GCSE. 

Instagram for education

Teachers can use Instagram in various ways (it is currently a popular option for NQTs building support networks), but my accounts are aimed at students. 

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I post regular images that relate to the study of my subject. Of these posts, about 70 per cent are my original content, such as example paragraphs or images to inspire recall, creative prompts or useful mnemonics, excerpts from exam reports or tips from exam boards; the remaining 30 per cent of posts include reposts from other accounts such as recommendations for The National Theatre, access to critical readings or suggestions of other accounts to follow. 

I use an app to schedule my material, automating the posts to appear at times students are frequently engaged in social media: for my classes, that is during the school commute and an hour after school ends to catch the end of extra-curricular clubs.

Insta-revision

I run two accounts: one departmental and one professional. 

Some of the content overlaps, but my department account is private, which allows me to freely post photos of students or their work[2], upload school-specific reminders such as lunchtime lectures and monitor follower numbers. 

My individual professional account is listed as a business account, which, in Instagram world, allows me to see follower numbers, but also the engagement levels via metrics. I also use it to follow other accounts for my own CPD and, in turn, pass that on to my students.

A GCSE leg-up

Although there is a risk that edu-Instagram can be seen simply as a tool for popular engagement, it actually offers a number of opportunities to support students in ways we struggle to replicate consistently in limited lesson time.

1. Revision
We all know students who listen carefully in class but almost immediately forget what they learned. Instagram offers quick, repetitive check-ups or reminders to consolidate that memory and ultimately, move it from short- to long-term memory.

Despite our encouragement, it is unrealistic for most students to motivate themselves to do regular revision from the start of a course, so this helps to ensure that takes place without the need for that commitment.

2. It is the ultimate low-stakes quiz platform
If I ask students to remember a quotation in an Instagram quiz, and they can’t, another post will offer the answer, so that the next time, they are more likely to be successful. It is a private challenge, so even the least confident student has little to lose and the opportunity to quickly achieve improvement and reassurance.

3. Spacing and interleaving
Instagram offers an interactive opportunity at a frequency we simply can’t recreate in school (even if you popped in to see every class every morning and every afternoon!). Scheduling posts in advance means I don’t have to work at the same frequency as the students and can choose when and whether to engage if they comment on posts, but it allows my classes to return to study topics at regular intervals, even when we have moved on.

4. Resource bank
Students can choose to bookmark (ie. save) relevant posts or simply scroll through the account when revising, so it essentially files resources for them. One of my students said it “refreshed [her] mind every day during GCSEs” and another, who ultimately achieved two top grades said “I think I used the page in almost all the English revision I did!”. It offers high quality, bitesize resources which, unlike their class notes, don’t depend on the context of lesson conversation.

In the first year of my accounts, the students who engaged showed a marked improvement in retention of quotations and analysis points. For some, it significantly benefited their confidence and, for others, it relieved some of the pressure by spacing out their revision without the need for them to consciously dedicate time to revision months before their exams.

One student told me that he was so encouraged by the success of this frequent recall that he started revision for other subjects much earlier than he had planned.

For my students, Instagram provides extra support in a world where GCSE courses are content-heavy. It shows them links to the real world and exposes them to discussion of texts that would otherwise be difficult to squeeze into lesson time.

A new way to teach

For me, it creates a platform to highlight key ideas and positively engage with students as individuals. It allows the kind of interaction that we have seen praised during lockdown as beneficial for quieter or more introverted students, who can focus on these ideas away from the classroom.

In fact, two of the most positive experiences with the account involved students who would have said they didn’t enjoy English and often found elements of school life challenging: the first was an image asking “Year 11, which quotation does this reference?” inspiring an immediate, public and confident response from a quiet student with autism; and the second saw an ambitious student, also with autism, setting up a private account purely to access the Instagram material.

If this platform supports, challenges and encourages students across the achievement, confidence and enjoyment range, it seems difficult to argue it isn’t worth a ‘like’.

Pippa McKeown is an English teacher in the North West of England. She tweets @Ms_McK_says