Amid the excitement we all have about getting back into the classroom after lockdown, us teachers are acutely aware that there will be gaps in students’ learning and that our job is to find them and fill them.
Quizzing is one of the methods I will be employing regularly to help with this. I’ve found that it can engage, consolidate and extend knowledge, both in the classroom and at home.
The research bears this out. Karpicke and Roediger’s work on testing concluded that retrieval practice assisted students’ memory of the knowledge and that repeated questions aided memorisation.
This is especially useful to understand for those of us with GCSE classes.
Back to school: Tackling GCSE gaps
To help with plugging those knowledge gaps, Quizlet has created a GCSE Resource Centre with more than 10,000 study materials, linked to 24 subjects. The ready-made flashcards, quizzes, games and practice questions, created by teachers across the country, are broken down into exam board specifications, and will aid us in our efforts to help our learners catch up with what they have missed out on.
As a teacher of MFL, these resources are a huge win for me. My students have to recall a vast array of vocabulary, identify key sentences and ideas in larger passages of text and apply complex grammar in their writing.
It can be overwhelming at the best of times, and after a prolonged break, even more so. But the combination of teamwork and competition that quizzing brings can help to break down mental barriers.
Students can compete against their classmates, the wider school and the world, all the while engaging in revision and further learning. My students consistently find these collaborative activities fun and rewarding; I find that this non-judgemental, peer-to-peer learning can lead to faster progress than some independent tasks.
Quick as a flash
After assessing students’ needs, I use the Quizlet flashcard option to remind them of what they have missed out on. Students are able to design their own two-sided flashcards to use on their devices, and can add audio or a picture to aid their memory (this dual-coding element has been successful in the past). They can use these to test themselves or their peers.
I’ve previously used my own flashcards for assessment for learning and cold calling, and the new, pre-made versions from the GCSE Resource Centre mean I can extend this even further. I use the immediate feedback to refocus the lesson on vocabulary, key ideas or concepts that the learners are finding difficult, and then repeat in mini plenaries throughout the lesson to demonstrate progress, helping to develop confidence and resilience.
These confidence-boosting moments are especially important after so much time away, helping students to once again be engaged in their learning and feel successful.
Live and loud
The Live function on Quizlet has led to raucous laughter and team learning in my classroom. Again the planning is quite minimal; I choose the Quizlet set I want my learners to focus on, put the set code on the screen and students then compete in teams for points.
Naturally, they all want to be the top team and beat their peers, and the collaboration helps to consolidate and expand their knowledge as they begin to fill in the gaps of learning they have missed out on.
We all know that knowledge recall is vital for GCSE and quizzing allows teachers to identify the needs of their students in a fast, fun way. This will help to maximise learning time in lessons over the coming year and hopefully lead to successful outcomes for all in the summer of 2021 and beyond.
