Revision strategies and support in and beyond the classroom – VERSION 2!

Further to my last post introducing a document I have written called “Revision Strategies in and beyond the classroom”. Lots of people have kindly made other suggestions for good ideas to add. I always intended this to be a ‘live’ document that will hopefully continue to grow so please do send feedback or other ideas of good practice which could be added to share with the education community. In the meantime, here is Version 2 of the document – Part 1 has been significantly updated with new ideas and I would like to thank those people that have contributed, both from St Ivo and from the Twittersphere!

As before please do email any feedback or suggestions to me (contact at side of blog).  Ideas can also be sent via twitter to @RobGeog.

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Revision Strategies in and beyond the classroom

There are lots of websites with ideas for students on revision strategies and how to structure their revision. However, with the exam season rapidly approaching, course content nearly if not already taught, and a focus on revision in lessons over the forthcoming weeks, I thought it would be useful to try and compile ideas for teachers with regards to planning revision activities for both in and beyond the classroom in one document.

Some of these ideas are for activities which could be adapted and used in lessons whilst others are for creating revision resources which could then be shared with students via email, the school network or online (for example on blogs) to help them with revision beyond the classroom.

I am also interested in bringing together ideas on how new technologies can be used to support staff in creating and sharing revision resources with students. I have therefore written this document which I hope can be updated with suggestions of strategies that have worked well for you which you would be happy to share with others.

Please do email any suggestions to me (contact at side of blog).  Ideas can also be sent via twitter to @RobGeog.

Above all – I hope it is of some use to you in preparations and planning for the forthcoming revision period!

Imvoto – student response system – using mobile devices to assess learning

Imvoto is another very useful system enabling immediate assessment of learning to enable teachers to quickly intervene where required to help students progress, tackle misconceptions and move learning on.

This is definitely one to have a look at – you can easily write your own questions to assess your class and students can use a variety of devices to take the assessments, mobiles, tablets or desktops. Questions can also be differentiated depending on student responses.  A particularly useful aspect of this tool is that as well as writing your own questions you can share your questions and also discover and use other teachers questions. Another benefit is the ability to include a range of media in your questions, including audio, video, images or LaTex.

Here is a quick introduction video:

There is also an excellent dedicated Imvoto Youtube channel with an excellent collection of videos providing a guide to creating assessments, interrogating data etc.

PingPong – free app for Question and Answer – great for AFL

I’ve just come across PingPong, a great little free app which looks like it has lots of potential! I haven’t had chance to try this yet but I think with the revision season to begin in full flow on our return to school this could be really useful. Questions can be created on the spot and students access the ‘ROOM’ through use of a simple room code. Questions are set and realtime responses given. Questions can be multiple choice, true or false or up to 40 character responses or annotated diagrams can be sent by students. The app can be linked to Evernote to export responses. It has a very simple interface and seems to do ‘as it says on the tin’ rather than having lots of extras but the beauty of the app is likely to be the simplicity of use. For schools with 1:1 ipads or where all students have access to some form of electronic device this looks like it could be a useful additional app for the response system toolkit!

There is quick introduction video which gives an overview here: