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Finding Gaps in Pupil Understanding (without test fatigue) Thoughts and Ideas • • • •
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Revisit old knowledge: e.g. have a grid as a starter which includes questions which refer to material they learned last year, last month, last week - interleaving knowledge. ‘Finding gaps’ does not necessarily mean testing - there are other methods such as Flipgrid, which tells us a huge amount, without it being 'pressurised'. Self-assessment and metacognition are vital. Pupils will have a good idea about what material feels like for them and about how they are doing themselves. Empower them! Homework task - introduce what we are about to do, give a few bullet points of what this involves, ask them to consider where they have encountered this before, and then send the teacher an email/complete a Form/record an audio message with how they feel about this. Use Flipgrid to get the girls to explain things verbally. Pretty quickly they (and you) will see their gaps in understanding. Fingers up 1-5 to show their understanding. Low stakes assessment i.e. written paragraphs/answers shared in meeting chats on Teams. Opportunities for peer review. Using all the tools at our disposal to identify gaps in pupils' knowledge, rather than going straight into high stakes testing. Not rushing to assess but gradually acquiring this from our pupils. And being mindful of our reaction as teachers to different activities so that we are not unintentionally making something high stakes. Encourage candour in the classroom. If students are finding something tricky, they must feel empowered to vocalise it in the lesson and not go home with a misunderstanding. Tools (including from Guided Home Learning)
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Use a page in OneNote for 'big ideas' so pupils and teachers can see how ideas are progressing across a series of lessons. Padlet is also good for this. (e.g. in History, they have used 'big ideas' pages so that pupils can record how their ideas in response to an enquiry question such as 'How great was the Great War?' changes over the course of an enquiry. Ask pupils to complete RAG ratings using Microsoft Forms to self-assess their understanding and help teachers find gaps. Self-marking Microsoft Forms. Quick ‘Do Now’ starters. Use collaboration space on OneNote for peer review. Digital ‘Exit Tickets’ using Forms and Teams Assignments. Use Mentimeter for pupils to anonymously post questions about their learning or post what they don’t understand. Flipgrid allows students to verbalise and synthesise their understanding. Quick to find out their gaps.
