This is a resource I’ve been working on now for a couple of weeks and finally today I was determined to get it finished.
It’s a revision resource for the IB Geography course, covering all of the core and the 3 options we cover – Oceans and Coastal Margins, Geophysical Hazards and Freshwater.
It’s quite simple really. It’s a wide collection of recall questions, 30 for each of the above topics, in a spreadsheet.
I have then used a mail merge to fill a template. This means I can easily move the questions around if necessary.
If you’d like instructions on how to use the mail merge feature in word, check out this post.
My using mail merge I’ve been able to easily produce 30 ‘Geog your memory’ sheets ready for revision.
The template consists of a questions and answer sheet. So far I’ve simply copied the question sheet onto PowerPoint slide and the answers onto another. I’ve popped the questions on the board and given students the 10 minutes at the start of the lesson to answer the questions. We’ve then discussed the answers and then I’ve shown them the answer sheet which they’ve used to add notes to their answers.
2018 was quite an incredible year for me, it went from being offered a book deal to appearing on BBC Breakfast. In 2016, when I went through depression and a breakdown, I could barely envisage a future in teaching, to be able to use the experience to help others has been life changing for me. But I’m not here to talk about that but you can read more in my review of 2018 here.
What I am sharing in this post are the top 5 most viewed posts of 2018. They were bloomin’ popular. So here goes…
In this post I shared a revision booklet to facilitate student independence in the revision process. Designed for AQA Geography but easily adaptable for other specifications.
The booklet provided students with a list of case studies, templates to summarise the case studies and exam questions to apply the content. With over 5,000 downloads of the booklet, I hope it’s helped students (and teachers) across the country.
Creeping in just behind was the ‘How to Revise in Geography’ guide. Inspired by Greg Thornton’s post on How do we revise for history? which I recommended in my post on Mrs Humanities shares… 5 Epic History Revision Resources I decided to make a resource for my Geography students. It clearly hasn’t just been of benefit to my students, with almost 5,000 downloads of the document I’m hoping it’s been of help to many young people beyond my own classroom and school.
I’m starting to see a theme now. Clearly revision has been on the minds of many this year. Perhaps it’s the pressure of accountability measures, maybe the tougher nature of the new 9-1 exams or maybe teachers just want to improve their student’s approach to revision, either way most popular post number 3 was another revision one. This time I shared and highlighted the work of a range of Geography teachers from the Twittersphere including @teachgeogblog , @Jennnnnn_x ,@InternetGeog , @GeoNewbz and other. Many of these I have made use of in my own classroom.
This one is always a popular post. In it I have shared resources to the scheme of work I produced to develop and embed atlas and map skills through the scenario of a zombie apocalypse. I’ve taught it a couple of times and every time it has been loved by the students.
I’ve seen it (via twitter and emails) used in classrooms across the world, which is incredible. It’s been adapted into other languages (Welsh and Chinese) and has been download over 40,000 times since I first published it back in Autumn 2015.
Next up was a resource I produced to support teacher training on differentiation. The presentation provides a variety of tried and tested strategies for differentiation and scaffolding to support and challenge students. You can even download the ready-to-go PowerPoint presentation.
Unsurprisingly the next few most read posts of 2018 are associated with feedback and marking. In this one, I shared 5 examples of whole class feedback to support teachers, departments and schools making the move from marking to feedback.
Since publishing this post in January 2017, it’s been a popular one. In this post I share the strategies that make up my marking and feedback toolkit. I tried and tested a range of strategies over a couple of years to find what worked best for me, my style of teaching and most importantly my students. In that time I changed schools and had to start again with the narrowing down process but it didn’t take me long to find what worked. This post goes on to highlight those 5 strategies.
Back to revision again, this one shared 6 epic resources for revision in History. I no longer teach history but I do like to keep up with pedagogical developments and resource sharing just in case I ever return to it. This post needs up-dating as I’ve seen many more fantastic resources since I first posted it, that will happen in due course I promise.*
*but please don’t hold me accountable if I do completely forget 🙂
This is one of my first posts on marking and feedback from way back in June 2015. The area of interest has come along way since then, but it’s a great post for those new to the profession or those being introduced to the idea of #feedbackNOTmarking.
In the post I share a range of strategies I’d tried in order to improve feedback but reduce workload. These then made up part of a CPD session for new and current staff at the school I was working at. The post also provides a downloadable resource with all the strategies included.
The final most popular post of the 10 was this one where I shared 10 fantastic display ideas for Humanities. The post shared 10 great examples of displays I’d come across on Twitter from the likes of @mrsrgeog@sehartsmith @MrJPteach@EduCaiti and several more.
And that sums up this post on the 10 most popular posts of 2018. Hope you’ve found something of use and inspiration this year. Thank you for the continued support throughout 2018.
This is a project I’ve been meaning to do for a while now to support revision and recall inspired by Jen Monk’s ‘Geog your memory’ resource.
The idea is that through the use of a mail merge you create a variety of ‘geog your memory’ resources which can be used at the end or throughout the course.
It’s nothing fancy but super easy to do.
First create your template in word.
Next create your spreadsheet and collate your questions in whatever order suits you and your needs. I’ve done it mixed to support revision with my year 11 class. I’ve used the sample paper questions and created some of my own to test student knowledge and recall.
Next is the mail merge. These are super easy once you get the hang of it.
Here’s a step by step guide.
Step 1 – Data Source
Open up your template in word. Go to the ‘Mailings’ tab and click on the ‘Start Mail Merge’ icon. Select ‘Normal Word Document’. Then go to ‘Select Recipients’ as shown below. Select the option ‘Use an Existing List’. This will open up a the ‘Select data source’ window. Just find your excel spreadsheet in your files and select OK.
Step 2 – Inserting your data
Next you want to add the data to your mail merge. Place your cursor where you want to insert information. You can see I’ve clicked in the first definition box. Once your cursor is placed, click on the ‘Insert Merge Field’. Then from the dropdown list select the data option you want to insert.
Insert the fields into the remainder of your document.
Step 3 – Finish and Merge
Once your data fields are inserted into the template document you’ll want to merge the data into the file. Click on the ‘Finish & Merge’ icon. From the drop down menu select ‘Edit Individual Documents’.
When the pop-up opens, select ‘All’ and press OK.
This will open up a new document with all of your data inserted into several versions of the original template.
And there you have it, a whole selection of ‘Geog your memory’ sheets for students.
If you don’t want to make your own, guess what I made some for you to download and amend. Download the Word Template, the Excel Spreadsheet of questions for AQA Geography and the document with 30+ GYM sheets ready-to-go by clicking the button below.
Last week a couple of colleagues and I delivered a workshop to parents on revision and retrieval practice. When I shared the following tweet, there were a number of requests to share the presentation. Unfortunately since the presentation and workshop are not my sole work, I’m unable to distribute it. Instead below you will find an outline of what was covered.
Delivered this workshop to parents this evening with some colleagues. So nerve wracking but it was really interesting to discuss the topic with parents. Really hope it was useful for them. #ukedpic.twitter.com/u1UX4KPDiO
First we started with an introduction into the long term need to review and recall information. We explained how teachers will naturally and continuously refer to prior content and learning, encouraging students to create links between what they know and what they need to know. Also explaining deliberate practice and retrieval although without those terms.
Next we gave a bit of theory. I explained the forgetting curve and the importance of reviewing notes on a regular basis.
I then went on to discuss the work of Graham Nuthall and long-term memory as well as the necessity for deliberate practice.
After a bit on theory, we turned to the 4 stages of revision.
Stage 1 Developing & maintaining a positive mental attitude
Stage 2 Getting organised
Stage 3 Little and often
Stage 4 Review and revise
Stage 1 Developing & maintaining a positive mental attitude
Firstly we discussed the impacts of exam stress nationally on student mental and physical health with evidence from research carried out by the NSPCC. This was followed by a series of quotes from our own students of the pressures and stresses they feel associated with exams and assessments. These quotes were really powerful to explore the wide range of pressures students endure and a reminder of what it is like in their shoes.
This was followed by exploration of the following: – Healthy Balance, this outlined ways to keep a healthy balance in terms of diet, work-life balance and physical health – Mindfulness, this outlined how and when to apply mindfulness practices – Workspace, this outlined how to set up a suitable workspace for students – Reduced distraction, this outlined ways to reduce distractions through preparation, phone blocking apps and the impact of music – Support and guidance, this outlined places parents and students can go for advice on revision, mental health and exam stress
Stage 2 – Getting Organised
In this section we outlined ways parents could help students to organise themselves in preparation to revise.
We encoruaged that students do the following to help themselves to prepare
Identify subjects and topics to revise for
Carry out self-assessment of the topic content and identify missing areas of knowledge
Gather notes, revision resources and equipment
Create a revision timetable
Interleave and chunk revision by distributing the topics from within each subject into blocks to make the memory work harder
Stage 3 – Little and Often
In this section we offered a wide array of strategies students may wish to try and use as they prepare for exams. To start with our main advice was students should try to make their revision a long term process that is regular and spaced out, they could break it down into chunks of time or subjects or topics. They should identify key areas to focus their revision by RAG/confidence rating the specification content and after that it’s a case of practicing and applying what they know to exam style questions.
Some of the suggested strategies included:
Stage 4 – Review
The final stage involved discussing how students should review their revision notes regularly and make use of them through application to other strategies such as the self-testing and flashcards.
We also demonstrated how students may wish to use the Leitner system to review and self-test and reiterated the importance of deliberate practice.
Hope this helps you to prepare something similar to help your students with the revision process.
Recently I’ve been doing a lot of work on revision and recall; primarily this arose from a number of concerns students expressed last year about not knowing how to revise.
To support my students, in February 2018 I was inspired to create a ‘How to Revise in Geography‘ booklet for Key Stage 4 and 5 students. I have two versions of the booklet one suited to AQA GSCE Geographers and another for IBDP Geographers.
Last year I also covered a few different revision techniques with my form group to help them prepare for assessments. However I didn’t think to make them a ‘how to revise’ guide until more recently.
I was spurred on a when a colleague mentioned that another might be in contact soon to discuss revision support for Key Stage 3. Consequently I figured a booklet for Key Stage 3 might be of use.
The terminology is similar but less technical and it has far fewer strategies than in my GCSE and IB version but I hope it will be just as useful for suggesting suitable strategies for Key Stage 3.
Click the download button to get an editable copy.
After the success of the GCSE case study and exam question booklets, I’ve set out making similar resources for my IB students. So far the booklet/s consist of case study template sheets. As more sample papers and exam papers become available I will start adding exam questions to the booklets.
The booklets start by outlining the case studies and examples required by the IB specification.
And they are then followed by a series of case study template sheets for students to complete as part of the review and revise process.
Eventually exam questions will be added for students to apply their knowledge to.
For a copy of the booklets, click the relevant link below.
Recently I put together an activity that involved my students looking at AQA paper 3 fieldwork questions, their mark schemes and answer advice. The feedback from the students was resoundingly positive and after some recent requests I thought I’d share it.
The card consisted of 6 questions, 6 mark schemes and 6 answer advice cards.
Students were given the set of 6 questions from Paper 3, Section B on fieldwork and were asked to try and work out how many marks the question would be worth. Students were thinking about the command terms and the content of the question, their discussions effective at drawing out the purpose of the question.
Next they tried to match the mark schemes to the question.
Finally they added the answer advice cards.
We then went through the questions, the marks available and discussed how to answer them before finally answering the questions for themselves.
Following last week’s Mrs Humanities shares… post on geography revision resources I thought I’d collate some of the epic free resources being shared for history. Whilst I may no longer teach history I still like to keep in touch with subject content, good practice and pedagogical developments in the subject. Unfortunately there’s not so much in the way of free revision resources that I could find, so many of these are revision sites with useful material.
This resource is fantastic. Greg has created a history specific help sheet that offers ways to revise within the context of History. The sheet outlines methods with clear ‘how to use in history’ sections, linking to the knowledge and skills GCSE students need.
A simple but effective revision strategy that can be used as starter or plenary or even as an activity during revision sessions. Quite simple to construct simply set up the structure and add a range questions that require students to retrieve and recall information from last lesson, last week and even further. A useful revision strategy to recap and revisit subject content.
This site is an incredible revision resource for students and teachers alike. When I first started teaching GCSE History, this was one of my go-to sites. So much content for such a wide range of topics across GCSE, A-Level and IB.
4 // RogersHistory Online Revision Courses from @RogersHistory
Now I will admit I’ve not accessed the courses myself but I know Tom is a great educator and I have undertaken 2 of his Teacher CPD courses. I imagine the student revision courses are of the same high quality.
Flipping History is a set of history lessons from Mr Guiney that can support students with their revision and teachers with their planning. Wide variety of content.
I originally saw these as a tweet from @sehartsmith and thought they needed to be shared so contacted her to see if she would be willing to share them. Luckily for you lot, Sarah has been generous and popped them into a google drive you to access and download. Just click here.
I would love to add more resources, but after an extensive search for FREE revision resources I couldn’t find much so if you can point me in the right direction PLEASE do.
A nice set of resources that encourage students to return to their prior learning; easily adaptable and simple to use. These can easily be set as a starter activity or homework.
Whilst this resource is not content specific, it’s a simple way to revise. The template breaks an hour down into 12×5 minute slots. Students revise a sub-topic for 5 minutes, making notes in the appropriate chunk of the clock. When I’ve used this before one challenge has been having the entire hour to complete it, in order to overcome this they actually only spend 50 minutes note taking and 2 of the 5 minute sections they fill with key terms or facts, stats and specifics as they review the content.
Quite a different approach to revision, the resources provided here help the student to summarise a topic by organising the ‘toppings’ into the correct slice of the pizza with each slice representing a part of the topic. This can be easily adapted to be questions that the students then go on to answer.
5 // Geography Skills 5 minute challenge from @K_M_Campbell
This resource provides students with the opportunity to refine their exam technique and identify gaps in their knowledge for the Eduqas B 9-1 spec. A tracker is included which shows the source of each question so that you or the students can access the mark scheme.
An easy to amend question a day calendar with questions based on AQA paper 1; good for retrieval practice. Hopefully a paper 2 one might be added in due course.
9 // GCSE Case Study and Exam Question Revision Booklet from @MrsHumanities
This is a resource I created recently to support independence in the revision process. Students have a summary template for each case study from the AQA Geography specification and questions that follow. Students fill in the summary templates and use them to answer the questions provided.
10 // GCSE 9-1 Geography Exam Practice Booklet from @MrTomlinsonGeog
This resource is an adaption of my AQA GCSE Case Study and Exam Question Booklet. Students are provided with the case study information and given questions to apply their knowledge and understanding too.
Hope you find a revision resource of use from the collection.
After the success of the 
Mrs Humanities 