GCSE Revision How can parents best support their children in Y11?
This year the challenge is greater than ever for two reasons The government has deliberately made the exams more difficult, introducing complex questions and topics that until a few years ago would have been on A Level papers The government has changed all the GCSE syllabi to remove coursework for students, thus making their results completely dependent on their exam performance The last time students faced challenges as tough as these was in the 1980s with O Levels. Most of the teachers in the school have never experienced an exams system like this themselves! So how can we best support our students to face these huge challenges?
Every student is different as parents you know them best and know whether they need challenge or pressure relief
The Mobile Phone Every student s best friend and worst enemy
Best Friend PiXL apps Tassomai Revision apps and websites Wellbeing apps Phone a friend
Worst Enemy Constant distraction FOMO Impact on sleep and sleep patterns As a Parent Agree revision times when the phone is put in a neutral zone Don t let them go to sleep with the phone in their bedrooms have a curfew time when the phone is handed over 10pm Make this happen for the whole family so it doesn t build up resentment
Teenagers' sleep quality and mental health at risk over late-night mobile phone use (The Guardian 30/5/17) Researchers advise physical boundaries over devices in bedrooms after study finds poor sleep associated with phone use linked to depressed moods Teenagers late-night mobile phone use is harming their sleep and potentially their mental health, say researchers who advised that physical boundaries be set over use of such devices in the bedroom. A longitudinal study of 1,101 high school students aged between 13 and 16 found poor-quality sleep associated with late-night texting or calling was linked to a decline in mental health, such as depressed moods and declines in self-esteem and coping ability. Lead researcher, Lynette Vernon of Murdoch University in Perth, said her findings were evidence of the need for curfews for teenagers to be established around use of devices in their bedrooms. Adolescents who used their phones as alarms should replace them with clocks in order to maintain physical boundaries, she said. Though the link between late-night phone use and sleep, and between sleep and wellbeing, had been established in previous research, this was the first study to assess all three together, she said. It s important to have the research to translate to parents and teachers, who probably haven t experienced to the same extent what kids are doing. If you re finding your son or daughter is more moody and not coping at school, you often put that down to adolescence but it could be as simple as them not sleeping at night. The study specified sending and receiving messages and/or phone calls, so did not distinguish between mobile phones and smartphones or social media. Students who reported higher levels of night-time mobile phone use also reported higher levels of depressed mood and externalising behaviour and lower self-esteem when surveyed one year later. The outcomes of not coping lower self-esteem, feeling moody, externalising behaviours and less self-regulation, aggressive and delinquent behaviours the levels increase as sleep problems increased. Teenagers who reported constantly texting into the night said when surveyed a year later, the problem had worsened. It s escalating they re highly invested in it... Some kids are staying up until 3am. Parents could also set a good example by demonstrating good habits around phone use themselves. Back when they re aged seven to 10, you have to role model you put your phone in a basket at night, it doesn t go into your bedroom, it becomes normalised in the household and you have a much easier job.
Looking after the mind Opportunities to switch off Doing something completely different (without feeling guilty!) Regular breaks Hydration Rewards agreed Role of the tutor
Looking after the body Diet Hydration Exercise Sleep Environment
Food for thought With some marginal dietary adjustments, we can make some valuable revision gains. Buying in a truckload of Omega 3 oil capsules isn t likely magically to train your child to solve quadratic equations, but if we can encourage them to build up a habit of eating breakfast, we could make a small, but significant difference to their capacity to learn especially during the energy sapping, final year of GCSE study. It is estimated that around 27% of boys and 39% of girls skip breakfast some or all of the time. It s not called the most important meal of the day for nothing: research has found that skipping this meal significantly reduces students attention and their ability to recall information. Simply having a bowl of cereal will give students the concentration and memory boost they need.
Give them space to revise and learn Ensuring that your child has an environment where they can work at home. It needs to be a good place to work where they won t be easily distracted. Revising in front of the TV or in the garden will not help them to concentrate, so they need to work somewhere which is quiet and uncluttered. The best place is sitting at a well lit desk or table, certainly not lying on their bed with the curtains shut and with books propped up by a pillow! They should turn their mobile off during revision sessions to avoid distractions.
Revision Techniques what doesn t work?
Last minute cramming does work ONLY if pupils have revised hard beforehand so that they can quickly retrieve the knowledge from their brain. I will revise last minute. I don t know how to revise. My friends aren t revising they told me Nobody goes around shouting about how hard they re working. They want it to look natural and they it to look like it is easy, but it almost always isn t. You will be given effective strategies today to support your child to revise and recall information.
How NOT to revise Don t let your child revise without a plan
Don t just let them highlight everything!
Don t just make them re-read their book/textbook
Why don t these things work? What do we know about our brains and how we remember things?
How does our memory work? Stage 1: Sensory Memory We are bombarded with huge amounts of information all the time through our senses. Think about it, what can you see, feel, smell right now? Most of this information is ignored and we don t pay attention to it, therefore we don t remember it.
How does our memory work? Stage 2: Working Memory When we pay attention to our sensory memory, we give ourselves the chance of learning something. So to learn, we have to PAY ATTENTION. However, even when we do pay attention to information most of it will be forgotten unless we do something with it.
How does our memory work? Stage 3: Long Term Memory So to move things into our long term memory, we have to make the original information meaningful. That s why teachers teach lessons. To help you understand what you re trying to learn. Then they often check whether it s gone in, because rehearsing it and retrieving the information is a good way of ensuring that you don t forget.
How does our memory work? Stage 4: Putting it all together You need to practise the same material over and over. A topic may need to be reviewed and revised up to 6 times, in different ways, so that it transfers into your long-term memory.
Spacing and Interleaving Learning We don t need your child to be spending every waking hour revising we just need them to be revising better for shorter periods. By focusing on quality, we may see a welcome reduction in quantity, easing the stress of pupils and strike the right balance for our pupils to achieve exam success.
So, repetition is key. But this is also boring so it is important we revise using as many different techniques as possible and that we make sure that revision is active so it sinks in. Here are some techniques that have been proven to work:
Draw up a realistic revision timetable and stick to it reward when you do!
Cover the house with homemade revision notes
Mind Maps These are particularly useful in subjects like Science where you have to remember processes and knowledge together. Make them big, make them colourful and put them up around the house. The Mind Map guru is Tony Buzan so check out his website for inspiration.
Record Notes and play then back regularly There is nothing more embarrassing than listening to the sound of your own voice but once you have got over this then play the notes back regularly before bedtime or when walking to school or sat on the school bus and it will begin to sink in. We all remember song lyrics from years ago so we know repetition works!
Self testing, quizzing and recalling notes Research by the likes of Professor John Dunlovsky, from Kent State University, has shown that self-testing, quizzing and trying the trickier task of attempting to recall notes from memory, all prove more effective than swishing a highlighter upon every other word, or simply re-reading class notes, or re-reading class notes. Professor Dunlovsky has stated that when revision is enjoyable the student is more engaged and it is harder for the mind to wander.
Support your child to test themselves Look at the keyword, sequence or definition. Say out loud the keyword, sequence or definition. Cover the text so you cannot see it. Write down the keyword, sequence or definition. Check what you have written. Correct any mistakes.
Ensure they access online resources to test themselves BBC Bitesize Quizlet
Even better, track their progress on PiXL Maths and PiXLit
Use flashcards to quiz your child They can create their own flashcards so you can test their knowledge or you can download printable flashcards from the Collins website. https://collins.co.uk/page/collinsgcserevision/flashcards
When creating their own flashcards Get them to double underline key points from a topic THEN Create a mind-map of key points THEN Create flashcards using a mind-map THEN Use the flashcards to test your child
Get your child to teach you After they have tested themselves, they should try to teach the material to someone else. This has been found to help aid memory and recall: it is known as the Protégé Effect. Teaching someone else requires pupils to learn and organise their knowledge in a clear and structured manner.
Preparing for the exams Students should have PLCs (Personalised Learning Checklists) in all of their subjects which show you their strengths and weaknesses to help you work with them on what they need to do to improve.
You can buy revision books but make sure you get the ones for the new syllabuses that are to be examined 2018 You can download resources and specimen papers from the exam boards websites check the exam board for each subject your child is studying Ask your son/daughter to talk through the exam paper with you. How long? How many marks? How long should you spend on each question/section? What are the examiners looking for when they ask you this question? Get them to talk through the key words in the questions? Do they know what they mean? Can they explain them to you? Get them to do timed questions from the past papers can they stick to the time limits? Can they mark them themselves and spot where they went wrong to improve for next time?
Thanks for listening. This powerpoint will be emailed out to everybody who has attended tonight and to all our Y11 students. Any Questions?