Getting Students to Revise: A Hopeless Task?

Now that exams have returned after the Teacher Assessment forced on us by the pandemic, the perennial problem of getting some students to engage in revision endures. What strategies can be employed by classroom teachers to improve students’ attitudes to revision, and have a positive effect on their outcomes.

We’ve all been there.

“Right Year 11, end of module test next week, revision for homework. It’s really important as this will be the grade that goes home on your interim report.”

Once marking the test you get that sinking feeling. Something that you have taught in detail and appeared to be well understood by the class ends up causing carnage in the exam. What do you do about it? Extra classes? Detentions? Phone calls home?

Whichever you choose inevitably you will spend time going over it again, the class appear to “get it” as they did last time. You might give extra practice exercises which are done well, but when it comes to assessment the wheels fall off. So what’s going wrong? The answer is likely to be revision.

In my experience students fall into three categories when it comes to revision. The first group, lets call them group one, are the conscientious ones. They will work hard, engage in their revision and come and ask you questions about things they don’t understand. They are highly motivated and a pleasure to teach.

The second group, group two are the demotivated. It doesn’t matter what you do for these students they are just not going to revise. They won’t come to revision sessions, they won’t complete classwork or homework to the expected standard if at all. When you try and engage the parents, they are either indifferent or are having the same problems as you in trying to motivate their child. These students say that they don’t care about their results, either they are resigned to a certain grade and won’t try, or they’ve been told by someone they don’t need a grade in your subject so they won’t bother working. We can still help these students but it will take a lot of effort to get them working.

Group three are those in the middle. They are the ones that could move up to group one with the correct encouragement, or will fall into group two if it all becomes too much.

These students don’t like revision lets be honest. Going over something you’ve done already is just a bit boring. As teachers we cajole and try to motivate these “grumpy” teenagers to engage with our subjects, but remember we are competing with another ten members of staff, each vying for our students limited attention with the same passion for their subjects that we have for ours.

Equally if you sit down with students individually and discuss how they actually revise it becomes very clear that most of them haven’t the first idea of how to go about it. They may say that they read over the classwork that they have done. Some might do the odd mind map. Some may even write flashcards or post it notes. However, the common theme is that they get fed up very quickly and very soon they become distracted by their social media or the games console, and even those with the best of intentions will give up. We need as teachers to teach our students how to revise more effectively. If we can get them to engage in a method that works for them they will be more likely to revise and keep revising.

During my teacher training, at a time when the three-part lesson was the in-vogue pedagogy, one of the key messages was that teenagers have shorter attention spans than adults. I remember being shown graphs showing attention spans ranging from 10-15 minutes for year 7 up to year 13. This was supposed to encourage the planning of short lesson segments in order to better manage students in the classroom. This wasn’t always possible in GCSE required science practical’s, but as a general rule of thumb 15 minutes on a single activity works well in most cases. In fact, that is why commercial television has a break every 15 minutes. To encourage students to revise we can use this to our advantage.

Most students will get a revision guide at GCSE and A level. These can be used to help the revision process get started easily. I would suggest that students do the following:

• Choose a section in the revision guide. For 15 minutes read through that section making flash cards or highlighting the key points.
• Once the time has elapsed, stop, get up from their desk and have a break for 5 minutes.
• Return to the revision guide or workbook, and answer the questions on the section they have been reading, going back to their flashcards and amending where necessary. Stop after 15 minutes.
• Take another break, make a cup of tea and find someone in the house to talk to.
• Spend 5-10 minutes trying to explain to a parent what they have been revising. If they can do so fluently they have learnt that section well. If they struggle then they know that they need to revisit that topic again.

In the above example, the student has worked for a total of 50 minutes. They should find that this method of “bitesize” chunks was much easier than just reading over notes. By finding a family member to explain to they should hopefully receive encouragement and the family know the student is using their time effectively.

An ideal time to discuss this with students is at parents evening, as the parents can buy in at the same time, and keep encouraging the students when they start flagging.

This is just one important step to prepare students for exams. There is much more of course, particularly with regard to exam technique and answering subject specific questions and vocabulary.

Nevertheless, ensuring students do some revision, will have a positive effect on their outcomes. Indeed, once they find a method of revision that is effective for them, they are more likely to persevere and students will engage more positively with their studies in future.

So We Did It Then!

Pirate Studios Salford

Well after much planning and replanning with the help of many pints of ale, I found myself heading towards Manchester last Saturday morning.  A date to relive my musical past with four of my oldest friends.  We all had doubts, that much was clear.  James had only recently acquired a bass guitar.  Martyn no longer has his own drum kit.  Greg hasn't sung for years.  Yet we were all hopeful that the songs that have languished forgotten for 25 years could come back to life.  It might be like one of those dramatic resuscitations you see on A&E After Dark, where the patient splutters into life for a while but ultimately passes away.  We hoped not, but after such a long time we all felt somewhat nervous.

Arriving at the unassuming industrial estate in Salford Quays wasn't easy in itself.  The trains were on strike so everyone was on the roads.  City were playing at home and the road leading to the rehearsal studio from the motorway was closed.  This meant a lengthy detour around Media City.  Eventually after annoying my Land Rover Sat Nav by refusing multiple U-turns, I finally arrived.  

We were booked into Studio 12 and we ventured in with a mixture of trepidation and excitement.  Exploring the building we found the Studios were numbered 1-11.  After 10 minutes of frustration, we discovered by checking the fire evacuation poster, that Studio 12 was accessed from another door around the side of the building.

Finally, we were in a confined space with instruments for the first time since 1996.

Startled and blurry Band

"What shall we play?" asked Tim.

"What do you fancy?" replied James.

"I don't know, what about The Price?" said Greg.

"Ok" was the almost unanimous response.

"Which ones that?" asked Martyn, who thinks in terms of drum rolls instead of lyrics.

"You know, it goes like this...."

Cue A minor add 9 chord with riff. (Technical stuff).

Away we went.  We played all the songs we planned, plus a couple we hadn't.  We changed some lyrics here and there, adjusted the tempo and feel of some of the songs.  Even the ones we felt were weak all those years ago, with a little polish began to sound much better.  It was like meeting an old friend that you haven't seen for years, and you suddenly realise you've missed them like crazy.  It was like we'd never been away.  Apart from the grey hairs, and aching limbs we could have been back in that draughty Liverpool warehouse in the 90's.

Greg & Tim

James in usual Bass Player pose

Martyn in his natural habitat

We were all amazed that we could remember the songs easily, but even more amazing was that we played together so well.  Really tight, being that great little band that we were all those years ago.  It was like we must have some kind of telepathic link, or that we had played those songs an awful lot in the past.  Whatever the explanation it was still remarkable.

So, the burning question is what next?

We all agreed we need to do it again and get the songs recorded properly.  We have at least 25 original songs in various states of completeness.  Maybe we could produce an album since 2023 will be the 30th anniversary of Tim and I forming the band in the first place.  Something I talked about in a previous post here.  James even wants us to play a festival in Manchester next September.  So why the hell not?  That and some better photos, we were concentrating on the music instead of the visuals!

First step, we need to plan, and plan in detail.  There should be much planning.  I think it's probably my round.

Reunion? Well we should, shouldn't we?

With Tim & Paddy Bullen at James' Wedding

Life goes in cycles.  When you are in your twenties you get invited to lots of weddings as your friends begin to pair off.  Then you attend the christenings as they begin their families.  As those families grow and people move you lose touch until one day, you find yourself being asked for your fondest memories of them for their Eulogy.

Fortunately, we're not at the funeral stage yet, and hope not to be for a while.  Instead, sometimes a friend may marry again after a divorce as I have.  Some of my friends have done so more than once (you know who you are!), and so you get to do the wedding thing all over again.

We had our wedding disrupted by the Pandemic, so we could only have close family at the registry office ceremony.  Even my brother and family had to stand on the street with their noses against the windows, such was the restriction on numbers.

This last weekend we were invited to a 'second wedding,' and at last we had the opportunity to catch up with old friends that I'd not seen for at least 25 years.

Now this particular friend, James, was the Bass Player in the band I was part of at university.  James was a star in those days.  He was a friend of a couple of the other band members, all from Shaw near Oldham.  Whilst the other pair were students with me in Liverpool, James worked in Oldham.  He would drive over to Liverpool every weekend and spend it with us, rehearsing and gigging.  It was a serious level of commitment that was not appreciated enough at the time, even though we spent an appropriate amount of time and money in the pub.  Now James has three teenage lads, a new baby and now at last a lovely wife.

Also in attendance was Tim, who thirty years ago convinced me to spend my student grant on a Bass Guitar and amplifier to start the band with him.  Every time Tim and I get together the conversation eventually comes round to one topic: The Band.

With Tim at James' Wedding

We talk about the songs, the gigs and how we miss playing together.  We always come to some agreement that we should do something and then in the cold light of the morning we do precisely nothing about it.  Indeed, we have the same conversations between all of us.  Greg the singer, Martyn the drummer and of course James as well.  With the encouragement of a few pints, we can be on the verge of a full-blown reunion tour, but alas the enthusiasm fades as our realisation that the time required and the distance between us make the long slog of the rehearsal needed, an impossible task.

However, this time it might be different.

The band which we ended up calling Cotton, was formed in the autumn of 1992.  This was my first term at Liverpool University, with Tim on Guitar, me on Bass and a Drummer named Steve Kenny.  We rehearsed in the gym at the Greenbank Halls where we lived, at the foot of Penny Lane.  

After a few months we added a singer Greg Jefford, started rehearsing at the more professional Crash Studios in Liverpool City Centre and we even played a gig at the Aigburth Orange Lodge.  After a few months Jefford decided, (or Tim and I did), that he wasn't rock and roll material and so we replaced him with Greg Hambley, a friend of Tim's from Shaw.  Greg took this so seriously he transferred from Salford University to Liverpool so he could be a rock and roll legend 24/7.

Whilst Greg can play guitar, he wanted to concentrate on singing and so James joined us on Bass, and I moved to playing Rhythm Guitar.  The line-up was complete, we were ready for Britpop.

Over the next couple of years, we played in venues around Merseyside and Greater Manchester.  We went to the now long-gone Hard City Records recording studio in Liverpool and recorded a number of original songs.  We could count Janis Long and Clint Boon as fans, and even Terry Christian said we were 'shit', which is about the best endorsement you can get.

Playing Derby & Rathbone Hall JCR

Then Steve Kenny said he'd had enough and left.  Enter the "Octopus in a Blender" that is Martyn Keenan.  Martyn is a great drummer, and his skill pushed the rest of us to a higher level.  Things were going well musically but as happens in all relationship's cracks began to appear.

We were changing personally.  Tim, Greg, James and I had met the girls we would later marry, though for both me and James we would later divorce (not each other obviously!)  Tim had left Liverpool and was working in Manchester.  In the end we just fell apart and that was that.

However, in 1996 just before we broke up, we went into the recording studio and recorded four songs.  These have sat on an old 32-track master tape since then, unheard and collecting dust on Tim's shelf.  After watching the recent Beatles Get Back documentary, he suggested we do something with the old tape.  A little research found a company that could digitise the tape so we could recover the songs.  Initially we thought there were all 12 songs we had recorded on the tape.  We were very disappointed to find there were only the four, but once we heard them, we were blown away.  We all very quickly came to the conclusion, these songs were good, very good.  We should have stuck at it.

What could we do with the other songs?  Tim suggested we try collaborating at distance, recording our parts and emailing them to him to bring together.  James bought his first Bass guitar in 25 years, and Greg bought a microphone.  We started to work on the earlier songs which we don't have the master tapes for, those having been destroyed years ago.  It's a work in progress, but for the first time this century we're making music together.

But there's more as Jimmy Cricket used to say.  My son Tom, the Noel Gallagher impersonator, discovered the 12 songs, and some others that we had written but not recorded properly.  He was quite taken, describing our 'album' as better than Definitely Maybe, which I think is stretching it slightly.  Anyway, he and I performed two Cotton songs at our recent Dad & The Lad gig to a great reception, as I posted about earlier.

Dad & The Lad Play at The Coach House Inn, Bentham

Back at the wedding and quite well lubricated Tim took this news well.  So well in fact that the following morning whilst nursing his hangover through Manchester Airport he messaged our WhatsApp group.

"We're getting the band back together."

Maybe this time.  Maybe.

Judge for yourself by visiting our old and creaky Facebook page here

There are even some videos on YouTube although sadly James is missing here and here

Also, some of the original songs can be found here

Why Do I Want To Write?

 

I have toyed with the idea of writing for several years.  Every time I consider it I get excited by the prospect, think of the endless creative possibilities and freedom being a successful writer would bring, and then the doubts begin to trickle in.

“You don’t know how to write.”

“Stick to something you know, you’re a good and experienced teacher.”

“You’ll never make any money, you’ll just get rejected and look like an idiot!”

“You’ve got too much to do, you can’t spare the time, the kids need you.”

"You've never shown any talent in that area before.  Remember your GCSE English Coursework."

All this self-doubt of course is just an excuse.  Procrastination should be an Olympic sport!  Well with the onset of Covid-19 and having completed every DIY job on the list I find myself with no alternative but to finally take the plunge. 

Why do I want to write?  I want to express myself creatively.  

How thoroughly pretentious.  Well maybe, but there is something magical about creating a story.  Inventing characters and giving them their own hopes and dreams.  There is certainly something devilish in deciding their fate, whatever it may be.

There is also a pleasure in being able to relive events, people and places by describing them and commenting on the effect they have on me and those around me for the benefit of others.

Those that know me personally will say, "but you're in a band, you sing and play guitar and write your own songs."  Absolutely it is a lot of fun, and the three hooligans I share the stage with are my closest friends.  We have a great time doing it and long may it continue.  Nevertheless there is a creative itch that being in a rock and roll covers band doesn't quite scratch.  Generally people want to hear Blue Suede Shoes, not anything that I could write as a songwriter, although they don't always get the choice. 

So why not do another musical project?  An excellent question.  I have some musical talent and I could always play some solo gigs, or write and record a solo album. That's all likely to be the subject another blog post in itself.  I certainly have some plans in that area so stay tuned. 

But, I want to be able to scratch that creative itch in a different way.  I have stories to tell if I can find the audience to listen and indeed if I can express myself confidently with enough purpose.

It's that expressing myself confidently that is the difficult bit.  I suffer from anxiety as you might of guessed from the quotes above.  It's a legacy from working in some very toxic schools.  In such environments you are under constant scrutiny and the micro-management causes your mental health to suffer.  You can be a thoroughly resilient person, but the drip, drip effect takes its toll eventually.  Starting to write has helped me build some confidence again, but to get to this stage and actually trying to get articles published has been a real challenge.

Now with the support of family and friends I’m suddenly being all brave and taking some baby steps towards becoming a writer, but what have I achieved so far?  Well, if you're reading this blog then, obviously there is this!  I've been studying a writing course with The Writers Bureau, and I also had an article published in The Bentham News my local news magazine.

I've got a novel in progress and even an idea for a non-fiction biography, as well as a load of articles I've written as part of my course.  I'll be looking for more opportunities to get these published going forwards.

So what of the future?  I want to continue to hone my writing skills and develop enough self confidence to cast my anxieties back into the shadows.  I don’t expect to be JK Rowling, or even EL James, but I'd like to become a full-time writer.