Active Learning at A Level

‘I forget what I was taught,I only remember what I’ve learnt.’

Dale Banham

& Russell Hall

THE WHEEL OF RESPONSIBILITY

Ideas to encourage reflection

• Model being a reflective learner • Provide regular and structured

opportunities … for example … - Learning Logs & Reflective Diaries - THE 5Rs LEARNING LOG.doc- Resource Record Sheet Template.doc- Writing Journals (cross-subject?) - Video diaries (using flip cameras)

Research taken from ‘The Cambridge Handbook of expertise’

• A key aspect of the historian’s task is the ability to select and define the issue to be studied.

• Problem finding is the critical first step in problem solving, and expert historians must have the skill at posing interesting yet researchable questions.

• Example (A2 Coursework – Germany 1890-1991)

GERMANY 1890-1990: An overview

TASK A: ESTABLISHING PERIODS • Place the ‘period labels’ in the correct time frame TASK B: ESTABLISHING A CHRONOLOGY • Chunk the pictures into 5 sections … check! • Order chronologically within each sectionTASK C: ESTABLISHING A NARRATIVE • Label each picture • Link the pictures (Concept Mapping) TASK D: ESTABLISHING A SENSE OF PERIOD• Place the video clip in the correct period TASK E: ESTABLISHING ENQUIRY QUESTIONS • What do you want to know? 3 questions for each topic. • Categorise the questions (using the key historical

concepts)

Using Video Clips to provide a sense of period

and to generate enquiry questions • A = Auschwitz: The Nazis & The Final Solution

(Documentary) • B = Germany Divided: The Berlin Wall (Documentary) • C = The First World War: ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’

(Novel & Film) • D = Life in East Germany: ‘The Lives of Others’ (Film) • E = Resistance in Nazi Germany: ‘Valkyrie’ (Film)• F = The Second World War: ‘Downfall’ (Film) • G = Weimar Germany: ‘The Rise of Evil’ (TV series)

Research taken from ‘The Cambridge Handbook of expertise’

• Some domains = ‘well structured’ …deal with problems that have a single answer, readily identifiable constraints and agreed upon solutions.

• History = ‘ill-structured problems’ …more than one possible answer, no agreed-upon solution … and little opportunity to use mathematics, formal logic or controlled experimentation.

Research taken from ‘The Cambridge Handbook of expertise’

• Techniques for problem solving, learning and discovery provide the historian with a means of systematising their inquiry, helping to constrain and interpret the material … In other words the historian is improving the structure of an ill-structured task.

Effective Feedback

• Use of department meeting time to ‘practise’ effective feedback … ‘What advice would really move this pupil on?’

• ‘Immediate’ opportunity to respond• Create a regular on-going dialogue where pupil to

teacher feedback is just as important as teacher to pupil feedback.

• Clarity of expectations … What makes an ‘expert’ historian?

• History essay codes and what they mean.pdf

Research taken from ‘The Cambridge Handbook of expertise’

• The goal of the historian generally is to study a particular topic and provide a coherent, interpretive, and persuasive account stating a position that usually but not necessarily is a narrative.

• Narratives are rhetorical constructions aimed at building a case for a particular position in a manner persuasive to readers.

Top 5 Tips

1. Plan your revision

2. Break information into small chunks

3. Stretch your memory … experiment with different techniques

4. Make sure you revise actively not passively

5. Regularly review key topics

TIP: BREAK INFORMATION INTO SMALL CHUNKS

1. Skim your notes

2. Divide your notes into sections

3. Reduce your notes for each section to 3 or 4 sides of A3/A4

4. Reduce your notes for the unit/topic to one sheet of A3/A4

TIP 5: Keep reviewing your notes

• After 1 day 54% was remembered

• After 1 week 35% was remembered

• After 2 weeks 21% was remembered

Make your learning stick

• Learn a topic • Repeat within 24

hours • Repeat again for 10

minutes at the end of the week

• Repeat again for 10 minutes two weeks later

• Repeat again for 10 minutes one month later

HOMEWORK • 1 novel (at least one chapter) • 1 film or documentary• 1 question

Week 1 tasks.doc

Watching Lists …

Understanding historical interpretations (1) Anti-Reagan• Interpretations Bingo: What techniques does the

documentary maker use? • How are these similar to the techniques that historians

use? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvVAPsn3Fpk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

(2) Tribute from the 2004 Republican convention

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By_Mann9p_I&feature=youtube_gdata_player

• What would you expect to see? Expect to see Bingo!

YOU TUBE CLIPS on Reagan Tribute from the 2004 Republican convention http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By_Mann9p_I&feature=youtube_gdata_playerAnti-Reagan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvVAPsn3Fpk&feature=youtube_gdata_playerThe Reagan Legacyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmtNJdX0Q44&feature=youtube_gdata_playerTear down this wall speechhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjWDrTXMgF8&feature=youtube_gdata_playerCIA says Reagan had nothing to do with ending of the Cold War http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWolDwBO1nM&feature=youtube_gdata_playerGorbachevhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNocYwG9fDs&feature=youtube_gdata_playerPope John Paul IICarl Bernstein (on why the Pope threatened Communismhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-2iOLN9m_0&feature=youtube_gdata_playerPopular Protesthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDUYNtGvs5Q&feature=youtube_gdata_playerhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loAR7XPWQ1o&feature=youtube_gdata_player

KEY QUESTIONS: 1. What is the main message? Who was responsible for the end of the Cold War? 2. How is this message conveyed? What techniques are used? 3. How credible is this interpretation? Use the 5Cs test!

What makes a quality essay?

• Coherence (organisation and focus on a central theme)

• Chronology • Completeness (use of all available evidence

that supports/opposes) • Contextualisation (placing the subject matter

into a broader perspective)• Causation (demonstrating convincingly that

events or actions produced particular consequences … providing linkages of events and actions)

Key Messages

• A good enquiry must grab the pupils attention in the first lesson. Make them want to ‘read on’… well beyond the lesson.

• History provides examples of

the power of fateful, small acts.

• History, in its richest sense, must be both a study and a

story.

CIVIL RIGHTS COURSE OUTLINE.doc

Research taken from ‘The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise’ (Writing)

• Effortful exertion to improve performance

• Intrinsic motivation to engage in the task

• Practice tasks that are within reach of the individual’s current level of ability

• High levels of repetition

• Feedback that identifies strengths and provides specific advice on how to move forward

Why is this important?

• Serious writing is at once a thinking task, a language task, and a memory task.

• ‘On the one hand, there is the problem of what to say. On the other hand, there is the different problem of how to say it.’

• This can place severe demands on students. • The emotional demands of writing are just as

challenging as the cognitive demands. • Believing that the writing task is intrinsically

important is sufficient for many writers.