GCSE Geography Revision Questionnaire: 2 of 4

Second of 4 posts summarising the 94 responses I had to my GCSE Geography revision questionnaire that I had on a Google Form earlier in the year....


The second part of the questionnaire asked teachers and students to assess the value of various common methods of revision.


I asked students to rate them on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 was never used / not useful and 5 was always used / really useful


Here are the average scores for each of the methods....


Copying out Notes: 2.4
Summarising Notes: 3.7
Flash Cards: 3.4
Revision Sessions at School: 4
BBC Bitesize: 3.2
Practising past paper: 4.3


The next question produced some very lengthy responses from some respondees, some of which are repeated below.
I hope that these might be useful for some last minute revision as we move into exam season after the May Day Bank Holiday....


How else do you revise / help students revise other than what has already been mentioned ?


I don't have room to go through them all here, but will be using some of them for future posts for purchasers of the Badger GCSE Book....


One teacher provided a 7 point programme for revision, which sounds quite useful:

Usual exam practice in class with students goes like this... 

(1) Deconstruct question by examining command words. 

(2) Identify content that needs to be addressed in the answer

(3) Generate a writing frame

(4) Have a go at writing an answer

(5) Peer assess work

(6) Compare with a model answer 

(7) Identify individual points for improvement.

Here's another sample of the respondees ideas that I particularly liked... a quick ten to kick us off...

1. Pass the parcel exam question answer formation

2. I use a lot of spider diagram / mind maps over a single sheet of A3 per section - colour them, use images etc

3. Blog with daily 20 minute activities in the run up to the exam

4. Dart board games - checkout requires students to hit the correct words in order.

5. Rely on good classroom teaching!

6. We have an integrated system of GCSE revision which we are gradually building. I have written 3 revision guides - one for each unit - specifically tailored to the course and the case studies we use - they are quite chunky but they become active workbooks during the revision lessons

7. Dealing with dyslexics - we make audio recordings for them to listen to on their MP3

8. Tarsia puzzles

9. Ridiculous actions to remember things 

10.  Visual prompts around school (this idea features in the Badger book with some examples....)

Next post - which topics are the 'hardest to revise' ??

GCSE Geography Revision Questionnaire: 1 of 4

Earlier in the year, as part of the preparation for the publication of the new Badger GCSE Grade Booster book (have I mentioned that  ?) I put a GCSE Revision Questionnaire online as a Google Form.

The Badger book has a section on using Google Docs to help revision by the way.

In this and the next three posts, I shall go through the results that came in.

Thanks to the 94 people who answered the questions...
There were 64 teachers and 30 students (thanks to Liz Smith's class who answered the questions in particular)

Specifications being taught (teacher responses only)

AQA A: 17 - the most popular

AQA B: 7

Edexcel A: 5

Edexcel B: 10

OCR A: 3

OCR B: 12 - the 2nd most popular

WJEC A: 5

WJEC B: 3

CCEA: 1

iGCSE: 1

Websites used to help with revision

BBC will be pleased to hear that BBC Bitesize got 65 mentions, the most of any other website by a long way.

S-Cool: 21

Nings: 8

You Tube: 2

Geography all the Way: 5

Anthony Bennett's seminal Internet Geography: 5

Cool Geography: 6

GeoBytesGCSE (Rob Chambers): 1

SAM Learning - mentioned by some of the students but not the teachers - probably relates to a school subscription

Funky Geography: Liz Smith’s blog

BBC Class Clips: 3

Staffordshire Learning Net and Forum: 5

Terry Jones also shared some Revision Flashcards on SLN: http://learningnet.co.uk/geoforum/index.php?topic=7122.0

Well done to Henry Scott for starting his own revision blog too....

Letts Revise: 1

Geography Lost: 1

School's own VLE: 7

Abbeyfield Humanities Blog got 2 mentions - nice work by Mr. Drake

Blythe Bridge School website - which apparently has "good revision sheets": 1

Share Geography: 1 

Geography Clinic: 1

Worldlywise Wiki from Chesterton Community College: 2

GeographyPods.com: 1

Revision World: 2

Revision Centre: 2

Geographyfieldwork.com: 1

NGFL: 1

Kerboodle: 1

Radical Geography: 1

NGFL Wales: 1

BBC News: 2

Edmodo: 1

TES: 3

In the next 3 posts: 

- how best to revise - techniques and tips from colleagues

- which topics are hardest to revise ?

- how can smartphones and apps help revision ?

And of course you know what to do if stuck for ideas....

Thanks to all who contributed...

Have just been sending thanks to those colleagues who contributed ideas to the book - you are mentioned in the acknowledgements in the book...
These are not in order of importance, but just as they happened to feature and come to mind. I like to use the phrase 'standing on the shoulders of giants' on occasions like this...

To see the actual ideas in full, you'll need to order the book of course...

Thanks to Sam Atkins for his idea of raising grades as being like climbing mountains. Also for being a GA NQT Conference attendee earlier in the year...

Thanks to John Harrison, Assistant Head of the King's School, Peterborough for some ideas on memorable geography.

Thanks to Kenny O'Donnell for the Stepping Stones idea that I read about on his blog.

Thanks to Tony Cassidy for the Facebook idea which has gone down so well with everyone who's seen it, young and old...

Thanks to Emma Johns for her poster which I've been using for many years now.

Thanks to Noel Jenkins for some general sprinklings of ideas in various places, and the 'How to Google up your coursework' document that is referred to...

Thanks to Danny O' Callaghan for letting me refer to his work.

Thanks to Helen Nurton for some general revision ideas from materials produced for her school.

Thanks to Jo Blackmore for the production of a range of documents for the exam board NINGS which were adapted and fed into the thinking for some sections, and the examples of the Geography Speed Dating.

Thanks to Val Vannet for the Geodoku activity - more on that in a future blog post

Thanks to Matt Blackmore for the ideas on activities to support memorable geography including Keyword Facebook, DJing and a version of the Speed Dating activity

Thanks to Rob Chambers for letting me use a few sections from his GeoBytesGCSE blog

Thanks to David Riley for support through the TRIPTICO tool (see other blog posts relating to this tool)

Thanks to Steve Kidd for his BIGBURY activity which showed the value of some before and after images.

Thanks to John Davitt for the Learning Event Generator (and Richard Clarke for his Excel version which is included on the CD which comes with the book...) - this features in the 'Pick and Mix' section, which was going to be a little larger, but we were short of space.

Thanks to Russel Tarr for his Class Tools suite, which gets a mention.

Thanks finally to Andy Leeder, for the useful guidance he provided as part of the Suffolk Geography Conference in 2011.

Oh, and don't worry I did write some of the book still ;)

Author copies...

My author copies arrived today... looking great !

Just browsing and about to send e-mail thanks to those who had an idea featured in the book.

David from Triptico shows one of the tools featured in the book...

The book features the Triptico suite of tools by David Riley, with some ideas for how you might use them.
Here is a screencast which shows some ideas for using just one of the tools: Word Magnets, or 'Mystery Magnets'...

Those of you who have purchased the book should turn to Chapter 10: New Tools, which features Triptico and many other ideas for engaging learners...

Books in stock at the warehouse...

Thanks to Graeme Eyre for telling me that he had already received his copy of the Badger GCSE Grade Booster book that I wrote, and has already been using the activities today... he tried out the speed dating activity today for starters...
Here's a picture of some of the books in the warehouse ready for distribution, with thanks to Gracey at the warehouse for the pic...

Order yours now to avoid disappointment...

Further feedback welcome...

Think Link

Coming up to peak revision time as the exam season arrives....
One sign of that is the World Snooker at the Crucible, which certainly had a part to play in my revision at the time...

If you are coming to that time now, why not install the TRIPTICO resource, and make use of the new THINK LINK resource as part of that suite. Triptico is featured in the Badger book.

Add hexagons, with labels and notes - in different colours - stack them - re-arrange them, explain the links between them, arrange them in sequences, stack them in pyramids... Group them by recolouring them...
A great tool for visually working through a unit of work with the key ideas, or beginning to make connections between different parts of the course...

Purchasers of the book should turn to Chapter 7 for Revision Techniques

Controlled Assessment

The place of Controlled Assessment is uncertain, although what is clear is that there will be some element of coursework in GCSE related to fieldwork. Hopefully this will continue to involve a substantive piece of primary fieldwork.

It is important that students are taken on fieldwork which is carefully designed. This will have benefits beyond the obvious ones of helping with data collection. There are social benefits, as well as the way that physically visiting a place helps when it comes to the exam... It is easier to speak from personal experience than from a place that has also been seen in an image...

The Badger book features a section on preparing for Controlled Assessment to make sure that students make the most of it, as this is an area where a lot of marks can be lost.

Some further Controlled Assessment goodies will be shared here after publication...

As an example of how you may be able to support the students before and after the event, check out this little mini-site.
This Holderness website was created by Phil Wood: a teacher educator from the University of Leicester who is working with some Leicester schools to improve their Controlled Assessment performance.

Could you produce one of these for your CA ?
Why not try using POSTEROUS - the Badger book provides information on this easy to use blogging platform....

Final poofreading...

Just spent a few hours reading through and doing some final amendments on the CD that will accompany the book.
The final proofs were sent to me this morning and the book and CD both look great.
I look forward to the physical copies being available. Quite a few of the original planned activities failed to make the cut as the book's size wasn't infinite, and they will feature in future blog posts here.

There will also be further materials to support and update the contents of the book, which will make most sense, and be of most use, to those of you who are planning to purchase it of course.

Gone to the printers....

The book has apparently gone to the printers...
Order your copy here.

I spent yesterday in London exploring the Geography of the Olympics Park and its surroundings...
My Flickr images are here...


Badger have produced a Poster Set themed on the Olympics.