We all know that Covid has had a major impact on every aspect of all of our lives. We feel it ourselves and we see it in the classroom. For me, one of the classes where I see the effect most acutely is Y12. These students haven't had a full academic year since Y9 and missed their entire GCSE career. In real terms, this means no experience of revision strategies, limited experience of independent study (depending on the extent to which they engaged with online learning) and no real sense of how an exam works. Of course, the CAGs process was rigorous, but having a full year of schooling and summative eternal assessments is just a whole different situation to become used to.

At A-Level, we usually make a lot of assumptions about students: they can revise, they can complete work independently, they are motivated, they can have a go at complex tasks, and trust the learning process. This year, that simply isn't true, and it isn't fair to expect that of our students. Many students I have seen suffer from imposter syndrome or lack motivation after two years of working from their bedroom or kitchen table via Google Meet, and that's even if they logged in at all. They were able to hide under the cloak of online anonymity and not face any repercussions for missed deadlines. Now, they are struggling to deal with the expectations that A-Level places on them, which is a big step up without all the other things that have gone on.

With all that in mind, I thought I would share some of the strategies we are currently using to help students build their independence, resilience, and confidence in their ability. This is all a work in progress, and we adapt as we go, but these have been effective so far:

1. Retrieval

Everything revolves around retrieval for us. This year, it's about making that much more explicit. We use a variety of retrieval tasks from Kate Jones' books, and embed them at the start or end of lessons, as well as including them in structured directed study tasks (homeworks). I make sure I allow ample time for this too - it can be tempting to spend five minutes on a task like this and then rush on to cover all the content we need to, but spending a bit more time to ensure quality retention does pay off in the long run. 

2. Metacognition

Encouraging students to think about themselves in terms of their study skills, strategies and how they think is really beneficial if done well. Jennifer Webb's book talks about the impact metacognition can have, and we are aiming to integrate it thoroughly into our practice as well as signposting it to students. This happens at various stages during the teaching process and allows students to trust their own opinions and conclusions about themselves as learners, which in turn will hopefully help them become more independent. Some of the resources we use are below, and are mostly adapted from other generous eduTwitter sharers:

3. Scaffolding

Scaffolding needs to take place in a much more detailed way no. This takes the form of mastery packs (thanks, Jake!) and scaffolded task modelling before students attempt something independently. This is something that we do in a slower, more detailed way at this point (sentence frames, essay frames, vocab banks etc.), akin to KS4 teaching in some respects:

My Y13 Magazines mastery pack can be found here. My other mastery packs for various year groups can be found on my shared drive.

4. Modelling

This goes hand in hand with scaffolding and metacognition. Lots of live modelling, completing timed questions alongside students, and demonstrating the thought process behind planning and executing an extended essay, all help students see how they get to the end products. Importantly, demonstrating how you overcome challenges and correct/improve responses in real time really helps students to see and trust the process. 

5. Support with Expectations

We offer as much support as is needed, but with that comes an expectation that tasks are completed and independent study is happening. We are trialling compulsory study hours in our faculty area (currently one hour a fortnight) that exemplifies this: students will have our support if they need it at all, but they will also understand our expectation that regular study outside of lessons is expected. To further aid this, the structured REPs sheets (another Jake Barber idea) scaffold the independent study process for students and help them get the most out of their study time. We set one of these every two weeks, alternating with a Media Magazine article and discussion prompt or series of questions. This allows for wider reading to become part of regular study and practice.

One final thing to mention that I have noticed over the last few weeks is the importance of easy wins. It can easily feel frustrating as a teacher when the students in front of us are not what we would, perhaps, expect. But then, times are not what we expect right now, and these young people have been through an awful lot at a pivotal moment in their lives. They need high expectations, standards and routine in their lives again, but with that they also need our support, nurturing and care. Giving them some straightforward retrieval and task options allows them to feel success and feel like their intelligence and place in the room is validated. Praise and reward for effort is a huge deal as well - it can be cheesy and we can all cringe but they do love it deep down.

Ultimately, in a pandemic ridden post-lockdown world, we are all trying to navigate what learning and progress looks like as well as helping each other back onto our feet. Hopefully, some of these things might be useful to you. All my resources are on my shared drive, and if you can't find something let me know and I'll add it. Feel free to use, ignore or adapt anything. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next one!