Making the Most of Independent Study (Revision Homework) Time A Guide for Pupils and Parents

There are five key strategies which have been proven to be the most successful methods of ensuring that learning ‘sticks’:

How you could use Quizzing: What Quizzing is: Repeatedly quizzing yourself (or a friend) on what you have got to learn. This technique has been shown to have the highest impact in terms of supporting learning! How you could use Quizzing: Using flashcards with questions on one side and answers on the other – keep testing yourself. Create quizzes for yourself and for friends – share them with each other and keep testing! Create ‘fill the gap’ or matching exercises for you or a friend to complete . Create multiple choice quizzes for you or a friend to complete.

How you could use Spacing: What Spacing is: Spreading out your learning over a longer period of time. This is proven to be more effective than cramming revision into blocks! If you come back to learning after a few days or weeks then you will have to think harder about it and this actually helps you to remember it more. How you could use Spacing: : Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Macbeth Maths revision topic 1 BTEC PE topic 2 Science: Electrical Circuits French topic 2 Geography topic 2 Poetry Science: Enzymes Maths revision topic 2 Geography topic 1 Science: Plum Pudding Atom Model Maths revision topic 3 BREAK Lord of the Flies Geography topic 3 BTEC PE topic 3 BTEC PE topic 1 French topic 3 French topic 1

How you could use Elaboration: What Elaboration is: Asking yourself (or a friend), extension questions about what you are studying. The questions must allow you to elaborate on (deepen and develop) your learning by clarifying, analysing, speculating or contextualising. : How you could use Elaboration: Ask these key questions: CLARIFY – What does this mean? ANALYSE – Why does this matter? SPECULATE – What would happen if? CONTEXTUALISE – How does this relate to? :

How you could use Chunking: What Chunking is: A chunk is information, such as an historical timeline or a dance routine, which has been grouped together or ‘chunked’ into a concept. Chunking is the way by which we develop our understanding of the world and is the reason why we can learn staggering amounts of information – by grouping things together and treating them as one idea we can internalise incredibly complex ideas and processes. : How you could use Chunking: Create banks of flash cards with chunked information: use headings and titles for different sections use bullet points to summarise and clarify important points use tables to summarise large amounts of data combine quick illustrations with text to create visual associations

What Metacognition is: How you could use Metacognition: Thinking about thinking! Effective metacognition controls highly important aspects of our minds, including motivation, self-review and setting personal targets for ourselves, and will power. : How you could use Metacognition: It is a way of mentally stepping back from a process to consider the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of what we do, such as answering a question in an exam, or going through a set of moves in a performance, and reflecting on how these processes can be improved. :

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