Why did we create the Do Now Tasks?
Following the return to school in September we at Barnsley Academy (BA) decided to focus on improving the starter aspect of lessons. From my own teaching this was an area I had struggled to be successful in (this is covered in further depth in my first blog post). However, the main takeaway was I had identified the main issue was consistency. Consistency in all aspects of the lesson from the style of questions, from when and if they would be included in lessons and my own expectations to the class once they enter the classroom. Since my last blog post, I have seen the positive beneficial effects of the Do Now Task and this blog post I am going to comment upon how they have been improved.
How have the Do Now Tasks been improved?
The Do Now tasks have been improved in three simple ways. Two of these improvements I covered during the last blog post and the third comes from an internal cpd project being ran at BA.
1) The first improvement conducted on the Do Now Tasks has been the signposting of when the knowledge was taught. My colleague created the current template which signposts when the knowledge was taught to the students: last lesson, last week or last topic. This seems to help reduce the extraneous cognitive load on the students and allows all of their working memory to be focused upon the question in front of them (The template can be seen below). Once the department has moved onto revision for Y11 from the 24/1/22 due to all knowledge being taught we will use a slightly different template created by my Head of Department which rather than highlighting when the knowledge was taught will signpost to the students what GCSE topic the question comes from, either: Medicine through time, Weimar and Nazi Germany or Early Elizabethan England (The template for this can be seen below). Luckily with the exam boards allowing us to drop a unit we have dropped Superpower Relations which has not been taught so far. How we will edit the template for future use to include this has yet to be seen.
2) The second improvement to the Do Now tasks in by far the most significant of all the changes and this is the types of questions. While I had started to experiment in using different question types previously, I have now fully embraced this factor. I use three specific types of question: specific knowledge questions aimed at improving students’ ability to recall this knowledge; true or false for building confidence and making sure the students read the question and finally multiple-choice questions. I use these questions strategically. For lower attaining classes I will use true or false. This is because these questions are the most successful in achieving easy wins with classes who may have behaviour issues or poor attendance. This then results in the students being more engaged in the lesson because they have achieved a good score in the Do Now Task and don't feel like they can't access their learning. For higher attaining classes I use more difficult questions which will ask for specific answers. This enables me to make sure their learning from previous lessons is within their long-term memory freeing up their working memory.
3) The last improvement is not an aesthetic change which can be seen, but it is in how I improve the follow up questions. During an internal CPD session at BA we looked at No Opt out as seen in ‘Teach like a Champion’. This improvement is focused upon improving engagement. For example, during the Do Now task below, after I received an answer for question 1, I would ask a student "Tell me a group whose standard of living did improve?" and if a student replied with "I don't know" I would use one of the four basic format/cues of no opt out from Teach like a Champion to get the right answer. This could be from this student or another. Therefore, it allows me to push students understanding further beyond the six questions asked during the Do Now task. As a department we have spent many departmental meetings discussing this and improving how and when we ask these kinds of questions.
The Do Now Tasks for the first week back at BA
Here I plan to provide you with examples of how I approached the Do Now tasks with some of my different classes at BA during our first week back so that the Do Now achieves its intended goals.
1) The first Do Now we shall look at is the one I completed with my Y11 class on their first lesson back. If you look closely at question 1 (pic is below this paragraph) the question asks the students “The Enabling Law enabled Hitler to remove democracy from Germany” and it is a true or false question. Most of the class said true as they had not fully read the question and were wrong because the name of the law is the Enabling Act. This may seem harsh, however, following the student's mock examinations completed and marked before the Christmas holidays an area of improvement, we noticed was that the students were not fully reading the questions. I put this question in to then remind the students of this and they were not happy, but they understood why it was there. Out of a class of 25 students only one student achieved a correct answer. I shall continue to do this occasionally to keep the class on their toes.
2) The second Do Now I shall show you is for a feedback lesson for my higher attaining Y9 class. Every question on the Do Now is related to common misconceptions of the class I picked up during marking their assessments. I use a group feedback sheet (as seen below) while marking, this enables me to pick up and misconceptions. As we can see in the picture below you can see my usage of the three question types. This then allows me the opportunity to reteach and iron out any misconceptions the students may have at the start of the lesson. For each different class the Do Now task will be different as the classes may have different misconceptions that need challenging to fixing.
3) Lastly, I am showing you a Do Now from a Y8 class where the collection of students I see from lesson to lesson changes. To try and gain an easy win and engagement from the class the questions I asked were primarily true or false. I said to all the students that even if you missed the lesson being taught, they have a 50% chance of being correct if they guess so long as you engage with the Do Now task. This supports BA’s usage of no opt out. Also, in a similar manner for my y10 group who have an Early Elizabethan mock exam on 12/1/21 I know the vast majority of students would not have completed any revision over Christmas. Therefore, I have identified what I believe in core knowledge and the Do Now questions broad in the content being asked. To further support student engagement, I have made them all true or false so that all students can take part and none can opt out.
Thank you for taking the time to read my second blog post. I hope to add to it sooner rather than later. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me @fisherhistory1