Last year I shared a resource that I tentatively called a ‘Knowledge
Snapshot’. I couldn’t think of another name and so, whilst sounding a bit
gimmicky, it stuck and the feedback I received from those on Twitter who had
downloaded it was extremely pleasing. I did, however, receive a few messages
asking me why I created the resource and what exactly I was hoping to use it
for. Before we go on, I must stress that with any resource, context plays a
huge part in the thinking behind its creation. This is something that worked really well in my classroom so I thought I'd share.
Let me show you an example:
As you can see, the resource is meant to help students track
the progress of character development and/or theme over time. As I was making
this, I also considered how beneficial the format/idea was just in terms of my
own planning. It allowed me to map exactly what I wanted to teach my students
and a time frame for doing so.
I suppose the idea stemmed from Knowledge Organisers. They
seem to have taken education by storm and teachers are finding increasingly
inventive ways of using them. Having read Rebecca Foster’s fantastic blog on ‘Self
Quizzing’ and implementing that into my own practice, I tried thinking of other
ways that I could help teach students what was needed to give them the best
chance in their exam. As such, the ‘Knowledge Snapshot’ was born.
Now don’t get me wrong. You can’t just introduce a few
Knowledge Organisers into each unit of work and say you have a knowledge-led
curriculum. I know that and I’m sure you do too. Knowledge Organisers, however, are great
at showing students the bare minimum they need to know. This got me
thinking. What about the knowledge that is needed beyond that organiser? Obviously
this would be covered in lessons but what about the knowledge that is needed to
help students create their own interpretations of a text? I can’t tell you the
amount of times I wrote ‘explore multiple interpretations of a quotation’ as a
target after an essay in my first three years of teaching. Looking back, I
realise this was ineffective. It’s no use asking students to consider a
different interpretation if they don’t have the knowledge to form it first.
About now, you may start accusing me of using the Knowledge
Snapshots to tell students what to think. All they will do is read what is on
it and regurgitate the information in their answer. Well, yes and no. I like to
think of it as giving students a gentle nudge in a different direction so that
I’m not reading over and over again that Scrooge is ‘solitary as an oyster’
which shows he is alone and distant from the rest of society. Yes, that answer
is correct, but every student who studies ‘A Christmas Carol’ is going to be
writing something along similar lines. It doesn’t escape me for one moment when
I’m asking students to highlight the line ‘I wear the chain I forged in life’
that the majority of English teachers are going to have asked their students to
do the same thing and if I’m honest, that thought scares me a little. I’ll
often ask myself, how can I help students get something from this text which is
different? How can I help them shape ideas that are fresh and exciting, especially if they are aiming for an 8 or 9? What is
going to set them apart from every other student? Whilst these ‘Snapshots’ may not
be the answer to all these questions, I certainly feel as if they’ve helped me
take a step in the right direction in assisting students build their own
original ideas and thoughts.
They have certainly opened up some interesting discussion.
One of my students was so adamantly opposed to an interpretation I had included
on a snapshot that the rest of the lesson turned into a debate as to whether I was
right or wrong in my thinking. Students explained their ideas coherently and
concisely and most importantly, were beginning to discuss interpretations they
had thought of themselves because they now had the foundations in place needed
to build them.
We spoke in great length about the symbolic meaning of Eva
Smith’s baby (a part of ‘An Inspector Calls’ which I think is often
overlooked). Students were talking about why the baby has to die because there
is no place for it in society. The baby could act as a bridge between class
divisions and yet it is wiped out by the callous actions of Mrs Birling who is only
interested in self-preservation. We discussed how and why William Blake subliminally
includes the acrostic ‘HEAR’ in the third quatrain of ‘London’ and how this
could be a way of commanding readers to acknowledge that the oppression of
those living in the city is so widespread that it is actually audible. It may
just be coincidence that the first letters of Blake’s sentences spell this word,
but the fact he is describing the ‘cry’ of the chimney sweep and the ‘sigh’ of
the soldier in this part makes me think otherwise.
So how do I use them? I have self-quizzed with ‘Knowledge
Snapshots’ and have also found the PiXL ‘Thinking Hard’ strategies work particularly
well with them. (Reduce It, Transform It, Debate It etc). Other times I have
focused on just one piece of information on the resource and used it to
underpin what the lesson is about. They could also be used to help teachers
increase their subject knowledge.
These Knowledge Snapshots are a resource I will continue to refine both in and out of
the classroom. I hope this has been of some use and answered some of the
questions posed about this particular resource. All the snapshots I have made
so far can be found in my Dropbox on my Twitter page. I will add more as I make
them.
Stuart
(@SPryke2)