Running Intervention in 3 Simple Steps

Targeting

Effective intervention sessions should always be planned specifically for improving the knowledge, skill or exam skill of the pupils you are targeting and should never be generic revision sessions. Use your student’s PLCs and analysis of their mock exams to identify where you can help bridge the gaps. Targeting specific exam skills and reinforcing basic concepts are often easy wins. Ensure you read the last year’s exam report and identify any ‘silly’ mistakes that were frequently made so that you can prepare your students to avoid them this year!

Planning

Always ensure you are carefully planning your intervention sessions so that learning time is time well spent. Some teachers/departments/schools like to use the same format for each lesson. This can provide a comforting structure for many students but may be too ‘boring’ or restrictive for others. Remember to use what works best for your students. Here is an example of an intervention lesson format:

1. Exploring an exam question based on what was revised in the last lesson.
2. Marking and responding to feedback from the last lesson’s exam question.
3. Introducing Learning objectives for the topic or skill being revised today.
4. Teacher input on top tips, recap or more difficult areas of the topic.
5. Pre-planned revision activities including past questions – for more ideas see below.
6. Independent study time.
7. Plenary and quick quiz.

Ultimately remember that revision is like riding a bike or driving a car. Students should be so comfortable with skills or content so that in the exam they can answer questions with ease. The key to this is repetition. The key to this is repetition. You must revise content and then test, recap knowledge, learn from mistakes and repeat.

Having fun

Revision can often become quite tiresome and very stressful for students (and teachers!) Here are some links to boost the energy levels of your intervention lessons or revision sessions, avoiding the hours of poster making, lecturing or ‘silent revision’ that can lead to over-stressed students getting burnt out.

• Interleaving revision topics
• Six last-minute GCSE revision activities (the revision clock is a personal favourite of Josh’s!)
• Revision strategies that work
• Revision lessons don’t have to be boring – some ideas to spice it up!
• Top Tips For Delivering Effective Revision Sessions
• Retrieval Grids
• Memes – there are loads of EXAM memes out there that will cheer up students at the start of another revision session.
• Do not underestimate the power of a ‘walking-talking’ mock. Set out the room like the exam hall but do the exam with the students on a large front display showing them how an expert (you!) would breakdown and answer each question. Demonstrating this thought process can be very useful for students who panic in exams when they struggle to translate strategies from lessons into the exam hall.

Keep your eyes peeled on our social media for more revision ideas over the next few weeks, but for any other specific ideas or help planning please get in touch: training@prosperoteaching.com

If you require any support staff for intervention please get in touch with your regional Prospero office.