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The school’s existing unit(s) (control) | The allocated timely practice topics (experiment) | |
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Unit of measure | timely practice layers are small bites of learning on each topic | |
Which topics will be taught in the trial | e.g. 1 of the 2 units of algebra from the SOL | e.g. all of the topics from at least one topic theme geometry and measure and some from another probability and statistics |
Auto pre assess the topics in the trial using timely practice | Set up class.controlBefore in timely practice app Add all topics within the unit to the scheme of learning | Set up class.experiment in the timely practice app Add all topics allocated to timely practice |
Preparation: time to fully assess learners on the topics before teaching begins. Before each lesson, create and print the assignments, after each lesson assess the completed assignments. | Allow 10 minutes from each of 6 lessons for learners to do a pre assess from class.controlBefore | Allow 10 minutes from each of 6 lessons for learners to do a pre assess from class.experiment. Not all topics will be pre assessed, but enough will be pre assessed that teaching may begin. |
Calculate number of layers each learner “already knows” | Take a snapshot of each topic in class.controlBefore. All the blue layers are the layers count as “already knew” | Take a snapshot of each topic in class.experiment before planning teaching for the unit. All the blue layers are the layers count as “already knew” |
Duration of teaching | The school will chose the units, and therefore the number of lessons of the trial. e.g. 11 x 1 hour lessons of a 3 week unit | The same number of lessons, but subtract time spent embedding learning after the teaching time. e.g. 11 lessons - 2 lessons = 9 lessons (see Wait below) |
Teach | Teach the unit as normal Revise and test after the unit as normal | Teach all the topics from the first topic theme (e.g. 11 topics from geometry and measure) and as many as is comfortable from another topic theme (e.g. 3 to 7 topics from probability and statistics). Continue to create pre assess assignments for learners who still have topics which are not fully pre assessed. |
Wait | Wait 6 weeks - no revision allowed | Continue with 5 to 10 minutes of timely practice 1st fortnight: every maths lesson 2nd fortnight: twice a week 3rd fortnight: once a week This might be 17 sessions of 7 minutes = 120 minutes , hence duration of teaching time has 2 lessons subtracted. |
Assess | Set up class.controlAfter in timely practice app. Add all topics within the control unit to the scheme of learning. Or if continuing with timely practice, add the topics from the control unit to class.experiment SOL Create and assess up to 6 pre assess assignments, allow about 10 minutes per lesson. All the blue layers are the layers from the control topics count as “now knows” | Take a snapshot of each topic in class.experiment after 6 weeks. All the medium and darker blue layers are the layers which count as “now knows”, the very pale blue layers are fragile - meaning the learner is still learning them, so they should not be counted. |
Calculate embedded progress | For each learner calculate: progress = number of layers “now knows” - number of layers “already knew” | |
Analysis | Compare the progress with both types of teaching. Compare number of layers learned from each topic. | |
control unit(s)
How we measure attainment
The teacher will use timely practice to assess the learners in 10 minutes per lesson for 5 consecutive maths lessons. We will calculate the number of timely practice bites of learning (layers) each learner already knows (i.e. is able to answer 2 questions correctly) from each of the topics in the trial.
How we measure the progress of the control units
We will re assess the increase in number of layers each learner knows 6 weeks after the end of the control unit. We ask that the 6 weeks is calculated from after any end-of-unit tests. This is because one of the reason learners become low attaining is that they more readily forget the learning of each lesson than their peers. We will then calculate
the difference between the total number of layers each learner “now knows” (6 weeks after teaching) and the total number of layers each learner “already knew” (before teaching).
How the SOL for a timely practice trial will differ
With a timely practice scheme of learning teachers will teach one layer per learner per topic and typically 1 to 2 topics per lesson. Knowing the number of maths lessons within the trial, will help the school to decide how many topics will need to be taught in the trial.
The time required to pre assess the learners on the topics in the timely practice half of the trial, will take longer, as there will be more topics. The teacher may begin the pre assess of the timely practice topics in 5 to 10 minutes of the control lessons (replacing a start of lesson warm up) or in another unit not part of the trial. The teacher needs to make sure that topics are fully pre assessed before teaching.
How we measure the progress of the timely practice teaching
The teacher must continue to create and assess a timely practice assignment for 2 to 6 weeks after the timely practice teaching. Normally, 2 weeks after teaching a topic, all the layers which will be embedded in long term memory, will be seen to be embedded or the teacher will have decided they are “best learned later”. So after 2 to 6 weeks (as suits the school) we will be able to calculate
the difference between the total number of layers each learner “now knows” (2 to 6 weeks after teaching) and the total number of layers each learner “already knew” (before teaching).
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In all schemes of learning we have encountered (to date) learners are taught 3 to 5 topics within 3 weeks (perhaps 12 lesson) control trial. If a learner was to take a GCSE exam tomorrow we would expect the number of layers learners “already know” for the 3 to 5 topics to be:
If the current scheme of learning uses retrieval practice, we will need to discuss with you, how to calculate when 6 weeks after the teaching of the unit should be calculated. timely practice unitThe number of layers a learner already knows from the timely practice trial topics will be larger (as we are measuring more topics), so in 3 weeks the number of layers the learners “already know” might be
The school should subtract the extra minutes spent on timely practice assignments (after the timely practice trial teaching) from the duration of the timely practice e.g. if timely practice takes 7 minutes per lesson for 16 lessons , the timely practice trial should last 112 minutes less (i.e. 2 hours shorter than the control trial)app uses a trial, verify, improve and verify procedure to find which layers each learner knows. It takes 2 consecutive questions asked and answered on a layer for it to be counted as “learned”. For the pre assess and post assess, there is no need to insist on strict test conditions as learners won’t be able to directly copy, because each is allocated a random starting question. However learners showing each other how to answer their questions should not be allowed. |