Grade Transformation Blog

Grade Transformation Blog

No.1 in Transforming Students’ Grades

Archive for March 2017

How Self-Aware of Their Study is Your Teen?

It struck me recently that  a significant proportion of students are just not clear on what study really involves or what elements actually comprise their study.

In this video I share a few key questions that will help your teen REALLY figure out what’s holding them back and how they can get on that fast track to amazing grades and confidence!

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My Slack Warm-Up Vs. Your Teen’s Breakthrough

It is so much easier to use the efforts and the experience of others, to help us get where we want to go. As a result , we can often get further and do so faster than we might’ve done by making our own way or trying to figure it all out for ourselves.

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Choosing a great topic for an open-ended task

Recently I’ve been doing some unexpected Y12 Writing Test marking for state exam trials.

This wasn’t originally in my calendar for this year, but it’s been a great opportunity to get trained in another type of mark scheme and another national exam. Being an extended response Writing Test, students have a reeealllly wide choice of options of where to go with it.

Some students love that – But for most students (even those who are strong in English) this is a real challenge. I’m the same – I really struggle without guidelines, parameters and some specifics.
So, as a direct result of my marker training AND marking 142 Year 12 diagnostic tests, here is my triple A strategy for picking a focus or topic for any open-ended task – that your teen can use in ANY subject.

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Structure and Deadlines (& practicing what I preach!)

This week I thought I’d show that I practice what I preach!
I’ve struggled a bit recently – for time (cue inner cries of “I’ll never get this all done!”) – and to actually get my head around an external marking task.
I’ve been marking 121 Year 12 Writing Test Trials because the opportunity to get trained and get practice in marking yet another type of exam was just too good to say “no” to 🙂
But it’s shown that (as we all know really) a deadline pushes us to work harder and faster, especially when it feels like you’ll never get it all done!
Moreover, it’s proven that a clear structure and professional training can turn any task that feels a bit fuzzy or brings uncertainty and even a little confusion into a clear, simple and repeatable system.

 

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Using Templates to Structure Responses (the PQE example)

I’m a big fan of giving students templates for top quality answers that can be applied to any subject and an infinite number of topics.
Structural templates give students a kind of skeleton to hang their knowledge on.
One of these templates is PQE and I share it here as an example of how good templates can work.

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