Some great summaries in this week’s Takeaways. Well worth checking out are Tom Sherrington’s summaries of some of the best works in education (T1 and T2). Also, if you’re based in Australia, I highly recommend getting involved in the No More Marking comparative judgment trial this November or next Feb (T6).

I hope you enjoy this week’s takeaways : )

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The five key takeaways from Dan Willingham’s Why Don’t Students Like School, via @teacherhead, @DTWillingham, and @olicav

Dan Willingham’s Why Don’t Students Like School is the most recommended book on the ERRR Podcast and it’s also the book that introduced me to the model of working and long-term memory that lies at the heart of Cognitive Load Theory. In this article, Tom Sherrington shares the top five takeaways from Willingham’s book, with the fantastic graphical assistance of Oliver Caviglioli! If you haven’t had time to read the book and want the key takeaways, or if you have read the book and would like a refresher, then look no further!

Seven educational works that you need to read, via @teacherhead

Tom Sherrington does an absolutely phenomenal job of summarising and sharing what works in education. He’s a powerhouse. Here is a recent thread by him summarising seven of the most important works for educators to be aware of, and to read.

A collection of immersive films in VR for students to learn about different people, countries, and cultures, via @LyftaEd (ht @RethinkingJames)

James shared this really interesting tweet this week.

Here’s a brief intro video of Lyfta. It looks amazing!

12 strategies to support English Language Learners in your classroom, via @cultofpedagogy

For those teaching a student with very limited or no English abilities, there are some good tips in this article. I found the idea of a ‘silent period’ new and surprising. I also found point 10 to be especially important – don’t expect a student to speak for their entire culture. There’s also a link within here to a highly recommended book on the topic : )

How to use booklets in your teaching, via @adamboxer1

Booklets are gaining favour in many classrooms around the UK and more widely. Put simply, they are teacher created resources that integrate key information, practice, and (often) space for students to complete that practice. The booklet format gives teachers more control over what their students are seeing and doing, whilst avoiding the curse of the worksheets scrunched up in the bottom of a school bag. But there are many other benefits too. Adam Boxer lists those benefits, and describes how he uses booklets in detail, in this blog post.

A free introduction to comparative judgment for Australian Schools, via @daisychristo and @nmmarking

Comparative judgment is an extremely powerful tool for assessment. I recently spoke to the team at The Writing Revolution and they spoke about how it’s absolutely transformed their writing assessment process and enabled them to scale their work in a massive way without creating ridiculous marking workloads or losing assessment validity or reliability. Listen to me interview Daisy about comparative judgment here.

Put simply, If you’re an Aussie school, you should get involved with this free trial of comparative judgment. Runs in Nov 2021 and Feb 2022, and there’s a webinar all about it on October 26th!

6 Ed Tech tools to try in 2021, via @cultofpedagogy

This article (linked to in the tweet below) is a taster of six tools from the much more comprehensive Teachers Guide to Tech (over 450 tools). The tool I found most interesting on this list of six is the first one, Mote, which allows teachers to make voice comments on students’ (or anyone’s) work in Google docs! The Prezi Video program seems pretty handy too!

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