In this blog, I’ll share some last-minute practical tips for using Knowledge Organisers (KOs) for Unit 1. Over the years, I’ve printed and distributed these for GCSE classes across the department during the final months of the course. I’ve also used them for short, impactful revision sessions and some afterschool sessions that were roughly one hour. They were always great for recap and recall or mini-lessons, and they gave pupils a focus. (Some info about KOs here)

Lots has been written about KOs and their varying degrees of success, but I’ll say that these are derived from past papers, mark schemes, and the best pupil exemplars. Obviously, they aren’t a silver bullet, but they help make English revisable and accessible in the latter stages of exam prep. SEND pupils have used them with great success because not only do they include scaffolds and aid explicit instruction, but I have also tried to ensure a clear layout and reduced clutter. Parents have also found them useful for timed past paper and revision at home.

NQTs/RQTs love them too because they get a sense of what’s required for each question. You can use them to guide teachers through the paper or for marking some past paper questions together.

What are the benefits of an A3 format?

Maximize Your Learning Space!

• ‘Dive In or Dip Out‘: Tackle the Knowledge Organiser (KO) at your own pace. Whether you go through it step-by-step or pick tasks randomly, it’s all connected to the final exam.
• ‘Space & Pace’: Use the sectioned A3 layout to keep your work lesson on track and to avoid cluttered notes or booklets taking up space. Perfect for staying on track during timed exercises.
• ‘Fold & Focus’: Fold the page to fit your book and focus on one section at a time. Again, we use this for short timed exercises and to develop exam stamina and technique.

Using the KO for Task 1:

The first page focuses on scaffolds and the mnemonic ‘PERSUADE’ (other woodland mnemonics are available of course), but I have found that this helps focus minds on the key terms of the question. I do tell pupils to scribble this down before they even read the question and to bank some of the key sentence stems and triggers from the first section of the KO.

Revision Tip: This can be used as a highly effective ‘Brain Dump’ for revision as a starter or recap exercise. You can do this for various topics or past paper questions by writing short introductions, points of view or endings.

How can I use it for oracy based tasks or lesson warm-ups?

You can use the stems individually and write them on the board and then connect them to a topic. For example, the topic of school uniforms with the openers ‘To begin with’ and then ‘Is it any wonder…?’ These can be good for injecting a bit of fun if you want to use their own topics or ideas. Mini whiteboards are also great for these kind of exercises – the KO is as much a resource for the teacher as it is for the pupils who have them.

Openings, Vocab Extension and Endings:

Use this section to write engaging openings or lead-ins for anecdotes. You can also create a rule of three exercise on a certain topic or situation – they have two spaces and space beside to fill in their own vocab.

Alliterative phrases can be recalled purely by the very fact that they are, dare I say it, ‘catchy and memorable’ – of course the whole idea here is that they are used for effect – less is more with alliteration.

Endings tend to cause difficulty, so I have included some stems that can be used to write a few different ones. Again, you could split this section into parts or have it folded as a structure strip. I used them this week during a few lessons and the pupil really flourished once they got going. Again, this isn’t for everybody, but if pupils take one or two new ideas from the KOs then it will only enhance their writing and encourage them to explore other approaches. They are particularly successful with the SEND pupils I work with and teaching assistants can avail of them too by directing pupils to certain parts. (Click here for a brilliant guide for TAs)

The second part is split into thirds and can be used in the same manner as I mentioned above. The difference here is that I have added some past paper questions and approaches. I have also used the mark schemes to develop content.

Task 2: Using Mark Scheme Stems and Writer’s Techniques

Fold the page into thirds and then ask the pupils to read a Task 2 article and match the features up with the key phrases on the page – I do this for both writing and reading – it is a way of reverse engineering Task 2 so that they become familiar and comfortable with it. (Tip: use the Task 2 and 3 booklet I shared and line this up beside each task and use that as a jump off point or match up exercise.)

Sometimes I do this to build up some quick wins and momentum:

‘Can you match the mark scheme or answers to parts of the article? (Do it together on the board or using visualiser)

‘Ok, so here is a different article. I want you to label or highlight where you see these features.’ (Do on your own or in pairs and then go over with the whole class)

Read the Task 2 section again. Put it away and move to the next article and see how many features you can remember. Label and write about them. (Independently or after a series of lessons and model examples etc)

Task 3: Reading Non-Fiction

I shared the CPD power point on this and it is in the ‘Because-ing’ blog here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/-marginal-gains-cpd-using-because-to-unlock-task-3-13239511

Task 4 and 5: Reading Media Texts

I have shared the booklet for FREE on TES for you to download. Again, use the format to your advantage and make the connections between the text and image to help them understand the written section and what they are reading about.

Click here to Download the KO featured in this blog

Extra Resource: Peer Assessment and/or Mock Feedback:

https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/ccea-writing-mock-feedback-and-peer-assessment-12772100