Thread by @socwarrior

Knowledge organisers and avoiding inflexible knowledge: A thread 🧵
The @ollie_lovell and @HFletcherWood ERRR podcast on responsive teaching, got me thinking about some of the pros/cons of #knowledgeorganisers and if sharing how at @BeckfootSchool we try to mitigate
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inflexible knowledge i.e. students only ever encountering the knowledge in one format, their learning being 'shallow' and their #schema being overly simplistic. When we first introduced KOs, @Nikki__Sullivan, our amazing @BeckfootTL team, and I trained students to self-quiz
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using a very basic 'Look, cover, write, check' method. This was great to start with, because we went from students doing practically no retrieval practice under their own steam, to them at least doing something. But we soon realised that this wasn't helping students to really
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understand what it was they were now able to recall more fluently. Reading books by @KateJones_teach, @greeborunner & @EnserMark, among many others, and some generous time for conversations with @MarkMillerTeach helped us to develop a strategy that aims to fill that gap.
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Our strategy is an approach to students doing independent work with their KOs and is supplemented by a wide and varied range of rehearsal and retrieval work done in the classroom. This ensures that students encounter the knowldge they need in many different formats, which is
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vital to ensuring they build really well-developed schema and can be really flexible in terms of how they recognise and understand what they have learned. The strategy has the very 'catchy' title: 'Quiz It, Link It, Map It, Shrink It' (QILIMISI) and is one element of our
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'Knowledgeable and Expert Learners Framework' which I have posted about before. Students are given Independent Learning Booklets each half-term (ILBs). These contain every KO they need for the half-term, along with dedicated space to complete the QILIMISI activities.
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These pages are in a repeating pattern of A4 sides that look like this:
(Thanks to @BeckfootEnglish for permission to share their KO)
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Quiz it: Students fill in pre-identified parts of their blank knowledge organisers, from memory, and use the completed version to check and correct. We use Look, cover, write, check for rehearsal (if students are encountering the info for the first time) or
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Just 'cover, write, check' for retrieval practice (to ensure students are definitely recalling from memory).

Link it: Students choose 3-6 knowledge items from their KOs, and write three sentences to show how they link together. This could be any combination of:
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a compare/contrast statement, a cause/effect statement, or a support/refute statement. Students are also encouraged to explain these statements using 'because...'. This helps them to develop their understanding and make more sophisticated connections in their schema.
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Map it: Students choose an appropriate way to represent the knowledge from a section or topic with a graphic organiser. They choose from an initial selection of four but can then diversify as they progress/become more skilled.
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Shrink It: Students are taught to effectively summarise as part of our literacy strategy, and they use this skill to write a summary of the topic to show their understanding.

All these techniques are explicitly taught through our metacognition tutor programme @MissHolmes_PE
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explained in our ILBs, and supported by video walkthroughs which can be accessed on our website here: beckfoot.org/students-learn…
We encourage students to do 20 mins of QILIMISI (independent learning) a day, alongside homework tasks. They choose the topic, and activity, but over
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the half-term this provides a natural variation and offers students some agency/choice.
We launched this strategy in June last year and so far, we are seeing a real improvement in both the amount and the quality of students' independent learning, and feedback tells us that
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KOs are highly valued by staff, students, and their families.
Of course, this strategy in and of itself does not entirely negate the problems of inflexible knowledge, but as part of a wider curriculum, which incorporates a wide range of different encounters with that
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knowledge, we're getting there! It certainly helps to ensure that students are doing much more with their KOs than they were before. As with any strategy, the success comes down to how you adapt and refine it to suit your own context, and we will of course continue to adapt
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and refine our approach as we go.
I couldn't finish this thread without thanking our wonderful colleagues, students, and families for their unending support. They have all been integral to the implementation of this strategy!
@BeckfootEnglish @BeckfootMaths @BeckfootScience
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@BeckfootCreate @BeckfootHums @BeckfootPE @BeckfootMFL @BeckfootTrust
We would love to hear any other ideas about how KOs can be used really effectively to aid the development of more sophisticated schema building. Please feel free to retweet or comment!
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