Active Revision is much more than reading cue cards or pages of notes. Active revision is where the students take on board what they know, what they need to know and how they are going to fill in the gaps.
In this Focus on Sound Pro blog I will be considering how I am using the platform to make revision active.
Revision
Is there a word worse than “Revise”? I think when students hear that word they shudder with fear and loathing. It isn’t really the most fun thing to think about and I think back to my school days and I totally get it. But they do need to prepare for exams and I guess the best word to sum this up is revision. It is easy to make revision fun and engaging when our students are in front of us. But what about when they are at home preparing for exams.
Revision at home can be harder – or at least not anymore thanks to Focus on Sound Pro.
But how can we ensure that active revision is taking place? And what exactly do I mean by Active Revision
Active Revision
Active revision is the kind of revision that involves, searching, exploring, listening and watching. It isn’t just about sitting and mindlessly reading facts. It is pursuing knowledge and exploring material. When students are active, they are engaged. This is good for their brain, and they are also having the chance to listen to music rather than just read about it.
We can encourage this by pointing them towards what they need to know, rather than what they know already. It is easy, and rewarding, to read over things we already know. We feel better, but yet we often don’t learn what we need to learn. Our job is to therefore help our students to see what they need to revise and then show them how to do it.
Using Focus on Sound
Focus on Sound is a great platform for this type of revision. Key terms are linked to audio, and all of the set works are there and ready to explore. Key terms are brought to life with audio and video, and students can feel confident that they are covering all their bases. I encourage students to actively search for words they don’t understand, exploring new pieces and instruments along the way.
- Generate lists of key terms and get them searching for them on FoS.
- Provide them with definitions and get them to find the key terms.
- Signal to students the pieces of music within FoS that will help them with their understanding.
- Provide quick quizzes for them to complete and maybe set them a time limit.
- Put together bespoke lessons in FoS that students can then work through.
Focus on Sound Pro is a way of ensuring that students are getting the right content. They are also not simply reading words, but hearing them in action as they go. It is all about the process of revising and how we ensure that this process is active and engaging for the students. We can teach them how to use the dictionary in lessons and then feel confident that they will use it at home. And we can even ask them what topics, words or themes they would like us to add to a test.
Actively Revising
Active Revision will be something students enjoy much more than simply reading from a page. Actively revising will lead to greater engagement with their learning. It will also ensure that they cover what they need to know. Having a platform like FoS is perfect for active revision. We provide students with the login and let them generate their own learning from there. And of course, we can also provide a quiz or two along the way to test their knowledge. Short tests help them with retrieval and also add to the active nature of their revising.
It is important that students know what they need to learn, but also have the place to go when you as the teacher aren’t there. Active Revision means taking ownership, exploring what they need to learn and enjoying the process. I believe that Focus on Sound is a great tool for this and also Active Listening – but that is for another blog.