Chalkface Blog

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  • Seven ways to implement differentiation in Yacapaca

    My thanks to new member Yasmin Sheikh of Whitfield School in Barnet for asking why we show each question for 10 seconds before displaying the options. I realised that although we have worked like stink build opportunities for differentiation into every point of the Yacapaca process, I have never really explained them. Here, then is chapter and verse.
    1. Implicit differentiation: thinking time between question and options
      This gives students time to challenge themselves to get the answer before receiving the restricted possibilities of the options. This is a higher level of challenge, and it gives the student who manages it a great deal of confidence. You can gently encourage this by applauding the behaviour, but please don’t push students to do it if they don’t feel ready.
    2. Differentiation by time: Question speed
      Different students think at different speeds, but this does not correlate particularly with ability. Yacapaca times each answer from each student with an accuracy of (more…)

  • An exemplary way to deal with trolling

    Zahid RazzakWe have had a small problem recently with some students trolling the Peer Feedback system. If you are a teacher, you will know well that student empowerment can come at the cost of students being empowered to do the things they want and not the things you want.

    95% of these inappropriate comments got caught by our filters and human moderators, so it wasn’t a major issue, but I felt it was time to reverse the trend. I wrote to our power users – the teachers who set the most assignments, and who therefore, statistically, must be teaching the largest number of trolls. I showed them where to check their students’ Peer Feedback statements, and asked them to address any issues they found with their own students.

    I got a lot of really great responses from teachers, and even a few apology letters from students, but my favourite response came from Zahid Razzak at The British International School, Abu Dhabi. Here’s what he said

    Many thanks for sending me those lists, I will certainly use this as an opportunity for a constructive lesson on how to provide feedback to others and netiquette.

    Kind regards

    Zahid

    That’s the way to turn a problem into an opportunity!

    To check your own students’ Peer Feedback statements:

  • First ever 7th Dan badge winner

    7 Dan Student

    My heartfelt congratulations to Rohan Chaurasia at Bangkok Patana School for becoming the first student ever to receive a 7 Dan Yacapaca badge. If you have watched your students earn their White Belt in a day and their Orange Belt in two days, you may not (more…)

  • Are passwords necessary?

    harringtonI got a thought-provoking email this morning from Michael Harrington at Batley Business & Enterprise College. In the context of the undeniable inconvenience of logins and passwords, Michael pointed out

    A boy logging in and doing someone else’s work is making far more progress than sat complaining he cannot login!

    Equally undeniable.

    In the past, I have (more…)