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Session 5. Using Results to Adjust Teaching
Objective. Read class results for patterns, decide whether to move on, re-teach or regroup, and plan the checks of a unit on one page.
Collecting results is the easy half. The harder half is deciding, before the bell rings, what you will do differently tomorrow. Teachers who do this well are not the ones with the most data. They are the ones who plan a small number of checks, look at them quickly, and change something specific. This session shows how to make that a habit that fits inside a normal week.
Key ideas
Look for patterns, not averages
- A class average hides the problem: 58 per cent could mean everyone knows half, or half know everything and half know nothing.
- Do an item analysis: for each question, tally how many pupils got it right. It takes about 10 minutes for 30 pupils and 6 questions.
- Then look down the list: which questions were easy, which were missed by most, which split the class?
Read the wrong answers
- A wrong answer is information. If 11 pupils write 2/6 for 1/2 + 1/4, they added the numerators and denominators; that is a misconception, not carelessness.
- Separate slips (one pupil, different errors each time) from misconceptions (many pupils, the same wrong answer). They need different responses.
- Good multiple-choice items help: each wrong option points to a specific error, so a quick card poll shows what the class thinks.
A simple rule for what to do next
- As a starting rule of thumb: about 80 per cent or more correct, move on; between 50 and 80, a short whole-class fix; below 50, re-teach in a different way. Adjust it to the importance of the question.
- Re-teaching must be different: a new example, a drawing, folded paper strips, a pupil's own explanation. The same words louder do not help.
- If only 5 or 6 pupils share an error, use a small group while others practise, rather than slowing the whole class.
Close the loop and plan the unit
- Check that the re-teaching worked with one new question a few days later. If the answer is still wrong, change the approach again.
- Tell pupils what the class found and what you will do. Pupils who see the result used trust that checks are for their benefit.
- Use an assessment map for the unit: a one-page plan with each check, when it happens and the decision it will inform.
The response cycle
Plan the branches before you ask
A hinge question sits at the point where the lesson can go two ways. Before you ask it, decide what you will do for each result: if most pupils pick the correct option, move on; if many pick one particular wrong option, run a 5-minute re-teach aimed at that idea; if answers are spread, ask pupils to discuss in pairs and vote again.
A school team that used hinge questions found that writing good ones was the hardest part. Each wrong option must be a real misconception, and the question must be answerable in under a minute. Write a few strong ones for the key ideas of a unit, and keep them for next year.
Check again later: performance is not learning
A pupil who answers correctly at the end of the lesson may have only held the idea for a few minutes. That is performance. Learning is what remains after days, and what the pupil can use in a new situation. So a good check is often a delayed one: ask a key question again after a week.
Make this part of the routine. Begin one lesson a week with three questions from earlier units. Where results fall, re-teach briefly. Where they hold, space the next review further apart. A short, regular look back costs five minutes and prevents a larger reteach at the end of term.
Examples from the classroom
The inference question nobody got
Scene. Jasur gives his Grade 6 class of 30 in Bukhara a reading quiz with six questions about a Navruz story. Questions 1 to 4 are answered correctly by 25 to 28 pupils, but only 8 get the question that asks why the character was worried. He does not re-teach the whole text. He models one 'because the text says ...' answer and asks pairs to write their own.
Insight. Item analysis located one weak skill, so the response could be small and exact.
A hinge question on area
Scene. Mid-lesson, Malika asks her Grade 7 class in Tashkent to hold up a card: a rectangle has sides 6 and 4; which is the area? Twelve of 30 choose 20, the perimeter. She takes six minutes with squared paper to cover the rectangle, then repeats the question with a different rectangle. Twenty-six hold up the correct card.
Insight. Deciding in advance what each result means let her fix the error while the lesson was still on.
Looking back after a week
Scene. Dilnoza teaches Grade 8 science in Samarkand. On Monday, 24 of 28 pupils correctly name the stages of the water cycle. The next Monday, in a three-question starter, only 15 can. She adds a five-minute starter twice a week with questions from earlier lessons, and the number correct rises in later weeks.
Insight. A delayed check showed that correct answers on the day did not mean the idea had stayed.
Common pitfalls
- Looking only at the class average and missing the question that most pupils failed.
- Re-teaching with the same words and example that did not work the first time.
- Keeping so many records that no one has time to use them.
- Reporting results to pupils without telling them what will change.
Read the Results, Plan the Response
- In groups of three (10 min): study the item analysis table in your Activity Kit from a Grade 5 fractions quiz of 30 pupils. Write the percentage correct for each question.
- Decide (10 min): for each question choose MOVE ON, QUICK FIX or RE-TEACH, and for the two weakest questions write what you would do differently the second time.
- Plan (10 min): write a 10-minute re-teach slot for the start of the next lesson, including the new example and the check at the end.
- On your own (10 min): fill in an assessment map for one of your own units, with at least three quick checks and one summative task.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which question would the class average of 58 per cent have hidden?
- What is different about the second explanation of the weakest question?
- Which check in your assessment map has no decision attached yet?
Reflect
- What did the last class result tell me that I did not use?
- How will I know in a week that a re-teach worked?
- Which unit of mine could have an assessment map by Friday?
Try it tomorrow
- Pick one question from your last quiz and tally correct answers and the most common wrong answer.
- Write down, before your next lesson check, what you will do if fewer than half the class are correct.
- Start one lesson this week with three questions from a unit you finished last month.
Further reading and links
Count by question, read the wrong answers, decide to move on, fix or re-teach in a new way, and check again.