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Session 5. Class Time for Practice and a Fair Review
Objective. Plan class time that is mostly practice and feedback, and review a blended unit with simple evidence of completion, learning and equity.
The reason to flip or blend is simple: to give pupils more time to practise with you beside them. If the freed time is spent on another explanation, nothing is gained. And if the unit looks successful on average but a few pupils never had a route, the design is not finished. This session covers how to run a practice-centred lesson and how to review a blended unit with four simple kinds of evidence, looking at learning and at fairness together.
Key ideas
Class time as a practice workshop
- Aim for at least 20 of the 45 minutes with pupils working and you coaching. Use tiered tasks: must do (core), should do (extension) and could do (challenge) on the same idea.
- Useful practice formats: pair problem solving, error hunt (find the mistake in a worked solution), stations, and a short quiz in pairs with an answer key.
- Start from what pupils brought: use their questions and the entry-ticket errors to choose what to practise.
Feedback during practice
- Walk with a purpose: look first at the pupils from the 'red' group of the entry check. Give short, specific comments ('check the unit in line 2') instead of rewriting the work.
- If three or more pupils make the same error, stop the class for two minutes and fix it at the board once.
- Teach 'ask three, then me': a pupil asks three classmates before the teacher. It frees you to work with a small group for 8 to 10 minutes.
Fairness inside the lesson
- Pupils who prepared by print or school time are equal to those who used audio or video. Do not praise or rank by route; ask about the idea, not about how it was received.
- Make mixed groups so that a pupil who struggled alone has a partner. Never plan an in-class task that needs a home device.
- Share school devices with a simple timetable (for example 10 minutes per pair at a station), so access in school is fair too.
Reviewing a blended unit with evidence
- Collect four simple things: completion by week AND by route; entry/exit-ticket results by group; a 5-minute observation note (practice minutes, who got feedback); a 3-question private pupil survey (time, access, what helped).
- Look at the average AND at who is left out. A good average can hide a few pupils with no route. Check whether the weakest results cluster in one group.
- Write a unit review note: what to keep, one or two changes (for example, a new route or shorter task), and how you will check the change next time.
Illustrative: pre-work completion by route in a sample class (%)
Practice you can see and coach
Guided practice works when pupils have a task they can mostly do, you can see their work, and feedback arrives while they are still working. Researchers such as Rosenshine described this as checking understanding often and guiding pupils through steps before leaving them on their own. Tiered tasks (must, should, could) keep everyone busy on the same idea, and an error hunt (find the mistake in a worked solution) gives pupils a way to practise noticing errors.
Plan the minutes. For example, in a 40-minute lesson: 6 for the entry ticket, 6 for clearing the one common misunderstanding, 24 for practice with 8 of them coaching a small group, and 4 for the exit ticket. Teach 'ask three, then me' so you are free for the pupils who most need you.
Looking beyond the average
An average hides the pupils the design did not reach. Count completion by route, not only by week; compare entry- or exit-ticket results across the same groups; add a short observation note (how many minutes did pupils practise? who received feedback?) and three private survey questions about time, access and what helped. Small numbers matter: three pupils with no route are three pupils.
When you find a gap, change the design before judging the pupil: a new route, shorter task, larger print, a different time slot or a buddy. EEF guidance reminds teachers that technology helps learning only when it supports good teaching, so judge any blended design by what pupils learned, and keep the review note short enough that you will really write it.
Examples from the classroom
Malika's 40 minutes
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 6 mathematics in Tashkent on adding fractions. After a flipped input she plans: 6 minutes entry ticket, 6 minutes on unlike denominators at the board, 24 minutes of tiered practice (must, should, could) with 8 minutes coaching a small group, and 4 minutes exit ticket. Pupils practise for about half of the lesson.
Insight. Practice-centred lessons are planned in minutes; the teacher's explanation is one short block.
Aziz's error hunt
Scene. Aziz teaches Grade 7 geography in Fergana. After a reading on cotton and climate, he gives pairs a short worked answer with two deliberate mistakes: wrong rainfall units and a wrong conclusion about the north. Pairs find and fix the mistakes in 10 minutes, then write their own answer for a different region.
Insight. Finding errors in a worked answer is active practice that uses the input without repeating it.
Dilnoza reviews the unit
Scene. Dilnoza finishes a three-week flipped unit in Samarkand. Average results rose, but when she lists completion by route she finds that five pupils from far villages did the pre-work in fewer than half of the weeks. A survey says the school slot is before their bus arrives. She moves the slot to a break and gives them a larger-print page and a buddy.
Insight. A good average can hide pupils left out; the review changes the route, not the pupil.
Common pitfalls
- Using the time saved by flipping for a second explanation instead of practice.
- Judging the unit by the class average alone and missing pupils with no route.
- Collecting data that is never used to change anything.
- Making the review so long that it is never written; one page and one or two changes are enough.
Review a Blended Unit
- Read the SAMPLE evidence in the Kit: a three-week flipped unit on fractions in Grade 6 (34 pupils): completion by route, exit-ticket results by group, an observation note and pupil survey comments.
- Pairs (15 min): answer the review questions: who is left out and why, which outcome is weakest, how many minutes pupils practised.
- Pairs (10 min): write the unit review note (keep, two changes, how to check) and plan the next 40-minute lesson with at least 20 minutes of practice.
- Groups (10 min): swap notes with another pair. Check: does the note name the pupils or group left out? Is each change specific and testable? One comment each way.
- Alone (5 min): write your classroom action task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which number in the data would you have missed if you looked only at the class average?
- What is one change that costs no money and helps the pupils left out?
- How will you check next time that the change worked?
Reflect
- In your last lesson, how many minutes did pupils practise, and how many did you talk?
- Which pupil in your class would not appear in an average?
- What is the first change you will keep after this course?
Try it tomorrow
- Plan your next lesson in minutes with at least 20 minutes of practice and a small-group coaching block.
- After the unit, make a one-page review: completion by route, ticket results by group, practice minutes, three survey answers.
- Write one change that helps the pupils left out and decide how you will check it next time.
Further reading and links
Use most of the lesson for practice and feedback, and judge a blended unit by who learned and who was left out, not by the average alone.