13th October 2017

How can you teach everything in the time you’ve got?

This is an age old question, and with the changes in A level politics specifications making even more demands of students in both the content they need to understand, as well as the analytical and evaluative demands of examination questions, it is the biggest concern for teachers.

How is it possible to cover all of the content and extensive practice of examination questions?

Unfortunately, often it is simply not possible to teach students in the depth we would like or do as much examination practice as we would like because of the hours allocated to the teaching of the subject at A-level. If you are teaching a single unit 2-3 hours per week is the average timetabled teaching time in schools and colleges, whereas if you are teaching more than this it can 4-5 hours per week.

With the old A-level specifications, at various conferences and courses, I regularly heard conversations between politics teachers about which topics they have chosen to simply not teach due to these restrictions. Feeling so pressurised to resort to simply ‘leaving out’ a topic and asking students to simply not answer a question on that topic that appears, is a nightmare for any teacher, and a huge gamble on getting ‘good’ questions for the other topics.

Whether you view it as fortunate, or unfortunate, the new A level specifications don’t appear to present this opportunity to reduce the content you teach, without hugely impacting the attainment of students. So…how do you teach everything with the time you actually have?

Top 5 Tips for alleviating the pressure of time constraints…

Set clear time based expectations for homework/independent study

Any A-level is reliant on students completing work outside of the lessons, whether it be reading and note taking, or applying their understanding to examination questions, or independent research. It is worth explaining to students that they need to be spending a similar amount of hours on homework/independent study as they spend in class. For example, if they are taught for 2 hours each week for Unit 1, they should timetable 2 hours of independent study or homework for Unit 1 every week. This might seem a far too simplistic solution, but believe it helps. Making it abundantly clear that this is the requirement for an academic subject will make it much easier to demand more independence from them, and will alleviate some of the pressure on your teaching time.
Plan homework and independent study well in advance

When planning the SOW for the new specifications, always include homework in your planning. This will give you the time to consider what you want students to gain from the homework task that corresponds to that particular lesson, or series of lessons. It is easier to consider how you could set a task that would consolidate and extend their understanding from the lesson, when you are planning the lesson. It is also easier to consider how you could even use homework to structure revision of previous topics alongside learning new topics, or prepare them for a new topic before they come across it in the lesson. Having homework tasks already prepared will help you avoid the pitfall of “Ok, finish reading this for homework” or “Right, just finish notes on this bit at home” that sometimes seems inevitable when the lesson time has flown by.

[Use our model schemes of work and homework tasks to help you! Take at look at our US Constitution SOW and US Congress SOW for the new A level as examples.]
Differentiate homework
Consider setting homework that will differentiate itself to students. For example, set a “red” homework task that is essential for all students (for example, reading and note taking to gain key information), then set an “amber” homework task for those students who need to further consolidate their understanding (for example, a simplified explanation of a concept on a website, or YouTube video, or additional article or worksheet that would support them). Finally set a “green” homework for those students are already confident with the content and concepts and need to be stretched and challenged (for example, this could be a reading task focused on a complex article or undergraduate level textbook extract, a research task that would allow them to broaden the range of examples they could use in an examination question). This will again help to alleviate some of the pressure on time constraints in the lesson, and encourage students to be reflective and independent in identifying their learning needs.

[Take a look at some of the differentiated homework tasks set at the end of our lesson powerpoints. For example, our lesson on the powers of Congress or a lesson on the amendment process for the US Constitution.]
Use flipped learning from lesson to lesson
Consider how you can move the burden of “learning stuff” outside the classroom and put the onus on students to independently acquire the knowledge they will need. Students will arrive at the lesson with the knowledge already ‘learned’ ready to then apply this knowledge or analyse or evaluate debates surrounding the focus of the lesson. This can be done on a small scale, such as asking students to read the Bill of Rights in the US constitution and write a simplified list at home, They could then arrive at the lesson already knowing what the rights are, and could be presented with a range of examples they need to match to each ‘right’ they have learned. Before progressing quickly on to a discussion about which rights are considered to be the most important.

[Take a look at our model SOW on the US Constitution and the US Congress to see how a flipped learning preparation task could be used between lessons.]
Use flipped learning for a topic
“Letting go” of students and allowing them to be truly independent is sometimes a worry. Will they understand the concepts on their own? Will they know where to look for help? What if they confuse similar concepts? What if they don’t do anything? Sometimes the worry of having to re-teach them a topic they’ve independently learned just exacerbates the anxiety over the lack of time in teaching the specification. Students can independently learn topics or complete the bulk of learning at home without you. Admittedly, they need direction, clearly structured tasks and instructions and clear signposting to where they should look for information – but it can be done – successfully!

[Take a look at our independent learning booklet for the Federalism topic in US Politics for inspiration! It can be shared with students as an electronic document they can type their notes, research and exam answers straight into, keeping it all nicely in one document that can be printed once completed. Alternatively it can be adapted to be used as a printed booklet for use in lessons where no ICT is available, or even for a cover lesson!]