I make no apologies I LOVE an analysis grid! I love it per question, I love it per topic, I love it conditional formatted. Love it RAG rated. I love it all.
This is a snapshot of a number assessment for one of my groups. I can instantly see I need to go over dividing fractions for a few of them and maybe adding fractions as a starter as well. We have been using these in departments since I began teaching. The revelation of Google Sheets and that everyone can be on the same document together avoiding the need for you to wait for Miss Haans to input her results before she sends the Excel sheet to you has been transformational. I encourage all of my student teachers to use an analysis grid regularly, it easily informs your teaching at a glance. If you are looking for a start activity, check out your most recent analysis grid and it will tell you an amber topic for most that may need recovering. Likewise if someone comes to see you teach, and they ask how do you know what they need to cover the analysis grid shows them.
Great, we as teachers have a lovely coloured sheet that informs our teaching. Sorted! What about our learners? Is it just for us? Is it a secret? I give my learners their analysis grids too! They can quickly see where they need to put their revision efforts. Obviously I don’t share the whole class grid with individuals. I will add in some QR codes to Corbett maths videos as well so that learners can watch a video on a topic that they need to work on. Learners can see their grid, see their amber areas and search the topic on Hegarty Maths and give it a go.
One of the biggest challenges I face around revision time is helping learners understand what the topic is called. They see it as a tiling the wall problem whereas we know it as a percentage discount and area with money problem. Do we expect them to know that? Do we tell them that is what they would look up if they wanted to revise it? The analysis grid does. Especially the ones made by the exam board. It gives them the complicated long name that we are very used to as staff. It gets learners used to seeing what we are looking for in their answers.
An analysis grid is not the only opportunity for this. I like to (like is a bit strong, I do it because I believe it benefits my learners, I don’t like doing it!) cut and paste the title of the topic from the analysis grid into a text box in the exam paper so that as the learner completes the exam paper they can see what the topic is that they are being assessed on and research it if necessary. This takes a long time, especially with a question with parts a,b,c,d,e and f! But I think it genuinely benefits learners by allowing them to be a bit more independent in their revision and think about what topics they want to learn more about.
