7 reasons the Do Now takes too long... and what you can do about it

Eedi Newsletter

The page on my Tips for Teachers website with the most views is the one dedicated to the start of the lesson - the Do Now. This is not surprising. Even though the Do Now is - or should be - short, the fact that it is the first phase of a lesson means it sets the tone for all that follows. Get your Do Now right, and your students transition into the main body of the lesson feeling focused and successful. Get it wrong, and you might spend the next 50 minutes frantically picking up the pieces.

I share many ideas on my Do Now page to help make this lesson phase as impactful as possible. Here, I want to address a specific issue with many of the Do Nows I see during my weekly visits to maths classrooms around the UK: the Do Now takes too long.

Ask most teachers how long the Do Now should last, and they will say around 10 minutes. I regularly witness Do Nows that last between 20 and 30 minutes. The result is always the same: the rest of the lesson gets squished into the time that remains, leading to rushed I Dos, curtailed consolidation, and no opportunities for problem-solving.

Based on the 1000s of Do Nows I have seen over the years, here are the top 7 reasons it takes longer than teachers hope… and what you can do about it.

Reason 1: Students arrive late to lessons, so the teacher has to wait for these students to finish

Solution: Lateness to lessons is a common problem in the schools I visit. It must be tackled at a whole-school level, with consistent rules, active monitoring, and appropriate sanctions. However, in terms of what you can control, I advise "starting" your Do Now - in other words, beginning the countdown for however long you want students working on your Do Now - when you have a critical mass of students in the room. If you ask students to transfer their answers from their books to their mini-whiteboards one question at a time when you review answers to the Do Now, those latecomers can join in at that stage so they do not miss out entirely.

Reason 2: The teacher needs to keep reminding students of the Do Now routine (e.g. don't copy the question out, do the working out in your books, silence when working on the questions, etc)

Solution: When introducing anything new - such as a different way of running your Do Now - the routine is unfamiliar to students. So, it is inevitable that the first few iterations will take longer than you would hope. But don’t cut corners or lower your standards. Invest the time in perfecting the routine now, safe in the knowledge it will save time in the many Do Nows to come. You can speed things up by initially reducing the content demands - make your first few Do Nows relatively easy so more of students' attention can be on the routine rather than the content of the Do Now.

Reason 3: Students take longer than they should to answer each question

Solution: Students often need an incentive to work briskly, especially during the Do Now. Four things help here. First, start a visible timer when you have a critical mass of students in the room. Second, circulate the room, then do the register, and then circulate again. Third, remind students that they will be asked to show their answers to each question on their mini-whiteboards and will be held accountable if they do not. Fourth, ensure students know the purpose of the Do Now - if they think it is just a few questions to keep them busy, they will likely labour over it.

Reason 4: Students work swiftly through the Do Now, but it still takes them a long time to finish all the questions

Solution: The Do Now is probably too long. When planning a Do Now, I advise aiming for most students to finish it in 5 minutes. For maths, this usually means a 4-question Do Now, made up of single-part, predominantly procedural questions. Even if students could answer more questions in that time, it will take you too long to review the answers properly.

This is also why I advise not using the Do Now to assess prerequisite knowledge for the upcoming lesson. Topics do not require the same number of prerequisite knowledge questions, so you cannot have a consistent structure for your Do Now. Also, you lose the flexibility to move on if students struggle with a question in the Do Now. I advise making the Do Now a spaced retrieval opportunity, using content unrelated to that of the lesson, and assessing prerequisite knowledge in a separate lesson phase after the Do Now.

Reason 5: Students get most of the questions wrong, so time is needed to model and recheck for understanding.

Solution: Don't pitch your Do Now too hard. A success rate of around 80% is a good goal. So, for a four-question Do Now, you should write it expecting the average student in your class to get 3 out of the 4 questions correct. At most, you should need to model and recheck for understanding for two of the questions. If you need to do more than this, your Do Now is too hard for your class.

Reason 6: Students get most of the questions correct, but the Do Now is still taking too long

Solution: Many teachers I observe have a habit of spending too long after a check for understanding reveals knowledge is secure. If the mini-whiteboards show that 80%+ of your students have the correct answer, don’t be tempted to ask one student to explain their thinking and then another student to comment on that answer. Instead, confirm what that answer is - writing it down and adding a quick verbal explanation - and then move on. Aim to do so within 7 seconds. Your time is better saved for the questions where students struggle.

Reason 7: Responding when students' knowledge is not secure is taking too long

Solution: When students' mini-whiteboards show fewer than 80% know the correct answer, do not be tempted to probe students more, especially if you can identify the nature of the misunderstanding from their answer. If students knew how to answer the question, they would have written the correct answer when you first asked them to. Instead, offer a clear and concise explanation, referring to common wrong answers where appropriate. Then, use the time you save to get more reliable evidence of understanding by asking all students to respond to a follow-up question.

If you are interested in some online, on-demand CPD on the Do Now, I have a 90-minute course available here. Once you purchase the workshop, you can share the clips and materials with all your staff or department as often as you like, for no extra cost.

AirTags and other tracking devices: guidance

What do tracking devices do?

AirTags are small, button-shaped electronic devices, made by Apple.

Users connect the device to their Apple ID (account) and place it on or in something they want to keep track of, such as their keys, a bag or a wallet. The location of that AirTag can then be tracked on any device using that ID.

Apple says the devices are not intended to be used to track people.

Devices that work in a similar way include:

• Tile
• Chipolo ONE Spot
• eufy SmartTrack Link

Other devices which track location include additional functions, such as;

• AngelSense (audio communication)
• Pebbell Mini (audio communication, fall detection)
• GPS watches and other health wearables (step counters, timers)
• Smartphones

Decide your school policy on tracker use

You could add this to an existing policy, such as your acceptable use of technology policy or policies the school has around mobile phone use.

You and other leaders will need to decide: 

• Whether to allow trackers at school and/or on school trips
• If so, what restrictions to put on their use
• If not, whether you allow exceptions – for example, for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) or those with long journeys to and from school, or if the school permits their use on a case-by-case basis
• If not, whether you will offer alternatives, such as a school trip leader wearing a school-provided tracker, or allowing pupil mobile phones to be switched on in certain circumstances

Computer Science Leader Reflection Guide: KS3-4

DISCIPLINARY LITERACY AND ITS ROLE IN IMPROVING STUDENTS’ LITERACY SKILLS

What is disciplinary literacy?

The Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools Guidance report (EEF, 2019) refers to disciplinary literacy as ‘an approach to improving literacy across the curriculum’, recognising that ‘literacy skills are both general and subject specific, emphasising the value of supporting teachers of every subject to teach students how to read, write and communicate effectively’. The report states that as young people progress through their secondary education, ‘there is a growing need to ensure that students are trained to access the academic language and conventions of different subjects’. This is what disciplinary literacy aims to do – to support students in developing the subtle but important differences in reading and writing in subject-specific ways. 

The reason the EEF has placed disciplinary literacy as the number 1 recommendation for improving literacy within secondary schools is that focusing on how students can get better at reading, writing and oracy within each subject area will then ultimately lead to students who have improved global literacy skills. This, in turn, will improve their performance within the subject at the same time. The PiXL Disciplinary Literacy package is designed to help schools think about and reflect on disciplinary literacy provision in their settings, as well as to consider some practical measures that will help facilitate this success. 

Read More Here

Updates: Meeting digital and technology standards in schools and colleges

Cybersecurity standards for schools and colleges

The cyber security standards have been updated to address tasks that should be completed by both the senior leadership team (SLT) and IT support. Cyber security is not something that IT teams can carry out alone, it is a shared responsibility between multiple roles and teams.

The new cyber security standards contain the same key information that the previous cyber security standards held, but the format of this has changed to make them more accessible to staff without cyber expertise.

The previous cyber security standards have been mapped to the new ones below, so that you can see where the previous information now lies.

1. 'Conduct a cyber risk assessment annually and review every term'. This new standard addresses:

- elements of the previous standard titled ‘Your business continuity and disaster recovery plan should include a regularly tested contingency plan in response to a cyber attack’ 
- the importance of risk assessments; helping users understand where they are now and where they need to go next to improve their cyber security

2. 'Create and implement a cyber awareness plan for students and staff'. This standard addresses:

- the previous standard titled 'Train all staff with access to school IT networks in the basics of cyber security'
- the importance of students and staff understanding the risk of cyber security as your first line of defence against cyber incidents and attacks - this includes both training students and staff, as well as developing and implementing an acceptable use policy

3. 'Secure digital technology and data with anti-malware and a firewall'. This standard addresses the previous standards titled:

- 'Protect all devices on every network with a properly configured boundary or software firewall'
- 'Network devices should be known and recorded with their security features enabled, correctly configured and kept up-to-date '
- 'You should use anti-malware software to protect all devices in the network, including cloud-based networks' 
- 'An administrator should check the security of all applications downloaded onto a network' 

4. 'Control and secure user accounts and access privileges'. This new standard addresses the previous standards titled:

- 'Accounts should only have the access they require to perform their role and should be authenticated to access data and service'
- 'You should protect accounts with access to personal or sensitive operational data and functions by multi-factor authentication'

This standard covers password security, multi-factor authentication and account management.

5. 'License digital technology and keep it up to date'. This new standard addresses the previous standard titled:

- 'All devices and software must be licensed for use and should be patched with the latest security updates'

6. 'Develop and implement a plan to backup your data and review this every year'. This new standard addresses: 

- the previous standard titled 'You should have at least 3 backup copies of important data, on at least 2 separate devices, at least 1 must be offsite'
- the need to analyse what your current backup plan looks like
- the need to plan and action how to backup and restore your data

7. 'Report cyber attacks'. This new standard addresses:

-  the previous standard titled 'Serious cyber attacks should be reported'
- reporting a cyber attack both internally within your school or college and to external bodies

In addition to the above changes, the DfE have also removed the below standards and have explained why.

'Your business continuity and disaster recovery plan should include a regularly tested contingency plan in response to a cyber attack'. 

- This has been removed as it is now addressed in the DfE’s new digital leadership and governance standards under the title ‘Include digital technology within disaster recovery and business continuity plans’. It is also referenced throughout the new standards. 

'You must conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) by statute for personal data you hold as required by General Data Protection Regulation'. This has been removed because:

- this is included in the existing 'servers and storage' and 'cloud solution' standards
- DPIA is now mentioned throughout the new cyber security standards

'Network devices should be known and recorded with their security enabled, correctly configured and kept up-to-date'. 

- The important content from this is now within the relevant sections in the new standards.

Creating a Culture: How school leaders can optimise behaviour

School leaders are well placed to drive substantive, widespread school improvement in England. The range of responsibilities are as broad as the measures by which they are held accountable. Even in the most difficult of circumstances, I have seen headteachers who have transformed the life chances for hundreds or thousands of young people. 

A student’s experience in school remains one of the most insightful indicators of later life success in any one of a number of metrics. For many it is the best chance they will ever have to flourish. How they conduct themselves at school is crucial to that experience. Helping them develop good behaviour is therefore one of the most important tasks a school faces.  

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AQA plans for digital GCSE exams from 2026

Exam board says digital exams could reduce teacher workload in the longer term

17th October 2023, 12:01am

Jasmine Norden

AQA has set out its first steps towards digital exams, with GCSEs potentially moving online from 2026.

The exam board has proposed that the reading and listening components of GCSE Italian and Polish should be the first to be sat digitally - with digital mocks from 2025, followed by exams from 2026 if regulators approve the plan.

AQA then hopes students will be able to sit digital exams for a major subject by 2030.

It is not the first exam board to run digital exams: Pearson Edexcel ran a trial for the English language iGCSE last year in a big step for the rollout of digital exams.

Pearson reported the pilot was a success. Feedback from school leaders was that there had been some software problems, but the concept was popular with students.

Today, AQA has put forward the case for digital exams in a report drawing from a poll of parents, Sendcos and students, as well as pilot findings.

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Norm bleed

Today’s big idea is the last of this series, in which we explore how the norms of different groups influence each other…By Peps Mccrea  Norms are powerful. But the norms we amplify aren't the only norms that influence behaviour and learning in our classroom (or school). Let's talk about norm bleed: Norms are the unwritten rules of conduct that shape the behaviour and learning of a group. However, multiple groups exist within, and around, any school. And the similarities (or differences) in the norms of these groups all have an influence on each other. When the norms of adjacent groups are congruent, those norms will amplify each other. They will have a stronger effect in each context. Conversely, when the norms of adjacent groups are dissimilar, they will attenuate each other. Their effect in each context will be weaker. This is norm bleed. And it’s going on in schools all the time, whether we like it or not. For example, when a student moves between teachers within a school, and in each of those contexts they experience the same routine around how they enter the classroom or participate in a whole-class discussion or engage in practice, they will feel considerably compelled to conform in each situation. “One dog barks at something, and a hundred bark at the bark.”   Chinese proverb We can harness the power of norm bleed in schools by: Pursuing consensus around the value of teacher consistency for students. At our school, we work hard to give pupils a familiar experience between classrooms because it helps them learn. Getting together to tease out those key norms that we feel should be experienced by students across multiple contexts. In every classroom, we champion the asking of questions, periods of silent study, etc. Where possible, capturing and codifying these norms in a form that can be shared with new staff and the wider community. Our school charter lays out the behaviours and attitudes we are working together to promote. This last point is important, because norms don’t just bleed between classrooms, but between schools and families and other local contexts. The more we can work with parents and community groups to align around key norms, the greater their overall effect will be. For even more nuance on the role of norms, see Theory and practice of social norms interventions: eight common pitfalls, by Cislaghi & Heise. How consistent are the norms between classrooms in your school? What are the key norms you think should be shared across all situations? If such conversations are not already alive, how might you kickstart them? Summary • The norms of interacting groups influence each other. • Where these norms are similar, they will amplify each other. Where they are not, they will attenuate each other. • This 'norm bleed' not only happens between classrooms, but across schools and families.