by Pete Nicholson
The thought of printing off a thousand copies of a knowledge organiser containing an embarrassing typo sends shivers down my spine. Maybe it's the prospect of future adults walking around thinking that the seventh planet from the Sun is spelt ‘youranus’, just because of something I wrote whilst overtired one evening. Or maybe it’s just the perfectionist inside me. Either way I have spent a long time over the last couple of years writing and rewriting knowledge organisers in science.
However, typos are just the tip of the iceberg. When designing knowledge organisers there is so much to consider. After creating quite a few iterations and taking feedback from teachers and students, here are a few conclusions that I have made.
Be concise. At first I found it tempting to include lengthy paragraphs, and excessive information to add context. Many students were switched off by the sheer volume of content, and were spending too long memorising needless titbits. Instead they benefited from short succinct sentences.
Include quality images (only). The wide variety of images available online made me spoilt by choice, but most were either too simple, too complex, or introduced their own misconceptions. Any science teacher will know that choosing a Solar System picture is a minefield of childish cartoons, inaccurate spacing and scaling. And my experience has taught me that pupils will believe exactly what you show them. Consider what you want students to gain from an image and make sure you meet this brief. I would argue that no picture is better than one that will only confuse them. On some occasions it was easier to create the image myself, where I was unable to find what I wanted or adapt a previously existing one.
Consider spacing and structure. The knowledge organisers I originally wrote were almost exclusively in bullet point form. Following student feedback I removed the bullet points and added more space between each piece of information to make it easier to read. I have also made sure the structure was easy to follow. They all are organised by topic, then by lesson order. Pupils could easily identify what they needed to remember from each lesson, and use the organisers in lessons to reference prior learning.
Consider how it will be used. After spending a lot of time on these organisers, I was frustrated to see students not using them effectively, or even not using them at all. Without the understanding of how to revise effectively, pupils struggle to engage with knowledge organisers, as they lack confidence and can see that they are not retaining knowledge when questioned on it. We need to be placing an emphasis on revision techniques both inside and outside of lessons. Recent whole-school assemblies have helped upskill our students in this.
Make sure all students have easy access. The Academy has started an online ‘virtual classroom’ for Key Stage 3 that has the knowledge organisers from all subjects on it. Within my department, I have made sure that they are all printed and stored centrally. I have also introduced the expectation that pupils have access to them in every lesson for reference.
Rewriting is worth-it. Ultimately, although I may moan about the time in takes, I have found perfecting my subject’s knowledge organisers to be very rewarding. I am the kind of person who will rewrite a definition 5 times before settling on the wording, but when I think about how many people will see the end-result, I can only see this as being worthwhile. Taking feedback from the students on how the knowledge organisers could be made easier for them to understand is important, and I am happy to be making seemingly endless edits because of this.