The 'Sangster Method'

This is a technique I nicked off a semi-retired, somewhat legendary teacher called Brian Sangster. I don't think he'd mind me saying that he lends a refreshingly straight-forward, fad-free perspective on the business of teaching.

Here's what I'm calling the Sangster Method:

1. Give students a selection of 3-4 exam-style essay questions
2. Tell them that in one (or two) weeks' time they will be required to answer one of these essay questions under exam conditions, but they don't know which one it will be
3. During the week before the test they should create essay plans, write draft answers, etc and check these these with me (the teacher) for feedback - they can do this as much as they like but it must be done outside of normal lesson time
4. After the test the students are given a comprehensive mark scheme and asked to self-assess their answer, writing comments on their script indicating how they would improve it
5. Finally, I take their answers in for marking and give them another set of questions for the next week

This is so simple, so why do I like it so much?

Firstly, I like the one/two week time-scale because it forces me to plan, in a really structured way, for the work students will be doing outside of the lesson. This forms part of my wider 'Fractal Planning' method.

Secondly, because students are encouraged to come and see me outside of the lessons (with their essay plans, etc), I get a really good insight into how much independent work they're doing because I know who has come to see me and I've seen their work.

Thirdly, the fact that they don't know which question they are going to be asked means they have to plan for all of them. This maximises the work they have to do without causing huge amounts of marking. I have also found that it quickly highlights to the students how dangerous it is to try to guess which question is coming up in the exam - a valuable lesson in itself!

Fourthly, the self-assessment means they engage meaningfully with mark schemes and  they get immediate formative feedback on their work, but I can also check their comments and make sure that they are coming up with effective formative feedback for themselves.

Finally, it's flexible - you can change the type/number of questions, the timescale between receiving the questions and answering them, the way you run the test (eg, you could let them use, during the test, any essay plans that they've created).

I've ony just started using this so I hope to get some evidence for its efficacy over the next couple of months. But, so far, I've received positive feedback about it from the students (I can't say they love it, but they can really see the benefit of it).