Education Perfect engages ALL students at Belgrave Heights
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Vanessa Evans, teacher at Belgrave Heights Christian School, explains how Education Perfect fosters engagement in all types and levels of learners. She talks about how EP firstly differentiates content, then delivers appropriate tasks in multimodal formats to appeal to a variety of learners, and lastly provides instant feedback and data that adds value. And that is without even talking about the ‘fun stuff’.
Located outside Melbourne on the edge of the Dandenong Ranges, Belgrave Heights Christian School is an independent, co-educational school for Early Years to Year 12. Vanessa Evans teaches English, Maths, and Humanities in Year 7 and Year 9. She is an extremely proficient user of Education Perfect (EP), motivated to fully integrate the platform into her teaching and learning by the benefits it offers to all her students, no matter their aptitude or learning style.
Why Vanessa loves EP?
Vanessa began using EP three years ago and quickly became a fan, “Prior to EP I mostly used textbooks or my own resources from various sources. Differentiation was difficult. It was hard to find resources that were appropriate for students needing content targeted at Year 5 or 6. EP offers resources from Year 5 to Year 10 meaning that there are tasks for every learner in my class, no matter their level.”
Differentiation in Vanessa’s class was supported by the ease of access to quality data in EP, “I implemented consistent pre-and post-testing, aligned to the Australian curriculum. With easy access to so many levels the students have the opportunity to do a three level diagnostic test. I can immediately identify students who need extra face to face support or should be extended. The latter will often self-direct themselves and the former I support by assigning recommended tasks.”
Why Vanessa’s students love EP?
Vanessa says that without a doubt her Year 7 students love EP, “They enjoy the gamification, the point system, and the competitive elements of the programme. They always want to go on EP.” There are many features, other than the ‘fun stuff’ that her students appreciate, “Text to speech is an add-on in many products. In EP, text to speech is built in so my students access it without others in the class knowing. I tell all my students that they can use text to speech unless we are specifically testing reading. In Humanities and Maths, it makes content far more accessible to those who are less confident readers as they can receive the support they need in a way that is less obvious to other students.”
Vanessa adds,
“The multimodal format also supports different learning styles. The ease with which students can learn at their own pace, or go back to something in their own time, is a big plus for many students too.”
The sheer range of content has also empowered Vanessa to offer students the opportunity to explore topics that they are interested in, “In Humanities, in addition to the areas I set, they can select one of the other topics available and work through it. They always seem to find something that they enjoy.”
Students at all levels appreciate and benefit from the immediate feedback, “In Maths it makes a real difference. If they were using a worksheet, they would carry on through the whole section getting the answers wrong, but on EP they know immediately when they make a mistake and can get an explanation as to why.”
Vanessa also makes full use of the option for teachers to add verbal or written comments, “Particularly for extended answers, I will acknowledge a student’s efforts. I think it is really important that they know that their teacher is still looking at their work. It adds more value to the use of EP, and is another feature that supports differentiation.”
From differentiation to engagement to achievement
The personalised content, the many ways of interacting with that content, and the instantaneous feedback engages the students, and Vanessa is confident that this engagement is contributing to student achievement, “In English, there has definitely been an improvement in the conventions of language, in grammar and in punctuation. In Maths I can see a correlation between task completion and success. When I bring this to their attention, the students are more motivated to complete work.”
Vanessa frequently uses the data provided by EP to inform students and parents on progress, “We look at the overall grade distribution and it can be very eye opening for them. EP provides clear and concise data that gives the students a starting point and shows their improvement over time. I think the access to hard data is another reason why some students respond so positively to EP.”
Summary
Vanessa was motivated to adopt EP across all her subject areas by the potential of the platform to support differentiation in her classroom. She now uses EP for pre and post testing, to assign tasks and homework, for quizzes and competitions, and to provide feedback to students and parents. Every element of her approach is tailored to individual student needs and as a result she has seen improvements in student engagement across her three subject areas, Maths, English and Humanities.
