Consolidation - Tips for Teachers by Craig Barton

Consolidation is where students can practice the skills the teacher has just modelled. When the Consolidation phase of a lesson is well executed, it can help students develop both competence and confidence.

Contents

Diagnosis

What does the Consolidation phase of your lesson look like?
What challenges do you face?

Evidence

There are several ways I see the consolidation phase go wrong in many of the maths lessons I watch:

A poor choice of questions. Questions are grabbed from the internet or the departmental folder and used with little thought.
Students lack the knowledge to access the questions. A sure sign is when several hands immediately shoot into the air as soon as the consolidation phase begins.
Not enough time is given to consolidation. For a variety of reasons, getting to this stage of the lesson has taken so much time that only a few rushed minutes remain for students to practice.
Students don’t put in the required effort. Students choose this phase of the lesson to go off task and take a cognitive break.
The teachers does not effectively check for understanding. Answers are projected onto the board, students are told to tick the ones they got right, correct the ones they got wrong, and that is that.

This presents us with a problem because we know that providing students with an opportunity to consolidate is crucial to helping them learn.

Research suggests that students perform better in maths when their teacher spends more time on individual practice and assessment. This is because consolidation helps students develop automaticity. To quote Professor Daniel Willingham in Why Don’t Students Like School?: “It is virtually impossible to become proficient at a mental task without extended practice”.

If we do not allow students to master the basics of a procedure, they have little chance of applying that procedure to solve problems.

Solution steps

Part 1: Where does Consolidation fit into a lesson?

In a previous section, I shared three possible lesson structures:

Lesson Structure #1

Lesson Structure #2

Lesson Structure #3

Consolidation comes after the We Do and before Problem-Solving in each structure. Its purpose is to solidify the skills the teacher has modelled, preparing students to use those skills more complexly.

Part 2: What do good Consolidation exercises look like?

For the remainder of this section, we will discuss how to get the most out of Consolidation: how to ensure instructions are given clearly, students remain on task, circulation is effective, and when we review answers, we learn about the understanding of all our students. But first, we need some good questions.

Good sets of Consolidation questions need to strike the balance between:

Not being so similar that students can stop thinking once they have done one or two questions
Not being so different that students are unable to draw connections and begin to develop automaticity

The sequence should progress in difficulty to challenge students as they become more proficient. However, the jumps in question difficulty should not be so great as to confuse constantly.

Every maths teacher will have their favourite sources. In no particular order, here are some of mine:

1. Corbett Maths textbook exercises

For example, this ordering decimals activity:

2. Maths4Everyone

For example, this substitution activity:

3. Dr Frost

For example, this activity on angles in parallel lines:

4. Dr Austin Maths

For example, this area of a trapezium activity:

5. MathsPad

For example, this activity to introduce area:

6. Median

For example, this decimal sequences activity:

7. Increasingly difficult questions

For example, this activity on factorising:

Notice the common features of each of these activities:

There are plenty of opportunities to consolidate
There is a good progression of difficulty

Maths teachers will know that there is an almost endless supply of content available on the internet for us to choose from. Whilst this is undoubtedly a good thing and a testament to the generosity of many members of our profession, there are two issues with this:

Search costs – lots of time is spent searching for resources
Quality assurance – it can be difficult to determine what is a quality resource without either experience or dedicating time to working through it thoroughly

For these reasons, I always recommend that heads of department and other experienced teachers curate a small number of Consolidation resources for each topic that has passed their quality-assurance test so that other teachers can spend time preparing for lessons (LINK TO LESSON PLANNING).

Part 3: Giving clear instructions

A common occurrence in lessons I watch is when the teacher sets their students off on a consolidation activity, and immediately, several hands shoot into the air. There are two key reasons this happens:

Students lack the mathematical knowledge to access the questions. In turn, this could be due to:
- The activity does not match the content of the I Do and We Do
- The delivery of the I Do was ineffective
- Students were not listening during the I Do
- The teacher did not adequately check for understanding during the We Do

2. Students have not listened to the instructions

The first issue – a lack of student knowledge – requires diagnosing where the problem lies. Once you know the cause of the issue, you will find the steps to solve it in various sections of this website.

Let’s fix that second issue – students not listening to instructions. Here are some steps to solve the problem, many of which are discussed in greater detail on the Checking for Listening page.

1. Get silence

When giving instructions, you need the students to be silent. Many teachers use a narrated countdown to achieve this:

I need your attention in…
3… stop your conversations
2… pens down
1… looking at me
Thank you

2. When giving instructions, don’t try to do something else at the same time

Don’t hand out books or worksheets, and don’t circulate the room. You want students’ attention to be on your instructions, not anything else.

Instead, stand in a position in the classroom where you can see all students, be seen looking, and speak:

For more information, visit the first section of the Checks for Listening page, and read Adam Boxer’s excellent blog post.

3. Give clear, concise, numbered instructions

Waffley instructions are difficult to follow. Reduce the number of words you give and assign numbers if appropriate.

First, write the title of “Practice” in your books
Second, start on Question 3
Third, do so in silence

4. Check for listening

Don’t rely on poor proxies for listening, such as a roomful of quiet students. Instead, check students have listened to your instructions:

Which questions are we completing?… Jamie… Great, thank you…
Where are we completing them?… Rose …Absolutely…
Everyone, after 3, what’s the noise level whilst we’re completing them?… 3, 2, 1… SILENCE!

5. Write the instructions down if they are complex

Verbal information is transient, and we don’t want students’ attention being taken up unnecessarily thinking about what they should be doing during Consolidation – we want them doing it. So, once you have checked for listening, make the instructions visible on the board so students can refer to them.

6. End with “Ready… (dramatic pause)… Go!”

The ‘ready?’ builds a sense of anticipation. The teacher scans to ensure stillness. False starts are to be playfully stopped. On the cue, ‘Go‘, everyone moves together. It feels like a team rowing in unison.

7. Use the Instruction Sandwich

A structure I love for giving instructions that ties all this together comes from science teacher Pritesh Raichura. He calls it the Instruction Sanwhich:

The top slice of bread: “3,2,1 SLANT” Scan to ensure 100% attention. “When I say ‘go’ and not before…”
The filling: “Take your seats and then SLANT” or “Pass out the sheets that are at the end of each row” or “Whiteboards and pens out” or “Clear your desks and back in SLANT” or “Stand behind your chairs, tracking me”.
The bottom slice of bread: “Ready?” Dramatic pause and scan. “Go! 10, 9, 8 super speed from [Lewis]… 3-2-1-SLANT” Scans deliberately.

8. Play the “Repeated Instructions” game

Adam Boxer has a game called The Repeated Instructions Game. You start the day with 10 points. Every time you have to repeat an instruction, you lose a point. The rationale is that if an instruction needs repeating, it can only be because students have not been listening. The goal is to get to the end of the day with points still in the bag. Getting through period 1 might be a more realistic goal to start with.

Part 4: The first 3 minutes

After giving instructions and setting their students off on a Consolidation activity, I see teachers make two mistakes.

The first is not to circulate. Teachers remain rooted to the front of the classroom, perhaps occasionally glancing and interacting with the students near them, while the students towards the back of the class drift off task, either through confusion or a lack of incentive.

The second mistake is more subtle. When teachers set students off on a task, they immediately circulate. Their intentions are good. They want to ensure students get off to a good start and pick up on any early problems. But every single time I watch teachers do this, the same thing happens: both the noise level and the number of students off-task rises.

As I learned from Adam Boxer, the silent, focussed atmosphere at the beginning of a period of independent practice is incredibly fragile. All it takes to break it is a movement or a word from the teacher.

The solution is to develop a routine for the first 3 minutes of independent practice. Here are the steps of that routine:

Step 1. Thank students in advance for their behaviour

Frame positive behaviour as if it has already happened.

Thank you for getting on with the task in silent, independent mode
Thank you for setting your work out neatly
Thank you for trying every question, even if you are finding it tricky

Students are less likely to break a norm if they believe it is already established.

Step 2. Stand where you can see everyone and be soon looking

Immediately move to a position in the classroom where you can see everyone. This is not the front-centre of the room as students at the edges will fall out of your peripheral vision. Instead, move to one of the corners. This is know as Pastore’s Perch:

Once there, be seen looking. Crane your neck and stand on tip to make exaggerated movements so students know you are actively checking that they are on task.

Step 3. Wait for Golden Silence

After you have thanked students in advance for the behaviour you expect, shut up. Any more words risk shattering the fragile silent atmosphere. Instead, hold out for about 30 seconds for Golden Silence.

Adam Boxer explains this well:

If you give the students a bit more time to work in silence, they will be in that place of absorption in the task. They will become engrossed and focussed, and less liable to distraction. At that point, the silence is strong and robust, and you can give it a little push and it won’t buckle. I call this kind of silence Golden Silence – when students are quiet and engrossed, and small distractions won’t throw them.

If a student raises their hand to ask a question, gesture for them to lower it, signalling you will come over in a minute.

Step 4. Don’t draw attention to negative behaviour

If students are off-task, use the least intrusive form of correction. I work my way through this list from top to bottom:

A look
A non-verbal gesture – a shake of the head, a finger on the lips
Walk towards them a few steps
A quiet word
An anonymous public pronouncement – “some people are slow getting started here”

Step 5. If needed… narrate the positive behaviour

If many students are off-task, it is important to establish the norm of being on task. A good way to do this is to narrate the positive behaviour to draw students’ attention to what they should be doing. When doing so:

Be public – say it loud enough for everyone to hear
Be specific – state the exact behaviour you are expecting
Use names if appropriate – Ben is working in silent, independent mode, so is Sophie
Strive for a critical mass – keep naming students who are meeting expectations until you have a critical mass of students doing so. At this point, thank them and keep quiet.
Be specific

Step 6. If needed… stop the class and reset

If Step 5 is not working, stop the class, ask students to empty their hands, and look at you. Remind them of the instructions and expectations. Have one or two students repeat these back to you. Then, start the process again from Step 1.

Part 5: Circulation

After a strong start to a practice task, it is time to circulate.

Circulation is important for three reasons:

1. To check for effort

Students specialise at giving the impression they are working, when really they are busy tricking.

This student had his pen in his had for the full 10 minutes of the task. But this is what his booked looked like:

This student was writing for the full duration of the task. This is what his book looked like:

Circulation can help you identify students who are busy tricking and provide a disincentive for them to do so in the first place.

2. To judge the time needed for a task

Often, I see teachers announce that students have, say, 7 minutes to do a task, and it turns out that is either nowhere near enough time or far too much time.

This Do Now was scheduled to take 5 minutes:

At the end of that time, not a single student had got beyond Question 2:

Because the teacher did not circulate, she remained unaware of this and proceeded to go through the answers as if everyone had completed the task.

3. To identify problems

Skilful circulation will allow you to identify problems encountered by individual students or shared by several.

For example, it was through circulation that this teacher was able to identify Question 2 was causing her students problems:

She decided to stop the Consolduation section to address the issue to the whole class.

Let’s look at some steps we can take to make circulation during the Consolidation phase of a lesson as effective as possible:

1. Make sure you don’t have blackspots

Teachers rarely allocate equal time to each student when circulating. Sometimes, this is for very good reasons—perhaps a student was off the previous lesson, or the teacher has identified that they struggled during the We Do. But more often, it is due to classroom geography.

I did a heat map of where two teachers spent their time during circulation in two different classrooms. Red indicates that the teacher walked past the desks once. Black indicates that they never even made it that far:

Classroom #1:

Classroom #2:

Typically, students in middle rows and those close to a wall get visited the least during circulation.

You can avoid this by:

Adjusting your classroom layout to ensure you can physically get to all desks
Having a predetermined route around your classroom that visits each desk

2. Observe the work of your strongest students first

When determining your route around the classroom, it is worth calling in at some of your strongest students first. There are two reasons for this:

They are likely to have made the most progress and so will have work for you to give feedback on
If they are going wrong, there is a good chance other students will be going wrong, so you can intervene

3. Decide what you are looking for in advance (and only look for one thing at a time)

Ensure your circulation has a purpose. Choose something to look out for, and make this your sole focus to ensure you don’t get distracted.

Your focus could be:

To check if students have started?
To see if students have followed instructions?
The answer to a specific question?
To determine how far students have got?

Then choose a different focus for the next circulation.

4. Be clear how you want work set out

When giving instructions, it is worth explicitly showing students how to set their work out. Otherwise, you will need to spend more time at each student’s desk trying to locate and decipher their answers.

A model of excellence that all student can see ifs a good way to do this.

5. Use Book-to-Board: Circulation

It can be difficult to check for understanding when circulating because students write small:

Or cover their work:

Or are at different points in an exercise:

You can improve your ability to check for understanding during circulation by asking students to copy their final answer for each question they complete on their mini-whiteboard and leave this visible on their desk:

As you circulate, you can quickly compare your final answers to theirs. If all is well, keep circulating. But if you spot a difference, you can interrogate their work into their book.

6. Carry your answers around with you

You don’t want to stop at each desk trying to work out the answers to the Consolidation questions. This will take time and divert your attention, especially if the exercise is complex. Carrying their answers around with you, ideally complete with working out, allows you to compare your final answer quickly—and the working out if needed—with that of your students.

7. Make physical notes as you circulate

Don’t try to hold everything in your working memory as you circulate. Instead, make physical notes so your full attention can be focused on what is happening in the moment.

Make physical notes of:

Interesting wrong answers
Tallies of answers
Examples of excellence

I make these notes on a mini-whiteboard, which I carry around for reasons that will be revealed shortly!

8. Plan your decisions

What will you do if one or two students make a mistake? What if several students make the same mistake? What if behaviour is not what you expect? Plan these decisions out in advance when you have the headspace to do so.

Psychology teacher, Paul Cline, has a great diagram for this:

9. When talking to a student, step back

There is a danger that stopping to speak to a student during circulation takes you out of the game, especially if you crouch down at their desk. This could provide a golden opportunity for other students to wander off-task unnoticed. Instead – if appropriate – take a step back from the students’ desk. You will still be close enough to hear the and give them the on-eto-one support they need, but still a presence on the class to head-off any undesirable behaviour.

10. Develop a model for student interactions when they need help

Here is the 5-step structure I use when supporting students during circulation:

Start with specific praise – find something tey have done well
Then give a precise next step – explain it and model it
Check for listening – have they heard what you said?
Check for understanding – can they apply what you have said to a follow-up question?
Return to check later – have they retained what you said?

11. Use a mini-whiteboard to aid student interactions

I find a mini-whiteboard the ideal tool to help improve the interactions I have with students when circulating. Mini-whiteboards have the advantages over books in that:

The space to write is bigger
Any writing is non-permanent – mistakes and neatness don’t matter as much, and you can rub out specific bits
There is no sense of ownership – the mini-whiteboard is a shared space

You can use the mini-whiteboard in the following ways:

Show me how you got that answer…
Watch me model…
You try…
What happens if I change this number?…

12. Use 3:30:30

This structure for circulation comes from Teach like a Champion and goes like this:

3 minutes: Watch the class from Pastore’s Perch, using least intrusive form of correction
30 seconds: Circulate and support
30 seconds: Observe from Pastore’s Perch
Cycles through the 30s

13. Don’t be afraid to stop the practice

If you have the same conversations with several students, it is more efficient to stop the whole class, address the issue, and reset. Here are some scenarios in which you may choose to do this:

Behaviour is not meeting expectations
Confusion over instructions
Confusion over a question
Common error
A key insight to share

14. Use Book-to-Board: Quick check

I often use a technique to stop a class during Consolidation called Book-to-Board: Quick check.

Perhaps the teacher has spotted a couple of students making the same mistake and wants to determine how widespread it is quickly. Or, perhaps the teacher wants a quick spot-check to determine how students are getting on. The teacher could get students’ attention using a narrated countdown and say something like:

Sorry to interrupt you. I know you are all on different questions, but please can you quickly copy your final answer to Question 2a onto your mini-whitebaords and hover when you are ready… show me in 3, 2, 1…

Three broad scenarios may result:

Everyone has got in – tell students to keep going
Some students have got it correct and others haven’t – let those students who have got it carry on, and – depending on the number involved – go through the question with the other students at the board or in a small group
Most students are confused – intervene at a whole class level.

15. If all is going well, just shut up

For about 12 years of my teaching career, I could not shut up. Students would be working well, and I would mess things up by saying things like:

Great work everyone…
Remember to set your work out neatly…
Question 3 is a tricky one…
Don’t forget to…
Bradley is doing great…

These comments sound harmless enough, but there are 3 issues:

You get fooled into thinking students have listened
Noise begets noise
Interruptions leave a wake

You have worked hard to establish a silent, focused atmosphere. Enjoy it.

Part 6: Going through answers

I think going through the answers to Consolidation exercises is one of the least thought-through phases of a lesson, and as a result, one of the least effective. Here are two things I see regularly:

Teachers project the answers up at the end of a lesson and instruct students to tick the ones they got right and correct the others, often with a purple or green pen. Sometimes these episodes end with a toke: “Hands up if you got them all correct”
Teachers laboriously go through the answers one at time, Cold Calling or asking for volunteers.

In each case, ask yourself how easy it would be for a student to get away with a lack of effort or a lack of understanding and the teacher not pick up on it.

I have sat through countless Consolidation phases that end in this way and watched students—who are fully aware of what will happen next—wait patiently for the answers to appear so they can fill them in and adorn their books with loads of lovely ticks.

A good way to solve this is to use our good friend, the mini-whiteboard using a technique I call Book-to-Board: Critical question. Here is an example of it in use:

Students had been consolidating their understanding of rearranging equations: