3-Read Friday #101

Book looks, confidence, and revision session attendance

Before we begin, you may want to check out my 16-part book series, The Tips for Teachers guide to… here.

Here are three blog posts that I found interesting this week.

1. Are “book looks” a waste of time? by Adam Boxer

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post called The Myth of Copying Things Down after I was asked to take part in a book look. Adam shares a similar experience, but writes about it more eloquently, arguing that school book scrutinies should evaluate evidence of student thinking and independent practice rather than superficial markers like neat presentation and copied notes.

2. Overconfident by design by David Didau

The role confidence plays in learning is one of my (many!) long obsessions. Here, David argues that overconfidence is not a character flaw but a symptom of lacking knowledge, flourishing whenever feedback is delayed, ambiguous, or absent, leaving our sense of certainty uncalibrated against reality.

3. A little nudge goes a long way by Ben Rice

I love a short, focused post with a killer takeaway. Here, Ben dramatically increased revision session attendance by replacing generic strategies with warm, personalised, one-on-one invitations that leveraged existing student interactions and demonstrated genuine individual care.

Have a great weekend!

Craig