Teaching A-Level Biology OCR A for the First Time

ABOUT THIS COURSE

This refreshed course offers an introduction and overview to teaching OCR ‘A’ A-Level Biology for anyone in their first 3 years of teaching the course, or for anyone lacking confidence in delivering the course effectively. The sessions are designed to improve delegates’ understanding of the OCR ‘A’ specification and ensure that students have the best opportunity to maximise their potential grades. The course will also demonstrate practical teaching and learning strategies. While assessment materials will be drawn from the OCR ‘A’ course, many of the ideas will be applicable to other specifications.

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BENEFITS OF ATTENDING

• A focus on the specification to be able to incorporate the learning outcomes and assessment objectives into your teaching
• Explore how the maths and practical skills are assessed and can be embedded throughout the course
• Discuss how to deliver the course effectively to all ability ranges
• Obtain quality understanding of the key challenge areas and how to teach them
• Gain insight into the exam structure and the how exams are marked, to be able to guide students in exam technique for the different types of questions
• Understand how to construct an answer for the level of response questions using scaffold and stretch strategies

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PROGRAMME

Overview of the A-level Biology OCR A Course Specification

10.00am

• Introduction to the learning outcomes and why they are so important for exams
• How to develop your teaching style to reflect the assessment objective weightings and the areas which require more intense teaching
• Overview of all three OCR papers

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Embedding Maths and Practical Skills into your Teaching

10.30pm

• Understand how Maths is assessed and can be integrated into the general course teaching
• Discuss how practical skills are assessed and are vital to all abilities reaching their potential grade
• An introduction into the language of measurement

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Break

11.10am

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Independent Assessment of Practical Skills in Exam Questions

11.25am

•  How to integrate practical skills and theoretical content to help students write about their practical work confidently
• Exemplar material focusing on practical skills questions

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Lunch

12.25pm

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Course Delivery and Key Challenges

1.10pm

• Discussion of the options for delivering the course
• How to incorporate independent learning to be able to cover the large course content
• The importance of synoptic teaching and learning
• Teaching for success; how to support students to remember key concepts and begin to apply them – interleaving and retrieval strategies

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Break

2.10pm

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The Most Important Topics and the Most Challenging Topics

2.20pm

• Discussion of the topic areas that create the foundation for success
• Recognising which topic areas will be most challenging and ideas to make them more accessible
• The importance of Y12 AS knowledge and understanding for Y13 topics
• Teaching across the ability range; how to ensure top students are challenged, while not leaving lower ability students behind

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Exam Structure, Different Types of Exam Questions and Exam Technique

2.50pm

•  An analysis of the different types of exam question and strategies for success
• A specific focus on how to attempt the level of response questions (LoR)
• Teaching towards the ’endgame’, what language to use, misconceptions to avoid and general tips for success
•  Time management –the use of peer assessment and self-assessment
• Support available from the exam boards – where to find it and how to use it

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Depart

3.30pm