Main learning
The main learning of any lesson should have Challenge, Collaboration and Choice within it. Here there will be strategies to use in your lessons to challenge students and improve their thinking and learning.
6 Degrees of separation: Zoe Elder's 6 degrees of separation; CLICK HERE FOR INFO
SCAMPER: SCAMPER (Taken from www.mindtools.com); CLICK HERE FOR INFO
Options: Provide students with a range of options as to how they might access a task. For example; set students two questions they must answer and then provide them with a range of options to select from:
Help Desk: Set up a help desk with a variety of help resources on it to help students become less dependent on the teacher
5-3-1: Get the students to think up 5 ideas - pick the top 3 - justify 1
- Challenge; Because this is the way to ensure that expectations are high and learners are working to make progress in their learning
- Collaboration; Because students should be talking more than teaches and working together to achieve the ‘brilliant outcomes.’
- Choice; Engages the learners and make them feel committed to the task
6 Degrees of separation: Zoe Elder's 6 degrees of separation; CLICK HERE FOR INFO
SCAMPER: SCAMPER (Taken from www.mindtools.com); CLICK HERE FOR INFO
Options: Provide students with a range of options as to how they might access a task. For example; set students two questions they must answer and then provide them with a range of options to select from:
- Write an essay.
- Create an extended cartoon strip.
- Model your answer with play dough
- Come up with a short drama piece.
- Draft a speech in which you put forward your point of view.
Help Desk: Set up a help desk with a variety of help resources on it to help students become less dependent on the teacher
5-3-1: Get the students to think up 5 ideas - pick the top 3 - justify 1
5_3_1.pptx | |
File Size: | 127 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
Stepped activities: Take students on a learning journey that gets progressively more challenging.
Lead Learners: A Lead Learner is a student that has great communication and teamwork skills as well a clear passion for the subject. Make sure you have one on every table to help the learning process and other students.
- Plan for your lessons to include tasks which get increasingly complex or which require increasingly sophisticated thinking.
- It is not necessary for all students to reach the top of the steps. Encourage them to keep working upwards, but if some reach a point that is causing them problems, let them stop there and work through it.
Lead Learners: A Lead Learner is a student that has great communication and teamwork skills as well a clear passion for the subject. Make sure you have one on every table to help the learning process and other students.
Priority Pyramid: Get student to prioritise statements, ideas, characters etc in order of importance using a pyramid.
priority_pyramid.doc | |
File Size: | 23 kb |
File Type: | doc |
PEEL: Get students to structure their writing using PEEL (Point, Evidence, Explanation, Link)
PEEL_Info_Sheet.ppt | |
File Size: | 161 kb |
File Type: | ppt |
Learning Mats: These are handouts that contained key ideas, concepts and vocabulary from curriculum topics. They are used to support work in class, exam preparation and revision. CLICK HERE to see a range of subject literacy mat examples.
Envoy: Envoys is an activity in which students all conduct research. Some then go off and teach while the remainder get taught. Here is how it works:
Envoy: Envoys is an activity in which students all conduct research. Some then go off and teach while the remainder get taught. Here is how it works:
- Put the class into groups.
- Each group researches a topic.
- One person from each group then moves off around the room and teaches the other groups about their topic.
- After each group has been taught by each envoy, the envoys return to their original groups.
- Here they are informed about everything which their original group has learnt
How to cards: Create help cards that show students how to do something that you have explained. Eg How to write a descriptive piece or writing or how to insert a hyperlink into a powerpoint.
how_to_card_examples.pptx | |
File Size: | 775 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
4x4 Post it notes:
- In pairs Pupils are given 16 post-it notes and asked to arrange into a 4x4 grid on the table in front of them.
- Pupils then use text books, prior knowledge and class books to help them add one topic related key word to each post-it note.
- Pupils then either add definitions to their own key words or swap with another pair and add definitions to their key words.
- Pupils are then asked to rearrange their own grid so that posit notes beside each other link.
- Pupils are then asked to rearrange their grid so that the post-it either side and above and below all link.
- Pupils could then move round the class to see if they can make further links with another groups set of post-it notes.
- Finally key word-links can then be used to complete an exam question or piece of writing.
Sentence starters: These are a great way to get students going. Here are five ways you might use them:
WAGOLL (What a good one looks like): Show examples of good work and expected outcomes of the lesson.
Dot Marking: Use coloured dots whilst marking linked to success criteria and get the student to amend via green pen
- Write them on your PowerPoint slides.
- Have generic ones stuck up around the room.
- Produce a sheet or booklet of sentence starters for students who struggle to get going with their writing.
- Create a couple of sentence starters with your class before starting the activity.
- Ask a couple of students who have started writing to read out the beginnings of their sentences
WAGOLL (What a good one looks like): Show examples of good work and expected outcomes of the lesson.
Dot Marking: Use coloured dots whilst marking linked to success criteria and get the student to amend via green pen
dot_marking_example.pptx | |
File Size: | 2460 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
SNOT: Self, Neighbour, Others, Teacher reminds students of the independent and collaborative learning steps to take before seeking out the teacher for help. A great way to promote independence in your classroom
snot display.pdf | |
File Size: | 1082 kb |
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snot.pptx | |
File Size: | 549 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
Magpie: This is a technique that can be used across the curriculum with ease which encourages the use of new ideas and thinking. Teachers should explain the idea as if the students are magpies and they should consider ‘stealing’ something from another students work to help them improve their work. The important thing is they have a learning conversation on why it will help to improve their work. Students should be encouraged to do this at various stages in the lesson and some examples could be given initally. This should become a classroom culture which teachers regularly encourage students to ‘magpie’ ideas and explain why they will help improve their work. Just get a picture of a magpie on the whiteboard and get the students to ‘steal’ some peer assessed excellent work
magpie.pptx | |
File Size: | 127 kb |
File Type: | pptx |
Activity stations works as follows:
- Set up a number of different stations around the room.
- Each station should have a different resource and/or task attached to it.
- Ensure that there are a variety of types of resource and task. For example: you might have a case study, a laptop with a video on it, a card sort, a hand-out, a diamond nine and a newspaper article.
- Put students in groups and assign each group to a station.
- Rotate the groups after a set length of time. Aim for each group to visit each station.