Mini whiteboards

Starter activity

A great way of quickly assessing which key terms students remember from the previous lesson and where further teaching focus might need to be given

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Post-its

Starter task

A fun kinesthetic activity where students work in teams to solve a puzzle.

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Questions to ask

A starter task

Students are given a list of categories and asked to write down the questions they would like answered from today's lesson

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What do I know?

Starter and plenary

Students fill in a sheet at the start of the lesson to indicate their level of knowledge for this topic. At the end of the lesson they revisit the sheet and update it to show what they have learned.

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Word chains

Starter activity
Students are given sets of letters from which they need to identify words related to this task

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Teach me about

Lesson starter
Students become the teacher! One student is tasked with preparing a five minute revision starter about this topic for the beginning of the following lesson.

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When I went on holiday

A starter task

Based on the old childhood game of ‘when I went on holiday I took a ...’

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Pick a side

Starter task

A fun kinesthetic activity where students move around the room in order to answer questions

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Consider all Reasons

Students are given an open ended statement related to the topic.  In pairs, they identify as many reasons as possible in order to provide an answer to the statement

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30 Seconds

Students are shown a number of terms for exactly 30 seconds. They need to memorise as many as possible. After 30 seconds, the terms are hidden and they need to write down as many terms as they can remember along with at least one fact about that term.

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Memorise This!

Starter activity

Students work in pairs or small groups to remember words which have been shown to them.

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3-2-1

Starter activity

Display this on the whiteboard as students are walking through the door. They can work individually or in pairs to come up with the answers.

Good for differentiation as all students should be able to get at least one of the six points.

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Odd One Out

Starter activity

Students are shown a number of key terms.   They have to decide which of the terms is the ‘odd one out’ and give a reason for their choice

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Word Tennis

Starter activity

Students work in groups of three with two 'serving' words related to the topic. The observer monitors for words which are 'out'

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10 Questions

Starter or plenary

A volunteer (either a student or class teacher) is given a slip of paper so they know 'what they are'.

The rest of the class can ask up to a maximum of 10 questions to guess what they are. The volunteer can only answer 'yes' or 'no'

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Pass the Buck

An excellent starter/ plenary for involving all students and getting them to identify a large number of facts about the current topic

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Three Facts

Starter or plenary activity

Students are asked to write down three facts that they can remember off the top of their heads about the topic.

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Draw me a picture

Starter or plenary

Students are given a selection of key terms and are asked to illustrate one of them in a diagram.

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Give me ten

A starter or plenary task
Students work in pairs to come up with ten words related to this project before joining up with another pair to expand their list.

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Just a minute

Starter or plenary task

Students are asked to talk to a partner about this topic for 60 seconds whilst abiding by a set of rules

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Chinese whispers

Starter activity
This is a fun activity which involves all students.  It is based upon the old childhood of the same name.

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Lucky dip questions

Starter or plenary task

Every student is given a number at the start of the activity. This is used to help pick who will ask and answer questions about what has been learned during the lesson.

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One, two, three

Can be used either as a starter or a plenary task.

Students are given a sheet to complete firstly on their own, then with a partner and then joining up with another pair

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Post-it key terms

Starter or plenary

A good activity to encourage teamwork.

Students compete in groups to identify as many key terms as possible.

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Word association

A starter or plenary task.

Students are asked to write down all of the words they associate with this topic. They then work with a partner to categorise them.

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4-4-2

A plenary activity where students are asked to summarise the lesson and pick out the main key words related to the topic.

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Corkboard

A great plenary idea both for AFL and for getting feedback from every student

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I predict

This task acts as the plenary from one lesson and the starter for the next lesson.

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Pyramid

A plenary activity.

Students are asked to complete a self assessment sheet to indicate what they have learned during this lesson

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Text me

A plenary activity where students are asked to write a text message to explain what they have learned during the lesson

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Tweet it

A plenary activity

Students write a ‘Tweet’ message to sum up what they have learned during the lesson

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Countdown

Plenary

Students are given a set of jumbled up words related to this topic. They have to unscramble each of the words within 30 seconds.

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Summarise

Plenary

Students are asked to summarise what they have learned during today’s lesson

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Mastermind

A plenary activity which is loosely based on the game show 'Mastermind'

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One word

A plenary task.

Students have to sum up today's lesson in just one sentence. They must include a given word within that sentence.

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Word building

Plenary task

Students work in groups to construct a sentence about today’s lesson

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Scrabble

Students are given a blank scrabble type sheet and take it in turns to write down key words related to this topic

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Theory Notes Task (1)

Students read the theory notes on the mini website and then answer the questions in the workbook.

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Theory Notes Task (2)

Students read the theory notes on the mini website and then answer the questions in the workbook.

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Crossword Clues

Students are given a completed crossword and asked to write the clues.  This task is an excellent way to help students really understand the meaning of each term.
Differentiation is achieved through the complexity of the clues written.

Students can swop clues and provide feedback on their clarity.

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Do I Belong?

In groups, students sort through a large selection of terms and decide whether the term is related to the current topic.

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Noughts and Crosses

Students work in pairs to take turns at answering questions. If they get the answer correct, they take a turn on the noughts and crosses grid.

Full instructions are given in the task sheet. Requires preparation prior to the lesson

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Correct the Teacher

Students are given a piece of text written by a ‘teacher’. The text contains a number of mistakes. They are asked to read the text and correct any mistakes they find.

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Definitions

Students are given the definitions to a number of key terms related to this project. They have to correctly identify the key term.

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Identify the Question

Students are given the answer to a number of questions.  Their task is to identify what the original question might have been.

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Mind Map

Students are given the basic structure of a mind map for this topic. They are asked to recreate the structure on their own sheet of paper and add further detail to each of the branches.

Mind maps are a useful tool to use as a revision aid.

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100 words

Students have exactly 100 words to summarise the key points about this topic

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Agony aunt

Students are put into the role of an agony aunt who has to answer a set of letters about technology related problems.

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Booklet

Students are given a scenario and asked to research for specific information. They are then given a set of guidelines and asked to create a booklet from the information they have gathered.

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Construct an answer

Students are given an exam style question to answer. They are also given a set of key words to incorporate into their answer.

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Identify the question

Students are given the answer to a number of questions.  Their task is to identify what the original question might have been.

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In the style of

A fantastic kinaesthetic activity which is bound to produce some amusing results whilst at the same time reinforcing the main concepts of this topic.

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Matching pairs

Students work in pairs to turn over two cards and matchup a keyword with a definition or example.

Full instructions are given in the task sheet. Requires preparation prior to the lesson

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Matching statements

On the left-hand side is a set of terms.  On the right-hand side is a set of statements or definitions.  Students are asked to draw a line to matchup the correct term and statement.

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Mind map

Students are given the basic structure of a mind map for this topic. They are asked to complete the mind map by adding extra branches.

Mind maps are a useful tool to use as a revision aid.

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Once upon a time

Students are given a set of words related to this topic and asked to make up a story incorporating as many of the terms as possible.

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PNI

Students are asked to identify the positive, negative and interesting points relating to this topic

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Podcast

Students are given instructions about creating a revision podcast based on this topic

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Poster

Students are given a passage of text about this topic. They are asked to create a poster that could be used for a classroom display. Key design techniques are suggested.

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Word cloud

Students write a set of notes about this topic and then use them as the basis to create a word cloud. Their work can be used to create a classroom display.

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You are the teacher

Students work in small groups to prepare a lesson on this topic. They are provided with information and tips about the tasks they need to prepare.

Because all students will be working on this task there is no real need for them to actually teach it the following lesson

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Presentation task

Students can take forever to set up a presentation often wasting valuable lesson time choosing their background colours and font styles.

This resource provides students with a template for this topic with the aim on them spending time on the content rather than the 'pretty stuff'.

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QR codes

A good kinaesthetic activity.

Students have to find, decode and answer questions stored in the form of QR codes

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