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Starters / Plenaries

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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Compare and contrast

A  starter activity
Students are given the names of two items and asked to consider the differences and similarities between them

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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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10 Questions

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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ppt

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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ppt

3-2-1

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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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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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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Pass the buck

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

Starter or plenary task

The class 'test' the teacher on their knowledge of key words related to this topic

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Three facts

Starter or plenary task

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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What's your opinion?

Starter and plenary task

Students are given a statement about this topic and asked to discuss their opinion in pairs. At the end of the lesson they can reassess whether their original opinion has changed

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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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Summarise

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

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Call My Bluff

A plenary activity based on the popular game show, ‘Call My Bluff’

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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 identify three new words/terms that they learned during this lesson and then explain their meaning

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Word building game

Plenary task

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

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Lesson tasks and homework

Theory Notes Task

Students read the theory notes on the mini website and then answer the questions on the task sheet.

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Theory Task 2

This task provides an attractively laid out sheet for students to store basic notes on this topic.

Students need to identify just the key points and record them in the clearly marked spaces.

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Fill-in-the-Gaps

Students are given a piece of text with a number of key words removed. The key words appear in a table above the text. They need to replace the words correctly back into the text.

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answers

Create your own crossword

Students are given step by step instructions about creating their own crossword which they can then give to fellow students to solve

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Key Terms

Students are asked to provide a definition and example for key terms related to this topic

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Pros and Cons

Students are given a document to complete where they identify the pros and cons for the main factors related to this topic.

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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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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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Reduce it!

Students are given a section of theory. They pick out the 20 most important words. They are then asked to reduce these to the 8 they consider to be the most important.

A great task for really getting them to concentrate and think about the text in front of them.

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100 words

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

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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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Important questions

Students are given a scenario.

They work in pairs to consider the questions that should be asked in order to fulfil the scenario.

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Playdough

A wonderfully fun kinaesthetic activity which will help students to think creatively.

Warning: this can be fairly messy

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Podcast

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

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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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task