Teacher Talkabout

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

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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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10 questions

A lesson starter activity
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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Acting up

A fun starter activity.

Students are given a character card. They then have to explain a term related to this topic whilst staying in character.

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topics

character cards

Consider all reasons

Starter task

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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Scrabble

Starter task

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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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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Word tennis

Starter task

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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Pass The Buck

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

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Lucky Dip Questions

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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Three Facts

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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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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Turn it down

Starter or plenary task

This follows the traditional game of writing a statement, folding or turning the paper down to hide what has been written and then passing it to the next student.

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

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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 summary

Students are asked to write down three things that they have learned during the lesson.

This plenary gives them an opportunity to evaluate the lesson and their learning and an AFL opportunity for the teacher.

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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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New words

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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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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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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Exam question - what is wrong with the answer?

Students are given a genuine answer written by another student in response to an exam style question. They have to determine what is wrong with the answer and then write a better one themselves

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task

answer

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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task

answer

Tick the Answer

Students are given a list of different items. They have to identify which category each item belongs to.

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task

answer

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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task

answer

Exam Style Questions

Students are given a set of questions which are similar to those they might expect to see in their written examination.

A good opportunity to give students practice on question answering technique.

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task

answer

Sorting task

A kinaesthetic activity which requires students to work in pairs and determine which statements are advantages and which are disadvantages of types of user interface.

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task

Crossword (differentiated)

Students are given a crossword to solve with clues relating to key words for this topic.

There are three differentiated versions to allow students to choose the best level of difficulty for themselves.

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version 1

version 2

version 3

answers

Video Case Study

Suitable for a homework or extension task

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Video case study - 'Tech that really understands you'

Suitable for a homework or extension task

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task

answer

100 words

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

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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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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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