Buffers and Drivers: tasks

Starters / Plenaries

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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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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Teacher Talkabout

Students work in pairs with one student talking about the topic and the other monitoring how many of the displayed key words they mention.

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Sort a Sentence

Students work in pairs to reconstruct a cut up sentence about this topic.

Requires preparation before the 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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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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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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Hot and cold

Starter.

A fun kinaesthetic activity encouraging students to correctly arrange a sentence preparing them for the lesson ahead.

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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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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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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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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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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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Pick me

This provides a differentiated starter or plenary activity. Students are given a question and work in groups to come up with an answer. The group must ensure that all members are able to articulate the answer.

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Countdown

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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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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Mastermind

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

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Call my bluff

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

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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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Taboo

A plenary activity.

This task follows the traditional Taboo game. Students work in teams with one student from each team having their back to the board. A word is displayed on the board and teams take it in turns to describe the word to the student without actually mentioning the word itself.

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Word building

Plenary task

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

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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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Lesson tasks and homework

Correct the teacher

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

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answers

 

Construct an answer (buffers)

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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Construct an answer (drivers)

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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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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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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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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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 (buffers)

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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Once upon a time (drivers)

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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Podcast

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

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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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questions

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answers

 

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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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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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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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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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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