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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Odd One Out

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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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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Teacher Talkabout

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

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Word Chains

Starting with the shaded letter, students find the adjacent letters which spell out a word related to this topic.  Letters can go horizontally, vertically and diagonally in any direction.

Two differentiated versions of the task are supplied.

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version 1

version 2

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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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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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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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Call my bluff

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

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Lucky dip questions

Starter or plenary task

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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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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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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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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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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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characters

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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Memorise this

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

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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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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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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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Corkboard

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

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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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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 10 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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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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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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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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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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Turn it down

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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Tick the answer

Students are given a number of different statements relating to this topic.  They have to decide whether the statement is true or false and place a tick in the correct box.

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