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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character cards

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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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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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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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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Sort A Sentance

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

Requires preparation before the lesson.

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Word Tennis

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Slogans

A starter or plenary task

Students are given a scenario and asked to write a suitable slogan. 

This could also be given as a homework task

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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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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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Summarise

Students are asked to summarise what they have learned during today’s lesson and think about a question they would still like to be answered

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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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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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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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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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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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Exam question - what is wrong? Computer Networks

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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Exam question - what is wrong? User IDS

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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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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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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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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Connectives

Students are given the beginning of a sentence and then asked to use at least one connective from a given list in order to add further detail and complete it.

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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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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 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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100 words

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

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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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Discussion statements

Students are given a number of open ended and sometimes controversial statements related to this topic. In groups, they discuss each statement in order to see if they can come up with a suitable answer.

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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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Key terms

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

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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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News story task

Alarm sounded over wi-fi networks (subscription only)