Make homework work harder!

Picture this:

Homework which generates no marking or photo-copying.
Homework which encourages creative thinking.
Homework which gets students fired up for the next lesson.
Now read on...


Poetry:

1. Draw a Venn diagram/ double bubble diagram to show links and connections between 2 poems in the "Conflict" section of the anthology. Next lesson: Pair & share-feed-back.
2. Same, but between a poem and a theme.
3. Add a poet to the Glossary in the Reading Group forum on the VLE. Next lesson: Revision using Glossary.
4. Write 10 higher order questions on a poem of your choice. Next lesson: Students swap books and answer each others' questions or group discussion using questions as catalyst or play "test the teacher" by asking teacher the questions, then student taking the "chair".

Making links & connections:

1. Why are the skills for this lesson like those in another subject? Students draw double bubble/ Venn diagram. Next lesson: Share ideas, then play "What's the Point?" Students have 1 minute to come up with as many reasons as they can for the skills being taught being useful in life and learning. Then give them the learning question!
2. 14;24;44: Students write in their books why the skills learnt are relevant now (change age to suit student), 10 years, then twenty years later. Next lesson: As above.
3. Give the student the learning question for the following lesson, and get them to make a list of success criteria. Next lesson: Use for checking their learning at each stage of the lesson.
4. Write up today's lesson in the style of: an autobiography, a recipe, a Top Twenty hit-list, a play-script...Give them the choice. Next lesson: Pair and share.
5. Draw a diagram of what you learnt this lesson. Next lesson: Pair & share. Feed-back on each others'.
6. Why is learning like a conker? Why is an argument text like a space rocket? Why is that character like a rocking-chair? Students write down as many reasons as they can. Next lesson: Where in the syllabus is it important to make links and connections? Where in other subjects and in life..? Then have a lesson on making comparisons between texts, poems, themes, characters, essays...

Success criteria-the "Hit List":

1. What is the success criteria for the lesson objective today? Next lesson: Pair & share, then compare to national levels or exam board assessment bands. Are students more or less ambitious? Which criteria is the same? Different?
2. Prioritise success criteria for today's learning in order of importance. Next lesson: Pair, share & compare. Do a Diamond 9 with the whole class and get them to write down their top 3 as personal targets.
3. See no 3 above.
4. Give students the learning question/ success criteria for the following lesson. They design the lesson, using the school's planning proforma. Next lesson: Pupils share lesson ideas in groups. Vote for the best lesson. Group or student teaches the lesson!

Unit 1 practice - non-fiction:

1. Invent a persona: Their age, gender, hobbies & interests, politics, income bracket, style, family & relationships. Present it as a mini-biography. This will become the addressee - the audience for a piece of persuasive writing. Next lesson: pairs swap books and do a writing task directed at that particular addressee.
2. As above, but for the addresser - the writer.
3. Write with purpose! The student chooses from a huge list of possible purposes (see previous post) and writes a short piece. The only rule is it has to be about trains( or a music festival, or a sandwich, or a holiday in Britain...) Next lesson: Books are left open on desks and pupils circulate and read each others', guessing the purpose, marking it for SSPs, adding post-its with positive comments, etc. Students return to their own book and reflect & correct.
4. SSPs and proof-reading: Students write a short piece related to the previous lesson and proof-read it for SSPs. Next lesson: Students sit in outer and inner circle. Turn to face each other. Swap books and proof-read then outer circle rotates. Repeat several times. By the end, books should be thoroughly marked and proof-read! Students reflect & correct & write personal SSPs targets.
5. Write an exam paper. Find texts, write questions, add marks awarded... Next lesson: Students swap and do each others'!

Literature texts:

1. Write 10 questions to ask a character using Bloom's taxonomy. Next lesson: Teacher/ student is hot-seated and asked the questions.
2. Make links and connections between the characters/ themes/ plot of the text and a film/book/poem of your choice. Make it as silly/ random as you wish-eg. why is Lennie like the "River God"? Why is the Inspector like Voldemort..? Next lesson: Student volunteers to give their comparison - rest of class make double bubble diagram. Leads to lesson on comparison controlled assessment (Macbeth and Animal Farm?)...
3. Research social context. Next lesson: Bull's eye diagram or quiz or add to online Glossary.
4. Add item to online Glossary. Next lesson: discussion forum linking comments with social context/ new learning.
5. Write a list of clues about a character of your choice. Next lesson: Play "Who am I?"
6. Play the "Furniture Game" with a character: If they were a food item, a piece of furniture, a weather type, a holiday destination...what would they be? Next lesson: Hot-seat a character and guess who they are; ask questions to different pupils in role, guessing their character, write a poem from the point of view of the character, using as many poetical techniques as possible...

Climate of learning:

1. What makes a successful learning environment? Students describe their "dream classroom". Next lesson: Pair & share. Prioritise, compare, make a list...
2. How can we make "listening" visible? Students make a list. Next lesson: Use to discuss and create success criteria for Speaking & Listening.
3. How can we feel "safe" giving our opinions in the classroom? Students list possible problems and solutions. Next lesson: Teach Grice's Maxims of conversation, and compare to the class list.
4. How can we stop boys/ more confident members of the class dominating group discussion? (Or any other "problem" that is threatening the climate of learning). Next lesson: Test out some of the solutions and feed back/ reflect).
5. Create a positive climate! Students prepare a short piece of writing for homework, using agreed success criteria from previous lesson. Next lesson: Homework is left on desks all around the room and outside on the landing. Students are armed with post-its and circulate, leaving smiley faces and positive comments whenever they see a student has hit the success criteria. Pupils count up how many post-its they got! (Idea stolen from primary school)

ICT: 

1. Use on-line sites such as BBC Bitesize, Sparknotes, VLE to revise a text/ paper. Next lesson: Write down 5 things they learnt.
2. Start a personal learning blog. Use the Reading Group link to write an ongoing journal tracking revision or a literature text. Next lesson: Share students' thoughts. Encourage them to read each others'.
3. Add to on-line Glossary of poets, poems, characters, books.
4. Reading for pleasure: Add a question to the reading discussion forum. Next lesson: Students join in chat-room.

Final thought:

Homework which connects naturally with the previous and following lesson is relevant, vital and motivating.

Any writing tasks which are given infrequently, out of context and without thought to the learning abilities of the pupil are irrelevant, paper-wasting and generate hours of extra mark-load for the teacher, which is out of proportion to the learning by the pupil.

Just a thought...

The Big Write

Light a candle, or have one flickering on the whiteboard.

Play soft music.

Start the "Big Write"...

The idea is that students have been building up to an extended piece of independent writing. This will be assessed and levelled/ graded by the teacher. (As well as self, peer-assessed...) Students become used to getting in "flow", the feeling of writing taking over, of the "writer's block" sensation being overcome. All good practice for controlled assessments and exams, as well as continuing good practice from primary school.

Writing is seen as a quiet, independent activity; a calming, pleasurable experience that is being valued, not hacked about with the 4 part lesson structure.

After all, the ideal is surely to work towards the "no part" lesson?

How often?

Whenever it naturally occurs after a unit mirroring the writing process? As mid-term assessment? Every few weeks? Plan so that mark-load is bearable.

All other bits, pieces, stuff in exercise books should not have to be marked by the teacher. Instead, ensure use of embedded AfL in the classroom gives instant snapshots of attainment.

All "Big Write" work to be kept in a separate folder for moderating and evidence of pupil progress. Exercise books do not get shown at parents' evenings, but these do!

Marking: RIP

9  ways to kill marking:

1. Create a discussion forum (chat room) for the writing task. Students post their stories/articles/essays. Other students post comments based on success criteria and climate of respect. Could enforce "positive comments only" rule. Or "2 stars & a wish". 
2. Put a sign on classroom door saying "Examiners' conference: trained markers only". GCSE students leave their work open to view on a desk, choose 3 criteria from mark-sheet, and move around room, reading work, underlining evidence of their chosen criteria, leaving comments in the margin.  Follow-up lesson could have groups of students discussing findings and writing examiners' report.
3. Students form a discussion circle with 2 concentric circles. They sit on chairs and the outer circles turns in to face someone in inner circle. Books are swapped, writing read and marked using agreed success criteria. Outer circle rotates and cycle is repeated. By the end of the process, books should have been thoroughly proof-read and marked!
4. Film it! Give students an opportunity to view their speaking & listening on screen. Score-sheets are given to grade, using their own or approved success criteria. Waving the camera at them will mean they won't repeat the same mistakes!
5. Editors' conference. At the end of the writing process, after stories have been group-written, redrafted and printed, a copy is left on tables, together with the blurb, cover design etc. Writing groups rotate around tables, in role as editors and would-be publishers. They use a score-sheet with pre-decided success criteria (5 works well). This must include proof-reading strands as well as creativity. 10 marks for each strand, with a possible total of 50. A countdown sound could signal when it's time to move on.  Post-its are used to suggest any targets/ leave positive comments.
6. Idea stolen from a primary school: Homework is left on desks. Students rotate to leave positive comments on cards inside books. Idea is that students collect positive comments. Makes them want to try really hard next time!
7. When the teacher is marking, only closely mark the first 2 paragraphs. Indicate this with a hash sign. This gives a snap-shot of how well the student has proof-read their work. Next lesson, they look carefully at the close-marked section, and continue marking the rest, correcting any mistakes.
8. Use "experts" in the classroom! Promote some students to be the experts in literacy. They are approached before the teacher to work with students on proof-reading and corrections. Similarly, could GCSE, top sets or English Language A Level students be given sets of books from other classes to mark in lessons? Great practice for SSPs!
9. Only controlled assessments, the "Big Write" or half-term/exam assessments are marked by the teacher. Everything else is planned for "no marking" (especially home-works! These should never generate marking, but should always inform starter for next lesson) or peer & self assessment. Class-books should not have to be "ticked and flicked" by the teacher, but should have plenty of evidence of proof-reading and self-correction. The exception is the "Big Write"...

Life with no marking...

A Body in the Library

A group of writers meet for a conference. A body is found. The only clue is that the murderer has dropped a piece of writing at the scene of the crime. You have samples from each of the suspects. On the basis of those samples, who would you say wrote the text on the incriminating piece of paper?

Great for encouraging poetry analysis!
How well do they know the style of the poets in the anthology..?

Do it like Dickens

Get students to investigate grammar and style by seeing how the greats did it:

1. —I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. Their faithful Friend and Servant, C.D.

—December, 1843.

Can they translate Dickens' preface to "A Christmas Carol" and write their own note to the reader, using the longest, most old-fashioned words they can?

2. —Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.

Can they investigate Dickens' use of commas and semi-colons and copy the punctuation exactly to describe their own Dickensian character?

3. —Once upon a time -- of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve -- old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already: it had not been light all day: and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.

Can they find lists, similes and metaphors and use the same style to describe their own Dickensian setting?

4.  And finally, using whatever writing materials they think necessary, and whatever writing purposes, can they work as groups to develop their own Victorian Christmas story?

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Who are you and what should you write on?

Use role-play when writing:

The writer is called the addresser. Who is the addresser?

• a grumpy old neighbour?
• a high-flying advertising executive?
• a tired and ratty British Rail traveller?
• a horror writer?
• Charles Dickens?
• an Ofsted Inspector?
• The Head?
• yourself at the age of 83?
• the exam moderator?

What would they write on?

• A4 paper?
• computer?
• sugar paper?
• the back of an envelope?
• old tea-stained paper?
• exercise book?
• official form?
• secret diary?
• blog?

Have a selection of these things in the classroom. Let the students choose...

Play around with Purpose!

Fed up with explain, describe, narrate?
Bored to death with persuade, argue, advise?

Why not write to:
accuse;advertise;alert;agree;amuse;apologise;appeal;apply;announce;appraise;arrange;articulate; ask;assert; bemoan;bequeath;bid;back-mail;cancel;celebrate;challenge;check;claim;clarify;comfort;commend;communicate;complain;
conceal;confirm;confuse;consider;convince;correct;criticise;decide;declare;define;defraud;
describe;
disagree;discourage;dissent;emote;encourage;enable;enlighten;enquire;entertain;evoke;exclaim;
excuse;explain;explore;expose;express;familiarise;guide;illustrate;impress;influence;inform;
instruct;joke;judge;market;mislead;narrate;negotiate;note;notify;obfuscate;order;persuade;pitch;
placate;postpone;predict;prevent;protest;query;quiz;quote;rage;rant;rebut;record;recount;refuse;
remind;renege;request;report;reveal;schedule;sell;share;teach;tell;think;threaten;trade;train;
urge;warn..?
Or better still, let the students come up with their own list of purposes!
Let them fly!

On Writing I

Who is writing the book: the author or the secretary?

Picture this: a world- famous author is pacing around her studio, dictating the next best-seller - describing characters, creating sizzling plot-lines, expounding on themes...In the corner, her secretary is busy typing up all the words, sorting out syntax, checking spellings, tightening up punctuation.
The book is published. It is an astounding success. It makes the famous author a multi-millionaire.
But who wrote the book???
The author dictating the story is the creator and composer, with the ideas, imagination and diction.

The secretary typing the story is the transcriber, the editor, the proof-reader.

Let students take turns to be both!

Are Levels Limiting?

Which is better?

Working towards pre-conceived levels, bands and assessment criteria (extrinsic/dubious motivation) or getting students to conceive their own (intrinsic motivation)?

Which is better?
Giving students assessment criteria which is set by an anonymous agency or letting them invent their own, powered by their own imagination?

Which is better?
Working towards levels, which stop at 8; and bands which stop at 5; or students creating their own "hit list", which stops at infinity?

There's only one way to find out!


Case study:
After a run of lessons studying listening skills (a la Robert Fisher-"Creative Dialogue in the Classroom"), a year 10 group came up with the following success criteria for listening:

• body language: nodding, leaning forward, eye-contact
• following the maxims of respect, politeness, no interruption, equity, collaboration not competition
• paraphrasing the question in the answer
• sign-posting the person's name you are responding to; and the point they raised
• responding to points made 5 minutes earlier to demonstrate close attention
• using a variety of Bloom's higher order questions; using different question openers to those used previously
• giving close evidence to refute or agree with the point raised
• being aware of others wishing to join the discussion, and inviting them in
• using connectives to counter-argue
• feeling that close listening is difficult, and the thunk of your brain!

And so on. Much more subtle and sophisticated than the speaking & listening criteria stipulated by the exam board.

The interesting thing was, after taking part in a wonderful, collaborative, skilful Socratic debate, the same year 10 class were highly critical of their performance! They raised points such as the discussion being dominated by the more confident ones; and wondered how to solve this. They wanted to do even better!

Case Study:

After much practice exploring poetry orally, the same year 10 class were ready to write a comparative essay.

As before, they came up with their "hit list" of success criteria:

• PEE (yawn)
• asking a range of Bloom's higher order questions
• offering a range of possibilities; using "could be" language
• giving close evidence
• bringing in poets' lives
• making links and connections between other texts; and within the poems
• knowing the "big picture" - context
• exploring character/view-point, theme, structure, language
• less is more: exploring interesting points thoroughly
• enjambment
• internal rhyme/assonance/sibilance - they'd just learnt the last terms so wanted to show off they'd remembered the words!
• SSPs - not sure about this in a reading exam, but they wanted to, so why not?

Then they started to write.

Haven't marked the results yet, but they'll peer assess against their hit list first; and here's hoping for writing which is fresh, original, honest and different - maybe even "sophisticated" and "impressive"!

Create a Thunk!

A Thunk is the noise made by the brain when it has to work hard.

(Ian Gilbert)

Ditch those rows!

Rows signal a teacher-led lesson...

How can we encourage more collaboration, creativity, and less "singing and dancing" from the teacher?

How can we push for pupil participation?

• "Goldfish bowl" or inner circle/outer circle - used for Socratic debate; teacher as participator.  Entirely student led.

• "Cabaret"  layout - This has small groups of students sitting around individual group tables. It works well for small group discussion and is easy to set up without rearranging the whole room. The cabaret layout is ideal for running a 'marketplace' activity. http://www.talkscience.org.uk/techniques/4.aspx http://teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk/index.php/2006/02/23/collaborative-learning/

• "Horse-shoe" layout - good for discussions; all students can see teacher.

"World Cafe" concept -

World Cafe is a participative process which enables people to have creative conversations while sitting cafe-style around small tables. Paper table cloths are often used so that the ideas and issues which emerge from the conversations can be recorded. After about 20-30 minutes, people move to a new table and the conversation continues. One member of the initial group will remain at the table to host the new conversation and help to build links between the different strands. Three rounds are usual.

http://www.theworldcafe.com/pdfs/cafetogo.pdf

• Classroom as "theatre" - create a stage area. 

• Classroom as court-room.

• Classroom as theme park..?

• Classroom as cinema - students could watch film clips; the volume turned down as they fill in voice-over; listen to sound & music only as they jot down ideas for story-board; watch film clip for descriptive writing - see "Lucy through the wardrobe" idea; or watch groups act out scenes from a book/film.

• Classroom as computer game..? See Tim Rylands' blog: http://www.timrylands.com/watch-and-listen/ He usually sits among the class, playing the game "Myst" with them, working to develop literacy skills.

• Classroom as "museum"

• Classroom as "crime scene". http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/for-csi-read-classroom-scene-investigation-1890548.html?action=Gallery

• Classroom as "research zone"; "investigation zone" or "learning centre" - get the students to actively use wall displays to find out information relevant to the lesson. Get them out of their seats!  NB "Words for Work" sounds interesting: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/news/1747_the_first_words_for_work_workshop_gets_the_thumbs_up_from_pupils

Blog it!

All students should keep a personal blog to reflect on learning, discuss books and ask big questions.
Bloom's question stems could be used as openers in a discussion forum:

• Do you think e books are a good or a bad thing? (Evaluation)
• How effective are public libraries? (Evaluation)
• If you had access to all resources, how would you deal with boys being reluctant readers?(Synthesis)
• Can you design an App to encourage reading? (Evaluation)
• What is an alternative ending to Harry Potter? (Analysis)
• How is a graphic novel similar to a film? (Analysis)

13 uses for a mini whiteboard!

1. Doodling I love you.
2. Plenary: write down 1 thing they're sure about; one thing they're unsure about. Hold up.
3. Play The Weakest Link: all stand up. Read out prepared questions about previous learning. After each question they hold up answer. Those with wrong answer sit down. Continue until last standing is the winner.
4. Pre-spelling test to practise spellings.
5. Correct use of apostrophe. Give sentences, pupils write on boards and hold up.
6. Use in How to be level 5 sentence structure lesson. (See post)
7. Pre Socratic Debate, pupils write down their "big question" on boards, using Blooms question starters.
8. Fact or opinion? in examining head-lines etc.
9. True or false? for a variety of uses.
10. Read all about it! Use in newspaper press-room lesson - see post.
11. Write down subordinate clauses, subjects and actions; pupils use boards to make human complex sentences.
12. Write paragraphs for paired proofreading.
13. Whiteboard spelling Bee: All stand up. Read out prepared spellings; sit down if misspell. Last one standing is the winner.

Widgets!

http://classtools.net/widgets/fruit_machine_5/GzSrg.htm

Perfect Plenaries

1.  Listen to Anna:  Anna d'Echevarria says " Make connections across contexts

Research on classroom learning has found that students typically show little ability to flexibly apply what they have learned in one curriculum area to help them with a new and different problem in another.  Skills that could be generalised and transferred remain stubbornly welded to the context (and sometimes even to the room!) in which they were learned, and are still less likely to be applied to the solution of informal problems in everyday life.  It is important, therefore, to acquaint students with the whole problem of transfer, and show them how to learn for transfer.

One prerequisite for the successful transfer of thinking skills appears to be the development by students of a tendency to self-direct and monitor their own thinking.  How many of our students, for example, have learned to ask themselves the following questions: What’s this about? How shall I do this? What have I done before that might help?  Where could I use this again? As David Perkins has commented, we need to help students to ‘make the connections they otherwise might not make and help them to cultivate mental habits of making links and connections.’"

2.  Thinking disposition bricks

http://www.teachingexpertise.com/e-bulletins/success-in-teaching-thinking-programmes-7-key-classroom-strategies-3180

Use the thinking bricks activities in the downloads to get students to consider each others' thinking skills.

3. Teaching for transfer: Hugging

'Hugging', suggested by Perkins and Salomon (1989), uses similarity to make the new learning experience more like future situations to which transfer is desired. This is a lower form of transfer and relies on an almost automatic response from the learner when the new situation is encountered. Students do and feel something very much like the intended applications. Here are a few examples of this 'hugging' approach:

1. Setting expectations: Simply alert learners to occasions where they can apply what they are learning directly, without transformation or adjustment.

Example: 'Remember, you'll be asked to use these pronouns correctly in the essay due at the end of the week.'

2. Matching: Adjust the learning to make it almost the same experience as the ultimate applications.

Example: In sports, play practice games. In drama, full costume rehearsals.

3. Simulating: Use simulation, role-playing, acting out, to approximate the ultimate applications and help students practice new roles in diverse situations.

Example: Simulated trials, public inquiries, trade disputes, parliamentary debates, etc, as preparation for understanding and participating in government as a citizen, and experimenting with various approaches to solving complex legal and social issues.

4. Modelling: Show and demonstrate rather than only describe or discuss.

Example: A math teacher demonstrates how a problem might be solved, 'thinking aloud' to reveal inner strategic moves.

5. Problem-based learning: Have students learn content they are supposed to use in solving problems through solving analogous kinds of problems, pulling in the content as they need it.

Example: Students learn about nutritional needs under different conditions by planning the menu for a desert trek and a long sea voyage, getting nutrition information out of their texts and other sources as they work.

4. Teaching for transfer: Bridging

Bridging involves students in making more sophisticated, abstract connections between what they have learned and other applications. This is more cerebral and less experiential. Bridging involves generalising your learning – looking for how it might be useful in new and different situations. Here are a few examples of this 'bridging' approach:

1. Anticipating applications: Ask students to predict possible applications remote from the learning context.

Example: After students have practised a thinking skill or other skill, ask, 'Where might you use this or adapt it? Let's brainstorm. Be creative.' List the ideas and discuss some.

2. Generalising concepts: Ask students to generalise from their experience to produce widely applicable principles, rules, and ideas.

Example: After studying the discovery of radium, ask, 'What big generalisations about scientific discovery does the discovery of radium suggest? Can you support your generalisations by other evidence you know of?'

3. Using analogies: Engage students in finding and elaborating an analogy between a topic under study and something rather different from it.

Example: Ask students to compare and contrast the structure of the human circulatory system with the structure of water and waste services in a city.

4. Parallel problem solving: Engage students in solving problems with parallel structure in two different areas, to gain an appreciation for the similarities and contrasts.

Example: Have students investigate a (non-sensitive) problem in their house/home environment and a study problem in school, using the same problem-solving strategy. Help them to draw out the parallels and differences.

5. Metacognitive reflection: Prompt and support students in planning, monitoring and evaluating their own thinking.

Example: Before a challenging task, ask questions to cue ‘backward-reaching transfer’ eg: What does this problem/task/activity remind you of? Have you done anything before that might help? What strategies could you try that you have used before? Do you think they will work here?

After an activity, cue ‘forward-reaching transfer’ by asking students to reflect on, 'What went well, what was hard, how could I handle what was hard better next time, what skills/strategies have I learned that I might be able to use again, elsewhere?' (See previous bulletin for further guiding questions of this kind).

6. Explore purpose and value: Ask students to reflect on the value of what is being learned. Research shows that we are more likely to retain new knowledge and skills – and therefore be able to retrieve them from memory when the need arises – if we have recognised, for ourselves, their use and value.

Two game-show style activities that students enjoy and that are very useful in this respect are:

• W.T.P (‘What’s the point?’) Following an episode of collaborative thinking, conduct a W.T.P challenge for any new thinking skill, disposition or learning strategy that your students have identified. Say, for example, they have identified that a given task has involved 'resilience', ‘making connections’ or a particular problem-solving strategy. Give them one minute (backed by a suitable clip of countdown game show music) to consider 'What's the point' of developing these particular qualities or skills?
• (Let a pupil put on quiz-master hat/giant glasses and ask What's the point?, play countdown music, and take feedback.)
• Next lesson, display list of answers to "what's the point" and ask pupils to remember what the learning question was.

• 11/21/41 (or ‘8/28/48’ or ‘16/26/56’ depending upon the age of your students). In this variation, students are challenged to come up with a convincing reason why a particular skill or disposition is useful NOW when they are 11; might still be useful when they are 21; and might still be valuable when they are 41. Thus they are encouraged to take 'the long view' and consider where certain skills and qualities that they are discussing now might be necessary for their future.

7. Cross-curricular collaboration: Demonstrate the relevance of a target skill in cooperation with a colleague from a different department. Learners need to experience the relevance of new skills in more than one context and for different purposes in order to begin to develop what Diane Halpern has termed 'the habit of spontaneous noticing', ie the disposition to deliberately search one’s memory for any previous learning experiences that are similar in essence – seeing through surface differences – and retrieve from memory any knowledge or skills that may be needed in the new context.

The idea of cross-curricular collaboration in order to maximise transfer of learning lies at the heart of the Secondary Strategy’s ‘Leading in Learning’ initiatives – whole-school programmes for developing thinking skills at KS3 and 4.

What do learners think?

To sum up, transfer of learning is more likely to take place in an environment where students are regularly encouraged to talk about their thinking and learning, and where teachers regularly employ guiding questions to make metacognitive monitoring, usually an implicit process, into an explicit process. This view is echoed by students who have experienced learning conversations of this kind, and who clearly come to value this kind of classroom dialogue:

‘I can see the point of it… because when we leave school, the things that we’ve learned in school we’re not going to use unless we’ve learned how to transfer from one place to the next…’ (Year 8 student)

‘It kind of merges every lesson together so they’re not separate… before it was like… nothing seemed to connect…’ (Year 9 student)

5. Add a countdown clock!

6. Useful list of general plenaries:

1.  List  3 things you  have learnt/found out today. 
2.  List 3 things your neighbour has learnt today. 
3.  Summarise this  process/design idea/product/lesson in  5 bullet points. 
4.  Summarise today's topic in  5 sentence s  - reduce  to  5 word~ reduce  to one 
word. 
5.  60 second  challenge - sum  up  knowledge  of  topic  or  write down  all  the  words  you  can think of  to describe  .... 
6.  Identify the  key  points of  the  lesson from the  following  anagrams ... 
7.  Write  5 top tips/golden rules  for  ... 
8.  Design your own  help sheet  to give advice to other  students  about  .... 
9.  Create  a  poster  to illustrate the  strategy you  have learnt. 
10.  Create  a mnemonic  which  reflects  the  meaning of  a new word  or  term you  have learnt today. 
11.  Write  dictionary definitions for  the  new  terms  learnt  today. 
12.  Identify missing words in  a cloze summary of  learning. 
13.  Word  search  containing  key  words  or   information  learnt  during  the   lesson  - use clues/definitions to help you. 
14.  Process  bingo  - teacher   reads/shows  descriptive  sentences.  Pupils  must  spot  technique/process and mark card. 
15.  If  the  aim  of  the  lesson  was  set  as  a  question,  pupils  answer  question  on  mini-white boards.  Give word limit to increase challenge. 
16.  Take  1 minute  to  compose  two  statement s   in  your  head  to  explain  what  you  have learnt and how.  Report to class.' 
17.  In pairs, answer the  question set on a "post-it" note.  Stick on  the  board and  review. Did the  class agree ?  
18.  Where can you apply this  skill  in  your homework/other subject s ?   Give  3 examples. 
19.  Choose from  5 statement s  on  the  board.  Which  best  reflects  .... 
20.  In pairs, sequence the  5 f a c tor s /proc e s s e s / t e chnique s  e t c .  - jus t i fy your choices. 
21.  Prediction - what will  happen next  (stage/outcome/lesson)?  Why do  you  think this? 
22.  Brainstorm the  prope r t i e s  of  the  materials used.  Aim  for  5 more. 
23.  Use the  same  style.  In  pairs  or   fours,  pr e s ent   your  product  in  the  same  s tyl e  as ... 
(designer, adve r t ,  manufacturer, design movement,  product range). 
24.  Se l f . a s s e s sment / t a rge t  s e t t ing.   Choose from a list on an  OHT or  devise own. 
25.  Show work to  pe e r  - work in  pairs to s e t  t a rge t s  for  each othe r .  
26.  Te a che r  shows  ext r a c t   from  the  work  of  a  pupil  - class  identify  3  s t r engths  and  3 
pieces of advice to develop/improve. 
27.  Answer t e a che r ' s  questions without saying YES  or  NO. 
28.  Fi s t   of  Five  - pupils  a s s e s s  the  e f f e c t ivene s s  or  success  of  a  process/technique  by 
holding  up  the  appropriate  number  of   fingers  (watch  out   for   two).  Se l e c t  pupils  to 
jus t i fy rating! 
29.  True  or false - hold  up  a c a rd/whi t eboa rd to show whe the r  s t a t ement  on  board/OHT 
is t rue  or  false. 
30.  Wr i t e  a slogan  for  the  product you  a r e  designing. 
31.  Wr i t e  a shor t  blurb for  the  f ront  of  the  packaging of  the  produc t / r ange / i t em.  
32.  Jigsaw  feedback  - groups  work  on  di f f e r ent   pa r t s   of   a  t a sk,   and  then  re-join  to 
sha r e  findings. 
33.  Envoying  - r epr e s ent a t ive s  travel to othe r  groups to sha r e  findings, then r epor t  back 
to "base". 
34.  Groups "show and comment" on  what was  learnt - on  OHT. 
35.  Feedback to whole  class  by  one  or two  groups only  p according to  rot a ,  roll  of  dice or  
t e a che r  selection. 
36.  Change role - pupil  becomes teacher.  What questions will  you ask the  class and  why? 
37.  Groups  of  3,  numbered  1 to  3.  Put  thr e e  s t a t ement s  on  the  board which  individuals 
must explain to the  r e s t  of  the i r  group. 
38.  Se t  "who  wants  to  be  a  millionaire"  questions  for   your  neighbour  or  the  r e s t   of the  
class. 
39.  Quick-fire oral quiz to review learning. 
40.  Label a diagram,  picture or  illustration. 41.  Brainstorm  or   mind  map  of   what  has  been  l e a rnt   during  l e s son/proj e c t   or   unit  of  
work. 
42.  Graphic summary of  lesson  - e.g.  s t eps ,  s toryboa rd,  flowchart. 
43.  Pi c tur e s / c a r toons   - which  would  you  put with the  day's  learning  and  why?  ( Image s  to 
display problem solving, experimenting, working  in  groups, decisions  etc). 
44.  Pictionary - draw the  key word without speaking or writing. 
45.  Imagination  cha r t   - give  a  s cor e   out   of   5  for   imagination  a t   various  points  in  a 
proj e c t  plan.  Plot  on  a graph  and  review  findings.  (Could  also  be Problem,  Designing, 
Developing, Evaluating etc.). 
46.  Devise a simple timeline of  events in  the  proj e c t /modul e /uni t .  
47.  Client  Drama  - a c t   out   various  " f r e e z e - f r ame "   summaries  to  communicate  the i r  
c l i ent s / spe c i f i c a t ion needs to  r e s t  of  class. 
48.  In- rol e   answering.  Hot - s e a t   activity.  Can  be   linked  to  theme   of   above,  proc e s s ,  
technique or  topic of  lesson. 
List developed  from original suggestions by Chris Marshall, Secondary 
Literacy/English Manager.


7.  Fab ideas by Kim!
http://teachactive.co.uk/?cat=30