Plenary: write down 1 thing they're sure about; one thing they're unsure about. Hold up.
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.
Pre-spelling test to practise spellings.
Correct use of apostrophe. Give sentences, pupils write on boards and hold up.
Use in How to be level 5 sentence structure lesson. (See post)
Pre Socratic Debate, pupils write down their "big question" on boards, using Blooms question starters.
Fact or opinion? in examining head-lines etc.
True or false? for a variety of uses.
Read all about it! Use in newspaper press-room lesson - see post.
Write down subordinate clauses, subjects and actions; pupils use boards to make human complex sentences.
Write paragraphs for paired proofreading.
Whiteboard spelling Bee: All stand up. Read out prepared spellings; sit down if misspell. Last one standing is the winner.
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.’"
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.
Twogame-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.
Using a "control panel" to focus students on key aspects of genres or text types - or anything really! You could use it in a very abstract way for extra creative challenge, eg. how "hot" "loud" or "spiky" is a piece of text?
Before a new topic, make a display full of clues and riddles as to what that topic is going to be.
2. Loads of post-it notes for students to add to display - here, imperative verbs for a recipe.
3. Use laminated card to display shared success criteria.
4. Venn diagrams made with hula-hoops. Why is an argument text like a space-rocket? Why is learning like a conker? Why is Curley's wife like Lennie?
5. De Bono hat display made with real hats - pupils wear them when "thinking" aloud.
6. Socratic debate. Students use Bloom's question starters to generate open philosophical questions on a topic.
7. Dare to Read or Extreme Reading display, where suggestions for extreme reads/ photos of students reading in unusual places are displayed. Or pupils' suggestions for "the rights of a reader"...
Or cover wall with black bin bags for horror fiction display...
8. Go 3D!
9. Have a Wonderwall for incredible students' work. Automatic merits/house-points if any work appears on it.
10. Brightly coloured envelopes for students' research. They could go to the library/computer first, then post their findings.
11. Why can't secondary school classrooms be more like primary schools?
12. Displays should show the learning process, not the perfectly neat end result.
13. High-light punctuation and grammar: show moveable clauses with velcro; personify punctuation; link punctuation usage to levels; show the pupils' proof-reading and peer assessment. Display the process.
14. Or is a calm, ordered, uncluttered classroom the best display of all..?
Guided writing: pupils retell each part of the "Jack and Jill" story using SCAMPER or CREATE.
SUBSTITUTE
COMBINE
ADAPT
MAGNIFY
PURPOSE
ELIMINATE
REVERSE
Jack and Bill went up the hill.
Jack and Jill went up the hill, whilst the Big Bad Wolf awaited them...
Jack's wife knew he'd gone up that hill again with Jill...
Jack and Jill climbed the huge mountain.
Jill shadowed Jack, keeping her sawn-off shotgun well hidden...
Jack was a loner; he sat in his cave in the hill, and never a soul did he see.
They fell, first Jack, then Jill. Painfully, they began the long climb up..?
What about applying it to well-known stories?
What if Harry Potter was a girl?
What if Red Riding Hood knew karate?
What if the handsome princess saved the sleeping prince?
What if the annoying wheelie creatures were deleted out of the final "His Dark Materials" book?
Students can apply SCAMPER to their own stories to edit and redraft...
open and creative - no closed answer that only the teacher knows
Creating a Socratic community of enquiry
First you need a puzzling topic: God, Truth, Beauty, War, Death
Get the students to generate their own open questions: Is God real? Why does God kill us? Why did God make the Devil? Can you be beautiful and ugly? Is beauty on the inside and outside?
Think about what is strange, puzzling and interesting.
Get the students to devise their own rules for good discussion - always 7. Make the "difficult" pupil the "rules referee" who reminds the group of the rules.
See "Being a Groupie" post for suggested rules.
Use the plenary to discuss success of rule-following.
Use Bloom's to get a wide range of creative and critical questions - give everyone a "fan" of question openings?
Ask them to use metaphor: is philosophical discussion like a ladder? A space rocket? A maze?
Practical organisation in the classroom
All sit in a horse-shoe or circle - all equal, everyone sees everyone else.
Agree rules & focus.
Share a stimulus - You-tube clip/ recent news item/ story.
Thinking time: think, pair& share.
Thought-shower all questions - one is chosen.
Discussion, with teacher as participator. Emphasise listening skills (will be another post!)
Review - reflect on discussion's success, who showed good listening skill...
How to "dig for depth" in talk
Bloom's question "fans" (must get round to making some...)
Use the question of "truth" for characters in a book: who is honest? Who is a liar?
Give statements relating to the question and get students to rank or sort into (eg) bullying/ not bullying; true/ not true...
Thinking chain or talk tennis in pairs to generate creative ideas: each says a line of a story, stopping whenever they want to, the next continues etc.
Creating categories: classify statements into 2 groups and come up with rules for each group. Eg sentences and non-sentences, good or evil characters...
Philosophical Questions to Discuss:
How do you know you're not dreaming at this moment?
Is it right to eat animals?
What are the most important rights of young people?
Is it ever right to steal?
What is the difference between a real person and a robot?
If technology continues to advance at its current rate, will people become robots?
How can many religions be true?
If you fail, does it make you a failure?
Is an apple dead or alive?
Is there such a thing as the American Dream?
Who or what is the Inspector?
Is life better or worse for young people today than in the past?
"Reading is not a matter of life or death. It is much more important than that." Discuss!
What if..?
What if, like Ewan Mcgregor's new film "Perfect Sense", all human-kind lost one sense at a time in a global pandemic, starting with the sense of taste..? http://blog.starsinmyeyes.tv/wordpress/?p=1263
What if all homework was abolished?
What if all marking was abolished?
What if dogs doubled in size and grew superior intelligence?
You got the students to write ink-wasters, characters' stream-of-consciousness, their own opinions on an emotive issue, a poem with an angry tone, a letter of complaint, a rant to a newspaper...
to the sound of angry music?
Take this for instance:
Imagine that whilst they write down the secret thoughts of Lady Macbeth...or the Landlady from Roald Dahl's short story...or Curley!!
And what about despairing music as they pull the addressee's heart-strings in a piece of emotive journalism? Or empathise with the plight of Piggy, or Tess, or the boy in the striped pyjamas?
And what about exciting music to go with writing a chase scene?
