Topic meets…

Ask students to create a revision resource to share with their classmates but they ‘cross it over’ or ‘mix it up’ with a topic that interests them. E.g. Mr Men meets punctuation, punctuation meets Disney princesses.

Thinking outside the box

A technique that encourages pupils to initially consider the obvious answers or low tariff responses to a question. Then they are challenged to think ‘outside the box’. For example: greater depth more interesting vocabulary an alternative perspective critical analysis links to other topics. Secondary_MATINSET130319_thinkoutsidebox An alternative strategy is to use this as a partner talk …

Collaboration

Pupils must be able to collaborate seamlessly in both physical and virtual spaces. Connection and collaboration with others are essential not only to their learning but their mental and emotional health. Pupils should be encouraged to work collaboratively both within the classroom and beyond. Some tools that can promote this are: Google Drive Pages Keynote Showbie – …

Reciprocal teaching

Where students become the teacher in small groups. Students participate in group discussions either to consider new content or revise old content. Each child has a role to play that focuses on demonstrating different strategies: summarising, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. Reciprocal Teaching

Critique circles

Set pupils up to work in groups (and they may remain in these groups over time) to objectively assess their work against clear criteria. Train pupils in how to provide objective and constructive feedback to encourage cooperative learning. Provide time after to refine and improve, and use and use again!

Snowball

Using a writing frame pupils complete one section then scrunch up their paper and throw it to someone else in the room. They read what has been completed so far and continue with the essay/question with the next section of the writing frame.

Think, pair, share

On mini-white boards or post its, pupils have 1 minute on their own to write down two things learnt (last lesson or this lesson). Then in pairs, they have 1 minute to make it 4 things. Then two pairs combine and have to make it 8 things. This could also be used to generate ideas …