The young swimmer struggles. She wants to swim the 100 metres more quickly...
The coach wants to help. She ties a rope around the swimmer and uses all her strength to tow her through the water. The coach is exhausted; the young swimmer is happy ...
For me this analogy, from Guy Claxton, captured how I felt about some of what I was doing in the classroom. If we wish to create independent learners, and surely we all do, we must hand over responsibility for leaning to young people. We all begin with an overpowering desire and ability to learn about everything in the world. What happens to the “Buzz?” I hope some of the ideas which follow might help in recapturing that Buzz. They have for me.
Mallet’s Mallet: Quick fire word-association game. One pupil says a word and the other then has to reply immediately with a word that is in some way inherently linked e.g: one may say ‘Islam’, the next may say ‘Mosque’, and so on. Only to be done in pairs.
Memorise: They look at a picture for 90 seconds. They then turn it over and they write a bullet point list of everything they saw in the picture.
Odd One Out : Give them four pictures and they have to say which is the odd one out (like ‘Have I got news for you?’)
Pass the Buck: Paired work drafting answer to situation with large paper and colours (5 minutes) – swap and carry on with another pairs work redrafting their answer – papers passed on and back to original authors. Open ended scenarios best.
Postcard summary: Summarise your learning to send by postcard to your friend – image on the front depicting the subject. Rwanda– ‘glad you are not here’ card. Abortion – ‘be glad I’m here’ card written by the foetus. Euthanasia – ‘wish I wasn’t here’ card. ‘Wish you were here’ for marriage.
Quotes Galore: Fill your classroom with all kinds of life quotes from the religious leaders, business gurus, celebrities etc. Place them on the ceiling, windows, all over the room. Particularly relevant ones for the GCSE course. Could a couple of decoy quotes that mean nothing. At certain points get class to search and find a relevant quote for the subject material.
Shout Out: Eg Topic on Buddhism. I read facts out – pupils shout out "Rubbish!" whenever they hear me mention anything that they think is untrue. The louder, the more foolish.
Spot the …: Can the pupils spot things in pictures. Alternatively – put numbers over pictures and ask the pupils what ‘number 3’ is etc.
Thumbometer: Arm out, fist clenched, thumb up for personal responses. Calling out Thumbs out’. To check instructions, test knowledge, gauge feelings, gather opinions. Could close their eyes if strong peer pressure.
Verbal Football: 2 teams and training (research) period. 3 correct answers (passes) and it’s a goal. Referee uses yellow and red cards.
Verbal Tennis: Students face each other in pairs and play word association with tennis scoring. Good lesson starter or informal test.
Back-to-Back: Students (A+B) sit back-to-back. A describes visual material and B draws it. Compare to original and swap roles.
Bingo: Pupils draw 9 square bingo grid. Choose from 12 topic keyterms. ‘Eyes down’ – call out definitions in random order. Pupils call out Bingo when they have one line, two lines and full house. Good for many technical terms. Variation – 16 Sq – 25 terms.
Chit-Chat: Can you talk for one minute on what you have learnt without stopping?
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