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Starter suggestion |
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Key letters –
Teacher shouts out a letter or the alphabet
and pupils have to respond with a key word
beginning with that letter that they are
currently using in their topic of study.
Teacher can target groups by saying only one
side can answer or pupils with surnames
beginning with ........etc. Pupils and teacher
(in register) can keep a little tally and
after a few weeks can give out merits or
equivalent for so many points reached. |
All |
Helen Surawy
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Give them the answer /
Jeopardy – [Or
plenary in fact] Teacher gives pupils the
'answer' and they have to come up with the
question! For example William the Conqueror -
Who won the battle of Hastings? or Who set up
the Domesday Book? Can work your way through
different types of questions such as
'Humiliated' - How did the German people feel
after the Treat of Versailles? After doing a
few examples every pupil comes up with their
own. Pick someone to start, they say their
answer and who ever give a correct question
has their turn and so on. Chance for more able
students to think able really alternative
questions, even less able students can think
of easy questions. |
All |
Helen Surawy
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Historical Just a Minute
– Students are given a topic to research, say
the execution of Charles I. After an allotted
time they are hotseated at the front of the
class and have to talk on that topic for 1
minute without hesitation, deviation or
repetition. The class listens for an
infringements of the rules and if they make a
valid challenge they continue in the hotseat
until the minute is up. One point for a
correct challenge and one point for still
being in the hotseat when the original minute
expires. |
All |
Chris Higgins |
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This Day in History
– Students are assigned a current school day.
Students are to research that day and find one
important event that happened that day. The
student will then stand at the front of the
class and tell what happened. Teacher can use
the event to expand on history and if possible
connect it to what you are studying at that
time or some current event. The presentation
should not be longer than 2-3 minutes. |
All |
Jim Keough |
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Paired discussion
– Save boring admin like the register/giving
out books until a more appropriate time during
the lesson. It's always a good idea to connect
the learning to what has gone before. Avoid
the negative experience of no one putting
their hand up by giving them 2 mins paired
discussion with some stimulus questions on
what they learnt last time, you'll get a
bigger and more positive response from a
larger number of students. Then hit them
(metaphorically) with today's learning points. |
All |
Andy
Walker |
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Remember the Picture
– Pupils given copy of a picture to study for
2 minutes and try to remember details. Then
pupils must turn picture over and give
feedback to teacher (or write down) about the
details they can remember from the picture.
Good for focussing pupils’ attention on
pictorial sources with lots of detail in them. |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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Pictionary -
Pupil volunteers to 'draw' a key word on the
board. Class have to guess it. |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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Hangman – Based
on key words/phrases. I use this to introduce
new key words. |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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Bingo – Pupils
given ‘bingo’ sheets containing key words from
the subject. Teacher reads out definitions of
key words. Pupils mark their bingo sheets when
they hear teacher read a definition that
matches one of the key words on their sheet.
First pupil to get a line calls ‘BINGO!’ and
wins. |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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Taboo – One pupil
describes a key word to the class without
using any of the ‘taboo words’. Class try to
guess the key word. |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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Countdown – 30
seconds to unscramble a new key word. You can
download the countdown theme tune from mp3
sites such as
www.audiogalaxy.com |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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Creating titles –
Teacher writes 3 or 4 key words on board.
Pupils create their own titles for the piece
of work they are about to do, using all of the
key words. |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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Mind Movies –
Pupils close eyes. Read part of a short story
or passage to class. Tell them to imagine what
is happening in their mind. When you have
finished reading, tell pupils to keep their
eyes closed and continue to ‘run the movie’ in
their minds for one minute. Take feedback from
class about what happened in their mind
movies. Could be very good for introducing
certain topics. |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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20 questions –
Teacher (or a pupil volunteer) picks a key
person, event, place etc. that is connected to
the topic. The class are allowed to ask 20 Yes
or No answer questions to try to find out what
person, event etc. has been picked. |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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Odd one out –
Pupils given 3-4 key words/places/people etc.
They have to say which is the odd one out –
and give a reason why. In most cases any of
them could be the odd one out, as long as a
valid reason is given. They then have to
suggest another word that can be added to the
group that will keep the 'odd one out' the
same. |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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Guess Who?/Guess what?
– Teacher gives class clues to describe key
people, events, places etc. from the topic to
be studied. Clues start hard and get
progressively easier: e.g. "Had 6 wives" would
be an easy clue.
Class try to guess the answer. |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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What can you remember?
– Pupils review/write down the main points
learnt in the last lesson(s). Could be done in
pairs or groups. |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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Introduction to history
- showing history is also about them
In pairs the pupils have to tell each other
about something they have achieved and how
they can prove it. The results usually
bring out all types of evidence: Oral - you could ask someone who saw it happen,
Written - a certificate or newspaper report of
it, Physical - a medal or such like, Visual - a photo or video recording,
Music - a tape recording of their performance!,
the site - go back to the building or place it
happened the evidence is still there! ... and
so on. |
KS3 |
Richard Drew |
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Connecting lessons
Set a simple homework task for the previous
lesson which is relevant to the lesson. For
instance a crossword or short research task on
Elizabeth I etc.
At the start of the lesson brainstorm for a
spider diagram on the board. Give the 'spider'
20 legs and get the pupils to tell you as much
as they know from their homework. They may get
to 10 with your 'control' of the discussion!
As the lesson goes on, wipe the ideas on the
spider diagram from the warm up off the board.
At the end of the lesson get the students to
do the same spider diagram exercise again, but
this time watch as they fill the 20 points and
more with relish. The message of
learning is clear, the atmosphere is success,
and it is perfectly possible to challenge them
to justify their points and even get
challenges going between two conflicting
points of evidence picked up during the
lesson. |
All |
Stephen Drew |
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Introducing medicine
through time I describe the level of
civilisation and the forms of communications
available. Students are then presented with a
range of ailments and wounds.
They have to work out how to treat these
without any access to a doctor etc. Most
classes have quickly decided that as "cavemen"
they wouldn't understand many illnesses and
establish their own pattern of supernatural
believes. Likewise they tend to develop this
to a point where most of the major factors
that influence change in medical practice are
noted within the first couple of minutes of a
discussion. |
KS4 |
Dan
Moorhouse |
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Simple introduction to
interpretations. Have sources sheets on
the desks ready when the pupils come in on
- say Henry VIII. One half of the room have
sheets with glowing references to Henry from
his early life and handsome pictures. the
other half of the room have very negative
quotes from the end of his life and thoroughly
unpleasant pictures. they have 5 minutes to
read the sources and list Henry's traits.
Then the fun begins - the class begin to feed
back on Henry and are giving very very
different viewpoints. They want to know why
and the desire to understand key element 3
begins. |
Year 7 |
Richard Drew |
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Play your Cards Right
- Another good one for Chronology is 'Play
your cards right'. Same rules as the quiz
show. One contestant has AD year cards, and
the other has BC year cards. Instead of
'higher' or 'lower', the contestants (and
'audience', if you are encouraging all the
pupils to participate) have to choose
'earlier' or 'later'. They usually get the BC
ones wrong at first of course, but it
encourages them to remember the way BC works
correctly - especially if the winner gets a
small prize!
 See
this online at ActiveHistory.co.uk |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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Pupil as teacher.
I do really like the idea of letting pupils
'be teacher' at the start of lessons and
running through the main points of the last
lesson with the class. Yesterday one of my
Y9s, using only an OHP of a map of Europe,
gave an excellent summary to the class of the
Alliance System in 1914. He even tested the
class on the key words (Alliance, Empire etc.)
we had been learning. |
All |
Stuart Barnett |
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