Thursday 3 October 2013

This week I've tried...

A slightly belated post from the activities I tried last week...

Summary spirals
This can be done with scrap paper - students cut out a circle and then cut into and around the circle to make a spiral. They can leave a slightly larger centre to put key words in and then write their summary from the centre outwards (if they run out of space they can just turn around and write back towards the middle!)

I then got students to move around the classroom and pair up when I said 'pause' so they could show off their spirals and award a sticker to the best one (each students gets one sticker - see 'gallery critique' in a previous post)




Scrunch and throw
Again, scrap paper is fine to use for this. Students write down everything they can remember from the lesson/from a topic before (loosely!) scrunching up the paper. Don't forget to get students to put their name on or getting the right sheet back to the original owner will be a nightmare, as I discovered the first time I did it... Students then throw the paper (not at each other, not at me) and pick up a new one. They they add more information from their own knowledge in a different colour before scrunching and throwing again. On the final 'unscrunch' they are allowed to use textbooks/exercise books/other resources to add new information in a final colour.



Speed dating
Students stand in two lines facing each other (see the lovely picture of my year 13 Chemistry students - they were very excited about being in a blog post!) One student asks the questions and is allowed to use the textbook if they need to and the other student answers. After a minute or two you move one student from one line to the opposite end of the line and everyone else moves one place to fill the gap. Then switch sides for the students that are asking the questions.



In other news: I'm very excited about teaching lessons the 'lazy way' after our amazing inset by @thelazyteacher, will try and get the best ideas down in a blog at some point - if only there were more hours in the day!

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