TEACHING STARTERS AND PLENARIES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM Mr' G Price Gilbert Inglefield Middle School

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TEACHING STARTERS AND PLENARIES ACROSS THE
CURRICULUM Mr. G PriceGilbert Inglefield
Middle School

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Why we decided to trial these ideas

• Questionnaire
• Here are some of the responses

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I like Mr Price but some of the activities are
boring
I find science hard
Im not interested in science
Too many questions and writing
I love science and I find it very easy
The practicals are great but the writing is boring
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General Principles of all teaching

• Focus the teaching
• Provide challenge
• Make concepts and objectives explicit for the
  students
• Structure the learning
• Make learning active
• Make learning engaging and motivating
• Develop well-paced lessons with high levels of
  interaction
• Support pupils independent learning
• Build in reflection

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So let us talk about

• Starters and Plenaries (if you are posh or part
  of the KS3 strategy team engagement activities)

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Just Semantics ?
Whole lesson activities especially starters
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5 part lesson

• Objectives / Starter
• Starter / Objectives
• Core
• Plenary
• Return to objectives

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Write down a starter that you find effective
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STARTERS

• Lets discuss a successful starter activity
  you have either taught or observed.
• DEFINITION starters should
• be activities which relate to the objectives of
  the lesson
• encourage all students to think at a high level
• actively involve everyone - an alternative to the
  whole-class question-and-answer routine
• influence early levels of engagement and
  motivation
• help to inject a sense of pace and challenge

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One I like Twenty questions
Great for revision and linking the last lesson.
Competition between you and the class. You think
of a word used in the last lesson. They have to
guess the word. They have 20 goes but they can
only ask you a question that you can reply yes or
no.
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An orange
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U- BOAT
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STARTERS AND PLENARIES

• Successful starters can help create
• Engagement
• Pace
• Challenge
• Reinforce knowledge
• Links to lessons
• Help in assessment
• Leads to brave and adventurous teaching by giving
  confidence

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Must be linked to the objectives

• Must
• Should
• Could

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Golden Rules for starters

• Challenging but accessible
• Interesting and students engaged
• Have pace and not stretched out
• Reinforce knowledge and link lessons
• Productive learning must take place
• Fluidity
• Variety for different type of learners and to
  stop staleness

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OFSTEDScience in secondary schoolsOfsted
subject reports series 2001/02

• Starter activities and plenaries require
  careful introduction and good classroom
  management. Dramatic demonstrations involving
  whizzes and bangs are memorable in themselves
  but can quickly become detached from the
  underlying science, so that little productive
  learning takes place.

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Water into wine
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Fluidity

• Starters and Plenaries should not be discrete but
  an integral part of the lesson.
• In fact the students should not even know they
  have had a 3 part lesson. They should be seamless
  not jagged separate parts.
• They can come in at any part of the lesson not
  just the start and the end

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• Pitfalls commonly cited are that they
• Lose pace or direction.
• Become a fixed routine and lack variety
• May be engaging but lack challenge (see
  Blooms Levels of Thinking) and higher level
  students are not challenged
• Death by worksheet. Cut and stick exercises
• Take over the whole lesson often a problem if
  extended writing. Not sure

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• Ready
• Steady
• Teach

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Use starter as a whole school activity such as an
SC1 such as Ready, Steady, Teach

• Example e.g. Heating magnesium

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Ready, steady, teach

• You have a black bag with pieces of equipment.
  Put together a lesson

2 pieces of 8 cm magnesium Pipe clay
triangle Crucible and lid Picture of
balance Small piece of emery paper Picture of
safety goggles Picture of tripod Picture of a
Bunsen burner
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Activity

• Design a lesson for your curriculum area and
  place the six words (which could be pictures or
  objects) in the bag.

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Plenaries

• draw together the whole group
• take stock of learning so far
• direct students to the next phase of learning
• occur at strategic moments in the teaching
  sequence. Often at the end of lessons but can
  occur at other points in the lesson
• highlight not only what students learn, but also
  how they learn
• Reinforce learning

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Ofsted secondary report 2001/2

• Plenary sessions at the end of lessons include
  questions that give the teacher a chance to check
  and reinforce learning. For example, this might
  take the form of chains or loops that require
  all pupils to respond against the clock in a
  mildly competitive way. This gives
  lower-attaining pupils the chance to demonstrate
  what they know without having to articulate their
  ideas in detail it also reveals to teachers
  where pupils understanding is weak .

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Jeopardy
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I will give you the answer and you have to write
down the question.
1. 2. 3.
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• Ox bow lakes

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• 2. Ophelia

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3. Whipped cream and the head teacher
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Blooms Levels of Thinking
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge
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WHO WANTS TO be A Science MILLIONAIRE !
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Knowledge or recall

• RECALL
• recalling, revising material that has already
  been covered facts, terms, basic concepts.
• Question cues who, what, why, when, where, find,
  spell, match, name, tell, show.

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1 question (Knowledge)
Question Which one is the plant ?
A Lion
B Penguin
C Oak tree
C Oak tree
D Eagle
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Comprehension

• COMPREHENSION
• understanding the main points of the
  story/question/essay by giving descriptions,
  stating major ideas.
• Question cues describe, explain, predict,
  interpret, outline, summarise.

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10 question (Comprehension)
Question Which group best describes a mammal
A Animal with teeth
B Animal with eyes
C Animal with a backbone
D Animal that has fur
D Animal that has fur
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Application

• APPLICATION
• transferring knowledge learned in one context to
  another.
• Question cues complete, illustrate, plan, make
  use of, choose, experiment with, change.

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100 question (Application)
Question What approach would you not use to
investigate woodlice living conditions
A Use choice chambers
B Test for type of woodlice
B Test for type of woodlice
C Test for damp conditions
D Test for light
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Analysis

• ANALYSIS
• analysing mood, setting, characters, expressing
  opinions and preferences, make inference
  deduction.
• Question cues compare, connect, arrange, select,
  discover, simplify.

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1,000 question (Analysis)
Question How would you categorize having pierced
ears
A An inherited characteristics
B The same type of characteristic as natural
eye colour
C A type of variation where there is not a
range of options
C A type of variation where there is not a
range of options
D A type of variation similar to height
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Synthesis

• SYNTHESIS
• developing a critical stance based on information
  from a range of sources.
• Question cues compile, propose, imagine,
  improve, develop, create, generalise, rewrite,
  improve.

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10,000 question (Synthesis)
Question What data was probably used to
prove that size 12 is the best selling female
size ?
A Use a questionnaire
B Use a small number of people and guess the
average size
C Collect data and then use a process of
normal distribution
C Collect data and then use a process of
normal distribution
D Ask the nice ladies at Debenhams
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Evaluation

• EVALUATION
• making judgements and explaining the reasons for
  them, developing reasoning using evidence.
• Question cues conclude, prove, disprove,
  criticise, convince, recommend.

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100,000 question (Evaluation)
Question What would happen if you cut your
hair ?
A It proves that hair length can be due to
environmental factors
A It proves that hair length can be due to
environmental factors
B It proves that hair length is an inherited
factor
C It disproves that hair length is an
environmental factor
D It proves that hair length can be an
environmental and inherited factor
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1,000,000 question ( Get this one chaps)
Question Genes are made from a chemical called
DNA. Which two scientists discovered the
structure of DNA
A Watson and Holmes
B Watson and Faraday
C Watson and Harvey
D Watson and Crick
D Watson and Crick
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Traffic lights or true and falseGreat for on
going assessment
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Other methods

• True or false cards
• Yes or No cards
• Short plenary tests
• Thumbs
• Music

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Must return to objectives

• Must
• Could
• Should

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Reflection Use the plenary

• Next lesson
• Return to this lesson next year or group
• Part of the revision process

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OFSTED

• Some ideas about for OFSTED

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Some ideas from latest secondary OFSTED report

• Card sorting
• Sharing objectives
• Use ICT
• Self assessment tests
• Best plenaries consolidate long term learning.

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A Year 8 lesson got off to a brisk start with
all pupils sorting cards in different ways while
the teacher completed the electronic register.
One group grouped the materials named on the
cards into elements and non-elements, another
into metals and non-metals and others according
to physical properties. Groups were then asked to
explain why they had sorted the cards in the way
they did. This enabled the teacher to check
pupils prior learning about materials and deal
with some of the misconceptions that persisted.
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• The most effective objectives are developed
  through discussion with pupils and are expressed
  in terms of learning outcomes. In a Year 7
  lesson, for example

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The teacher started with some key questions for
the lesson such as What are the differences
between the building blocks of animals and
plants? How do these differences enable them to
live? These were then discussed with pupils and
they helped identify and record in their own
words what they should be able to do by the end
of the lesson, such as Recognise plant and
animal cells under a microscope? Know the names
of the parts of cells and how they help the plant
or animal live. At the end of the lesson, the
lesson objectives provided the basis for
evaluative discussion and questions for the
class. Pupils were asked questions to which they
responded by holding up a card with plant on it
or animal, or in some cases both.
Not National Curriculum objectives
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The teacher recorded lesson objectives on a
separate whiteboard. These were discussed with
the class and during this discussion several
questions arose that were outside the scope of
the lesson. Rather than ignoring these the
teacher parked them on the same whiteboard to
be dealt with later. At the end of the lesson,
questions were asked to check pupils achievement
of the objectives. The teacher also found a few
minutes to discuss some of the questions asked at
the start of the lesson.
Variation Use post dits or small individual
white boards
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The Year 8 class was studying food chains and
webs, a topic which all had encountered to some
extent before. The teacher had prepared a
worksheet with links to relevant Internet sites
which included both information and
self-assessment items. Pupils were able to work
at a pace and level which depended on their prior
knowledge. Those who were familiar with terms
such as producer and consumer did not need,
for example, to use the hot links to information
provided. The inclusion of self-assessment or
quiz links helped pupils to check and reinforce
their understanding.
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Other Ideas and Approaches to plenariesfrom
other subjects e.g. Geography

• Ask students to draw out golden rules, most
  interesting points, tips for others, etc.
• Put the questions you are going to ask in the
  plenary on the board at the start of the lesson.
• Put a student in the hot seat as an expert or
  character and invite the rest of the class to ask
  questions.
• Individual students write down the three most
  important things they have learned in the lesson
  .
• Use groups instead of whole-class feedback.
• Mind map the lesson.
• Ask students to identify three ways in which
  ideas from the lesson could be used in other
  subjects.

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OFSTED primary 2001/2
The children hung polystyrene cups from supports
using elastic bands and used marbles as masses.
The key question for the lesson was What happens
to the cup when you put more marbles in it?.
Results were recorded using clear, labelled
diagrams. ...During the plenary at the end of the
lesson the teacher concentrated on getting pupils
to describe their observations using the words
push, pull, stretch, mass and gravity. Inaccurate
use of words and mistaken ideas were gently
corrected through discussion.
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RESOURCES

• Badger starters
• Robert Powell materials
• Party game books
• Internet science and other subject sites.
• Exploring Science
• Hodders interactive starters
• Millionaire
• The best resource. You imagination

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Robert Powell

• Blockbusters
• Question of sport
• Tests
• Reveal

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Question of sport in class
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Blockbusters
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And finally
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How to get the message across ?

• Powerful message if the child says What about
  the objectives or starter/plenary ?

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• In their face. Use folders, meetings and the cup
  of coffee approach
• Courses
• Newsletters
• Let staff buy the resources
• Monitor. Staff interviews, student interviews and
  informal and formal observations
• Questionnaires to staff and students
• Official policy.
• Performance management
• Displays
• Departmental emphasis. Time as an issue
• Internal INSEDS
• Must bring a idea or plenary used to each meeting

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The Future

• Kartouche
• Video presentations
• Interactive laptops
• Student ideas

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CD on starters and plenaries

• I have put together a CD on starters and
  plenaries.
• Could I ask for any ideas to sent to me via
  the E mail address
• gprice_at_gilbertinglefield.beds.sch.uk
• Anyone in Bedfordshire who wants the disc It
  will sent to them after Christmas.
• I will send out a flyer