Pep Up Your Plenary

Pep Up your Plenaries

SL CPL, November 2009. Future Leaders

What does OFSTED say?

In its report on the Key Stage 3 pilot OFSTED drew the following conclusion: ‘From the outset, plenaries were often the weakest part of the lesson. Good planning was critical to the success of the plenary. Often there was insufficient time for them because teachers underestimated the time required for activities in the main phase of the lesson. Plenaries were often the least active part of the lessons. Teachers tended merely to sum up what happened during the main phase and pupils did not have the opportunity to articulate what they had learned. When pupils had such opportunities they proved an important part of the learning process.

Why use plenaries? When used effectively, plenaries:

1. Summarise and round off a lesson or, at a strategic moment, allow you to summarise a section of the lesson

2. Help your students focus on the most important points that they have learned 3. Highlight not only what has been leaned but how it has been learned

4. Are essential ‘assessment for learning’ tools in that they allow you to assess both individual and class learning

5. Help inform your future lesson planning by developing a

9. Stimulate interest, engagement and enjoyment in your students for the next phase of their learning.

What do students gain from a plenary? Effective plenaries enable your students to: 1. Reflect on what they have learned either individually or as a group 2. Place their learning in the context of the ‘big picture’ 3. Articulate and express their own learning 4. Develop a language for discussing learning and thinking about learning 5. See themselves as learners rather than pupils

How long should a plenary be? Plenaries will vary in length from a few minutes to a major part of the lesson depending on the stage of your students learning and style and format that you have planned. It should be remembered that effective plenaries are not necessarily confined to the end of lessons. They are useful tools to be used at different times in a lesson to draw the class together.

better understanding of what your students have learned in the lesson

How you could raise interest in plenaries within a curriculum area

6. Help your class review the lesson objective or their own success criteria

1. Use the OFSTED quote at the beginning of this booklet to raise awareness of the issue.

7. Allows you to draw the class together, crystallise their understanding and direct the students to the next phase of their learning

2. Start a discussion in a departmental meeting to identify any common problems associated with running effective plenaries.

8. Value and celebrate the achievements of the individual and

3. Use the suggestions in the ‘examples’ part of this booklet to

the class, and

trial different approaches to running plenaries.

4. Obtain feedback on the most effective method for your subject.

8. Be fun!

5. Try to find time to watch each other run the plenary that you found to be most effective. 6. Film a colleague running an effective plenary and use it for either training purposes or inducting new colleagues into the department

Effective Plenaries Please remember that plenaries do not necessarily have to be restricted to the end of a lesson. They can be used at anytime to check on or summarise your students learning and understanding. 1. Probing questions

Effective Plenaries In putting this section together we have tried to make our exemplar plenaries non-subject specific. We suggest you try various approaches and see which is the most successful for you. However, please remember that plenaries: 1. Should be well planned. 2. Be given sufficient time, 3. Be directly related to the learning objectives and success criteria of the lesson. 4. Be differentiated in order that you can assess both individual and collective progress. 5. Assess the effectiveness of your teaching. 6. Should allow you to re-address any misunderstandings or re-emphasise any important learning that seems to have been missed. 7. Inform your future planning.

Develop a set of probing questions that are directly related to the lesson to determine both individual and collective understanding of the key points of the day’s learning. 2. Your turn today! At the start of the lesson select two or three students and give them the task of summing up the lesson. At the end of their summary ask individuals in the class to comment on or add to the summation. Always ensure that you give your summarises a round of applause at the end of the lesson. 3. The 60 second challenge Workings individually, or in groups, allow 60 seconds for students to list the most important facts that they have learned during the lesson. They then share their learning allowing you to bring together the important points. 4. List 5 things you have learned today

Workings individually, or in groups, ask the students to list the five most important facts that they have learned during the lesson. They then share their learning allowing you to bring together the important points. 5. List 5 things your neighbour should have learned today This is a similar exercise but allows you to use a ‘Think – Pair –Share’ approach to bringing the lesson together.

Ask groups of students to produce questions related to the lesson and organise a knock-out quiz to determine the ‘top group’. 11.Jig –Saw feedback. Ask groups to summarise different parts of the lesson and then allow them to feedback to the whole class as a summary of the lesson. 12.True or False Use True or False cards to enable students to respond to statements that you make regarding the days learning.

6. The answer is ‘. . . .’ What is the question? This reverses the process and allows you to give your students the important facts and allows them to either individually, or collectively, to come up with the questions that would produce your answers. 7. In just three sentences Workings either as individuals or in groups encourage your students to summarise their learning in just three sentences. 8. List the new words Ask your students to list any new words that have been used in the lesson and write a sentence explaining each one. 9. The hot seat Hot seat a student, or group of students, and let the class quiz them on the day’s learning. 10.The Quiz

13.True or False pairs From the lesson objectives ask your students to write 3 true and 3 false statements and give them to your partner to sort out. This could be followed up by collating all the true and false statements together at the front for a final summary. 14.True and false lines This needs a large learning space. Ask your students to form one line. Make a statement about one of the key words, ideas or concepts that have been learned in the lesson. If the students think that the statement is true they must step to the left. If they think that it is false then they must step to the right. 15.Multiple choice Use multiple choice cards, numbered 1 -4, to respond to statements that you make regarding the days learning. I.e. The River Danube flows through which of the following four countries – and then state the four countries.

16.Bingo Give each member of the class a number and use bingo balls to draw numbers out of a bag to answer your questions about the lessons learning. 17.Double bingo Draw two numbers out of the bag, one for the questioner and the other for the student who is to answer the question. 18.Missing words Give out a set of sentences with missing key words and ask your students to fill in the blanks from the day’s learning 19.Forbidden words Describe a key word, idea or concept idea from the lesson without actually using the word. Your students have to guess the word or key idea within a fixed number of attempts.

answer the questions who, what, when, where and why. 23.The eye witness AS student is asked to review the lesson as if he / she were a television reporter telling viewers about how the learning outcomes were achieved. 24.Traffic lights Students hold up traffic light cards to signify their understanding of a key word, idea or concept. Green indicates full understanding, amber some understanding and red little understanding. 25.Thumbs up Students are asked to raise their thumbs upwards if they understand a point, sideways if they almost understand it or downwards if they do not understand it.

20.Five questions Tell your students that they may ask up to five questions before they have to guess which key word, idea or concept that you are thinking of. 21.From start to end Display both the learning objectives and the final learning either side of the board. Ask your students to fit the stages of how they achieved their learning objectives between the two displays. 22.Who, what, when where and why? Display a picture that illustrates a key word, idea or concept from the lesson. Working in groups, students have to write whole sentences that

26.Shimmering hands Students are encouraged to use shimmering hands to indicate if they have understood the key word, idea or concept that they are studying. Shimmering hands held vertically indicates that they do, held straight out in front indicates almost whilst no hands held out at all indicates that they are still struggling to understand. 27.Press Conference A group of students are called out to the front of the class. They must then act as a group of experts on their learning whilst the class quizzes them.

28.Smiley Faces Each student is given a set of three cards with smiley faces drawn on them. If they understand their learning they hold up a smiley face; those who almost understand it show a face with a straight mouth whilst those not understanding it show a sad face. 29.Spot the mistake Tell the class that you will be summarising their learning yourself but will make several deliberate mistakes in their summary. Ask them to use ‘Think – Pair – Share’ in their groups to spot the mistakes. At the end of the exercise go through the summary again but this time with the right answers. 30.Mastermind Hot seat a student and play ‘Mastermind’ as you question them about the lessons learning. Display a Mastermind Champion Chart in the classroom to record success as the term progresses.

32.Toss the bean bag Ask a question based on the day’s learning and toss a bean bag to the student that you want to answer the question. If they succeed then they win the right to ask a question of their own and toss the bean bag to someone else. If they fail, the bean bag must be returned to you. 33.Mind mapping Write the lessons topic on the centre of your board. Now encourage students to come individually to the board and start to produce a mind map that summarises the day’s learning. 34.Post box This is designed to check understanding and inform the planning of your next lesson. Ask your students to write down, in order, the five most important things that they learned in the lesson and place them in a ‘post box’ as they leave. A quick look will tell you what has been learned and what needs reinforcement. 35.Circle Graphs

31.Stickman Draw a stickman on the board but make sure that he has a hat, a toolbox, a heart and that he is standing by a bin. Ask the class to tell you what they have learned and place these facts by the hat. Now ask them what tools or techniques they have acquired and place them by the toolbox. Feelings that have been generated should be placed by the heart and ideas, thoughts or misconceptions that they no longer have should be placed in the bin.

Put the lesson objectives at the top of the board. Now ask your students to go through the day’s learning, displaying each stage in a circle until they eventually complete the circle by attaining the lesson objectives.