If you too want to make sure that your class have an opportunity to discuss and reflect on today outcome then my 12 questions on a worksheet may get you started. It's done as a worksheet but you could easily put the questions into a PowerPoint and ask them as a group. Alternatively print the questions on to separate sheets and give each group a different question to answer. I'll use it to get the students doing some research on today's result. There is a question about my local area "Northumberland" which you can change to your local authority. *******If you like this and find it useful then please leave me some positive feedback and do check out my TES Resources shop which includes many premium resources which may help save you time and give you ideas. Cheers******** Click on : ..........https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/Stewsterthebear

This is a really simple idea. Give out to each student a grid. The grid contains 3 rows of two. They then write six facts or points about a topic in the six boxes. Then they cut out the boxes (but only cut on the dotted lines) so that they create THREE domino cards. Each of the three domino cards now has two facts - one on either side of the bold line. The student now arranges the three dominoes in to a line (or even a triangle) and then annotates the link or connection between the two facts either side of the connection. E.g. They have written down six facts about angles: **4 angles in a square **angles on a straight line add up to 180 degrees **angles are measured in degrees ** right angles are 90 degrees **360 degrees in a full circle **triangle angles add up to 180 degrees You can see that if they place the fact '4 angles in a square' next to '360 degrees in a full circle' they can annotate the link by saying that 4 x 90 degrees is 360 degrees. You will notice that in the file I have produced tables with 3, 4, 5 and 6 dominoes in. I will give the more able students the greater challenge of having to first recall more facts and then make more links. My colleague has used this successfully however she wrote some facts on some of the dominoes first to get some students started. I'm thinking now that I may first use this activity by making up a set of cards for the class to see how to do it first in their groups. I've just made this ready for a History lesson on Victorian Factory conditions and you will see this in the files as well. It's not my idea and I've not use it yet so I'm interested in any feedback. If you like this and find it useful then please leave positive feedback and do check out my shop which includes many premium resources which may help save you time and give you ideas. Cheers

This is just a picture of a brain on A4. You write the topic title or the question on the left and then print out. (You could duplicate the page and then print both onto A4 so each is A5). Each student then fills it with what they know. e.g. **At the start of a lesson to recall everything they remember from yesterday, etc. **During the lesson to summarize or capture all the key information from e.g. a presentation or fact sheet. **At the end of the lesson to recap everything they've learnt. I've edited the picture of the brain to make it easier to write on with less bits to fill in. The student's can order their writing around the brain in any order they choose. It's not my idea and I've not use it yet so interested in any feedback. If you like this and find it useful then please leave positive feedback and do check out my shop which includes many premium resources which may help save you time and give you ideas. Cheers

Twenty Ideas for Improving the Progress of Pupil Premium Disadvantaged students I’m not an academic and many of these below are not based on verifiable evidence. However, they seem to work for me. Even if they don’t work at least you can show that you are doing something. If you like these and find these useful then please leave a positive and useful review. Better still put your ideas in the review and I'll add them in the update! This resource will stay as free to download but do check out my shop and my other Premium TES resources where I'm sure you'll find something to help you and save you time.

I've used random name choosers (RNC) for some time. SMART Notebook has a good one (It's a random word generator - you just put in the names of the students in the class). I came up with this idea after a student said "Can I pass the question?" and I replied "Not unless you have a pass card!" He then drew a pass card on his whiteboard and tried to pass it again! What we have are a variety of pass cards produced. The rules were written down for me to make sure I stuck to them and for consistency. Basically students can earn pass cards which then excuse them from answering questions when the random name chooser selects them. There is probably no educational value in doing this - it's just fun and it's very engaging for them. It's also quite funny when the class all pass all their questions to the class clown to answer (watch out for bullying though!) Students can earn pass cards for anything which you want to reward. The other way of doing this came from an INSET session where the facilitator asked us all to look under our seats for a prize. 200 teachers all looked under the seats. We all laughed (Not) as he said there was nothing to find there but he proved the point about the engagement of coming in to the lesson and seeing if you had a pass card! Hence the wallet size pass cards are simply blu tacked to the underside of a seat. You can choose (at random) whose seat to stick it under or you could just put it under someone you want to get involved more (as they will become the class center of attraction when they are picked by the RNC). I had students coming in asap during break to see if they had a pass card under the seat! I'd like to use it again however the head in my current school says that the school reward systems are to be used and these cards add an additional layer to the systems. I think that they can supplement the school systems and you can tailor them so that they fit within the school systems.

This is a really good resource of over 40 challenging questions which will get your students thinking and discussing their answers and methods. When you are being observed (well anytime really but...) you need to be going around the groups challenging them on their thinking. Obviously there is only one of you so it's good if you can give them the prompts for their discussions. These resources will help this. I have been told many times that a lesson plan should contain detail of the key questions which you are going to ask during the lesson. Some of these questions were put on my last observed lesson plan and it showed that I had thought about what I was trying to achieve from the students. The original file I created was the Publisher file which has five key questions which I printed on A4 and gave one copy to each table of four. One student then challenges questions to the other three. You can move this role around the table. This work quite successfully but it relies on a certain amount of routine from the students so it does require you training them. Recently I've collected a load of questions to add into the list. I've tried to be comprehensive to cover many different circumstances. There are a few similar to each other but I've added much to each one to try to develop the understanding. They are presented in a table format so it would be easy for you to pick out the questions you most want to ask and amend them if needed. Alternatively you could print out & cut up the cards and then simply pick out the ones you want. I have also now just picked out the eight questions myself from the list of 41 and put on A4 ready for printing onto card. These are probably the ones I would use. I would give each table a set of eight questions and each student would have to pick two cards which they would then either challenge themselves on or use to challenge the others. I think that this is a good resource and I'll be grateful if you could write a positive review if you find it useful. Thank you.

If you want to run a school playing card club then it helps if you have the rules for different games ready for the children. I've copied these off the web but they are presented in a easy A4 format. Also I've adapted the rules to be understandable by children. Hence it's actually been quite a lot of work. Enjoy

The PowerPoint has 35 slides with each detailing a children's party game. You'll need to prepare the resources for each one (some don't need any). What it gives you is 35 great tried and tested ideas of what has worked for me so you won't have to do the thinking. I'd like to think the games are obvious but ....Message me if you can't work out what the game is (but only after you've asked a few of your colleagues or looked it up on the Web!) I've found that if you choose a few games to get warmed up. then you can flick through the PPT and see what the children want to do next. Do the opposite and Kims Game are included as they needed a PowerPoint too. Have fun :)!