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Jan
11

Checking understanding after an oral introduction

Thanks to Irayna Owen for this.

Who is it for?

This is a very quick and easy method of checking group understanding of what you have been discussing or introducing orally – I use it with Key stage 3 low ability groups, but I would imagine anyone could use it.

Outline of idea (What you wanted to do)

Introduce a lesson topic orally – via information giving, discussion, Q&A – whatever.
Once ready to write ask the group or an individual for a title for today’s written work. This really shows if they have grasped exactly what it is you are learning in this lesson.

How it worked out

I used this with a group learning about acids and alkalis – specifically we were doing the differences between them. We introduced the lesson by looking at bottles of the chemicals and everyday examples of acids and alkalis and a PowerPoint with lots of visual input. My first request for a title drew the answer ‘Chemicals’. Another pupil refined this to ‘acids’, another to ‘acids and alkalis’ (which I would have stuck with) before a last one suggested ‘Features of acids and alkalis’. I then let the pupils choose which title to use out of the ‘correct’ ones. They don’t all therefore have the same title in their books. It was a useful exercise in getting pupils picking out the key information in oral and visual work.

Next steps

I rarely give titles now. Most lessons, titles for our written work are self-generated or given to the group by a pupil. It is also a useful diagnostic tool for seeing how clear I have been – if no-one knows what the title should be I haven’t made a very good job of explaining myself!

2 comments

  1. Mike says:

    Tried this with Year 7 this afternoon. Definitely generated more of a sense of shared purpose: thanks!

  2. Katie says:

    I’ve tried this for a week with top set year 8. It’s going well and I can certainly see that in the future it will require very little prompting from me for pupils to discuss their own title.

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