Some learning ideas:
Taboo game: place a photo with key words on the board. place a student in front of the board. the class must describe the picture on the board without using the key words to help the student sitting in front to guess what is on the board.
Two truths/one lie:
Students must identify which of the three statements on the board is a lie and which are the two truths.
Jeopardy:
the answer will be on the board and students must guess what is the question.
Question cards activity:
students in groups of four must answer the 36 question cards on the unit they have studied. students must ask the question to the student to the left of them. if that student struggles to answer than the question is opened up to the two remaining students. if all four students struggle, they place the card in one pile. if there is time, students can research the answer themselves or teacher goes through the difficult questions together in class discussion .
picture source activity:
students are required to annotate the picture source in front of them. first identify what they can see, then think of questions they may have and finally develop inferences.
source memory game:
students are split into groups of four. each student is given an a3 lined paper. one student from each group is required to come out of the class and has 30 seconds to memorize as much as they can from 6 picture sources. they then must go back to their group and together draw what that one person sow. each student is given 30 seconds to look at the source. each student must go four times for a total of 8 minutes and then students spend 2 minutes perfecting their drawings. students then peer assess each others work and must give each a source a mark out of 3. (3 the best, 2 okay, 1 dreadful). then teacher discusses sources (whole lesson activity)
Quick draw fire:
groups of 3/4
students must read text together to answer questions
questions can be in a sheet in groups
or when each group as completed one question they must come up to teacher to get next question
winning group to answer all 5 questions gets a prize
family tree:
students given timeline skeleton
asked to place family tree photos on timeline
can be differentiated
placing events into chronological sequence:
students given sheet with dates and space for event
must place 10 events in the correct sequence
paired reading of activity sheet.
plenary:
30 second speech without repeating words and taking long pauses on one aspect of the lesson
creating and sharing catchy slogans related to lesson
capitals/general knowledge plenary:
every student think of a question on todays lesson:
teacher asks random student the capital of a country- if they are correct they can choose the next student to answer the question if they are incorrect they must answer the question - differentiation - ask hard capitals!
pictionary:
While trying to think of a way to motivate junior high students to be attentive to a pre-test review, I realised there were a lot of visual images related to the test. That reminded me of how much fun playing pictionary is to me and my friends.
I took as many topics / items / questions in the test and started thinking about what I could draw. Ideas came to mind, but I'm no artist. Then it dawned on me to use clipart. I have several CDs with clipart so I just started word searching the items I wanted to draw. I was able to find pretty much everything I needed.
Next, I prepared a list of topics / words / terms and beside each one I pasted or hand copied the art on my paper.
When I did this activity in class, I called on volunteers to draw. At first only one or two volunteered, the best artists. But as soon we started everyone wanted in on the fun.
When students came forward I gave them a topic and asked if they had an idea of what to draw. if they did, I let them go for it. If they didn't I showed them my art work and told them that is what i would draw if I were doing it.
This is the most animated and active this class has ever been. It was fun and it was educational.
I give them candy as a reward for correctly identifying the correct-answer.
This has been a huge success and I have used several times in classes from 7th to 11th.
Taboo game: place a photo with key words on the board. place a student in front of the board. the class must describe the picture on the board without using the key words to help the student sitting in front to guess what is on the board.
Two truths/one lie:
Students must identify which of the three statements on the board is a lie and which are the two truths.
Jeopardy:
the answer will be on the board and students must guess what is the question.
Question cards activity:
students in groups of four must answer the 36 question cards on the unit they have studied. students must ask the question to the student to the left of them. if that student struggles to answer than the question is opened up to the two remaining students. if all four students struggle, they place the card in one pile. if there is time, students can research the answer themselves or teacher goes through the difficult questions together in class discussion .
picture source activity:
students are required to annotate the picture source in front of them. first identify what they can see, then think of questions they may have and finally develop inferences.
source memory game:
students are split into groups of four. each student is given an a3 lined paper. one student from each group is required to come out of the class and has 30 seconds to memorize as much as they can from 6 picture sources. they then must go back to their group and together draw what that one person sow. each student is given 30 seconds to look at the source. each student must go four times for a total of 8 minutes and then students spend 2 minutes perfecting their drawings. students then peer assess each others work and must give each a source a mark out of 3. (3 the best, 2 okay, 1 dreadful). then teacher discusses sources (whole lesson activity)
Quick draw fire:
groups of 3/4
students must read text together to answer questions
questions can be in a sheet in groups
or when each group as completed one question they must come up to teacher to get next question
winning group to answer all 5 questions gets a prize
family tree:
students given timeline skeleton
asked to place family tree photos on timeline
can be differentiated
placing events into chronological sequence:
students given sheet with dates and space for event
must place 10 events in the correct sequence
paired reading of activity sheet.
plenary:
30 second speech without repeating words and taking long pauses on one aspect of the lesson
creating and sharing catchy slogans related to lesson
capitals/general knowledge plenary:
every student think of a question on todays lesson:
teacher asks random student the capital of a country- if they are correct they can choose the next student to answer the question if they are incorrect they must answer the question - differentiation - ask hard capitals!
pictionary:
While trying to think of a way to motivate junior high students to be attentive to a pre-test review, I realised there were a lot of visual images related to the test. That reminded me of how much fun playing pictionary is to me and my friends.
I took as many topics / items / questions in the test and started thinking about what I could draw. Ideas came to mind, but I'm no artist. Then it dawned on me to use clipart. I have several CDs with clipart so I just started word searching the items I wanted to draw. I was able to find pretty much everything I needed.
Next, I prepared a list of topics / words / terms and beside each one I pasted or hand copied the art on my paper.
When I did this activity in class, I called on volunteers to draw. At first only one or two volunteered, the best artists. But as soon we started everyone wanted in on the fun.
When students came forward I gave them a topic and asked if they had an idea of what to draw. if they did, I let them go for it. If they didn't I showed them my art work and told them that is what i would draw if I were doing it.
This is the most animated and active this class has ever been. It was fun and it was educational.
I give them candy as a reward for correctly identifying the correct-answer.
This has been a huge success and I have used several times in classes from 7th to 11th.