Strategies

A-Z - Pupils are tasked with coming up with a subject-related term for each letter of the alphabet. This could be done on paper or on show-me boards.

Pointless - Choose 3-5 topics and pupils need to choose the 'least likely' answer. They get 2 points if they get the same as the teacher and 5 points for each peer that gets the same answer. The pupil with the least number of points wins.

Snowballing -Hand each pupil a piece of paper with a topic/term on it. Pupils then write down something they know about a topic, scrunch up their paper, and throw their ‘snowball’ to the next pupil who then adds more detail. 

Answers First - Give pupils the answers to questions rather than the question itself. Pupils need to then come up with the question - including any command words and marks allocated.

Mr and Mrs - Inspired by the popular wedding game - pupils sit back to back with show-me boards. You give them a topic and they need to guess which term their partner will come up with. Points are awarded when pupils correctly guess their partner's response. 

Last Lesson/Week/Month - Come up with questions that link to the last lesson taught, a lesson earlier in the week and one studied last month. This stretches pupils and encourages them to retrieve knowledge they may have started to forget.

Odd One Out - Give pupils a few subject-related terms and pupils need to work out which one is the 'odd one out'.

Question Developer - Encourage pupils to come up with their own starter questions which they could give to a shoulder-partner to complete. 

Hot Seat -One pupil sits at the front of the class holding up a show-me board. The rest of the class need to write/draw a clue on their own boards to guide the pupil towards the answer. 

Journalling - Have prompts on your board that pupils have to write about for 5-10 minutes. This could be philosophical questions, ideas for creative writing or about current events. 

Bingo - Ask learners to select six terms from the course/a topic. You then read out the definitions/descriptions and pupils check them off until we have 'bingo'. Good way to see what terms pupils know and their understanding of them.