Description

Splat
Students come up with key words for a topic which are written randomly all over the whiteboard. (12-15 is a good number). Two students are invited to stand on either side of the board with a ‘splatter’ (fly swat or newspaper). Others pupils ask a question, the answer to which is one of the words on the board. The two students at the board then compete to splat the correct word! The unsuccessful student sits down and is replaced by the student who asked the question.  Reinforces vocabulary in a fun way.

Game,
Starter,
Plenary.

Recall,
Comprehension  

Description

5Ws Activity
Show an interesting picture on the whiteboard (or reveal an interesting object / artefact) and give students 5 minutes in pairs to come up Who, What, Where, When, Why and How questions to ask about the image / object. You should ideally know something about the picture / thing, but not neccesarily all the answers to all the questions asked, as learners will have a chance to find out more as you study the topic.  A good opportunity to develop learners' enquiry skills.

Starter,
Introducing a new topic,
Pair work.

Analysis,
Synthesis,
Enquiry.

Description

Five Golden Rules
Suitable for a skills-based lesson. Students, in pairs, come up with five golden rules for carrying out the skill or process that has been taught. Pairs should then snowball to fours and agree the best five. These should then be gathered on the board via whole class discussion and the top five rules agreed as a class.  The skill could be anything from "multiplying 2-digit numbers" to "making new friends".

Skills acquisition,
Plenary,
Pair work,
group work.

Application,
Analysis.

Description

PMI - Plus, Minus, Interesting
In pairs or small groups, students apply the following three questions to a statement or task provided by the teacher: What are the positive ideas about this? What are the negative ideas about this? What is interesting about this? Students brainstorm their responses on a chart, or use Think, Pair, Share (see below) to gather responses.

Starter,
Plenary,
Pair work,
Group work.

Evaluation.

Description

Think, Pair, Share
A questioning technique for asking one or more "bigger" open questions or for generating ideas.  Students are posed a question and asked to record an individual response. They are given an appropriate amount of time to do this. Then students are invited to share their responses with a partner. Finally pairs are asked for their joint response for sharing with the whole class.

Questioning technique,
Pair work.

Suitable for more challenging questions:
Analysis,
Synthesis,
Evaluation

Description

Wait Time / Thinking Time
A simple technique which can make a huge difference to the quality of responses you get to questions, and to the number of learners who feel confident to respond.

Questioning technique. 

Suitable for more challenging questions:
Analysis,
Synthesis,
Evaluation

Description

The No Hands Rule
The alternative to hands up questioning allowing targeted and differentiated questions to be asked of specific pupils, after an appropriate amount of time to formulate a response.

Questioning technique.

Suitable for any questions

Description

The All-purpose Analysis Tool
A simple way to encourage learners to consider stimuli in detail, be they pictures, texts, objects, pieces of music, works of art...anything!

Discussion,
Pair work,
Group work.

Analysis 

Description

List, Group, Label
A way of doing a powerful card sort thinking skills activity but without having to prepare the cards!  Helps develop thinking skills processes such as sorting and classification, and can be used as a quick assessment of what learners already know at the start of a topic.

Discussion,
Group work.

Application,
Analysis,
Synthesis,
Evaluation 

Description

15 to 1
A fun way to practise recall of facts based on the television game.

Game,
AfL.

Recall,
Comprehension.

Description

Vocabulary Word Map
Encourage learners to demonstrate their understanding of the most important key words in a topic using a simple template. 

Comprehension,
Application.

Description

Plenary,
AfL.

Analysis,
Synthesis,
Evaluation

Description

Concept Cartoon
This is simply a picture, displayed on the board showing a number of young people expressing opinions, some of which are slightly misguided, on a particular topic. Learners are invited to justify which of the statements they agree with, if any.  This is a useful activity for discussing misconceptions.

Description

Recall,
Comprehension,
Application.

Description

Odd One Out
Four pictures, pieces of text or objects are displayed and students asked to decide which is the ‘odd one out' and why.  Any valid, reasoned answer accepted - the value in this activity is in the discussion it generates and the way in encourages close analysis.

Quality discussion,
Concept attainment,
Starter.

Application,
Analysis,
Synthesis.

Description

The Concept Attainment Technique
Slowly reveal pairs of statements (or pictures), one of which embodies a particular concept and one of which does not. Challenge students to work out what the concept is. Then relate their earlier guesses to the key concept to deepen their understanding.

Concept attainment
Discussion

Application,
Analysis,
Synthesis.

Description

Collective Memory (aka Maps from Memory)
Students in groups of three or four are numbered within the group: 1, 2, 3, 4.  All the 1s are invited to look at a source image for 10 seconds, then they return to their group and start to reproduce the image as accurately as possible. After 30 seconds, all the 2s come up for 10 seconds, return to the group and help complete and refine the copied picture/diagram. Then the 3s, then 4s.  The groups will have 1 or 2 more rounds to reproduce the images, so need to decide how best to work together to make the copy as accurate as possible. Pupils need to plan how to work together and divide up the task and to develop an awareness of how much information they can retain in their short-term memory.

Group work,
Advance Organiser.

Recall,
Comprehension,
Application,
Analysis.

Description

Which image best shows...?
A beautifully simple way to encourage in-depth discussion of a particular concept or topic.  Put up 4 or 5 images on the whiteboard associated with an abstract concept.  Learners in pairs identify with reasons which image (or text, piece of music, art work etc) best embodies that concept.

Starter
Plenary
Pair work
Discussion

Comprehension,
Application,
Analysis.

Description

Situation Bingo (Find someone who...)
Students are given a "bingo grid" of questions to ask their peers. Students are not allowed to ask consecutive questions to the same person - they must move on, so a lot of movement around the room is required. Best used to either activate prior knowledge at the start of a topic or as a plenary activity at the end of a unit.  Also great as an icebreaker at the start of a new year.

Starter,
Game

Recall,
Comprehension.

Description

Opinion Finders
Each pupil is given a sheet with a contentious statement on it that is relevant to the topic being taught. There must be enough different statements (4-6) to ensure that a range of points of view are being discussed.   Students then move around the room asking each other if they agree with the statement or not, and WHY, noting different opinions. Pupils holding the same statement sheet then group together and discuss their findings, before feedback to the whole class.

Starter,
Discussion.

Synthesis,
Evaluation.

Description

The Thinker's Keys
A grid containing many different kinds of questions which students can work in groups to answer, or to devise new questions of their own.  A fantastic resource for developing interesting questions.

Discussion,
Pair work.

Comprehension,
Application,
Analysis,
Synthesis,
Evaluation.

Description

Decisions, Decisions
This type of activity involves giving small groups of students a challenge based around choices and constraints.  Click here for an example (Geography, History, Numeracy across the curriculum) involving the load for a wagon going across the Rocky Mountains. In this case the choice is "what to take" and the constraint is "You have $70".

Discussion
Group work

Application,
Analysis,
Synthesis.

Description

The Hand Rote Revision Tool
Use of hands to remember things!  Think up five call and response sentences for each finger. That is, call 1 on the left thumb and response 1 on the right thumb etc.  The teacher starts with the call on the left thumb and the students join in answering with the response on the right thumb. After working through it once, the students join in with the call and follow it with the response. Use it to revise key points at the end of a lesson or topic.

Whole class interactive,
Revision aid.

Recall.

Description

Quiz, Quiz, Trade
A way to teach new facts for any topic in any subject. Give each student a number from 1-10 and ask them to copy their numbered question and answer and circulate.  They must find a partner and take turns to quiz each other.  They should trade question papers even if one or both of them got it wrong. The idea is to Quiz Quiz Trade with as many people as possible.

Revision aid,
Whole class activity.

Recall.

Description

Verbal prompts for peer assessment
Skilling up young people to be able to provide appropriate and constructive feedback to their peers is a key feature of Assessment for Learning.  These verbal prompts give some structure and pointers to allow all learners to contribute meaningfully.

AfL,
Peer assessment.

Analysis,
Evaluation.

Description

Link Four Cards
Key words in separate text boxes with an appropriate image are displayed. These are the "cards" that pupils can select.  In pairs, students choose four cards that are connected in some way, then explain how they are connected to the rest of the class.  (Teacher’s role is to really probe the responses, challenge any misconceptions and insist on accurate use of language in the explanations.)

Starter,
Paired work,
Discussion.

Synthesis,
Evaluation.

Description

Back-to-back
Students sit in pairs ‘back to back’ and decide who is A and who is B. A is given visual material; B is given a piece of plain paper and pencil. Then A describes the visual to B, while B draws it.  This is a co-operative exercise. B can ask questions and A’s job is to be as helpful as possible.  Alternatively A could arrange solid shapes in a particular way to describe to B, who also has a set of the same shapes.

Starter
Advance organiser
Speaking and listening

Application,
Analysis.

Description

Continuum Activity
Students with one card each and are asked to sort themselves along a line according to a given criterion.  The line could be a timeline or something more open to interpretation.  Students then have to negotiate their position in the line.

Discussion
Whole class interactive
Kinaesthetic

Analysis,
Evaluation.

Description

Fact or Opinion?
A strategy to promote discussion when content is controversial e.g. research in history, PSHE issues etc. Can develop critical thinking and reasoning but also develop deep thinking about 'facts' being certain or uncertain. Cards can be produced with quotes, statements, views or opinions from a variety of sources about the same subject. Pupils place the cards along an opinion line moving from fact to opinion or rank them as either easy or difficult to classify as fact or opinion. 

Whole class interactive,
Starter,
Plenary,
Discussion.

Analysis,
Evaluation.

Description

Reading Images
Three relevant images on a topic displayed on the whiteboard. In pairs or small groups, students identify similarities and differences – these are recorded on a simple template.

Starter,
Discussion,
Paired work.

Analysis.

Description

Misconceptions Activity
Students given a list of statements, some of which are correct and some of which contain a misconception or common mistake, then asked to identify which are which.

Starter,
Plenary,
Discussion,
Paired work.

Analysis,
Evaluation.

Description

Enquiring Minds
If you have already exhausted the activities here, check out this growing list of activity ideas from the Enquiring Minds programme.

 Tool

Brief Description

Type

Thinking Skill

Description and teacher feedback

Examples

Formulator Tarsia Jigsaw Puzzle
A jigsaw of questions and answers which match up on edges of adjacent cards (if the puzzle is completed correctly). Use in small groups to encourage discussion. The questions and answers can be on any topic. (A brilliant freely downloadable program is available to make the jigsaw cards).

Game,
Activity,
End of unit,
Discussion,
Pair work.

Recall,
Comprehension,
Application. 

Description and teacher feedback

Examples 

Mystery Activity
Students given a set of cards containing many different pieces of information and challenged to answer a "big question" by making sense of the information (in groups of two or three). Students sort and analyse the information on the cards, draw conclusions and share ideas with the whole group.  When plenarised effectively, this is undoubtedly one of the most powerful thinking skills activities you can do.

Discussion,
Group work.

Application,
Analysis,
Synthesis,
Evaluation.

Description and teacher feedback

Examples

Loop Game
A set of 15 cards to distribute around the class (usually one per pair). Each card has an answer (to a previous card's question) and a question (the answer to which is on someone else's card). One student reads out the question and others check if they have the answer. If so, they read out the answer (with teacher obviously listening out for errors) and read the question on the right hand side of their card. In this way, the cards are read out in a "loop" around the class. (Program available to make loop cards).

Game,
Starter.

Recall,
Comprehension,
Application.

Description and teacher feedback

Examples

Diamond Nine Ranking Activity
Using a set of 9 to 12 cards containing statements that relate to current learning, students prioritise the statements into a diamond nine (1,2,3,2,1) ranking them against a given criterion. e.g. with 10 possible effects of climate change: "Which of these effects would be most detrimental to people in the third world?" If using more than 9 cards, students have to justify discarding cards. Blank cards for their own reasons can also be included.

Card sort,
Discussion,
Pair work.

Analysis,
Synthesis,
Evaluation.

Description and teacher feedback

Examples

Jigsaw (Rainbow) Grouping
A very powerful way to organise learning in the classroom to maximise participation.  Learners are split into expert groups, and each group studies one aspect of a topic in detail.  The experts are then rearranged into "rainbow" groups containing one member of each expert group to feed back to the others on what they have learned.

Organisation of learning,
Discussion,
Collaboration.

Dependent on context.

Description and teacher feedback

Examples

Living Graphs and Fortune Lines
Graphical representation - strategies require a consideration of how one variable relates to another, such as the heart rate of a football player over the period of a match or the mood of a character at different times in a story.
Living graphs:  line graph is presented, together with a set of related statements, pupils have to position the statements on the graph and give reasons to justify their decisions.
Fortune lines: pupils suggest a scale and then plot the fortunes or emotions of one or more individuals during different episodes, justifying their decisions.

Discussion,
Pair work.

Application,
Analysis,
Evaluation.

Description and teacher feedback

Examples

Using previous work to establish success criteria
Learners can take ownership of the process of establishing success criteria for a piece of upcoming project work, by studying previous work (e.g. from last year's cohort) and being asked to address a number of focus questions about the work in small groups.

AfL,
Peer and self assessment,
Discussion.

Analysis,
Evaluation.