Three simple ideas that I use to inject a bit of fun into the classroom..
Stand up, sit down
This is one I nicked from some CPD but it’s a great way to start a lesson, break up a lesson or finish a lesson.
You do need a concept with a list of terms, so I tend to use things like factors causing a shift in demand, types of economy of scale, that sort of thing.
Get the class to stand up but ask one student to remain seated. Everyone standing then has to think of one factor causing a demand curve to shift, say.
The student sitting has one minute to name as many factors affecting demand as they can think of. Every time they mention one that a standing student has thought of, that student has to sit down.
The aim is for the seated student to get all the other students sitting down. The aim of the other students is to try to think of an obscure factor that the seated student won’t mention.
You can, of course, keep a running tally of scores for each student in terms of whether they get the class to sit or remain standing when it’s their turn.
It injects a nice bit of competition into the classroom and tests recall.
Keyword bingo
Not highly original but effective.
Issue each student with a bingo card containing keywords from the topic that will be covered during the lesson. They get to shout out when they complete a line or the whole card.
The only thing you need to do is space out when you use the words during the lesson so that the cards last. Also make sure the students keep the cards so they have the list of key words. It’s great to see how this improves their attention span!
Who am I?
I did this with my year 10 class only last week when looking at types of economy of scale.
I gave the class 10 minutes to read, but not take any notes on, the various types of economy of scale both internal and external.
Then I wrote the name of each economy of scale on post-it notes and stuck one to the forehead of each student. These days I guess you need to ask if anyone is allergic to glue!
Then they get to wander round the room asking questions about their type of economy of scale. I banned answers that were not yes or no, and also banned the use of any of the actual names of economies of scale.
The students then came to me to say what they thought they were and, if correct, I changed the name and sent them back out into the room.
In about 15 minutes we got each student through each economy of scale and they had a really good grasp of the features of each.
Related:
RGS Learning 