‘Strategies for a thinking classroom’ Rachael Edgar ‘Strategies for a thinking classroom’ Thursday 3rd July 2014 #TMStratford An activity that can be used as a starter, plenary or as part of the main lesson. Thinking Skills Bingo adds pace and challenge to a lesson. It forces students to THINK therefore develops students thinking skills Excellent for diagnostic assessment and checking weaker students understanding/ knowledge of key topics and as such is a useful AFL strategy Useful for facilitating a discussion on the topic therefore stretching more able pupils and ‘rising the tide’ developing core analytical skills Increases engagement and motivation within the classroom Rachael Edgar @Dubai_Teachmeet

Inspire and Engage Engagement can comes from the challenge, the enjoyment from the discovery and the learning. Enjoyment and fun are usually by products not ends in themselves 1. If it isn’t going to benefit the pupils’learning, don’t do it 2. If it can be done in a fun way, then why not do it that way

List nine key points about Michael Gove On your bingo cards, write the answers to the following question or task: List nine key points about Michael Gove Start Bingo Set Your Questions

List nine key points about Michael Gove Use space bar (or click mouse) to scroll through bingo balls Tory The Blob MP Trojan horse The Times Trojan horse Secretary of state Education The Blob Free school MP The Times Tory Mr Men Edinburgh Mr Men Free school Secretary of state Education Edinburgh

Enter your question in row 1 and your words/phrases into the lower rows of the table below (in Normal edit mode). Question: List nine key points about Michael Gove 1 Tory 2 The Blob 3 MP 4 Trojan horse 5 The Times 6 Mr Men 7 Free school 8 Secretary of state Education 9 Edinburgh After editing the table and question, click this button (in slideshow mode) to update the slides and bingo balls

Teacher’s Guide The Game The purpose of this activity is to test your students’ knowledge of topics they have learnt. The activity is a game of ‘Bingo’ – your students have a blank ‘Bingo card’ and you ask them to think and write down the possible answers to the question. After a couple of minutes the teacher reveals the answer by revealing the Bingo balls on the screen. Running the activity Give each student a copy of the printed off blank bingo card (print off as many copies of slide 5 as you need). After a few minutes click on ‘Start Bingo’. To call the answers, click on the space bar. Each answer will rise up. Game Setup Note – this game has randomly generated data using a ‘macro’ embedded within the file. For this file to work you must ‘enable’ the macro when prompted (on opening up of the file). Editing the resource: You can create your own question (with 9 answers). Go to slide 3 Input your question in row 1 and the 9 possible answers into rows 2 to 10. Click on the large button at the bottom of the slide to update the file and run the question. Note: Please ensure that you save this file after editing.

List nine key points about Michael Gove

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Rachael Edgar @Dubai_Teachmeet Contact details Email: misedgar@yahoo.co.uk Twitter: @Dubai_Teachmeet Teaching and Learning Blog: www.misedgar.wordpress.com Rachael Edgar @Dubai_Teachmeet