Why did I choose this question? I felt that my plenary activities were often rushed. They didn’t always show me exactly where every pupil is in their understanding I felt that I was using the same old tasks /strategies

What did I do? Collaborative research with RMU so try and gather as many strategies as possible from the internet, teaching resources and other people. We wanted the strategies to be transferable to any topic so we ruled out some ideas that were more subject specific. Ended up with a list of strategies to try and evaluate.

Findings Simply the act of planning the plenary more carefully meant that it was more valuable, not because of the activity itself, but because I gave it due time and emphasis in the lesson. The most effective strategies allowed me to assess the learning of the whole class quickly and easily. Exit passes do this well but require additional time and marking after the lesson. Questioning using mini-whiteboards is still one of the most simple and effective ways to assess the learning of the whole group.

Findings Filming my lesson using IRIS was the most valuable part of this project. Not only was I able to evaluate the efficacy of the plenary, I discovered so much about my practice; it was truly eye-opening and incredibly useful. I have trailed several transferable strategies which can now be built into schemes of learning. However, I would be wary of sticking rigidly to only these strategies. Pupils will almost certainly disengage if there is too much repetition. Moreover, I think there are certain lessons where a subject/topic specific task should be used and would have the most impact.

Next steps Embed the successful strategies into schemes of learning so that every lesson has a useful and meaningful plenary. Evaluate further via pupil voice which strategies they feel are most effective.

Odd one out and explain why. Pupils write questions for the answers I provide. Pupils to write 3 increasingly difficult questions for their partner to answer. Pupils swap back at the end to mark their partner’s answers. Pupils physically model the learning from the lesson. Identify 4 key words from the lesson and summarise each one in two sentences. Exit pass with Bloom’s differentiated questions.

Twenty questions- two competitors are at the front facing the class Twenty questions- two competitors are at the front facing the class. A key word is displayed on the board behind them. They have to ask the class questions to try and work out the word. Class respond with thumbs up/down.

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Allowed me to see the conversations the pupils were having around the task.

I was taking far too many responses from pupils with their hands up I was taking far too many responses from pupils with their hands up. Certain individuals dominated the lesson.