Starters!
What is a starter?
During successful interactive starters:
• pupils engage fully in learning from the outset;
• they gain an understanding of the objectives and purposes of the lesson;
• there is a sense of pace;
• pupils spend most of their time on-task and focused on learning;
• there is an appropriate level of challenge that enables pupils to make good
progress in their learning.
e.g.for science
Describe what you see on this picture
Explain what this is related to in … (science for example)
Suggest what happened just before this scene, and what will happen next…
This starter is accessible for everyone, encourages discussion and creative thinking, as well as linking on to the main body of the lesson – ethics in science. (or whatever you choose!)
Familiarise pupils with Blooms Taxonomy language, so they know how to challenge and extend their answers
e.g. for Maths (or any subject)
Over the last 10 days I’ve been experimenting with my S1 class using ‘starter’ activities to highlight the processes of learning. One of my favourite ‘starters’, used the picture below with a challenge to sort the shapes into only two groups. My most astounding answer from pupils was ‘Polygons’ and ‘Quadrilaterals’.
Joking aside the pupils gained confidence in sorting and were then able, after discussion, to identify the skills that helped them organise this information. They then applied those same skills to sorting historical information as preparation for an essay.
Examples of feedback from the class and processes that were identified in our discussion after such a ‘starter’ included;
– ‘it’s easier to think of ideas with more than one person’
– ‘I was helped by drawing it’
– ‘We just tried different options until one worked’
– AND ‘that was fun!’
Include “learning behaviours” alongside your learning intentions… as this becomes daily practice, you can get pupils to identify their learning behaviours themselves.
Example Learning Behaviours
– collaboration
-sharing ideas
-listening
-independent work
Can you incorporate these into your lessons today? If you have any good lesson idea starters… please share them below!
