1. Lesson Design for PP Students
Tasks and Activities / Questioning
ISSUES TO CONSIDER
Sometimes, PP students will ‘hide’ in lessons, particularly during periods of IRE / whole class questioning. When
interviewed, one Cherwell PP student suggested that: ‘I felt that, if I didn’t understand, I wouldn’t be able to ask,
because (everyone else) is really bright and I’m below them’. PP students can therefore develop strategies of avoiding
the stigma of not understanding by not taking part in class discussion, or by giving very superficial answers. As a result,
their rates of progress may be held back.
Possible Solutions:
Use questioning strategies and techniques beyond IRE to ensure that students take part in discussion, whilst
shielding them from the full glare of public attention. A simple example might be ‘Think Pair Share’, in which
students are given time to think, then discuss with a partner, before being asked to share with the class.
- Ask fewer, but better questions. This entails planning the key questions you are going to ask, then giving enough
structure so that all students are required to engage, whether it be by writing an answer in their book or on a
whiteboard, discussion with their partner, or explaining to the class.
- Give constant attention to quality in student responses to questioning - insist on full sentences and developed
and detailed responses wherever appropriate. In this way, PP students in the class will be exposed to lots of
models of good quality responses to learn from.
- Aim for ‘Low access / high challenge’ tasks, using modelling to make clear to the students how to do tasks, then
how to do them really well (see section on modelling /success criteria)
- Carefully judge the number of activities you include, and avoid over-cluttering lessons with ‘just-a-quick’ low
value tasks - PP students may have a tendency to skim over the surface of activities; fewer activities which are
carefully set up mean you have more chance to encourage depth and engagement, as well as to talk to
individuals.
Actions:
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Plan a lesson in which you use a questioning for engagement structure to ensure that PP students are in a
position where they have to contribute an answer to a discussion
Go back to the training materials that we have on this, on the Shared Aread in Whole School / Staff Inset /
Questioning for Engagement, or on the blog here:
http://cherwelllearning.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/questioning
For more advice on types of activities which help with lesson design, look here:
http://cherwelllearning.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/activities