2. Questioning Techniques:
• Directed questioning leading into students
developing each other’s answers: rather than the
teacher developing an individual student’s answer,
the teacher asks another student to develop the
answer given. This can support student engagement
and contribute to ensuring ‘no student is left
undisturbed.’
• Students keeping a notebook/list of questions that
emerge from the lesson. Students to discuss
questions with each other to try and come up with
answers. Teacher can move around the room and
listen to the discussions to assess learners’ progress
(could be used as a plenary).
4. The Stuck Menu
Students choose 3 strategies from ‘The Stuck Menu’ before putting up their hand
to ask for help...
1. Record what you have tried and the
question you have and move on.
2. Consult the student-led question and answer
board (students pose a question on the board and
if someone has the answer, they add it to the
board).
3. Review previous learning and notes.
4. Use a text book/internet/smart-phone
5. Ask someone else in your group.
5. Plenary
• As a plenary, students can write down
one thing they are confused about from
the lesson on a post-it note.
• Students will then post these on the
whiteboard.
6. • The teacher or a student can then
choose some post-it notes at random
and these questions can then be posed
to the rest of the class to answer.
• As a result, students are learning to use
each other as a resource rather
depending upon the teacher.
8. Differentiated group work: an example...
• Each student has an allocated (differentiated) role, to
ensure maximum engagement and participation.
• Each group deals with different material, could be
differentiated according to ability/learning
style/behavioural needs.
Task: analysing a section of a text for English
Literature
Student 1: the summariser
Student 2: the analyst
Student 3: the reviewer/interpreter
Student 4: the contextualiser
All linked to a
specific
assessment
objective. Differing
roles/instructions
for each student.
9. Unlocking potential with language (Jim Smith’s
The Lazy Teacher’s Handbook: developing an
independent learning structure)
• ‘What have you forgotten to do?’
• ‘If you were not stuck, what would you do?’
• ‘Try something different...’
• ‘If I gave you a million pounds to be
unstuck, what would you do?’
• ‘What could you do to help yourself?’
10. Scaffolding
Scaffolding is as
important at Key
Stage 5 as in other
years.
Don’t assume that
just because
students are
studying at A Level
they are all of an
equal ability.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15. Teacher Modelling
Always model a task before asking/when
asking students to complete a similar
task.
By limiting failure in this way - through
leading by example - students will be
more comfortable with the task and in
turn, more confident in their ability.
17. Remember to ...
• Begin with a topic sentence.
• Embed quotations into sentences in a way
that still allows them to make
grammatical sense.
• Lead into a quotation with terminology
and then pull the quotation apart further
through close analysis, applying (where
possible) additional terminology.
18. Example Paragraph
This extract from the novel ‘Devil May
Care’ supports a number of gender
stereotypes, most notably that men are
strong, energetic and violent with an
attraction to fast cars. The foregrounding
of the plosive monosyllabic “Bond”
emphasises his power and
importance, adding to his ‘action man’
status. This is enhanced by a lexical set of
movement created by the dynamic verbs
“hit”, “swerved”, “kicked” and
“wrenched” which show Bond to be full
