See below for a list of ten simple activities to help students review their subject knowledge at the beginning or the end of a lesson. No planning or resources necessary. They’re constructed to lead into further discussion and debate. Hope they’re useful. Feedback always welcome.
1. Letters on the board
Choose a selection of letters and ask student to find fitting adjectives that describe a particular character. For example, take the letters B, F, I and T for Macbeth: brutal, flawed, insecure and tyrannical.
2. Find the page
Read out a quotation or a short passage from one of the texts and then ask students to find the relevant page number.
3. Find the quotation
Pick a range of adjectives that describe a particular character or identify a key theme and get students to find supporting quotations.
4. Similarities and differences
Choose two or more characters and ask students to make a list of all the similarities and differences they can think of within a short period of time.
5. Five to one
Pick five characters and ask students to choose five adjectives for the first character, four for the second, three for the third, and so on.
6. Odd one out
Create a list of words and get students to choose the one that is the least connected to the text. For example, take the novel Jekyll and Hyde and these five words: respectability, blackmail, crime, tyranny and violence.
7. Explain why I’m wrong (or right)
Write a contentious statement on the board and get students to find evidence from the text to help explain why it’s wrong (or right). For example: Birling’s reaction to the Inspector’s questions shows that he is remorseful.
8. Fifty words
Students write a fifty(ish) word summary of a chapter or scene, theme, character or aspect of context, and then feedback.
9. Pick a word
Pick three adjectives and get students to explain why one of them is more relevant than the other two. For example: ruthless, calculating and domineering to describe Lady Macbeth.
10. High five
Students write down five really decent points about a particular aspect of a text – could be on a particular character, a theme or context.
Click here to access a document with all ten activities on.
Thanks for reading –
Doug