Lesson Starter Activity: The 15 Word Challenge!

Ask any pupil to read something, chances are that when they do they do so passively, thinking about what time the lesson finishes or what tonights bush tucker trial will be. Will they read it properly or critically? I saw this activity done whilst observing another teacher and I did it today with great results…

I gave the students an article on flexible working at BT lifted from a textbook…edge of your seat stuff it was..I knew they wouldnt be able to contain their excitement when they read the text.

When I gave them the article, I asked them to choose what they thought were the most important 15 words (I chose 15 as the article contained around what I would have considered 20 - 25 key words). I then told them they would have to justify their choices to the rest of the class. This then presented the students with a dilemma. They would need to make choices about which words they thought were the most important and then justify them (I’m sure they call this evaluation).

When they were done, we brought the key words together on the board with the students justifying their choices.

Did they enjoy it? It didn’t really matter. They engaged with the text, did some thinking, did alot of talking and did some justifying. Not bad at all.

This would also work well by putting the students into pairs after they have each read the text and then coming up with a joint set of words. You could even go pairs to four.

Not sure about anyone else, but I always detest giving students stuff to read in lessons. I just know whats going on when they read it. This activity (along with Beat the Teacher) goes someway to ensuring that at least they need to think whilst they do it.

Enjoy…......