Pep Up your

Plenaries

What does OFSTED say?

SL CPL, November 2009. Future Leaders
In its report on the Key Stage 3 pilot OFSTED drew the following
conclusion:
‘From the outset, plenaries were often the weakest part of the
lesson. Good planning was critical to the success of the plenary.
Often there was insufficient time for them because teachers
underestimated the time required for activities in the main phase of
the lesson. Plenaries were often the least active part of the lessons.
Teachers tended merely to sum up what happened during the main
phase and pupils did not have the opportunity to articulate what
they had learned. When pupils had such opportunities they proved
an important part of the learning process.
Why use plenaries?
When used effectively, plenaries:
1. Summarise and round off a lesson or, at a strategic moment,
allow you to summarise a section of the lesson
2. Help your students focus on the most important points that
they have learned
3. Highlight not only what has been leaned but how it has been
learned
4. Are essential ‘assessment for learning’ tools in that they
allow you to assess both individual and class learning
5. Help inform your future lesson planning by developing a
better understanding of what your students have learned in
the lesson
6. Help your class review the lesson objective or their own
success criteria
7. Allows you to draw the class together, crystallise their
understanding and direct the students to the next phase of
their learning
8. Value and celebrate the achievements of the individual and
the class, and
9. Stimulate interest, engagement and enjoyment in your
students for the next phase of their learning.
What do students gain from a plenary?
Effective plenaries enable your students to:
1. Reflect on what they have learned either individually or as a
group
2. Place their learning in the context of the ‘big picture’
3. Articulate and express their own learning
4. Develop a language for discussing learning and thinking
about learning
5. See themselves as learners rather than pupils
How long should a plenary be?
Plenaries will vary in length from a few minutes to a major part of
the lesson depending on the stage of your students learning and
style and format that you have planned. It should be remembered
that effective plenaries are not necessarily confined to the end of
lessons. They are useful tools to be used at different times in a
lesson to draw the class together.
How you could raise interest in plenaries within a
curriculum area
1. Use the OFSTED quote at the beginning of this booklet to
raise awareness of the issue.
2. Start a discussion in a departmental meeting to identify any
common problems associated with running effective
plenaries.
3. Use the suggestions in the ‘examples’ part of this booklet to
trial different approaches to running plenaries.
4. Obtain feedback on the most effective method for your
subject.
5. Try to find time to watch each other run the plenary that you
found to be most effective.
6. Film a colleague running an effective plenary and use it for
either training purposes or inducting new colleagues into the
department
Effective Plenaries
In putting this section together we have tried to make our
exemplar plenaries non-subject specific. We suggest you try
various approaches and see which is the most successful for
you. However, please remember that plenaries:
1. Should be well planned.
2. Be given sufficient time,
3. Be directly related to the learning objectives and
success criteria of the lesson.
4. Be differentiated in order that you can assess both
individual and collective progress.
5. Assess the effectiveness of your teaching.
6. Should allow you to re-address any misunderstandings
or re-emphasise any important learning that seems to
have been missed.
7. Inform your future planning.
8. Be fun!
Effective Plenaries
Please remember that plenaries do not necessarily
have to be restricted to the end of a lesson. They can
be used at anytime to check on or summarise your
students learning and understanding.
1. Probing questions
Develop a set of probing questions that are
directly related to the lesson to determine both
individual and collective understanding of the key
points of the day’s learning.
2. Your turn today!
At the start of the lesson select two or three
students and give them the task of summing up
the lesson. At the end of their summary ask
individuals in the class to comment on or add to
the summation. Always ensure that you give your
summarises a round of applause at the end of the
lesson.
3. The 60 second challenge
Workings individually, or in groups, allow 60
seconds for students to list the most important
facts that they have learned during the lesson.
They then share their learning allowing you to
bring together the important points.
4. List 5 things you have learned today
 Workings individually, or in groups, ask the
students to list the five most important facts that
they have learned during the lesson. They then
share their learning allowing you to bring together
the important points.
5. List 5 things your neighbour should have
learned today
This is a similar exercise but allows you to use a
‘Think – Pair –Share’ approach to bringing the
lesson together.
6. The answer is ‘. . . .’ What is the question?
This reverses the process and allows you to give
your students the important facts and allows them
to either individually, or collectively, to come up
with the questions that would produce your
answers.
7. In just three sentences
Workings either as individuals or in groups
encourage your students to summarise their
learning in just three sentences.
8. List the new words
Ask your students to list any new words that have
been used in the lesson and write a sentence
explaining each one.
9. The hot seat
Hot seat a student, or group of students, and let
the class quiz them on the day’s learning.
10.The Quiz
Ask groups of students to produce questions
related to the lesson and organise a knock-out
quiz to determine the ‘top group’.
11.Jig –Saw feedback.
Ask groups to summarise different parts of the
lesson and then allow them to feedback to the
whole class as a summary of the lesson.
12.True or False
Use True or False cards to enable students to
respond to statements that you make regarding
the days learning.
13.True or False pairs
From the lesson objectives ask your students to
write 3 true and 3 false statements and give them
to your partner to sort out. This could be followed
up by collating all the true and false statements
together at the front for a final summary.
14.True and false lines
This needs a large learning space. Ask your
students to form one line. Make a statement about
one of the key words, ideas or concepts that have
been learned in the lesson. If the students think
that the statement is true they must step to the
left. If they think that it is false then they must
step to the right.
15.Multiple choice
Use multiple choice cards, numbered 1 -4, to
respond to statements that you make regarding
the days learning. I.e. The River Danube flows
through which of the following four countries – and
then state the four countries.
16.Bingo
Give each member of the class a number and use
bingo balls to draw numbers out of a bag to
answer your questions about the lessons learning.
17.Double bingo
Draw two numbers out of the bag, one for the
questioner and the other for the student who is to
answer the question.
18.Missing words
Give out a set of sentences with missing key words
and ask your students to fill in the blanks from the
day’s learning
19.Forbidden words
Describe a key word, idea or concept idea from the
lesson without actually using the word. Your
students have to guess the word or key idea within
a fixed number of attempts.
20.Five questions
Tell your students that they may ask up to five
questions before they have to guess which key
word, idea or concept that you are thinking of.
21.From start to end
Display both the learning objectives and the final
learning either side of the board. Ask your
students to fit the stages of how they achieved
their learning objectives between the two displays.
22.Who, what, when where and why?
Display a picture that illustrates a key word, idea
or concept from the lesson. Working in groups,
students have to write whole sentences that
answer the questions who, what, when, where and
why.
23.The eye witness
AS student is asked to review the lesson as if he /
she were a television reporter telling viewers
about how the learning outcomes were achieved.
24.Traffic lights
Students hold up traffic light cards to signify their
understanding of a key word, idea or concept.
Green indicates full understanding, amber some
understanding and red little understanding.
25.Thumbs up
Students are asked to raise their thumbs upwards
if they understand a point, sideways if they almost
understand it or downwards if they do not
understand it.
26.Shimmering hands
Students are encouraged to use shimmering hands
to indicate if they have understood the key word,
idea or concept that they are studying.
Shimmering hands held vertically indicates that
they do, held straight out in front indicates almost
whilst no hands held out at all indicates that they
are still struggling to understand.
27.Press Conference
A group of students are called out to the front of
the class. They must then act as a group of
experts on their learning whilst the class quizzes
them.
28.Smiley Faces
Each student is given a set of three cards with
smiley faces drawn on them. If they understand
their learning they hold up a smiley face; those
who almost understand it show a face with a
straight mouth whilst those not understanding it
show a sad face.
29.Spot the mistake
Tell the class that you will be summarising their
learning yourself but will make several deliberate
mistakes in their summary. Ask them to use ‘Think
– Pair – Share’ in their groups to spot the mistakes.
At the end of the exercise go through the
summary again but this time with the right
answers.
30.Mastermind
Hot seat a student and play ‘Mastermind’ as you
question them about the lessons learning. Display
a Mastermind Champion Chart in the classroom to
record success as the term progresses.
31.Stickman
Draw a stickman on the board but make sure that
he has a hat, a toolbox, a heart and that he is
standing by a bin. Ask the class to tell you what
they have learned and place these facts by the
hat. Now ask them what tools or techniques they
have acquired and place them by the toolbox.
Feelings that have been generated should be
placed by the heart and ideas, thoughts or
misconceptions that they no longer have should
be placed in the bin.
32.Toss the bean bag
Ask a question based on the day’s learning and
toss a bean bag to the student that you want to
answer the question. If they succeed then they win
the right to ask a question of their own and toss
the bean bag to someone else. If they fail, the
bean bag must be returned to you.
33.Mind mapping
Write the lessons topic on the centre of your
board. Now encourage students to come
individually to the board and start to produce a
mind map that summarises the day’s learning.
34.Post box
This is designed to check understanding and
inform the planning of your next lesson. Ask your
students to write down, in order, the five most
important things that they learned in the lesson
and place them in a ‘post box’ as they leave. A
quick look will tell you what has been learned and
what needs reinforcement.
35.Circle Graphs
Put the lesson objectives at the top of the board.
Now ask your students to go through the day’s
learning, displaying each stage in a circle until
they eventually complete the circle by attaining
the lesson objectives.