Active Learning and Teaching Methods for Key Stage 3 - Northern ...

Key Stage 3FIST-TO-FIVESkills• Self-ManagementWhat is it?• This simple activity encourages pupils to determine how confident they feel thatthey’ve achieved what was expected by the end of a lesson or session. It might alsobe used by pupils as a means of expressing how confident they are that they knowthe response to a question which has just been posed by the teacher/facilitator. Forthe latter, this activity allows an instant assessment of how well a class or groupmay have grasped an issue or topic. See Thumb Tool for another activity whichencourages pupils to think about their learning.How does it work?1. After a session pupils are asked how confident they are that they have met theobjectives. One of three hand gestures might be used:– Full hand up with all fingers and thumb if they are very confident that they haveachieved the objectives and what was expected;– Three fingers if they feel that they have had partial success in meeting theobjectives, but some more work might be needed; or– Just fist if they consider that they have made little or no progress towardsmeeting the objective.2. If the tool is being used in response to a specific question from the teacher duringthe course of the lesson, the following statements might apply:– Full hand up with all fingers and thumb if they feel very confident that they knowthe answer;– Three fingers if they may know part of the answer or if they are slightly uncertainas to the accuracy of their response; or– Just fist if they definitely feel that they do not know the response.3. If the tool is used at the end of a session, a debrief may explore issues such as howthe objective was met, what else pupils feel that they would like to achieve and howthey could go about doing this, what might have hindered progress towards theobjective and how they can prevent future similar obstacles.28