Enrichment

Enrichment Starter For Ten?

What is the purpose of a starter? Is it to engage, motivate, challenge or keep students quiet whilst the administration tasks are done? The purpose of a starter has certainly adapted in recent years to almost disappearing but of course without a start; there is no middle or end.

The introduction of flipped learning can often mean that the starter is completely turned on its head with students working backwards, does the starter become an explanation task?

For many years, starter tasks were used to review knowledge but at what point we were led to question, does a tale of recap lead to stretch and challenge? I’m sure that some of us around for the introduction of the Literacy and Numeracy hour (celebrating its 25th year last year) will remember the segmented clock of which a starter was a prevalent part as a main class activity on text. The numbers 15,15,20,10 will be enough to cause a bristle I’m sure with memories of observations carried out with a stopwatch in hand.

So what do you want to do with your starter activity? How do you use this ‘dead time’ as students roll into class, the register gets done and they begin to engage with their subject turnover depending on where your class is in the school? A recent learning walk saw the use of students doing the recap and challenging questions presented by them by a member of the class, another saw students come into their classroom and fervently writing their time tables as practice and one lesson saw students entering a class, selecting a subject specific but random independent activity from a pot and beginning work on decrypting it.

A task that was easily differentiated dependent on the chosen pot, gave a glimpse into a world beyond screen time and enabled the class teacher to quickly address any administrative work. It would have been interesting to see whether these tasks were revisited as part of a plenary or interwoven into skill-building of the main objective but what was especially interesting was the student approach to the lesson. Eager, risk-taking in the coloured pot they chose and engaged on the task from the start- ready to learn. So maybe that’s it. Are starters a means to engage ‘ready to learn’? Are they a preparation for what’s to come or a quick boost to skills needed for the lesson without having to recap and tell the tale of the previous lesson? One thing that is certain is the necessity of building a routine. Student readiness often being the mirror of teacher readiness and expectation. What starters do you use and from what angle do you approach them?

How can you use starters and hooks to review and consolidate?

The start of a lesson is extremely impactful and can make all the difference to students’ level of engagement. Mental/oral starters in maths lessons are a great way to stimulate thinking, review prior knowledge and have fun. They are a great tool for AfL. They are also good for consolidation of a previously taught concept, even if the main part of the lesson is on a different subject. Hooks are a creative way to engage and excite children at the start of a lesson. Some need time and preparation, like staging a spacecraft landing in the playground, yet others can be quick and still impactful.

Have any ideas for lesson starters or hooks that you would like to share? Send it in to be listed in the next Journal with the subject “Starters for ten” at cpd@thebsbh.com.

Links to explore:

https://www.teachingideas.co.uk/subjects/mental-starters

https://mathsticks.com/my/2014/12/mental-oral-starters/

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/mental-maths

https://www.teachstarter.com/gb/blog/10-lesson-hooks-to-maximize-learning-gb/

https://www.trueeducationpartnerships.com/schools/use-of-hooks-into-lessons/

https://www.talk4writing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Ideas-for-Hooks1.pdf

(Article Cited from TES, April 2021, Michael Tidd, “How the Literacy Hour still shapes Primary learning”)