Sneaky Shakespeare
This lesson is one of three parts that won Conor the innovative lesson competition. Conor Sneyd has just finished his third year of studying English at Trintiy College. He's always loved English, because he's always loved reading, and he thinks that if Shakespeare was still alive he'd be annoyed that everyone takes him so seriously.
The Aim of this lesson is to make students feel more confident when approaching Shakespeare
A lot of students are very intimidated by Shakespeare, which is hardly a surprise. The biggest problem students have with it is the language: besides using lots of old words which a modern English speaker wouldn’t recognise, it is also written in a very abstract and poetic style which means that even if you do know all the words, you still might not have a clue what he’s on about. Reading Shakespeare can be a massive challenge even for a well-read adult who usually has no problems with comprehension, so for a secondary school student, who might not read a lot, or might have major difficulties with comprehension, it can be an absolute nightmare.
Learning from Mock Exams
The snow before Christmas had a knock on effect for many exam students this year. Students sat mock exams later than normal without getting a chance to finish any more of the course work. Everyone has anxiously awaited results and feedback. At The Homework Club we believe evaluation is vital to success. The Mock results don’t have to set what you will get in June. Included are some of the top tips we go through for our own students. The mocks are a test run! They test our endurance.
If you had a good mocks - you should be always be careful. Were you just lucky with the paper? are you likely to get the same questions in June? If yes, your on the road to success.
If you had a bad mocks - Don’t despair. Above all else stay confident. Always aim for the stars and you will reach success. Find your mistakes and learn from the experience. It's not the end of the world.
There are 8 main factors that effect exam performance
Subject Knowledge
Your Exam History
Exam Preparation
Exam Practice
Experience of the Subject
Writing Skills
Use of Time
Attitude and Approach
1st classes written on the table
Our new experiment .. whats happens if you let the students write directly on the tables?
This idea steams from coffee time at the Southampton Oceanography Centre while I was studying for my PhD. Physics nerds from the research section would gather around for morning coffee break and invariably talk about the latest scientific dilemmas. One morning someone brought a white board marker and wrote directly on the table.. a brilliant idea had begun.
The great advantage of this practise is that everyone is involved. If left for 5 minutes on their own students will always gravitate towards the white boards and the coloured markers, “we never get to write on them in school”. This shows how little its takes to excite a student!
Speed dating for maths
So we are getting to that time of the year with exam classes. There are only so many times you can do the same type of maths problem - we need to liven it up a bit! This lesson works for any level and any year but is very good for stressed out exam classes.
First you need to find some short questions, part (a)'s of the exam paper are ideal. Pick a topic you want the students to revise. Find enough questions to match the class in pairs - they should be similar questions.
Now pair everyone up - set the tables up so they are long and everyone is facing each other. Give each pair 1 to 2 minutes max. Of the pair one person explains the problem/how to solve it in their own words. The other is the "learner", encourage these to ask questions and even correct the "teacher". We learn best from others mistakes!
Use a stop watch - time is pressure! After the time is up make everyone get up and swap partners. "learners" should become "teachers" and visa-versa. Repeat the exercise at least 4 times.
