Consolidate learning with mini-reviews
Mini Reviews are a fantastic way to consolidate or reinforce any piece of learning in a fun, active way. I have used these successfully with all ages – young children in school right through to adults during teacher training sessions. Everyone loves them and they are very effective. With active learning being so important in today’s classrooms, these mini-reviews will prove a vital addition to your teaching tool box…
Mini Review #1: Star Jumps
- Ask the whole class to stand up and stand in the shape of a star (as in ‘star jump’ – legs apart, arms apart reaching upwards).
- Tell them they can’t move until someone shouts out one topic-related important piece of information they’ve picked up from the lesson or previous lessons.
- As soon as someone shouts something relevant, everyone jumps to the second phase of a star jump – legs together, hands down by sides.
- Repeat the process until everyone has completed about ten jumps.
Mini-review #2: Joggers
- Ask the whole class to stand up.
- Ask a student to call out a number between one and twenty (or between one and ten – you’ll see why it might be best to reduce this number in a moment). This is the ‘Target Number’.
- Tell students to start jogging on the spot.
- Students have to continue jogging on the spot until sufficient (depending on the target number) relevant, topic-related facts have been called out.
Mini-review #3: Fireworks
Explain to students that a ‘firework’ is when a student jumps up from their seat and contributes something positive to the lesson e.g. by stating what they’ve learned so far or stating how they plan to use the information they’ve learned. Start a timer and tell students you need to see fifteen ‘fireworks’ in the next 60 seconds. Sometimes an incentive may be helpful…
”OK, it’s break time in ten minutes but if you want your break I need to see fifteen fireworks in the next sixty seconds.”
These mini-reviews are taken from my book ‘The Active Learning Tool Kit – Outrageously Engaging Activities to Increase Student Participation, Raise Achievement & Have Your Toughest Students Asking for More’. It’s available on Amazon Kindle for just £3.99 and comes complete with a HUGE pack of downloadable bonus resources and print-ables.
If you’d like the BEST collection of active learning ideas and activities to brighten up your classroom for just £3.99, head on over to Amazon right now and get your copy. Just do a search for ‘The Active Learning Tool Kit’, or search for me by name, ‘Rob Plevin’.
Incidentally, I have sold this product in the past to thousands of teachers for £25.99, so you are getting a GREAT deal on Amazon right now!