Had a year 8 class this week who often are fairly lethargic so I thought I would raise the bar for them. They are set 1 and the range is level 5-6 in terms of end of KS3 FFT targets. We are looking at rivers and flooding at the moment so I started with a question on the board from a higher GCSE paper which we discussed and thought about how we would answer it and the type of information they would need to include.
They then had 20 minutes with a GCSE textbook to make a note of any information they felt was important in terms of answering the question. After this data collection time they then had 20 minutes to complete the question in class under exam conditions.
Final plenary - feedback as to what they thought. Many felt they had answered the question well because they had taken time to prepare for it and were confident of success and getting near their target grade. Lots of positive discussion.
I then told them that they had done a GCSE Higher paper question and there was a moment of silence before one of the lads said 'Hmmm, wasnt that bad really!'
I have looked over a lot of the answers and those students I have spent time reading are above their target grade.
Its all about taking a moment and giving them time...
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