Time to take a risk...

When my Yr8 RE class came into the room today they found a single question on the board. After a period of general chatter they began to wonder why I wasnt saying anything and questions began to come out

'Do we copy that question down?'
'Is this for us?'

I responded by saying it was for them but they had to work out why it was on the board.

There was a moment of silence and then they began to talk about what they thought it was on the tables. After a period of discussion more questions.

'Can we use textbooks to answer this?'

I said they could and they started looking at the books eventually all the tables had the same book and were sharing information.

As the lesson went on they found out an answer and started to come up to show me.
I said to check it with each other so they went back and began to share info from their answers and add to the work they had done.

Eventually I took over and asked them what they had learnt.

What came out was that they had learnt how to find out their own answers and that working together was useful as they found out things from people they had missed and felt their answers were better after discussion.

Finally they created their own learing objectives linked into working together and taking responsibility for their own role in the classroom and the work they had produced.

Took a risk to do but very rewarding...