There are lots of activities you can use in your lesson planning. This list will help you take a pick 'n' mix approach

Be experimental with your lesson planning, students often respond really well to the unexpected. There are many possibilities for different approaches to teaching and learning. Although some of the activities below are traditionally associated with particular subject areas, it can often be great from to make more unusual cross-connections (a graph in English for example, or a poem in science).

Teaching strategies
  • Teacher based

  • Teacher talks to the class

  • Teacher gives instructions to the class

  • Teacher discusses a topic, getting responses from the class

  • Teacher asks questions of the students

  • Teacher writes something on the board for the class to copy

  • Teacher writes the students’ ideas on the board for the class to copy

Student based

  • Students follow instructions

  • Students work in pairs or groups

  • Students make group presentations to the class

  • Students make individual presentations to the class

  • Students brainstorm in a group to get ideas

  • Students work individually eg reading, writing, drawing

  • Students write their ideas on the board

  • Students ask questions of the teacher

  • Students make a list of questions they would like to research and answer

Types of learning activities

  • Reading activities

  • Individual reading

  • Shared reading, eg whole class

  • Reading for information

  • Memorising facts, figures or vocabulary

  • Reading in pairs or groups

  • Speed or skim reading

  • Reading newspaper or magazine articles

  • Reading from textbooks

  • Reading on a computer screen

  • Reading each other’s work

  • Wordsearches and crosswords. You can download wordsearch templates from TES Resources along with crossword designers)

Writing activities

Answering questions

Summarising the main points of a text

Note taking

Writing reports

Writing essays

Imaginative writing – stories, poems

Factual/analytical writing


Drawing activities

Drawing diagrams

Drawing from life or photographs

Drawing from imagination or memory

Brainstorming

Mind mapping (download free Mind Map software)


Speaking and listening activities

Discussions

Explanations

Drama exercises

Role play and improvisation

Questions and answer sessions

Quizzes (there are hundreds of quizzes and quiz templates to download on TES Resources)

Oral presentations

Debates

Taping radio programmes on a topic

Listening to music


Physical and practical activities

Games and warm ups

Individual skills work

Group exercises

Drawing, modelling and painting

Practical experiments

Designing, building and testing

Performance/demonstrations, eg dance, drama, science.


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