Differentiation
The interactive nature of the resource will appeal to students of all abilities at Key Stages 3 and 4. The on-screen activities are lively and open-ended and can be tackled at the student's individual ability level. There is further guidance in these teachers' notes to help you provide appropriate extension activities and research topics.
To support younger students or those with additional needs, try the following strategies:
- Pair up students in supporting partnerships to complete the reading and writing elements.
- Encourage them to practise sharing their opinions with a 'talk partner' before speaking to a larger group or the whole class.
- Encourage a 'think-pair-share' approach to discussion topics: individual students think about the idea on their own at first and may carry out some additional research to increase their understanding. You will find the case studies, glossaries, 'Did you know?' pop-up boxes and the hyperlinks to relevant websites useful for this initial thinking stage. From there the students explain their ideas and the outcomes of their research with a talk partner. Pairs of students then join with another pair to share their ideas and opinions and to arrive at a group perspective.
- You could also use the 'panel of experts' technique to support discussion and debate: arrange the whole teaching group into smaller groups. Give each student a number - say 1-4. Ask every student with the same number to think about the same aspect of a discussion. Then ask all the students with the same number to work together to discuss the issue and agree on the main points to report back to their group. E.g. all the 2s join up to form a panel of experts. Students then rejoin their original group and each member feeds back on the findings of their expert group.
- Small groups of students can work together to discuss ideas and complete the online activities.
- Make notes for students of key points to include in their individual work during the whole-class discussions.
- Take time to explore the site and direct students to the glossary to help them with new vocabulary and concepts.
- Reinforce the learning through using the activity sheets.
- Encourage the students to re-visit the online activities and try them again.
- Use the 7–11s section of this resource if you feel the 11–16s section is too advanced for your students.
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