Any lesson

Ages 14 to 16

If you are looking for an effective plenary idea, try this: begin your lesson by sharing your aims and objectives. Ask pupils to jot down a question they feel the class should be able to answer by the end of the lesson.

In a poetry lesson, it might be the effect of a key image in the poem; in a science lesson, an important finding from a practical experiment. Pass the questions to two pupils who will lead the plenary.

Teach your lesson as planned, allowing the plenary leaders time before the end of the lesson to prepare their answers to the recorded questions.

In the last minutes of the lesson the leaders can share, from the front of the class, their answers to the questions, or lead a question and answer session with the whole class.

You will have given pupils responsibility for their own learning and will be able to judge whether progress has been made

Josephine Smith is director of key stage 4 at Casterton Business and Enterprise College in Lincolnshire.