re-thinking starters: initial stimulus material rebecca priest, bablake school, coventry
TRANSCRIPT
Re-thinking Starters:
Initial Stimulus Material
Rebecca Priest, Bablake School, Coventry
Why?O Enquiry approach – one way of creating
a ‘need to know’O Applying an idea from history teaching
(Phillips, 2001) to geography, as suggested by Roberts (2013)
‘A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives’.
Department for Education (2013)
Criteria for ISM
1. Uses material in certain ways to stimulate interest and curiosity
2. Establishes of a line of geographical enquiry via a key question or a series of questions
3. Outlines learning aims and objectives in a clever, meaningful way
How is ISM different to starters?
Ocreate an interest O ‘deliberately oblique manner’O longer Oencourage questions Oown lived experiencesOtangible/concrete Oforms enquiry questions
From concrete to conceptual…
Other ways that I have used ISM in my lessons:
OY8 - Sorting recyclingOY7 - Cocoa beansOY10 –Living in inner city BirminghamOY8 - Rainforest soundsOY9 - Email from a Polish migrantOY12 – Excerpt from Dan Brown’s
‘Inferno’OY10 - Cut off images
Each cocoa bean represents 1pThe chocolate bar costs 50p
You have 2 minutes to split your beans between the 6 groups to represent how much money you
think they receive from the cost of the bar
Shops
UK G’ment
G’ment were cocoa beans come
from
Cocoa bean farmers
Chocolate company
Non-cocoa ingredients
How much do they really receive?
Other ways that I have used ISM in my lessons:
OY8 - Sorting recycling OY7 - Cocoa beansOY10 –Living in inner city BirminghamOY8 - Rainforest soundsOY9 - Email from a Polish migrantOY12 – Excerpt from Dan Brown’s
‘Inferno’OY10 - Cut off images
What does the other half of the
photograph look like underneath this?
Other ways that I have used ISM in my lessons:
OY8 - Sorting recycling OY7 - Cocoa beansOY10 –Living in inner city BirminghamOY8 - SoundsOY9 - Email from a Polish migrantOY12 – Excerpt from Dan Brown’s
‘Inferno’OY10 - Cut off images
OWhat can you hear?OWhat would it feel like to be
standing in this place?OWhat might you be doing?
TipsODon’t give too much away – don’t tell
them about the photo/objects/topic
OPlan questions
ODoesn’t have to be spectacular – use images/quotes from textbooks in an ‘ISM way’
TipsODon’t give too much away – don’t tell
them about the photo/objects/topic
OPlan questions
ODoesn’t have to be spectacular – use images/quotes from textbooks in an ‘ISM way’
ReferencesO Department for Education (2013) Geography:
Programmes of study for Key Stages 1-3. Available from: https://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/na tionalcurriculum2014/b00220600/consultation-national-curriculumpos/draft-pos-subjects
O Phillips (2001) ‘Making history curious: Using Initial Stimulus Material (ISM) to promote enquiry, thinking and literacy’, Teaching History, 105, pp.19-24.
O Roberts (2013) ‘ Geography Through Enquiry: Approaches to teaching and learning in the secondary school’ Sheffield, The Geographical Association.