What is the plenary for?
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Children presenting their work briefly and talking about it.
This applies especially to children who have been working in groups or alone,
relatively independently of the teacher.
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Reviewing the main teaching points and summarising key facts, ideas,
methods and vocabulary.
It is vital that children know what was important about the lesson and what needs
to be remembered.
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Addressing common errors or difficulties which arose.
Often, helping children to identify an error is a good way of reviewing the main
teaching point.
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Discussing where the work is leading and setting homework.
Sometimes homework may consist of informal tasks such as looking out for odd
or even car numbers and noting them.
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I need to plan for the plenary in order to have a focus, pace and a sense of
purpose.
Are there opportunities to:
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reflect on learning, making reference to the learning objective, with pupils using
self-evaluation techniques, ie thumbs up, traffic lights, smiley faces?
address any misconceptions and teach from mistakes?
set a short task that draws on pupil’s knowledge and allows you to assess their
progress including giving them feedback?
use knowledge acquired in the lesson to make judgements about new situations,
summarising key facts, ideas or methods or vocabulary?
play a game linked to the objective?
prepare for the next lesson/next topic?
write in a class glossary or model written explanations?
reflect on a challenge set at the start of the lesson?
answer true/false to a set of statements?
have group plenaries rather than whole class?
mark work as a class/group/pairs?
set homework?
allow children to present work briefly to others and the teacher drawing out
teaching points?
In the plenary, do I …
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expect children to discuss briefly what they have done, and then give them
suitable feedback?
assess the children’s work informally, and sort out any misconceptions or
difficulties – particularly those children who have been working independently?
review the main teaching points and summarise key facts, ideas and vocabulary?
Medway Numeracy Team
106740458
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make links to other work the children have done, in mathematics and in other
subjects?
discuss with the children what is to be learned next?
set and discuss homework?
reflect upon the lesson generally, and evaluate its success?
Are there any of these that I find hard or have not attempted?
I am going to make an effort to include …
Aspects of the plenary Suggestions for improvement
Reflection
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Review the main teaching point using some of the
children’s work
Start with a common error or misunderstanding and
review the main teaching point and key vocabulary
Emphasise what the class has learned and what to
remember
Get children to say what was easy/difficult/enjoyable/
important about today’s lesson, and what they have
learned.
Forward planning
Talk about how the class might:
 extend what they did today
 go back over some of the key ideas and do some
practice
 start a new topic
 do some linked work at home
Children presenting
their work
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Ask some children to write the hardest or the easiest
question they had to do on the board
Before the plenary give some children a poster or a
strip of paper to record some of their work so they can
display it in the plenary
Ask a group to show their work and then to choose a
question to ask the rest of the class
Choose a child or pair of children to explain a strategy
they have been using
Assess and give
feedback
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Discuss their work with a group of children
Help children to mark their own work
Use the work done by a child or children to comment
on a method or way of recording
Links
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Make links to work in other subjects
Make links to previous lessons and the next lesson.
Medway Numeracy Team
106740458
Summary
The plenary should allow time for:
Feedback
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Assessing, often informally, some of the children’s work and what has been
achieved
Sorting out common misconceptions and errors
Marking together some of the written work and rectifying any errors
Commenting on the work of children who have worked independently of the
teacher
Reflection
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Review the main teaching points
Summarising key facts, processes and ideas
Discussing what to remember and how to remember it
Emphasising the mathematical vocabulary used
Forward Planning
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Planning follow-up work or deciding what is to be done next
Setting or adjusting targets for the class, groups or individuals
Outlining any out-of-class work or homework, or further research.
The plenary brings the lesson to a sharp close and allows the teacher to evaluate
its success.
Medway Numeracy Team
106740458