Case study 5: Minimising verbal instructions, maximising thinking

Identified need: Caroline wanted to develop children’s oracy skills, confidence and science vocabulary. Some children also needed support applying the ‘rules for talk’. She wanted to provide a calm environment where children’s interest was captured and their focus was maintained.  

The Approach: Caroline decided that an Explorify activity would provide a positive start to each science lesson. To minimise verbal instructions, she developed a routine of using short simple instructions such as, “Eyes on me”, “Let's think” etc.  She created visual prompts on her wall and used a pointer to show the children when they should be thinking, listening or talking. These prompts allowed her to reinforce what her expectations were without interjecting. 

Caroline set a digital timer which beeped after 30 seconds to allow ‘thinking time’. She asked adults in the classroom to write down children’s responses onto sticky notes which were kept in the children’s books as a record of their learning.  

Caroline’s reflections:  

Using Explorify activities as starters uplifts our lessons as the children are calmer, more focused and having fun. They respond well to having minimal verbal instructions and the visual posters are a nice calm way to let the children know what they need to be doing. It is a case of less [teacher talk] is more [learning]. Having the thinking time allows everyone to stop before jumping in and the routine of setting the timer helps this.  I tend to scribe a selection of ideas from the children, like this: 

With additional adults using the sticky notes, we have a clear record of each child’s ideas as shown in this example: 

I’ve also noticed that using Explorify as a starter hooks children into their learning and the rest of the lesson is more successful. After the discussion prompted by Have you ever found it difficult to spot an animal because of its colour?, the children were able to apply their understanding of natural selection within the practical activity shown here: 

In another lesson, we used What if all humans looked the same? when learning about inheritance. The children really thought about the importance of variation, as shown in their responses:  

“It would be boring”; “No-one would have their identity”; “Fashion would not be important”; “They could all have the same genetic disease”; “Seeing the same person day after day would drive you mad!”. 

I did not ask the children to identify a Plus, Minus and Interesting consequence of the What if? question because I felt that the children were not ready for extra demands that would have involved and I was trying to keep verbal instruction to a minimum. 

We were able to follow up the What if? activity with How much variation is there in how we look? This was fantastic as pupils started to think about their own family and we discussed how people can touch their tongue, wiggle their ears. We had a really good discussion with all the children offering ideas about the things we inherit. Many children were then able to show their understanding in written work. 

The Explorify activities with open-ended questions, like the What If?,  Have You Ever? and What’s Going On?  activities work well to get the children thinking without worrying about their answers being wrong.