Objectives:
• To allow learners to contribute to the agenda for large-group teaching sessions;
• To allow teachers to find out ‘where a group of learners is at’ at the start of a large-group session
• To gather details of ‘learning incomes’ for a group – what the learners can already do, what they already know, and what their potential problems may be.
Overview
This is a plenary activity using post-its in a large-group setting, for example in a lecture theatre, at the start of a lecture, or at the start of a series of lectures. Each learner is given a post-it, and asked to respond privately to a given starter-question. Learners are then asked to swap post-its, and a few volunteers are invited to read out what’s on the post-it they now have (in the comfort of relative anonymity). Then learners are asked to stick up all the post-its on one or more flipcharts, to serve as an exhibit for the rest of the lecture, and to be taken away by the teacher/lecturer at the end of the session for further exploration.
Activity
1. Show a slide indicating very broadly what the session is going to be about, or give a very short oral introduction to the session.
2. Issue post-its, one to everyone (rectangular ones are best for this)
3. Picking a main topic from what’s going to be addressed in the session, indicate the starter statement on a slide ‘Xxxx would be much better for me if only I ….’ and ask everyone to jot down, in good handwriting, quick completions of this starter on their post-its.
4. Ask everyone to swap post-its, till they’ve lost track who may have their own.
5. Find a volunteer to read out, loudly, whatever’s on the post-it they now have. Explain that there’s no risk, as if the post-it is ‘silly’ it’s not the fault of the person who now has it.
6. Ask the volunteer to pick any other learner (e.g. by what colour they’re wearing or any other way), and get them to read out what’s on their post-it.
7. Repeat till between 6 and 10 post-its have been read out.
8. Ask for the post-its all to be stuck onto a flipchart (or two) at the front of the room, e.g. ‘folk at the end of rows please bring them and stick them up’.
9. Look briefly at the exhibit, picking out trends, praising a couple of really good ‘if only’s, and reading out any amusing ones.
10. From time to time during the session, address things that were listed on the ‘if only’ post-its.
11. Peel off all the post-its and take them with you at the end of the session, and if you have time sort out what the most frequently occurring ones are, and start of your next session with the class by addressing one or two of these directly. From the whole collection, gain an idea of how much (or little) the group seems to already know about the topic (the ‘learning incomes’ – what they’re bringing to the topic).
Skill Development
This exercise helps teacher and students develop the following skills:
• Teacher: skill at finding out ‘where a group is at’ regarding a new topic, or an (important) subtopic.
• Teacher: a way of starting a lecture where it matters little if a few stragglers are still arriving during the activity.
• Teacher: a resource to re-visit before running a new session on the same topic with another group in future.
• Learners: the feeling that their views, fears, and ideas are being collected and addressed by the teacher.
• Learners: a quick, anonymous, safe way of admitting things they think will be difficult or challenging.
• Learners: the opportunity to think quickly around a new topic, and pick something they would like to get out of it being covered in the session.
Resources
• One or more pads of post-its.
• Something on which post-its can be stuck by learners towards the end of the activity; a flipchart is ideal, but doors, windows, whiteboards and walls can be used as necessary, testing them first to ensure post-its will actually stick to them.
• A few pens or pencils to give away to those learners who haven’t one with them.
References:
Race, P. (2014) ‘Making Learning Happen: 3rd edition’, London: Sage.
https://iad4learnteach.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/making-learning-happen-the-power-of-the-post-it-note/
Race, P. (2015) ‘The Lecturer’s Toolkit; 4th edition’, Abingdon: Routledge.
http://phil-race.co.uk