A-Level students do not need gimmicks, but they do benefit from competition, challenge and opportunities to think aloud. These 17 activities need virtually no preparation and can be used across a wide range of subjects.
- The Best Possible Answer
Ask a question and take one answer from the class. Then ask, “Can anyone make that better?” Keep improving the response until the class has built the strongest possible answer.
- Just a Minute
Give a student a topic and challenge them to speak accurately about it for one minute. Another student can challenge if they hesitate, repeat themselves or make an error.
- Make the Connection
Put two apparently unrelated ideas on the board. Students have to explain a convincing connection between them. Add a third idea to make the challenge harder.
- The Weakest Link
Give students four or five ideas, arguments, methods or pieces of evidence. Ask them to identify which is the weakest and justify why.
- What’s the Question?
Give the class an answer, conclusion, key term or piece of evidence. Students have to work backwards and suggest the question that might have produced it.
- Spot the Flaw
Give a short explanation or argument containing a subtle mistake. Students have to identify exactly where the reasoning breaks down and then repair it.
- Convince Me
Make a statement and ask one student to convince you that it is true. Keep challenging their argument with questions such as “Why?”, “What is your evidence?” and “Is that always true?”
- Rank and Defend
Give students three to five factors, explanations, methods or ideas. They must rank them and defend their order. There does not have to be one correct answer.
- The Five-Second Question
Ask a quick recall question and give students only five seconds to answer. Follow it immediately with a harder question requiring explanation. It moves rapidly from recall to deeper thinking.
- Explain the Difference
Give students two closely related concepts. Their task is to explain the difference between them as precisely as possible. This is particularly useful for concepts students often confuse.
- It Depends
Give the class a statement that sounds as though it has a simple answer. Students have to explain why the real answer might be “it depends” and identify the factors that matter.
- Challenge the Expert
Choose one student as the expert on a topic. The rest of the class asks them increasingly difficult questions. When the expert gets stuck, the class works together to answer.
- Build the Chain
Give the first student a key idea. They explain it and nominate another connected idea. The next student must explain the connection before adding another. Continue until somebody breaks the chain.
- The One-Sentence Challenge
Ask students to explain a difficult idea in one sentence. Then ask them to improve it without making the sentence longer. It is a simple way of forcing precision.
- Beat the Examiner
Give students a deliberately mediocre answer. Ask them what is stopping it from being excellent. They then improve it one change at a time.
- Which Would You Choose?
Give students two possible methods, arguments, interpretations or approaches. They must choose one and justify why it is better in that particular situation.
- The Question Nobody Wants
Finish with one genuinely difficult question. Let students think individually first, then discuss it in pairs, then build a class answer. Resist giving the solution too quickly.
The best A-Level activities are not really games in the traditional sense. They are short challenges that make students retrieve knowledge, make connections, defend ideas and think more carefully. Once students know the routines, they can be dropped into almost any lesson with no preparation at all.
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