This document discusses strategies to help students develop deeper thinking skills needed to achieve high grades. It describes activities like using functional English to discuss concepts, playing "odd one out" games to evaluate ideas, and connecting concepts with hexagon tiles. The goal is to encourage evaluation, discussion, and making connections between ideas. Extended writing can be improved by using sentence starters to further develop ideas. These activities aim to cultivate higher-order thinking in students.

1. A to A*
Focus the Mind
(Richard Charlesworth)

3. Raise student awareness of what is required to get the
top grades.
• The following activities were all designed to
develop consciously deeper thinking about a
subject before writing about them with any
authority,
• Using functional English enables students to
share conceptual understanding as a class. As
a learning community they develop the
terminology to understand and explain key
terms in a way that they are all happy with.
This is fundamental to deeper thinking and
can impact upon reading and writing skills
equally
• Odd one out is a way of forcing students to
evaluate and explain their thought process
using contextual knowledge. Using a
taxonomy approach enables students to
engage where they feel capable with the
task. However, the true A* student should be
able to use their own contextual knowledge
to recognise one or more possible odd one
outs. The game can be played just as easily
with dates or key terms. The ultimate goal is
to generate discussions in class which
encourage deeper thinking and the skills of
evaluation.
• Using hexagons or other shaped tiles to make
connections is another way to achieve the
goal of deeper thinking. The more
associations that can be made then the more
likely that an A/A* answer can be produced.
The activity works best if the hexagons are
cut up to allow movement. This way multiple
associations can be established quickly and
in a kinaesthetic way the student can
evaluate the strength or importance of those
connections. This contributes to higher
quality evaluation between factors or key
concepts.
• The final activity I presented once again
concentrated upon the written skills of the
student. By using sentence starters then it is
possible to extend an already good piece of
writing into an outstanding one. The example
demonstrates this very well and there are
suggestions about other options for starter
sentences suitable for a number of subjects.
As with all of the activities I have mentioned
the best way to judge them is to give them a
go with one of your classes. They are all
engaging for the students and the results you
get will pretty soon speak for themselves.

4. Functional
English

6. Thing being
defined
Verb
or
process
Groups to
which the
thing belongs
Information which
gives the thing its
meaning
Law
Order

7. Thing being
defined
Verb
or
process
Groups to
which the
thing belongs
Information which
gives the thing its
meaning
Law is a set of rules enforced by the
government to
dictate what
people can and
cannot do
Order

8. Thing being
defined
Verb
or
process
Groups to
which the
thing belongs
Information which
gives the thing its
meaning
Law is a set of rules needed for society to
function, acknowledged
and enforced by the
government which
everyone must follow or
there will be
consequences
Order

9. Thing being
defined
Verb
or
process
Groups to
which the
thing belongs
Information which
gives the thing its
meaning
Law is a set of rules designed to protect
people in a safe
environment and
enforced by the
government which
everyone must follow
otherwise there will be
consequences
Order is a structure which enables the
government to uphold
the law

10. ODD ONE
OUT

11. Learning outcomes show unconnected
information, no organisation.
Learning outcomes show simple connections but
importance not noted.
Label Match
Define Identify Do simple procedure
Learning outcomes show connections are made,
but significance to overall meaning is missing.
Outline Describe List Combine
Learning outcomes show full connections made,
and synthesis of parts to the overall meaning.
Sequence Classify Compare/contrast
Explain causes / effects Analyse-part/whole
Relate Analogy Apply
Organise Distinguish Formulate questions
Learning outcomes go beyond subject and makes
links to other concepts –generalises
Evaluate Theorise Generalise Predict Prioritise
Create Imagine Hypothesise Reflect Justify

12. 1. George Donner 2. Brigham Young 3. Mattie Oblinger
Relational: Make links
Between two or more.
Uni/Multi-structural: Provide
some facts about one or more
Extended abstract: Explain
which one is the Odd One Out
4. James Marshall
1. Mattie Oblinger 2. Joseph Glidden 3. John Halliday 4. Grenville Dodge

13. CONNECTIONS

14. Lack of wood
New
inventions
Natural
Hazards
Lack of water
New crops
Growing a
surplus
Harsh weather
conditions
Hard work and
adaptability
New farming
methods
Tough land
SOLO Hexagons
Uni/Multistructural – describe one
or more hexagons
Relational – connect two hexagons
and explain the connection between
the two. Try to make a line of
hexagons (maybe in chronological
order).
Extended abstract – connect three
(or more) hexagons in a tessellation
and make a generalisation about
them.
Homesteaders: problems/solutions

15. Improving Explanation
Uni/multistructural – describe one
or more hexagons separately
• The …… allows me to
explain……
• ……….helped homesteaders
because….
• ………was a problem for
homesteaders because……
• ……… meant that ………
• One reason the homesteaders
found it difficult was……….This
was because………
Relational – explain connection
between two or more hexagons
• ………… and ………… are
linked because ……….
• ……which supports that…..
• ……. and …….. are connected
because……
• ……….This meant that…………
Extended abstract –connect 3 hexagons
to make a generalisation about them
………links to………which also connects
to………. This leads me to believe………

16. Crafting beautiful sentences
• Farm animals give off large amounts of
methane. Explain the effects of adding
large amounts of methane to the
atmosphere.
• Would the response be more
sophisticated if we asked pupils to
begin their response with ‘Considering
that …’?

17. Write a sentence describing the picture
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, Pieter Bruegel

18. One sentence
•‘We are all just small
pieces of a greater
world; we shouldn’t
overemphasise our
importance in it.’

19. Now, start the sentence with the phrase, “At
first glance…”
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, Pieter Bruegel

20. At first glance ……
• Before:
• ‘We are all just small pieces of a greater
world; we shouldn’t overemphasise our
importance in it.’
• After:
• ‘It appears that the scene depicts a
peaceful seaside afternoon, but a closer
analysis reveals that Brueghel is actually
commenting upon how one poor decision
can keep a person from enjoying the simple
pleasures of life’

21. Now, start the sentence with the phrase, “At
first glance…”

22. Other starters ……
• Despite my initial hypothesis ……
• In the light of all of the evidence ……
• Throughout the source/ poem/ programme……
• To begin with ……
• In comparison to ……