Plenaries – what are the ingredients of a truly excellent plenary?

There are, of course, plenty of great plenary ideas out there.  In one of our last method sessions before main placement, the history PGCE trainees spent some time collating a list of what a truly excellent plenary achieves.  This is what we came up with. 

Focused – a great plenary brings the learning focus back to the lesson objectives

Assesses – a great plenary allows the teacher to assess progress against learning objectives

Connected – a great plenary joins up the lesson learning with other learning

Enthuses – a great plenary keeps the enthusiasm going by being fun and interactive

Diagnoses – a great plenary enables the teacher to diagnose the next learning needs

Memorable – a great plenary sticks in the mind and can be connected to at a later date

Adaptable – a great plenary is timely and adaptable to the needs of the learners

Thought-provoking – a great plenary is not the end of the thinking and learning on a topic

Self-assessment – a great plenary allows the learner to reflect on what they have learnt and need to work on

·         So far our mnemonic is FACED MATS!  Can you play around with the ideas here and come up with something better?

·         It would be great to have some comments about plenaries which have really taken off.  Don’t be shy – tell us what’s worked!