Secondary Psychology - Quizzes!

Quick quizzes are brilliant at any part of the lesson and a quick convenient way of measuring progress. The new OFSTED framework emphasises progress over time and within lessons. The quiz format provides an excellent strategy for demonstrating ‘rapid progress’ which can be an awkward thing to demonstrate visibly (i.e. so an inspector can see it in an observation) within an hour of teaching.

Examples

These measure progress at speed. Just how fast is entirely up to you.

1) On the spot quiz

They can also be compiled as quickly as you can think, for example you can say… “Quick quiz!… write 1 to 5 down your margin…Number 1… Name a behaviourist psychologist…”

2) Give me 5!

A snappy lesson starter where you ask 5 questions about the last lesson's content will pull the students thinking into context.

3) Mid lesson quiz

“ Cover your notes…Name 3/5/7 defence mechanisms ( for example)” will work well half way through your lesson and consolidates learning.

4) To finish
As a plenary, a less precise “Write down 3 key facts you’ve learnt today” works well.

To save time planning your plenary you can try asking students to write one “question for the quizmaster” each on a post it note from the lesson to ask the other students. They have to think about their learning, but the real plus is that it requires no planning. You get a variety of questions to ask, and they know they will know the answer to at least one of the quiz questions! Of course this depends on your class size. You’ll struggle if teaching 20+ and may have to be selective with the questions. I sometimes find there’s repetition anyway so not all questions are read out.

Never mark a quiz… you can ask them to mark each others or their own and give a show of hands for their score at the end. Save yourself time, I’m sure you can fill it!

And so to prizes. There’s the healthy budget option, the unhealthy budget option or the sweet stuff…

• Healthy budgets can be spent on psychology related goods… just search for ‘psychology stuff’ on the internet and you’ll find brain sweets, Freud lollipops, badges etc.
• Unhealthy budgets can be tricky but in our department there is an assortment of cheap prizes… car boot sale/ charity shop goods ( e.g. a copy of Free Willy for a debates quiz), budget half price crackers (though these may now have disappeared from the shops), Happy Meal toys and even a 2 day extension for the homework have all proved popular in the past.
• You can always resort to the sweet brown goodies. After all who doesn’t like chocolate?!

Eleanor Hills

Subject Leader Psychology and Sociology

Roundhay School