Covering your back, in about ninety seconds

The note you leave behind

A game in a classroom looks like a game to anyone who walks past. It is a real lesson with real outcomes, and the difference between those two things is entirely in what you write down and what you say when asked. Both are here.

If a head teacher or deputy walks in

One sentence, said in a normal voice while the round keeps running. Do not stop the lesson to explain it.

"Structured group work on [topic]. They choose their own level of challenge and commit to it before they see the question."

Every part of that is true and every part of it is language they already use. Self-selected challenge, group work, immediate feedback, and every card carries a syllabus outcome code you can point at on the page. If they ask for more, hand them the card. It has the outcome printed at the bottom.

In practice

A room of Year 9 students who are all working, arguing about the answer and watching the board is not something most people walk in on. In most cases the question is going to be what you are running, and where they can get it.

The note for the regular teacher

Two or three lines. Leave it where they left the work for you. This is what gets you asked back.

[Class] [Date] [Period] Set work: [what you did with it, honestly] Also ran: STAKES, [topic], 4 rounds. Outcome [code]. Crews and scores are on the sheet in the folder. Worked well: [name a student who did well, by name] Watch: [one behaviour thing, flat and factual, no adjectives] [Your name]

The rules for that note

Say what happened to the set work first. If the class did not touch it, say so plainly and say what they did instead. A casual who bins the set work and never mentions it gets found out once.
Name one student who did well. It costs you a line and it is the single most useful thing in the note for the regular teacher. It is also the thing most likely to come back to the student.
Keep the behaviour line factual. What happened, who, when. No opinions about the student, nothing about their family, nothing you would not want read out.
Never write anything you have not already reported. If something serious happened, it goes through the school's process on the day, and the note just records that you reported it.

If a student asks whether this counts

"Yes. Same outcomes as the work on the board. I write down who did what."

Then write it down, in front of them. A casual who says it counts and then never records anything gets found out in about a fortnight, and it is the fastest way to lose a class you had.

If a parent asks

Unlikely, and have it ready anyway. The honest answer is short.

"They work in a small group, they pick how hard a question to attempt, and they get told straight away whether they got it. The content is the same syllabus content. It gets students working who would not otherwise start."

The one thing not to do

Do not run the game instead of set work that is being assessed. If the regular teacher has left an assessment task, a test, or work that is going into a report, that comes first and the game is what you run in the time that is left. Getting this wrong once costs you the school, and it is the only way this system can get you into trouble.

Open the round cards Print the pack