Revision templates

This is a sample of the teaching notes to accompany the Speed dating revision template.

Speed dating - revision ideas

This flexible peer teaching template can be adapted in a range of ways. It works well if students sit in a line facing each other so they can move one place to the left or right to work with another partner.

Give each student a topic – their ‘secret identity’ – and a couple of minutes to make notes. In pairs, students sit facing each other, and try to find out each other’s topic, asking only yes/no questions for one minute each, before writing down what they think their partner’s topic is on their speed dating card. They then move to work with another partner and repeat. The ‘winner’ is the student to correctly identify the most topics or secret identities.

• Ask the expert – ask half your class to identify a topic they know confidently and could ‘teach’ others. The ‘experts’ put their specialism on a sticky note or on a piece of paper in front of them. The remaining students then self-select an ‘expert’ partner based on the topics they need to revise most. 

• For recall revision, students work in pairs on a topic. Each student has three minutes to write down everything they know about the topic (spider diagram, bullet-pointed list, venn diagram etc.). Then they review each other’s notes. Students could use a scoring system (3 for the most comprehensive notes, 2 if both are equally detailed and 1 for underdeveloped notes). Repeat this activity frequently with students moving to work with a different partner on a different topic. At the end, students with a 3 score could teach those who scored 1 on the same topic, or you could encourage students to use their class notes or text books to enhance their lower scoring recall notes. Adapt the template to keep track of topics and scores.

• Give it an exam focus by using past paper questions as your topics – a novel way to work through a past paper.

Ask students to do the activity standing up, rather than sitting down. This will help to keep timings on track, as standing up can be both more energising, and more tiring (!), and students will be keen to move on to their next ‘date’.