How to Engage Students With Revision Using the Labyrinth of Revision

Have you ever sat watching a film and thought to yourself 'I wish I could use this to teach a lesson', well the short answer is, with a bit of imagination & innovation you can.  I started planning a few epic lessons around films about a year ago, mainly for my own entertainment at first, and have been amazed how much students have enjoyed them.  It's a well-researched fact that if students are enjoying the lesson they will engage with it, and if students engage with the content of the lesson they will make a greater level of progress. 

One of my favourite films of all time is Labyrinth.  For years I've wanted the opportunity to have a go at building a labyrinth and use it in a lesson.  During the revision period last year, I finally got the chance.  We all have been there, doing revision before the exams and dying a little bit more inside with every exam question we go through.  So the challenge is 'how can we get students working through these questions without concisely knowing that they are working through exam questions'.  The solution I came up with was to, as a class, get them working their way around a labyrinth, having to answer questions and work through tasks on their way to the middle.  Every time they passed over a coloured square they have to answer a question on one aspect, when they reached a character out of the film, they had to go and compete a task and (for my own amusement) I sent out goblins from the castle in the middle that if students ran into them they had to answer a 6 mark exam question.  Some of the key things to think about when panning a lesson like this are:

• Start planning early.  A lesson based around your favourite movie is a lot of fun to teach but they need to be well planned to ensure that you squeeze in the content that you need to cover.
• Ditch the power point.  Whilst power point is a useful tool which is useful to fall back on, students have become desensitised to them because they probably see one in most lessons.  I'd suggest just having one or two slides to set the scene but then try something different.
• Get students up out of their seats.  I hate sitting down in a lesson, to the point where I've used a computer remote for years so I can wander around the room as I teach.  In that case there's a good chance that students also get bored with sitting down in lessons, so get them up moving around. 
• Build in lots of different activities.  By building in lots of small activities it ensures that the pace of your lesson is fast as students will be encouraged to move from one activity to another especially if you set it up as a bit of a competition.  It also ticks your box for differentiation as a well panned series of tasks should enable all students to find something they can work through.
• Have something massive that you use to teach with in the middle of the room.  By having something that students see as soon as they walk into the room it sets the tone for the lesson and helps enthuse them from the word go.  
• Keep an eye on the time.  I say this from experience, there is a good chance that you will get as carried away as your students.  Make sure you know how long you have left and periodically stop students to check their progress.
• HAVE FUN!  Students will be as enthused as you are especially when they see that you are having fun with the lesson.

Here are a few pictures showing what I did

Thanks for reading

Chalky