Chalk · Pedagogy bank
The pedagogy bank
Every task Chalk can put in a lesson, shown as the slide it makes, with what pupils do, how strong the evidence is and where it comes from. Pick one and Chalk writes it for your lesson.
65 tasks35 sources4 shapes of idea
What pupils do
When
Subject
65 of 65 tasks
- RememberRetrieval gridAnswer questions from last lesson, last week and last term, from memory.Rosenshine, 2012Strong evidence
- RememberMatch upMatch each word, with its picture, to its meaning.Adesope, Trevisan and Sundararajan, 2017Strong evidence
- Make sense of itThink and linkExplain how the ideas connect, each shown with its picture.Dunlosky et al., 2013Good evidence
- RememberWhat's the story?Retell a sequence from memory, a picture and a line for each step.Adesope, Trevisan and Sundararajan, 2017Strong evidence
- CheckExample or not?Decide whether each case is an example of the idea, and say why.Engelmann and Carnine, 1982Good evidence
- CheckSpot the misconceptionDecide which statements are right and which are common mistakes.Wiliam, 2011Good evidence
- CheckMultiple choiceAnswer a few questions, each with wrong options that catch common mistakes.Adesope, Trevisan and Sundararajan, 2017Strong evidence
- RememberKey vocabularyMeet the lesson’s key words, each with what it means and a picture.Beck, McKeown and Kucan, 2013Good evidence
- WriteWord targetSummarise the topic using its words, scoring most for the most important.Fiorella and Mayer, 2016Promising
- CheckOdd one outChoose which of four is the odd one out, and make the case.Rockett and Percival, 2002Expert practice
- Make sense of itHexagonsLink key terms on a honeycomb and explain each link.Dunlosky et al., 2013Expert practice
- CheckThree headsDecide which of three people is right, and what the others got wrong.Naylor and Keogh, 2000Promising
- Make sense of itDiamond 9Rank nine statements from most to least important.Rockett and Percival, 2002Expert practice
- Make sense of it· ChunkFrayer modelPin down a key word: its definition, features, examples and non-examples.Frayer, Frederick and Klausmeier, 1969Expert practice
- Teach an ideaConcrete examplesSee an abstract idea in three everyday examples, then say what they share.Rawson, Thomas and Jacoby, 2015Good evidence
- ReadBreak the wordSplit a long word into its parts, then work out what it means.Bowers, Kirby and Deacon, 2010Good evidence
- SupportVisual sentenceRead a sentence in Colourful Semantics colours, a picture over each part, then build your own.Bryan, 1997Promising
- RememberVocabulary storyRead a short story that uses the lesson's words, each with its picture, then retell it.Beck, McKeown and Kucan, 2013Good evidence
- Organise ideas· SequenceStoryboardTell a sequence in order from numbered panels, a picture over each caption.Clark and Paivio, 1991Promising
- WriteText mapLearn a short text by heart from a map of pictures, then write your own.Corbett and Strong, 2011Expert practice
- Organise ideas· SequenceTimelinePut events in the order they happened.Caviglioli and Goodwin, 2021Good evidence
- Organise ideas· CompareVenn diagramSort what belongs to each thing, and what they share.Caviglioli and Goodwin, 2021Good evidence
- Organise ideas· SequenceFlow mapPut the steps of a process in order, after the first one.Caviglioli and Goodwin, 2021Good evidence
- Organise ideas· ChunkMind mapAdd what you know to each branch of a big idea.Nesbit and Adesope, 2006Good evidence
- Talk it throughTalk stemsDiscuss a question using sentence stems for each way of talking.Michaels and O'Connor, 2012Promising
- Make sense of itDraw itDraw and label an idea from what you have learnt.Fiorella and Mayer, 2016Good evidence
- Teach an ideaPredict firstVote on a puzzle the lesson will answer, before it is taught.Richland, Kornell and Kao, 2009Good evidence
- RememberTrue, false or it dependsDecide whether each statement is true, false or depends, and on what.Rosenshine, 2012Good evidence
- Teach an ideaThis is, this isn'tWatch examples and non-examples one at a time, then say yes or no to new ones.Engelmann and Carnine, 1982Good evidence
- Teach an ideaWorked example, then yoursWatch a problem solved step by step, then solve a matching one.Sweller and Cooper, 1985Strong evidence
- Make sense of itFaded examplesTake over a method one step at a time, across three problems.Renkl, 2014Good evidence
- Make sense of itMinimally different questionsSay what changed from the last question and what will happen, then check.Barton, 2020Promising
- Make sense of itImagine itPicture a process or scene in your mind, one step at a time.Fiorella and Mayer, 2016Promising
- Make sense of itExplain it to yourselfExplain to yourself why a step or fact is true.Fiorella and Mayer, 2016Good evidence
- Make sense of itTeach itTeach a partner the idea, then answer their question.Fiorella and Mayer, 2016Promising
- Make sense of itAct it outAct out each step of a process as you say it.Fiorella and Mayer, 2016Promising
- Talk it throughTalk rolesDiscuss in a group, each pupil taking a role with its stem.Voice 21Expert practice
- Talk it throughOpinion lineStand where you are on a line from disagree to agree, and give a reason.EEF ToolkitPromising
- Talk it throughThink, pair, shareThink alone, agree with a partner, then share with the class.EEF ToolkitPromising
- ReadKnow before you readRead the few facts a text takes for granted, before reading it.Recht and Leslie, 1988Strong evidence
- ReadRead it aloud, stop and askFollow a book read aloud at pace, answering at a few planned stops.Westbrook et al., 2019Promising
- ReadRead it like thisHear a passage read well, echo it, then read it again until it sounds like speech.EEF, 2021Strong evidence
- ReadReading rolesPredict, clarify, question and summarise, a role each, in a small group.Palincsar and Brown, 1984Mixed evidence
- ReadRead between the linesJoin a clue in the text to what you know, to say what the writer leaves unsaid.Elleman, 2017Good evidence
- ReadHow is it built?Find the signal words and name how the text is built.Hebert et al., 2016Strong evidence
- ReadRead it like a historianQuestion a source as a historian or a scientist would.EEF, 2019Promising
- RememberQuizAnswer three or four quick questions on what was just taught.Adesope, Trevisan and Sundararajan, 2017Strong evidence
- CheckHinge questionChoose one of four answers; each wrong one shows a known misconception.Wiliam, 2011Good evidence
- CheckFind the mistakeFind the wrong step in someone’s answer, fix it and explain.Booth et al., 2013Good evidence
- WriteBecause, but, soFinish one statement three ways: because, but and so.Hochman and Wexler, 2017Expert practice
- WriteExpand itGrow a two-word sentence by answering who, what, when and why.Hochman and Wexler, 2017Expert practice
- WriteAdd who they wereAdd who or what someone was, between two commas.Hochman and Wexler, 2017Expert practice
- Organise ideas· ChunkTree diagramSort examples into the kinds they belong to, under one big idea.Caviglioli and Goodwin, 2021Good evidence
- Organise ideas· ChunkPart-whole braceBreak a whole into its parts, and the parts into theirs.Caviglioli and Goodwin, 2021Good evidence
- Organise ideas· CompareDouble spraySee what two things share in the middle, and what is theirs alone at the sides.Caviglioli and Goodwin, 2021Good evidence
- Organise ideas· CompareComparison gridCompare several things against the same questions, row by row.Caviglioli and Goodwin, 2021Good evidence
- Organise ideas· SequenceCycleFollow a process that comes back to where it started.Caviglioli and Goodwin, 2021Good evidence
- Organise ideas· Cause and effectCauses and effectsTrace the causes into one event, and the effects out of it.Caviglioli and Goodwin, 2021Good evidence
- Organise ideas· Cause and effectFishboneSort the causes of one outcome into kinds, along the bones.Caviglioli and Goodwin, 2021Good evidence
- CheckBack to your predictionVote again on the puzzle the lesson opened with, now with a reason.Richland, Kornell and Kao, 2009Promising
- CheckOne question, how sure?Answer one question on the lesson’s idea, then say how sure you are.Butterfield and Metcalfe, 2001Promising
- CheckFix this answerPut right a pupil’s answer that holds a common mistake.Booth et al., 2013Good evidence
- CheckApply itUse the lesson’s idea on a case it did not show.Rosenshine, 2012Good evidence
- Make sense of itSum it upSum up the lesson in a set number of words, using the key words.Fiorella and Mayer, 2016Good evidence
- SupportTask boardFollow a task in small steps, each with a picture and a box to tick.EEF, 2020Good evidence
The Great Plague
Charles II crowned
The Gunpowder Plot
How strong is the evidence? Strong: several trials or meta-analyses agree. Good: a trial, or a strong body of related research. Promising: small studies. Mixed: trials that disagree. Expert practice: a well-used approach with little trial evidence of its own.