Apologies for the typos - too may hours staring at the screen!

This should be the correct post.

 I am a PGCE student and will  be observed after Easter. I have prepared a lesson on the themes from Of Mice and Men for an able Year 11 group and I am struggling with a plenary.The lesson objective is to identify the main themes in Of Mice and Men and a series of tasks to find quotes etc. My original plenary idea was to put up an exam style question and ask pupils to create a plan for it but the class teacher doesn't  think they will  have enough time. Has anyone got any ideas for plenaries in this area?

How about turning your idea around.  They write an exam style question linked to one of the themes they have learnt about.  Take feedback from a few students then set the planning bit for homework.

That's an excellent idea about turning the exam question around - think I'll use that myself. Another idea I have used is picture cards of each of the main characters (playing cards sized - I used the actors from the film!) and in small groups or pairs they have to create diagrams showing: least to most powerful, or least to most lonely - or, as a challenge, a diagram to show both etc etc etcThey have to be prepared to justify their choices (a quote to support each placement etc.). Resources colour printed them and laminated so you can use again and again. Of course, this would depend on which themes you wanted to focus on specifically! As an extension, I get larger cards and blue tack to place on the board to and then the class support/argue each placement (if time!).

Some great ideas - many thanks. I am struggling at the moment and tried and tested ideas are worth so much.

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to reply.

You could select a number of quotations which students need to place in the relevant theme e.g. 'Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world' (or something like that, I've not got the text on me!) in the 'loneliness' theme or 'coulda been in the movies' in 'dreams'. You could either do this on large cards to be stuck in the relevant place on the board (quicker) or get students to write the quotations down in books.

If your only concern at the moment is the plenary I'd imagine you've got a pretty good lesson planned so good luck!

Dear thesmallfabric,

We have a wide selection of resources that you could use / adapt for a plenary activity linked to your lesson objective.  The interactive whiteboard games might be particularly useful.

www.tes.co.uk/ofmiceandmen

Good luck!

Chantel

TES English

Superb ideas with this.

If you have the time to plan a great lesson on PGCE, I would consider giving them several different plans for the same question, and have them evaluate which they prefer and why. You could also provide a list of ideas in terms of how they could respond for utmost differentiated (i.e. 'it makes it less boring' up to 'I can see how much paragraphs can link coherently'.

Even the weakest students will realise that having a quote attached to a relevant paragraph is better and a bullet point listing of notes.