SlideShare - Market Mapping

As with my previous effort, I've continued to be inspired by You Suck at PowerPoint and had another go at creating a presentation that follows the principles outlined in that document.

Covering Chapter 3 of the Edexcel GCSE Business Studies Unit 1 textbook, the presentation I've put together and the accompanying resources to follow are designed to enable me to teach using the flipped classroom model. An example of how this can be used in your teaching is described here.

USA Teaching Model and Hop Around Cards v2

A great starter or plenary activity which, like my previous post, cover Understanding Customer Needs - Chapter 2 of the course textbook.

I've been continuing my look at implementing the Flipped Classroom model in Business Studies. Listening to his podcast, I was introduced by @tecknoteacher to the acronym USA, a teaching and learning model that follows the sequence Understand, Summarise and Answer. Let's assume that for homework we asked students to read (Understand) and make notes on (Summarise) Unit 1 Chapter 2 of the course textbook. Here is a great kinaesthetic-type (Answer) activity  for the following lesson. It gets students out of their seats - in fact they should be hopping up from their seats! Hop Around Cards is an idea I spotted on the Teach-ICT website. Download the pdf from here. Instructions on how to use the Hop Around Cards are contained within.

Missing Vowels Game v2

This great starter or plenary activity covers Understanding Customer Needs from Chapter 2 of the GCSE Business Studies textbook.

The missing vowels game was inspired by @VictoriaCoren and @OnlyConnectQuiz. As with my other activities, this one started as an attempt to promote literacy in Business through a targeted DART (Directed Activity Related to Text) activity. It does just that by removing the vowels from the 10 key words displayed, leaving students to fill the gaps. Easily adapted to any subject or topic.

Word Wall v2

As with my previous attempt, this Word Wall game that I use was inspired by @VictoriaCoren @OnlyConnectQuiz. The activity is also an attempt to promote literacy in Business Studies through a targeted DART (Directed Activity Related to Text) activity. This version covers Understanding Customer Needs - Chapter 2 of the Edexcel GCSE Business Studies textbook (authors Anderton and Gunn).

There are a variety of ways of tackling the Word Wall with a class:
1. Delete everything except slide 2, then let the class sort the wall individually using PowerPoint
2. Print multiple copies of slides 2 and 3. Cut up slide 2 so that all the words are separated. The class can then sort the wall individually or in pairs.
3. Print slides 4-19 and tape them under random seats. Draw a 4x4 grid on the whiteboard. Let the 16 students with the words work as a team to sort the wall at the front of the class.
4. Finally, this version gets everyone in the class involved. Start by drawing two 4x4 grids in the room - use whiteboards, pinboards, flip charts, the floor etc. Print 2 copies of slides 4 -19 and share them among the class. Students can then work as a team to sort the 2 word walls.The Connections Word Wall is great as a starter or plenary. It is easily adapted to any subject.

SlideShare - Understanding Customer Needs

As with my previous effort, I've continued to be inspired by Jessedee's You Suck at PowerPoint and had another go at creating a presentation that follows the principles outlined in the presentation.

Covering Chapter 2 of the Edexcel GCSE Business Studies Unit 1 textbook, the presentation I've put together and the accompanying resources are designed to enable me to teach using the flipped classroom model. An example of how this can be used in your teaching is described here.

September, Year 10, Day 1, Flipped Lesson 1

Here’s an approach that you might want to use with your Year 10 Business classes starting in September. It’s an approach that is built around the flipped classroom model, and which aims to fulfill a number of objectives:

• Keep whole-class teacher talk time to a minimum
• Maximise the opportunities for teacher/student one-to-one time
• Emphasise the importance of homework
• Provide opportunities for assessment
• Prepare students for the Unit 1 AND Unit 3 exams
• Provide fun, engaging and practical lessons

All resources required are available here. This is how you could use them:

Lesson 1
Start things off with the “Introduction to Businesses” topic by showing this fast-paced video:

Next, run through the “What is a Business” SlideShare presentation. Contained within the presentation are a number of worksheets and a "Create a Mobile Business" activity. Students begin this activity with a view to continuing it next lesson. The teacher moves around the room offering one-to-one support.

As a plenary activity, run through the Missing Vowels Quiz.

Homework is to make notes on Chapter 1 of the course textbook. The idea here is to maximise the benefits of the flipped learning approach.

Lesson 2
Use the Word Wall activity as a starter.

Next, have the students complete the Assessment/Writing Frame worksheet. Here, as early as possible, we are beginning the process of not only testing students’ knowledge prior to the Unit 1 exam, but also teaching students how to answer Unit 3 questions.

The remainder of the lesson is spent continuing work on the Mobile Business ideas. Again, the teacher moves around the room offering one-to-one support.

Homework is to finish the Mobile Business ideas ready for a show-and-tell next lesson

Lesson 3

Use the Hop Around Cards as a starter

Create a wall display of all the Mobile Business ideas. Everyone can gather round and briefly describe their business.

Move on to the next topic  

60SecondMindmeld Project

This will only be a short post just to provide a link to a video I've been working on. It's the first of a series - part of a project called 60SecondMindmeld. The videos are accompanied by a comprehensive set of resources - more details of which will be posted in a day or two. In the meantime, take a look at the video and let me know what you think.

Linear Assessment = Linear Skills Teaching

How do we adjust our teaching to take account of linear assessment?

The introduction of linear assessment for GCSE subjects has moved the examination goal posts to a significant extent. In the teaching of Edexcel GCSE Business Studies, many teachers have delivered Unit 1 of the syllabus to Year 10 who have sat a multiple choice paper at the end of the year. Now, instead of this "assess-and-forget" unit at the end of Year 10, students will need to retain what they have learnt through to the end of Year 11, which is the new point at which they will sit the Unit 1 examination. In addition, students will need to be prepared for the Unit 3 examination which they will sit at the same time. Many teachers have traditionally taught this unit in Year 11. I would suggest, however, that the Unit 3 examination papers are far too "technical" for the teaching of the skills required to be crammed in to what is effectively two terms.

The solution is simply to teach the skills required for Unit 3 from the start of Year 10. In other words, skills teaching has to be linear in order to prepare students for linear assessment. This means that students need to be taught how to deal with the kind of Discuss, Explain and Assess questions that will come up in the Unit 3 paper from the very start of the course. The best way I have found for doing this is to provide students with writing frames.

Here is a pdf file which contains an example writing frame for answering a Describe question linked to chapter 1 of the Anderton and Gunn Unit 1 textbook. Students first plan their response and then write their final answer. In this way it is hoped that they will have 2 years to learn how to structure an answer properly, leading to an improved performance in the examination, particularly in those 8 and 10 mark Assess questions. 

Create a Mobile Business - Flipped Learning

I was reading through @MrAColley's excellent site and through that I became interested in Jessedee's You Suck at PowerPoint. I use PowerPoint a lot in my Business Studies teaching and was inspired to have a go at creating a presentation that followed the principles outlined in Jessedee's presentation. Take a look and let me know what you think.

The presentation and the resources compiled below are designed to enable me to teach using the flipped classroom model. Students will use the course textbook and other resources to write-up notes on Chapter 1.  In the lesson, they will firstly take part in activities such as the Connections Word Wall and the Missing Vowels Game. This will be followed by the main part of the lesson - a "Create a Mobile Business" activity described on the last slide of the PowerPoint.

Here are the collected links to the resources created for My first couple of lesson with my Year 10 Business Studies classes in September 2013:

Resources for Chapter 1 - Businesses
Missing Vowels Game
Connections Word Wall
Hop Around Cards
Business Basketball

Business Basketball

Here's an idea I spotted on the Tutor2U website. Business Basketball is a great way to engage students in revision and get some relief from a stream of past papers.

We start with a set of questions - here they are based on Unit 3 of the Edexcel GCSE Business Studies syllabus. They can, of course, be adapted for any subject, any syllabus. I have written 23 easy questions and 23 hard questions numbered according to the chapters in the course textbook. The easy questions are simple definitions whilst the hard questions require more explanation.

How to Play
Divide the class into 2 teams. Put a “basket” at the front of the class – it could be a rubbish bin, cardboard box etc. You can use just about anything to mark a “shoot from” line on the floor about 3 metres away from the basket. The ball could also be created from just about anything – I’ve used things such as a roll of sellotape, paper scrunched into a ball and, oh yes, a ball.

Cut out the numbered easy and hard question labels and place these into a “hat”. I used a Tesco shopping bag. The students take it in turn to pick a label from the hat. They must answer the question they pick. Easy questions are worth 1 point whilst the harder questions are worth 2 points. Regardless of whether they get the question right or wrong, all students have a chance to shoot for an extra point.

The team with the most points at the end of the activity wins.

Flipped Learning - Hop Around Cards

I've been continuing my look at implementing the Flipped Classroom model in Business Studies. Whilst listening to the @tecknoteacher Computing podcast, I was introduced to the acronym USA, a teaching and learning model that follows the sequence Understand, Summarise and Answer. Let's assume that for homework we asked students to read (Understand) and make notes on (Summarise) Unit 1 Chapter 1 of the course textbook. Here is a great kinesthetic-type activity (Answer) for the following lesson. It gets students out of their seats - in fact they should be hopping up from their seats! Hop Around Cards is an idea I spotted on the teach-ict website. Click on the image to download the pdf. Instructions on how to use the Hop cards are contained within.

If you decide to use these cards, please take the time to let me know how it goes.

Connections Word Wall

Just like the Missing Vowels game, this Connections Word Wall game was inspired by @VictoriaCoren and @OnlyConnectQuiz. The activity also started as an attempt to promote literacy in Business Studies through a targeted DART (Directed Activity Related to Text) activity.

This activity is designed for Unit 1 Chapter 1 of the course textbook.

There are a variety of ways of tackling the Connections Word Wall with a class:
1. Delete everything except slide 2, then let the class sort the wall individually using PowerPoint
2. Print multiple copies of slides 2 and 3. Cut up slide 2 so that all the words are separated. The class can then sort the wall individually or in pairs.
3.Print slides 4-19 and tape them under random seats. Draw a 4x4 grid on the whiteboard. Let the 16 students with the words work as a team to sort the wall at the front of the class.
4.My favourite gets everyone in the class involved. Start by drawing two 4x4 grids in the room - use whiteboards, pinboards, flip charts, the floor etc. Print 2 copies of slides 4 -19 and share them amongst the class. Students can then work as a team to sort the 2 word walls.


The Connections Word Wall is great as a starter or plenary. It is easily adapted to any subject. Take a look at the activity and let me know what you think

Writing Frames in Business Studies

How to get the best out of students in a Business exam situation? As a teacher of Business Studies, that was a question I struggled to answer, particularly when it came to the 8 and 10 mark questions at the end of a GCSE exam. Students would seem to freeze when they were presented with a blank page which they were expected to fill. Then I was introduced to writing frames.

Writing frames are a way of providing structure when answering an exam question. Using information from various sources, I put together a series of writing frames for different kinds of exam question - discuss, explain, justify etc. This then evolved into this 12-page exam style booklet that I give to Year 11 students at the end of each topic:

For those of you who are teaching the Edexcel GCSE Business Studies course, the key booklet above relates to Topic 3.1 of the textbook. Take a look at the booklet and let me know what you think.

Missing Vowels Game

The missing vowels game was inspired by @VictoriaCoren and @OnlyConnectQuiz. The activity started as an attempt to promote literacy in Business Studies through a targeted DART (Directed Activity Related to Text) activity. It does just that by removing the vowels from the 10 key words displayed, leaving students to fill the gaps.

For those of you who are teaching the Edexcel GCSE Business Studies course, the key words used relate to Topic 1.1 of the textbook. Take a look at the activity and let me know what you think.