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I am

EPIC

Developing my Thinking Skills

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Topic 3:�Planning &�Being Organised

Lesson Objectives

Learn about the importance of planning and being organised to support personal and school-related goals and performance.

Learn some simple strategies to develop these skills

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Activity

Draw my picture

Teacher Instructions & Activity details

Activity details: Pupils will be asked to draw a picture based on simple instructions that you give them. They will not know what the picture is until it is finished.

The activity aims to highlight:

1. how a drawing can be broken down into simple steps and shapes

2. Knowing the end goal can help you to plan your picture better

Script:

[Get the pupils to turn to page 20 in their booklet.]

Today you are going to be following a set of instructions to draw my picture. You won’t know what the picture is until you have finished it. I’m going to read you a list of instructions and you need to follow them as best as you can. Any questions?

Instructions:

You are going to be drawing your first picture in the block on page 20.

In the top third of your block draw a bow tie shape
Draw a V shape, connecting the bottom edges of the bow tie
Under the V draw a medium sized circle.
Below the circle and slightly to the right, draw a larger circle.
Draw a medium circle in the bottom right of the large circle
On the left of & touching the edges of the last circle that you drew, draw an L shape . It should be roughly the height and width of the circle.
Connected to the top right of the large circle, draw a candy cane shape.
In the V shape at the top of your page add a small upside down triangle.

What did you draw?

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My picture

Self-reflection

How does your picture compare to mine?

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Most tasks can be broken up in to a number of simple steps.

It’s helpful to have a clear picture of your end goal.

Script: These are the instructions from the original artist – to draw a Siamese cat.

What I hoped to demonstrate through this this activity, it that:

it can be really challenging to follow a list of instructions when you don’t have a frame of reference. Meaning that you don’t have a clear picture of what you are drawing – so you don’t know how big the circle needs to be or where it needs to be placed on your page.

It’s a bit like going on a journey using simple directions but not knowing where you will end up.

If, however, you knew in advance that were drawing a picture of a cat you may have had a clearer idea of how large each element needed to be relative to others.

This simple activity aims to show the value of having a clear picture of the end goal.

Secondly, what I have hopefully shown you is that most tasks can be broken up into a number of simple steps, which is something that will be useful when we talk about the thinking skill that we will be talking about today – planning

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Planning & being organised

Our ability to think ahead and consider what you need or what should be done.

Thinking about the steps that will be needed to complete the task

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Why is it valuable to plan & being organised?

It can save you time
It allows us to feel in control
It reduces feelings of stress
It helps us to make time for the things that are important to us
We are more likely to achieve our goals and experience success!

Teacher script:

Taking time to plan can actually save you time. Let’s say that you are asked to write a story – if you spent a bit of time planning the outline of your story before you actually start, you begin writing with a clear idea of how the story will go – which is likely to help your writing flow. Similarly, if we spend some time organising ourselves before we start a task, we are less likely to have interruptions once we start. This might mean clearing your desk before starting a task, or making sure that you have all the materials or stationery that you need before beginning a task.

Planning and being organised allows us to feel in control and reduces the feeling of stress. For example, if we spend 5minutes everyday tidying our room, we stay on top of the mess. If we wait until our mess is out of control – it can really get us down when we need to tidy it up! In the same way if we know that we have a homework assignment due in a few weeks time, we can spend a bit of time each week working on it. If we leave all the work until the last minute, let’s say until the day before it is due to be handed in – it can leave us feeling stressed and we might not hand in our best work.

Often we put off doing things because it’s not urgent, but this could mean later we might miss out on something that we really want to do because we didn’t plan ahead. Let’s think back to that homework assignment that we left until the last minute. Let imagine it’s due on a Monday morning and on Saturday evening you get invited to join a friend for a fun day out on Sunday. You may end up missing out on something that you really want to do, or else you go with your friend but don’t enjoy yourself because you are thinking about all the work that you still need to do when you get home.

Finally, we are more likely to achieve our goals and experience success if we spend time setting goals for ourselves and a plan of how to achieve it. If you wanted to take part in a 5km run for a charity event, unless you run regularly you probably need to start training for it a month before the actual event. Perhaps you plan yourself a running schedule. In your first week of training you aim to run 2km, the next week you push yourself further to run 3km, and slowly build up your fitness to prepare for and enjoy the 5km run.

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Strategies �

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Setting goals

Goals…

Challenge us to grow!
Teach us to think about the future/what’s to come
Keep us focussed & motivated!

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Setting goals

The best goals are SMART

Is your goal clear & detailed?	Specific	Master my 11 and 12 times tables over the next 4 weeks.
How will you track progress & know when you have achieved your goal?	Measurable	At the end of each week, I will test myself.
Is your goal realistic & will you be able to achieve it?	Achievable	I can build on my knowledge of the lower times tables
Is this a worthwhile & useful goal?	Relevant	This will help me to become faster with my math exercises.
What is your deadline?	Time-based	Week1: focus on 11x table Week2: focus on 12x table Week3/4: Revision & practice

Note to teacher: Is this too advanced for your learners? Feel free to remove if it is.

Script:

When setting goals, it’s best to keep them SMART

Let’s look at what this means, and illustrate it with the example of multiplication tables.

[Feel free to adapt the example to something which is more relevant]

Specific – means that you have a clear and detailed goal. In this example we have set the goal to master our 11 and 12 times tables over the next 4 weeks.

Measurable – Think about how you will track progress and know whether you have achieved your goal. In our example you can track progress by testing yourself at the end of each week. At the end of the 4 weeks your aim will be to answer all of the questions correctly.

Achievable goals are meant to challenge or stretch you, but they also need to be realistic. If goals are not achievable you will end up feeling discouraged. In our example, the 11 and 12 times table are achievable because you can build on your knowledge of the lower times tables.

Relevant means that your goals is meaningful or worthwhile to you. For instance, if you know your times tables by heart, this will help you with your maths as you can get faster at completing maths exercises.

Time-based – means that you have a deadline. That deadline can also help you to plan how you might approach the goal and know whether you are on track to reach it.

[Note to teacher: a copy of the example is provided on page 23 of the booklet & a blank grid for students to write down their own goal is provided on page 24]

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Step by step planning

Breaking the task into smaller, more manageable chunks

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Step by step planning

Breaking the task into smaller, more manageable chunks

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Mapping it out

Mind-maps can help to visualise and organise your thoughts and ideas

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Mind Mapping: Planning a Story

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Keeping on track�

Daily/Weekly

Visual timetables remind us what is coming up next

Literacy

Numeracy

Science

Monday

Minutes/Hourly

Timers can help us to keep on track during a specific task

Script

Timers can help us to keep on track during a specific task. This is especially helpful when you only have a specific time frame in which to complete a task. For example if you have 1hour to write your story, you could aim to spend 10min planning your story, 10minutes on your four main paragraphs, and then finally, give yourself an extra 10minutes to check your work

(Note to teacher – feel free to adapt these examples and time frames to be relevant to your class)

Even if you haven’t been given a specific deadline, it can be useful to set yourself a deadline to keep yourself focused during a task.

When it comes to daily and weekly planning, visual timetables can serve as a useful reminder of what is coming up next. This can help when organising ourselves – such as making sure you have what you need for each lesson, or knowing which days you need to pack your PE kit.

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Weekly/Monthly

Planners can help us to keep us on track for longer-term goals

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Weekly/Monthly

Planners can help us to keep us on track for longer-term goals

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Ability to think ahead and consider what you need or what should be done.

Thinking about the steps that will be needed to complete the task

Planning

& being organised

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Using a Planner or Journal

Strategies

Planning & �being Organised

Setting goals

Mapping it Out

Step

by Step Planning

Using a Timer

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How can we bring these (or other) planning strategies into our week?

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Optional Activity

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Planning a Craft

Work in groups to create step-by-step instructions on how to make a ______. One group member should write these down!

Before you start, discuss:

What the end goal is (What is it that you’re making?)
What you will need

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Noughts and Crosses

Speak out loud:

What move you are making

Why you are making the move

Practise Stop and Think!

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