Over the last few years, recall settler tasks have become the norm in most classrooms.

They are used at the beginning  of the lesson. As soon as the pupils arrive they are given a task to complete, often in silence.

This allows for an orderly start to any lesson. They also focus on retrieval practice.

Maybe they are popular because of the increased focus on ‘knowledge’  and ‘knowledge rich’ over the last decade? Or maybe it’s because of the increased focus on cognitive science and cognitive load theory?

Sometimes whole school policies, or even whole MAT polices demand recall ‘settler’ / ‘do-now’ tasks.

All of these reasons appear to be laudable.  Requiring pupils to recall knowledge and settle down ready for learning both make complete sense. Retrieval is important.

After all, we are told that knowledge is sticky and that knowledge sticks to knowledge.

Dull Settlers

Yet in reality, if we are not careful, this practice of settler task retrieval can make lessons deadly dull.

In my role I am in the privileged position where I get to observe lots of lessons. I don’t think I have observed a lesson in the last 4 years that doesn’t have a settler task?

And, I rarely remember seeing a settler task that actually actually engaged pupils, and made them want to complete the work.  

I often see 3 recall questions on the board. Or some multiple choice questions. 

I also often see lots of bored children being forced to attempt to answer the questions. And it makes me wonder: ‘does every lesson start in this way?’ And, ‘does every subject do the same thing at the start of each lesson?’

If the answer to both of these questions is ‘yes’, then I feel really sorry for the pupils.

How boring. 5 hours a day, each starting in exactly the same manner.

 Learning should be a wonder. Lessons should be engaging. Pupils should be inspired to want to know more.

Instead, I fear, that we are encouraging them to think that learning in school is deadly boring.

Adding variety to your settler tasks

One of the reasons why I have always loved teaching, is that it allows the teacher to be creative within a rigorous framework.

If history lessons are planned creatively and rigorously, then pupils will be engaged with their learning AND will learn.

So let’s get creative, even with our settler tasks!  Vary the approach each lesson so your pupils, and you don’t become too bored.

Here are 7 different ideas that you could try out to spice up the starts of your lessons. 

1. The ‘Odd One Out’ Settler Task

This is a classic. It is so simple yet so effective.

All you do is provide your pupils with three or four events / statements / facts. These facts should come from their prior learning.

And they simply have to decide what the odd one out is AND then justify their choice drawing on their prior knowledge. 

For example, if you have previously studied World War One, you might ask: which is the odd one out:

A. Germany in 1914 B. Britain in 1914 C. Russia in 1914

Encourage your pupils to think that there is no right answer AND encourage them to be able explain their choice based on their knowledge. This is good retrieval practice.

So, they might say that Germany is the odd one out as Russia and Britain were members of the triple Entente and Germany wasn’t. Or, they could argue its Russia because Germany and Britain had developed advanced warships and Russia had not.

As a settler task,  give them 3-5 rows of odd one’s out and get them to write their justification.  After 3 or 4 minutes, feedback and hear their answers. Encourage competition too.

2. The ‘Spot the Lie’ Settler Task

I don’t know about you but I love those quiz shows on TV and radio that encourage lie spotting. ‘Would I lie to you’, is great. I also love ‘The Unbelievable Truth’ on Radio 4. 

It’s a good idea to adapt this for your classes. 

Provide them with a paragraph of writing, or a bunch of individual statements.

Make sure some of the statements are lies and some are true.

Can they identify the lies AND, crucially tell you what they should say.  Again encourage competition: ‘Who can find all 6 / 8 / 10 lies in this paragraph?’

3. The Wall of Misconception Settler

This is similar to spot the lie. But, rather than having a paragraph, create say 6 statements, on coloured A3 paper (if you have it). Make sure the statements relate to prior learning. And ensure that each statement is incorrect.

 Stick the statements on a wall where all can see them.  Arrange them as bricks in a wall. Hand out post it notes. Then get pupils to come up with facts and arguments, from their own knowledge, that prove each statement wrong. This acts as a great settler task and enforces retrieval.

Give them 4 or 5 minutes to do this. Once you have taken the register and are ready, ask them to go up and stick their post its on the blocks that they are proving wrong.

Here is an example of how we have used this in our classic Swing Riots lessons

4. Scrabble

This is great idea that I stole from Aaron Wilkes who shared it at a previous Practical Histories Conference.

Its so simple and good to use with older pupils. Project the scrabble board. Explain the rules to them ie each letter of a word they create is worth a certain amount of points. Then get them to come up with words from anything they have learnt in the last two weeks worth say 12, 14 or 16 points. 

Encourage the use of mini-white-boards here. 

5. The Chronological Jumble Settler Task

Pupils do not have a mental map of the past in their heads. And, without your help, they will always struggle to order events. Re-visiting is crucial.

So why not focus on this when setting settlers?

Show them a timeline, of dates…say 5.

And show them jumbled 5 events (that you have studied as part of this unit or previously). Can they write them down in the correct order? Add challenge by having a couple of dates but no event shown. Can they remember what it is?

6. Heads and Tails

Key terms and concepts are difficult.  Your pupils need to know the meanings of these alien words.

 Its therefore important that we share them and teach them to our classes.

After all, without knowing the meaning of important words relating to the topic, they will never make progress.

So, why not  make this the focus of your settler tasks?

Have the concepts that you have covered and / or are going to cover as ‘heads’. Put the heads on the left of your board. Then jumble their definitions on the right of the screen. Get them to match them up. Perhaps have a final ‘head’, with no ‘tail’.

Can they remember and write out the definition?

7. Gap fill / Closed procedure

The final example here is the classic gap fill.

You know the one. A paragraph where you leave gaps where words should be.

The pupils then fill in the gaps with words, often, listed about the bottom of the paragraph. You can easily add challenge here by not giving them any words to choose. They need to come up use recall to come up with the words. An alternative approach, to help them develop literacy skills is to ensure that the gaps are connectives. 

So there you have it. 7 ideas that may help you vary the immediate start to your lessons.

Once you have them settled, its time to really get them interested, with clever initial stimulus material…but that is another story…

We do practice what we preach here at HRC. Our Diverse Key Stage 3 Curriculum offers plenty more variety in the settler tasks. Why not take a look?