"Hooks"

[RandomDent]

Yes it's the twinkl et al Facebook groups... :o

Am I missing something? Why must topics be introduced with a "hook"? Am I doing it wrong?

Depends. How do you introduce a topic?

My lessons usually start with a question / quick activity / something a bit controversial to get the kids engaged. Is that what you mean by a 'hook' or is it something more specific than that?

Ah yes, the all singing, all dancing "I stayed up all night to make this resource that will be used and forgotten in 5 minutes" crew.

No, topics do not need a fancy hook. I tend to think that if a resource takes more time for me to make than it does for them to do, then I need to look carefully at how educational it really is. But then I like having a work/life balance.

Why do they always involve trashing your classroom?

The average child must have had an alien spaceship/dinosaur egg/ crash landing at least twice a year by Y3.

Our school does this for every topic.. . yawn.

Usually they've come up with the topic, and helped me plan activities, so it's not exactly a surprise. .

Yes, it's the expectation that we can't start anything unless we introduce it via a three ring circus that niggles me a bit.

And a "Fab Finnish" at the end?!

I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with straightforward lessons that teach what needs to be taught. Quite often repeated, or very close to repeated. Interesting activities, if possible, yes, but not always.

Saying that, I've never been expected to teach in the 'Hook and Line' manner and I don't teach in mainstream. Exciting 'hooks' are fun for my dyslexic DD, but they she never has a clue how they fit in with what she is learning. They just go in a separate 'We did this fun thing at school' box in her mind. Not sure about Year 1 DS yet. I imagine he'd expect or want the 'hook' to happen everyday and be disappointed by regular lessons.

Is it just a stimulus?

We have to do these first day back after every half term. At Least half a day, ideally full day of exciting and inspiring activities. There are only so many times you can come up with something that hasn't been done in other year groups or in previous years, particularly when the topics tend to stay the same year after year! Gets really tedious after a few times.

Oh yep. the new head seems to have a billion and one dress up days to go with it :( Old head limited it to 3 a year.

And a "Fab Finnish" at the end?!

Is that a bunch of people in traditional Finnish dress doing the can can?

(Sorry, I couldn't resist, and also always spell it finnish and have to correct myself!)

Ahem. Maybe it's good I'm an ex teacher ;)

What colossal load of bollocks.

Just been on line. It's a lesson/unit plan, with a shit new buzz word to oppress teachers.

I am teaching Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" as comedy - Carry on up the Congo. No joke.

Eh. Hooks can be good if they fit. A good way to excite the children and signal to SLT thay you're trying to be creative.

Why do children need to be excited? (If anything, my current class needs calming down!) Our Slt don't insist on this, they are happy with the quality of our teaching without insisting on bells and whistles.

And fishing ones are quite useful.

What exactly is a hook? I'm guessing it's another load of trendy shite thing that I am going to hate,

It amazes me how I have not bought into any of these notions and have still managed to teach perfectly adequately over the last 30 years!

It's a big part of the international primary curriculum so perhaps it is spreading?

Just as I thought then!

Do you put hooks in your teacher's tool kit? Along with the Northern European can-can dancers?

My faves are the ones looking for hooks for particular books, eg.

'Anyone got any ideas to get the kids hooked on Holes?'
'Starting Goodnight Mr Tom next week, and ideas to get them interested?'

I'm so tempted to reply 'read it to them' every time.

Me too. I'm using this thread so I don't get banned over there. :o