FIST-TO-FIVE

Skills: Self-Management

What is it?

This simple classroom management signal encourages pupils to determine how confident they feel that they’ve achieved what was expected by the end of a lesson or session. It might also be used by pupils as a means of expressing how confident they are that they know the response to a question which has just been posed by the teacher. This activity allows an instant assessment of how well a class or group may have grasped an issue or topic.

How does it work?

1. After a session pupils are asked how confident they are that they have met the objectives. Students show a ‘full hand up’ with all fingers and thumb if they are very confident that they have achieved the objectives and what was expected; the less fingers on the hand they show the less confident they are, e.g. just three fingers are shown if they feel that they have had only partial success in meeting the objectives, but some more work might be needed; or they show only a ‘fist’, no fingers, if they consider that they have made little or no progress towards meeting the objective.

2. If the management tool is being used in response to a specific question from the teacher during the course of the lesson, the following statements might apply: Full hand up with all fingers and thumb if they feel very confident that they know the answer; Three fingers if they may know part of the answer or if they are slightly uncertain as to the accuracy of their response; or Just show a fist if they definitely feel that they do not know the response.

3. If the management signal is used at the end of a session, a debrief may explore issues such as how the objective was met, what else pupils feel that they would like to achieve and how they could go about doing this, what might have hindered progress towards the objective and how they can prevent future similar obstacles.