The Revelation of Taster Cards

13 February 2023

At Ashley College, we provide short-term interim provisions for students who have not managed to stay in mainstream education. Finding compelling and challenging resources for our pupils is a priority in supporting their complex needs, and we have discovered the joy and the stretch with the Teaching for Creativity Taster Card Series.

While not in mainstream, the intention for all pupils is to return to general classroom teaching, more confident in their own learning and with self-belief in the value of their work. For us, the Teaching for Creativity principles of collaborative, inquisitive, persistence, discipline and imagination have been a hook both in GCSE English and Maths, and not only paved the way for 6-weeks of newfound learning and pupil motivation but fuelled our own practice as subject leads. In fact, it’s fair to say there was a bit of a revelation!

Designed as icebreakers, starter activities or standalone activities, we decided to trial the cards in both subjects in exactly that vein – back pocket classroom fillers - but across both subjects, the cards have acted as prompts into deep learner enquiry and project-based learning, that has in turn, directly impacted GCSE assessments where we have seen significant improvement in our pupil work.

In GCSE Maths with a lower ability class, the key priority is always to excite pupils and fire their curiosity in a subject that many of them see as binary and very far from a creative enterprise. Playful and hands-on activities that underpin GCSE principles are tough to find and our pupils have had the best 6 weeks diving into massive maths conundrums, researching, debating, and finding intrigue – all of it motivating them as learners and building their confidence in the subject.

What began in our planning as something that would start or end a class as a standalone 15-minute task, has taken flight into full research projects and presentations in assembly.

Our catalyst was the Support Your Claim activity and students could pick from a variety of maths topics up for debate – concepts, opinions or philosophical.

‘What can’t we divide by zero?’

‘What is a number?’

‘Is 0 a number?’

‘Do students need to learn times tables?’

‘What will replace the calculator?’

Open to any level, these are wide open for great discussion, but for us, they were an entry point for the creative habits to be fully played out. Pupils collaborated in their enquiry, they stuck with the challenge of their questions, they argued about, researched and crafted responses, they critiqued each other’s work, and they presented their findings to each other and in PowerPoint displays. We have been so struck by their motivation and how this has affected their concentration and motivation in the core requirements.

For pupils in GCSE English, the taster cards have opened up a raft of entry points into core assessed requirements, tapped into a motivation that wasn’t visible before, and have impacted teaching and learning at Ashley College for the long term. Taster card activities are now a habit in themselves, with pupils often requesting them as a vital mental breather to live out the excitement of creative exploration. Again, accessible for any age pupil, the starter activities that have worked for the GCSE focus on language and structure, viewpoint, and non-fiction texts. Where the English syllabus for many can feel so overwhelming, these starters have paved the way for fuller explorations ‘by stealth’ – writing a Two-Sentence Horror Story, taking on a Repetitive Doodle, or a Step Inside 20-minute activity has shown that so much can come from so little.

One activity, Music is My Muse, prompted a collaborative poem in 15 minutes, that was then taken on individually in crafting, improving, and editing to the point of project work and display. One pupil reflected on their poem Wolf Years that's now on school display,

‘It’s the first time I’ve ever written anything I’ve ever been proud of.’

A well-used entry-point that professional writers and poets use is the 3-minute Freewrite which has been a particular favourite in our classes, and we have developed this to a regular twice a week 15-minute task. Pupils now each have their own special Freewrite book which they decorate to make distinct and separate from their GCSE work – these are not ever marked for grammar or accuracy, but rather seen as artwork in their own right.

Next for us is cascading the Taster Cards approach through the school with the mantra ‘out of so little can come so much’!

Our Ashley College Tips:

• Be explicit about using the terms; teaching for creativity and naming the habits as you go – these are life skills that each of our pupils can own and feel pride in.
• Keep trying Taster Cards until you find the right hook for your pupils – it’s so personal with what triggers each pupil or class.
• Don’t feel trapped by the syllabus and panic about wasting core subject time – taking a pause has reaped so much reward in pupil productivity and for us as teachers.