90 Zero-Planning Plenary Questions

Here are ninety questions you can use as plenaries.

All are generic, referring to the lesson or to the learning.

Therefore, they can all be used regardless of what has gone before.

You can use them as they are, adapt them, or use them as inspiration, whether you are teaching in a primary setting or in a secondary setting.

1. What have you learnt today?
2. What is the most important thing you have learnt today?
3. What do you know now that you did not know at the start of the lesson?
4. How has your understanding changed because of the lesson?
5. What three things have you learnt today?
6. What would you choose as the key thing you have learnt today? Why?
7. What do you want to know because of what we have learnt today?
8. What can you do now that you could not do at the start of the lesson?
9. How has today’s lesson changed your knowledge or understanding?
10. What questions do you have, based on today’s lesson?
11. Why do you think we have studied what we have studied this lesson?
12. How might you change today’s lesson for future students? Why?
13. How might you use your learning from today’s lesson in the future?
14. What has been the purpose of today’s lesson?
15. How might you use what you have learnt today?
16. If you were going to teach this lesson to younger students, what would you identify as the key things they would need to know?
17. Based on what we have learnt today, what do you think we should study next? Why?
18. Where might you make use of the learning you have done today?
19. Under what circumstances, or for what reason, might we need to use today’s learning?
20. How might you test one of your peers to see what they have learnt today?
21. How might you explain what you have learnt today to your parents?
22. How might you explain what you have learnt today to an alien?
23. How might you explain what you have learnt today to someone younger than yourself?
24. What connections can you make between today’s learning and what we have studied previously?
25. How does today’s learning connect to what you already know?
26. How might today’s lesson have been different? What might have been the result of this?
27. How might we have learnt the same things, but in a different way?
28. Who might use what we have learnt today in their daily lives?
29. How have you worked today? Why?
30. How might you improve your learning next lesson?
31. What have been the strengths and weaknesses of this lesson?
32. What skills have you used during this lesson?
33. What skills have you improved during the lesson? How have you improved them?
34. What knowledge have you gained this lesson?
35. How might you use the knowledge you have gained in this lesson in the future?
36. How have you interacted with your peers during this lesson?
37. What strengths and weaknesses have you seen in yourself this lesson?
38. What changes might you make next lesson to how you work?
39. How has today’s lesson made you feel?
40. To what extent do you feel you have engaged with the lesson today? Why?
41. To what extent do you feel you have learnt in today’s lesson? Why?
42. How have you learnt this lesson?
43. In what way(s) has your mind been changed by today’s lesson?
44. If you were to go back in time and start today’s lesson again, what would you change and why?
45. How could you have done things differently this lesson? What effect might this have had?
46. How did you feel at the beginning, middle and end of the lesson?
47. How have you used you existing skills and knowledge in today’s lesson?
48. What have you done well this lesson and why?
49. Can you write a poem about what you have learnt today?
50. Can you create a short story based on today’s lesson?
51. Can you write a set of five questions based on today’s lesson and then use them to interview you partner?
52. Can you draw a picture showing what you have learnt today?
53. Can you draw a cartoon strip showing what you have learnt today?
54. Can you draw a cartoon strip showing how you will use today’s learning in the future?
55. Can you write a letter to one of next year’s students explaining what today’s lesson was about?
56. Can you write a speech persuading people that what we have learnt today is important?
57. Can you produce five key points that sum up today’s learning?
58. Can you create a mind-map showing what we have learnt today?
59. How might you combine today’s learning with something else you already know?
60. What existing skills or knowledge could you combine today’s learning with?
61. What criteria would you use to judge whether someone has fully understood the lesson today?
62. How does today’s lesson connect to your existing knowledge?
63. How does today’s lesson connect to our previous areas of study?
64. How might today’s lesson connect to other areas of the curriculum?
65. Swap your work with a partner and assess it: What have they done well? How might they improve?
66. Assess your own work: What have you done well? How might you improve?
67. What strengths have you shown in today’s lesson? What areas for improvement can you find?
68. How would you have taught today’s lesson and why?
69. What difficulties have you encountered today? How have you dealt with them?
70. What difficulties might a student encounter if they were new to today’s topic?
71. Assess your learning using the learning objective: Have you met it? How? If not, what do you still need to do to meet it?
72. What evidence do you have showing what you have learnt today?
73. What key question would you ask to find out whether someone has understood today’s lesson?
74. How might you translate today’s lesson into a graph?
75. How might you explain what we have learnt today using symbols?
76. How might you express what you have learnt today using your body?
77. What do you feel you have gained from today’s lesson?
78. What would you like us to study next and why?
79. Why might adults have decided that it is important for young people to know about what we have studied in today’s lesson?
80. Where might you use today’s learning in the next month?
81. How would you describe your experience of today’s lesson using colours and shapes?
82. How useful is what we have learnt today? Why?
83. What is the most important thing we have learnt over the past few lessons and why?
84. Compare what you know now with what you knew at the start of the lesson. How is it different?
85. What different possibilities can you imagine for next lesson, bearing in mind what we have learnt today?
86. Compare what you have learnt this lesson with what you learnt last lesson. How is it similar? How is it different?
87. Can you write a message to an alien explaining what you have learnt today?
88. Can you use symbols to show what you have learnt today?
89. Can you make a model of one aspect of your learning?
90. Can you sculpt one of the key ideas from today’s lesson?