This simple smart task uses the rather unusual source of a famous Kipling poem to ascertain what students already know about smuggling and what they need to know.
The lesson starts with you quickly reading the poem aloud to help with motivation and encourage the lower-attaining students to access the written text when working independently. Don’t discuss just read. Then quickly place the students into small groups of 2 or 3. Give them a copy of a poem which has been pasted into the middle of a large piece of sugar paper. Students annotate the parts of the poem which are in bold type. They have 5 minutes to do this. No feedback at this stage. Students simply move to the next table, read what that group had written and add any missing ideas or detail. In this way they learn from each other. When all groups have visited all tables, they look again at their own poster and read the comments others have added. Any outstanding questions are then fielded by you. In this way you know you are not telling them things they already know and they really value your opinion highly when you help them with the
