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Join the CHAMPS! - Crafting great starters for impactful lessons

Empowering students with engaging starters for impactful learning

Published July 2023

Joining the CHAMPS means implementing one of the most effective teaching strategies for planning effective lessons. The CHAMPS acronym stands for “Connection, Hook, Acts, Main, Plenary, Starter”. This method helps to create engaging learning experiences, driving student success and fostering an interactive learning environment.

We have discussed how to Connect and Hook concepts in lessons. We have also looked at the segmentation of lessons into Acts and reviewed strategies for designing the Main part of great lessons. This article is about Starters and how to use them in lesson planning.

Why are starters important?

Starters are designed to capture students’ interest at the beginning of a lesson. They are essentially the launch pad of the lesson. Hence, they should be concise, simple, and stimulating. You don’t want to exhaust yourself or your students in what is essentially a taster segment of your lesson.

Find the combination that makes each lesson great. And remember to keep it simple and stimulating.

A – Active

Get students standing to start the lesson. For example, stand on one leg if you agree that … This works well if students need an opportunity to move, perhaps they have had a prolonged period in a room or sat through most of the day.

B – Baseline

Get them to list whatever they know already about the lesson focus. Get the student(s) with the most to read out their list and become the topic ‘expert’. This is a useful differentiation tool or way to gauge interest.

C – Cheer

Get students into the spirit of cheering or making a mnemonic that can be cheered relevant to the lesson. This is a useful memory skill.

D – Draw

Encourage students to draw an image or series of images linked to the lesson focus.

E – Exaggerate

Ask students to exaggerate the importance of the lesson focus e.g., imagine a world without it. This works well to help students to search for meaning as to why they are learning a topic.

F - Figure it out

Get students to explain the significance of a number to the lesson or complete a calculation linked to the lesson. This could be linked to a date, an age or a statistic.

G – Gift

Pose the question : ‘What gift could you give someone, have given someone or want to give someone linked to this lesson?’ This could also be posed as - what gift have you received linked to this lesson?

H - Hinge point questions

These are often part of a main but use them as a starter to separate the class. Have a few multiple-choice questions ready for students to answer. Students not only pick their answer but must also justify why. Depending on the level of challenge required, there may be more than one correct answer!

I – I spy

Get students to start the lesson by looking around the room for an object/person or theme that connects with the aim of the lesson. For example, in this room, I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘T’ that links to this lesson. This works well to make the lesson focus connect with them.

J- Jokers

Make up/share jokes relevant to the lessons. Used for the appropriate topic, this can be a lot of fun and a light way to enter the main.

K – Kickers

Get students to design a footwear linked to the lesson or write a short piece where they imagine a day in the shoes of a person relevant to the lesson focus.

L – Longest relevant word

Invite students to come up with the longest relevant word they can. Set a time limit within which students can write on the board/joint working doc and write their name by the word they display. They can move on to defining the word or voting for the most impressive.

M – Make it

The aim of this activity is to get students to make a 3D structure of relevance to the lesson focus. Use recycled paper and reward the winning maker.

N – Noddy

Nod if this is the correct spelling of … This is good for a day when you (and the students) need a quiet start to the lesson.

O – Opportunities

The aim of this task is to link learning to wider opportunities out of or after school. Students may come up with a list of related jobs or careers.

P – Puzzle

Have a jigsaw puzzle for students to complete. Time students and make it into a competition. The outcome (or series of outcomes if groups have individual puzzles) should be used as a stimulus for the lesson. Tarsia puzzles are available online and are useful for this style of starter.

Q – Questions

Ask students to make up questions relevant to the focus of the lesson. You could ask them to include the answer if they know it.

R – Role as teacher takes the roll/register

The aim of this activity is to get each student to speak as you take the roll/register.

S – Shortest relevant word

Invite students to come up with the shortest relevant word they can. Set a time limit within which students can write on the board/joint working doc and write their name by the word they display. They can move on to defining the word or voting for the most impressive.

T – True or False

This is an easy one. Use it to review retention or challenge misconceptions.

U- Underline

Ask students to underline keywords from a passage relevant to the lesson. They can then categorise using a key (e.g. I know this, do not know this etc…).

V – Vote

Get students to vote as they settle. Depending on what they are voting for, they can be grouped according to their votes or invited to be a spokesperson for what they voted for. You can use mock ballot papers and make it anonymous to extend this starter.

W – Wish

Get students to make a wish relevant to the lesson.

X – X-ray

Invite students to look below the surface. What surprising or far fetched connection can they make to the lesson focus?

Y – You

Ask students to insert themselves into the lesson. Ask them to state how and why the lesson is relevant to them.

Z – Zoo

Challenge students to make a connection to an animal. Many students have pets and welcome the opportunity to speak about their pets or animal experiences.