Plan, monitor, evaluate
1 of 3
You start the problem
Strong learners watch themselves work: they plan before they start, check as they go and look back at the end. Learners copy it if they hear it. This is a Functional Skills maths problem at the board, and the line you say before you write anything.
The handout
On the board: Functional Skills maths
A room is 4.2 m by 3.5 m. Carpet is £18 a square metre. How much will it cost?
- You say: First, what is it asking for? A cost. So I need the area before anything else.
Your jobAt each point in the problem, pick the line that lets learners hear how you are deciding.
Functional Skills maths · you start the problem · turn 1 of 3
The handout
The board, at the start
A room is 4.2 m by 3.5 m. Carpet is £18 a square metre. How much will it cost?
on the boardA room is 4.2 m by 3.5 m. Carpet is £18 a square metre. How much will it cost?
What do you say?
Pick one.
Three things to say at the board, one at each point of a task.
Why this works in your room
Learners who plan and check their own work need you less.
For your learners: They pick up the questions you ask out loud and start asking them of themselves, mid-task, before a mistake is finished.
For you: You hear fewer calls of “is this right?”, and more learners who can tell you why it is.
Plan: before you write
Say: First, what is it asking for? A cost. So I need the area first.
For them: What is this asking me to do?
Monitor: make a slip
Say: Hang on. Does that look right?
For them: Is this going as I expected?
Evaluate: at the end
Say: If I did this again, what would I check first?
For them: What will I check first next time?
Watch out for
Fixing the slip without a word.
A recap of what you did, instead of what to check next time.
Next time
Put one plan, one monitor and one evaluate question on the board for a task.
Ask a learner which one helped.
Elsewhere in Bradford ThreadWorks
Big 4Copilot: writing detailed prompts that say who it is for and exactly what you want.Open Big 4 (opens in a new tab)
WalkThrusExplaining and modelling so it sticks: live modelling, with your thinking said out loud.Open WalkThrus (opens in a new tab)
Prompts to paste into Copilot
Copilot can write these prompts for a task in your own subject. Change what is in brackets.
Prompts for one task
My [level] learners are about to do this task in [subject]: [task]. Write three questions for them to ask themselves before they start, three while they work, and three when they finish. Keep each under 12 words.
A think-aloud script
I am going to model [task or method] for [level] learners. Write what I should say out loud as I do it, including one deliberate mistake that I notice and correct. Keep it under 200 words.
The evidence
The Education Endowment Foundation rates teaching learners to plan, monitor and evaluate their own work at seven months or more of extra progress, for very little cost. It is among the strongest results in its toolkit.
EEF, Metacognition and Self-regulated Learning (opens in a new tab)Teach it in the subject
The EEF guidance says to teach it through real tasks in the subject: this weld, this essay, this calculation. Separate “thinking skills” lessons do less, because the habit does not carry across.
EEF, Metacognition and Self-regulated Learning (opens in a new tab)How sure is this?
Strongly for the idea, mostly from school-age studies. FE evidence is thinner. The deliberate slip is common advice, and this page names no study that tests it on its own.
No source claimed