Another New Activity to Engage Learners!
Knockout turns your simple lists into lively, evidence-rich discussion...
What is Knockout?
Knockout is a free, simple, engaging activity for structured classroom debate.
Two cards flip to reveal items from your list (ideas, sources, characters, causes, strategies, events, places, animals - whatever you like!) and students discuss which one to keep.
You confirm the choice and the losing card drops away. The surviving card exits and two fresh cards slide in. The activity counts down until only one card remains.
The final card moves to the centre so you can capture reasoning, extend the task or celebrate the winner.
There is also an optional ‘Summary’ view that provides an instant overview of the decision that was made at each stage for further discussion.
Why it works
Rapid, repeated comparisons keep attention high.
Each choice demands justification (“why this over that?”), not just preferences.
The shrinking pool naturally forces students to revisit criteria, think critically and debate constructively.
Quick ways you might like to try it
History: Most significant cause of the First World War.
English: Most powerful / evil / sympathetic etc character.
Science: Most significant discovery.
Geography: Most impactful global risk in the next decade.
PSHE/Ethics: Most ethical option.
Modern Languages: Most important reason to learn a new language.
When you open a list with this activity you can add a new title, choose a title you have used before (the activity automatically remembers them for you!) or select one from the list of suggestions.
What else is new?
I have also created an activity called Board which presents your list as numbered cards (very flexible, you’ll find so many uses!):
Further improvements and new features for the demo page:
Numerous improvements to try to make Classlisty the simplest website around for teachers looking to create high-quality, engaging, front-of-class activities!
Your Feedback
If you have a chance to try this activity - or any other activity on the Classlisty website - I’d love your feedback (what worked, what didn’t, what you’d like to see added to the site and so on).
You can reply to this post or contact me via the website. I mentioned in my last post that I have added a ‘quick contact’ button for easy, instant feedback!
Thanks as ever for your support - and if you have friends and colleagues who might like to give my new website a try (it’s completely free!) then please forward this email to them or share the site on social media.
David