In a ‘Takeaway Task’, students are given the flexibility to design their own project assignment based on one cell, row or column of the table. The task is constructed so that the table in itself provides a useful overview of the topic (in this case, the Origins of the British Empire).

When students are told that they will be producing an individual research / presentation piece based on one row, column or cell of the table, this encourages them to read through the information particularly carefully to determine what they would most be interested in researching.

The ‘Takeaway Homework‘ approach is infinitely flexible and one that has been developed and promoted by @TeacherToolkit, who writes much more about it here. It is also the subject of the book “Unhomework: How to Get the Most Out of Homework Without Really Setting It” by Mark Creasy.

Taking it further

The ‘Factor Auction’ approach could be combined with the ‘Takeaway Homework’ approach, as per this idea by @ryandal.