Teacher's Toolbox - Page Three
When planning daily lessons, we all sometimes draw a blank when trying to think of an original way to teach a concept. Consider this page your toolbox. When you need that little burst of inspiration, dig through your toolbox. You might find something handy.
Reviewing Material
(Return to Introducing Material - Return to Analyzing Material )
- Students often remember better if given ways to help remember new material. You can write silly songs for difficult material using common tunes, or ask the students to do the same, and have a contest for best song. If your field happens to be math or science, there is already quite a wealth of these online. This link can get you started. Students can also compete to develop the best mnemonic for remembering the first letters of a sequence (think My Dear Aunt Sally...).
- For vocabulary-heavy units, students always enjoy Bingo. On an overhead or whiteboard, post a list of at least thirty vocabulary words, and have students put them anywhere in a 5 x 5 grid. They will not use all of them. Distribute little squares of paper to mark the boards. Number clues to the vocabulary words (do this ahead of time), and draw numbers from a bowl to determine what clues to read. Have students call out the appropriate term if they know it - no hand raising necessary. Repeat the correct term once you hear it. Do not repeat it again after that. If no one names the correct term, give the answer and move on. When someone calls Bingo, use the numbers set aside to verify that everything has been called. After students understand the procedure, assign one of them to be the clue reader. After a short period of time, they will all be racing to call out the correct answer first.
- Students always seem to enjoy playing Jeopardy as a review unit also. You can play by listing topic categories on the overhead, and assigning point values to questions that you make up in advance, or you can download PowerPoint versions from our school shared drive. Divide students in teams and have them rotate sending a representative up to answer questions. Make sure the rotation goes in order. Have students be the first to pick up a shaker and shake to get first opportunity to answer. If both students up front miss the question, a name is randomly drawn from the seated members of the team of the person who answered first. Seat members can use their notes, people up front cannot. This way, seated team members are kept involved and reviewing. If this seated person misses the question, it goes to a randomly drawn member of the opposing team. Play continues in this fashion until all questions have been asked.
- Another group review game is to provide copies of multiple choice questions - often from old tests that are no longer used, or tests that were given prior to the final. Students are placed in groups of no more than four, and a question is assigned. Team members confer and agree on an answer. You can have them write the letter and you wander by and either leave behind a chip for a correct answer, or no chip for an incorrect answer. Only one chance is given per question. After all teams have answered, the correct choice is reviewed. Teams compete for high scores. An alternate method would be to use a spinner to randomly call on one member of the team to present the answer.
- Another popular review game is to put students on teams and have a relay race. Both teams line up and are given a series of stacked cards. The student at the front of the line grabs a card, runs to the dry erase board, and writes the answer. The teacher okays the answer, and the student erases their work and runs back to the line and passes off the dry erase marker to the next student in line. They repeat the procedure. The two lines race to be first through their stack of cards. When both teams finish, all questions are reviewed as a group.
- If you would like to make a review worksheet into something more active, you can put the questions on individual index cards and number the back. Put them face down, one per desk. Make cards for any empty desks as well. Have the students number their papers to the highest number question you have. Students wander around the room, and sit at each desk to answer each question. Be sure that there is only one student per desk. This is nice because if you have students who are slower workers, you can opt to have them complete a smaller number of questions without anyone noticing. Simply set a time limit, and collect the papers at the end of the time. Grade based on their ability to complete the work.
- A variation on this is to make some index cards with answers and some with questions. Place the answers all around the room, and give each student a question card. They must wander around and find the correct answer, and bring both to you. If they are correct, place the answer card back in circulation, and give them a new question card. If you have three or four spare questions, you can start recycling the returned questions as they are brought back.
- Crossword puzzles and word search puzzles are a poular review tool. Glencoe's Puzzle Maker software is nice because you can make word searches using clues only. You can download the software here. Although the site is specifically for science, it is very easy to edit the vocabulary database to insert whatever you would like. Discovery School also has a large collection of online puzzle makers.