[ola] Re: Bell ringers/warm ups
- From: Ruth Whalen Crockett <rwhalen@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "<ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>" <ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2013 09:23:41 +0000
Andrew,
This is an awesome question. I found that shortly into my OWL transition
(about two months) I had to begin to rethink how I accomplished things like
attendance and general transitions from one class to the next. Now I find that
I do these things a bit further into the lesson. One example is that I begin
each class with a stretching/greeting/Spanish entering the brain activity.
It's the same two minute routine we do everyday where we stretch, I welcome
them to class and I ask them to begin to let their brains leave English and
enter entirely into Spanish. This takes a couple minutes and I have begun to
see this as an important opportunity to greet my students warmly and gauge
their energy and states of being. At this time students are in the circle.
Then I get them in pairs or small groups and I provide a warm-up speaking
prompt. I try to avoid the classic "what did you do last night?" As this type
of question feels like it invites a nada-response. Often I have them recycle
and act of vocabulary from the previous days list. The key is to get them
speaking immediately and let myself do the attendance while they are warming
up. Sometimes I ask them to generate related lists such as fruits, or months,
or activities and then I call roll asking them to share an item of favorite
item their group generated.
I hope you find this helpful,
Ruth
Ruth E. Whalen Crockett
Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School &
Theodore R. Sizer Regional Teachers Center
On Sep 6, 2013, at 8:09 AM, "Andrew Van Wagenen"
<andrewvanwagenen@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:andrewvanwagenen@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Hey everyone,
Its been encouraging to hear of everyone's success these past few days. I'm
three weeks in and I feel like I've exhausted all my ideas. Rats!
I'm trying to maximize my instruction time and want kids to get working by
themselves right when the bell rings. In a traditional class I would have them
sit at their desks and do a short writing answering questions i've written on
the board. Doing OWL in my class we always start off with no chairs and we do
writing activities towards the end of a class when we get all the chairs out to
sit.
Does anyone have any good ideas for bell ringers that don't involve writing? Or
maybe I need to rethink the order of operation in my class. Any ideas or
thoughts would be greatly appreciated?
Cheers,
Drew
--
Andrew Van Wagenen
Department of World Languages
Corner Canyon High School
Draper, Utah
andrewvanwagenen.blogspot.com<http://andrewvanwagenen.blogspot.com>
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