DR. MEGAN J. SCRANTON ON-THE-SPOT TPTS CHAPTER 4 1

PURPOSE Allow teachers to quickly gauge the depth of student understanding of concepts being taught Activities that require little or no advance preparation Can insert several in a lesson the minute you notice cognitive disengagement or disconnect Or can be included strategically in select spots within your lesson 2

THINK-PAIR-SHARE A simple but powerful tool that should be used repeatedly & consistently throughout the day To predict, respond to a prompt, reiterate directions Steps: 1) Provide prompt/question 2) Give a brief amount of time (30 seconds) to formulate a response 3) Pair up or turn to assigned partner 4) Discuss their responses To ensure higher-order thinking: Prompts/questions that require reflection, i.e., analyzing various points of view, answering “why” & “how” questions 3

QUICK-WRITE AKA “Stop & Jot” To reflect about a prompt or question in writing Give about 3 minutes to respond Can give students a word bank to ensure key terms/concepts are used & learned Can be used as a way for students to analyze their own metacognitve thinking processes To ensure higher-order thinking: Ask students to make connections between concepts & their effect on the world around them Use wide-open questions Have students share their Quick-Writes in small groups 4

QUICK-DRAWS Opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding of an abstract term or concept by representing it in a drawing (a visual image) Used with almost any age group, any content area Used to ensure that students are able to understand & deeply analyze concepts Give 3 – 5 minutes to draw & then have students share with partner or in small group To ensure higher-order thinking: Allows for analysis & synthesis of abstract concepts & components 5

CHALKBOARD SPLASH All students share their Quick-Writes or Quick-Draws on chalkboards, white boards, or chart paper Students are then asked to analyze peer responses for 3 things: similarities, differences, & surprises To ensure higher-order thinking: Great for addressing the big picture & the relevance factor with whatever topic you are teaching Answers “So what? Why is this important?” Can be used with sentence starters; to reflect on a concept or strategy 6

THUMBS-UP WHEN READY & PROCESSING CARDS Way to read each individual’s progress as the students process their reflections Holds students accountable for reflection Provide prompt or question Thumbs-Up when ready to share Processing Cards: “Ready to Share” or “Still Thinking”; flip card up when ready To ensure higher-order thinking: Require students to justify their responses & to give the basis for their justification 7

SIMILES Compare two unrelated things Provide opportunities for abstractly portraying the big picture of concepts in a way that sums up their meaning To make a connection between the topic they’re studying & something unrelated Needs to be modeled & scaffolded Example: Thomas Jefferson was like _____ in that ______. To ensure higher-order thinking: Requires students to analyze a topic, formulate a response, & then explain how/why their statement might be true 8

RANKING Requires students to analyze components of the concepts taught, rank the concepts, & then justify the reasons for assigning rankings Can also be used to help students synthesize & analyze what they’ve learned Example: Rank 15 items would take to the moon based on their usefulness To ensure higher-order thinking: Require students to justify their reasoning for their rankings Can rank from most important to least important, most to least influential 9

NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER Allows students to be held accountable for being able to relay information that was learned during a group activity Small groups: Assign each member a number Inform all members that they will need to be able to present the group’s information Have groups perform task Then call a number to present (all members have to be prepared) Higher-order thinking will depend on the chosen activity 10

THUMB UP/DOWN VOTE Frequently a Yes/No or Agree/Disagree vote Could also be a True/False statement Can also add in-between option (thumb sideways) Can link it with a Think-Pair-Share where students justify their rationale for voting the way they did Wait until all students vote To ensure higher-order thinking: Require students to justify their vote Can also be used to get students interested in a topic 11