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Another Quick, Low-Prep Way To Practice Vocabulary!

4/23/2022

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I like to play games in class, and I LOVE teaching content area vocabulary, so here's another quick, easy, low (or no!) prep way to review vocabulary terms with any slush time you may find yourself with!
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SET UP
  • Have a word wall.  I use my vocabulary word wall tiles (click the link to check them out!) for all the topics I cover.  Throughout the year, I post them and leave them up so that by the end of the school year we have around eighty or so - we're currently up to 58 words.  It doesn't have to be my tiles though - any words will do.
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STEPS
  • Assign a student to keep track of the number of words used.
  • Select a "starter word".  It doesn't matter which work you pick, but it should be one that everyone knows.
  • Ask for a volunteer to pick another work on the wall that is connected to the starter word, and explain their connection (EX: I pick ziggurat to start, and a student might say, "Colosseum is connected to ziggurat because they are both large buildings.")
  • If it's a logical connection, say, "Great!  Who can connect a word to that one?
  • Repeat the process until your allotted time is up.
  • At the end, see how many words you used.  The next time you do this, the goal is to make more connections.
TAKEAWAYS
  • Students make great connections.
  • Competitions = high levels of participation.
  • You get to see what connections your students are making.
  • This gives you another Marzano aligned tool for your teaching tool box!
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Add Some Inquiry To Your Learning Targets

4/2/2022

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For years I have approached learning targets with my students in the same way.  We look at the target and the attached Marzano scale and I help them decide where their starting point is, then we start learning.  It works fine, but I thought I could do a bit more with it.  Then I tried adding a touch of inquiry...
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SET UP
The set up is very simple.  All you need to do is project your learning target (or have it written on the board).
STEPS
  • Once everyone is in class, direct your students to read the learning target.
  • Re-phrase the target as a question (EX: "I can identify what caused the Fall of Rome" becomes "What do you guys think caused the Fall of Rome?").
  • Clarify any definitions (EX: "What does the Fall of Rome mean?").
  • Give your groups of students 30-40 seconds to discuss the question and come up with possible hypotheses.
  • Once the allotted time has elapsed, ask for volunteers to share some of their hypotheses.  
  • Ask some probing or clarifying questions to understand what they might be thinking or to clear up any misconceptions.
  • Record their hypotheses on the board and leave it until the end of class.
Commence your lesson as normal.
  • At the end of your lesson, revisit their hypotheses and determine which if any were correct, incorrect or partially correct and briefly discuss why.

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This is an example of what my students came up with the other day when we were discussing the Fall of Rome.  They did a great job!
TAKE AWAYS
I've been doing this for about a week now, and I love it.  I think my students do too - they like seeing when their hypotheses wind up being correct and do a little, "Yes!" and point it out to their neighbors, and I think that's really the point - students getting interested and invested in their learning.

So, if you try this in your classroom (or do something similar), please let me know about it in the comments.  And if you are looking for lessons with pre-made learning targets and Marzano aligned scales, check out my Interactive Notetaking or Complete Unit resources in my TpT store - each of them comes with several Marzano aligned scales along with the actual resources.
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    MEET TIM

    I'm an 18 year veteran teacher that loves teaching, coaching, writing, and my family. ​


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