I think we have a love/hate relationship with bells. They serve as a necessary evil. Alarm clock (a bell) just ugh! The doorbell basically alerts us to hide from solicitors. As a teacher, the bell that was my "necessary evil" was bellwork. I could never quite figure out how to do it effectually. I would do great for a while but I never had a good accountability system with grading or students reminding me that I missed a day. That was true until last year when it all changed. An instructor from AP Institute at TCU told us about "Question of the Day." I loved it and it changed my classroom.
For the very first time I saw how bellwork should function properly. It is the FIRST opportunity to engage your kids in your class. The questions would tie in with whatever we were studying for the day and were risk free. They were random pieces of information from which the students were likely have no idea from general background knowledge. The point was not for them to get the right answer the point was to have them THINK! Since it was risk free I had ESL students, struggling students, SPED students and gifted students all thinking about the answer. That is the point of bellwork. I can easily give them the answer. The students are the only ones that can think for themselves. Consider this when creating your bellwork. Does your work engage students? Does it excite them about your class? Would they notice if you failed to put it up one day? Remember you only get one chance for a first impression. Make it count ;)
If you are interesting in learning more about how I did my "Question of the Day" please let me know and I will be happy to share with you.
Until next week & Happy Halloween!
KJ
No comments:
Post a Comment