Have good suggestions for class starters (high school)?

Question

I have tried a variety of starters in class, and I have not been happy with any of them.

In English, I have tried various forms of journals (quote responses, tailored to the day's work, current events response), grammar exercises (workbooks, corrections, you name it), and a hybrid where students (supposedly) revised the same paragraph over the course of the week.

In Spanish I, I have had students make charts breaking down meaning & form of cognates, translate simple pop songs, conjugate sets of regular verbs, and answer questions about weather maps.

I want something to get them in thinking mode and settle them the heck down. They always seem to think starter time is chatting time and then wonder why they don't don't have the starters done when it's time to turn in.

I'm thinking trivia or brain teasers, but what would be a good source for these that would keep them BUSY FOR 5-10 MINUTES while I take attendance and maybe check work, that would CALM THEM DOWN?

Answer 1

I used to have starters (I teach high school history), like quickwrites, discussion Qs, etc., but found the same thing--they just blow it off by talking and screwing around. You have to make it so that whatever you do is worth a significant number of points for them.

For all my classes I usually start off with my powerpoint notes. They are required to have binders and I give them points for keeping up with notes (50 pts. every 5 weeks). They know that if they don't take notes, they don't get points (and I won't wait for them to finish).

For my Gov't class I start the class off with a political cartoon analysis. Again, their cartoon analysis is required for their political cartoon portfolio (which is a 10-week project worth 100 pts.). They know that if they don't do the analysis right-then-and-there they will miss out on the class discussion and will be lost, thus screwing up points for their portfolio.

Unfortuately, you have to do something that strikes fear in their hearts by making it worth points that can affect their grades. Once you let them know you mean business and are not going to put up with b.s., your reputation will preceed you.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

I use daily assignments to get my students settled and focused. A daily assignment is usually a worksheet with 3-5 problems on it. Since I teach math, I usualy pull a few examples from previously covered material that will be needed in the lesson that day, so my students have a refresher right before the lesson.

Each assignment is timed and graded. I have a timer that counts down and is clearly visible to all my students so they can keep track of how much time they have remaining. Regardless of what they are doing, I start the timer the second the bell rings. I collect each assignment at the end of ten minutes and they are counted as a quiz grade, which tends to carry some weight with the majority of my students.

Further, I don't pass out the daily assignments; they're on a table by the door. I make it the students' responsibility to get the assignment and finish it in the time allotted. Since I've started doing these daily, the majority of my students are showing up earlier and working before the bell rings.

I usually use questions from ExamGen. But I do remember another teacher, who used questions from the game Mind Trap, and they seemed to work quite well. As far as I know she just had them written on the board, but I find it more helpful if each student has a worksheet provided for them.

Answer 4

How about a quick 10 or 20 point quiz most days....that's what I do....it makes a lot of them walk in and start studying right away and if you assign reading, some will actually read it knowing there is a quiz.
I usually give many quizzes per marking period, then I only count the top 5 (or 10, depending on how many we had). They know this, so the more quizzes they have, the better their grade. Therefore, I have some begging me to give just one more quiz. Works great!

Answer 5

Hi - I produce a resource called Thinking Out Of The Box which may provide the answer to your question- This is the blurb:-Thinking Out Of The Box is a great resource that provides daily exercise for the brain, promoting thinking skills through a multiple intelligence approach.
‘Thinking Out of the Box’ is a collection of 200 colour coded cards designed to actively promote thinking skills in ways that are stimulating, challenging and fun. The ‘one a day’ activities are open ended and promote a variety of skills designed to strengthen the range of multiple intelligence learning styles.
Easy to use, practical activities activate the brain for the day ahead.
To create balance and flexibility in developing thinking skills the activity cards present challenges in:-Linguistic Intelligence, Logical/Mathematical Intelligence, Visual/Spatial Intelligence Musical Intelligence, Intrapersonal Intelligence and Interpersonal Intelligence. There are also activities to develop organisational, analytical, comparative, evaluative and creative thinking.
More details on www.thinkingoutofabox.co.uk

Answer 6

If you go the education section at Barnes and Nobles they have a Spark Notes collection of just that, simple starters for the beginning of class. Off the wall questions work too, for example for English I'd ask If you could have any superpower what would it be and why?

Answer 7

Well, you could always try the "extra work for those who are not quiet" approach.

What about creativity--- write a new song in Spanish.... write a poem of 6 to 10 lines during roll call.....

Have a student-assistant each day, and they can assist with roll call or other beginning class duties.

Answer 8

Do a journal on questions about them. Ask them questions such as "If you had one day to live what would you do, who would you see?" "If you had one million dollars what would you do with it?" "If you could meet one person in history dead or alive, who would it be and why? What would you say to this historical figure?" Anything that gets them to think and right about themselves. Also, you could let the students pick a journal topic occasionally. I hoped that I helped, this is something my senior english teacher did, and it worked so well, we had so much fun with her questions.

Answer 9

ok shhhh! but im just going into highskool myself and i just wanna say-> BE NICE, but not too nice so that the jerks in the class dont take advantage of you.
And somthing that would keep them busy... I dunno. make somthing up that(if you have more than 1 class in the grade) you can get them to compete with the other classes. like... a drill or somthing. right now, in french, my teacher is teaching us DRMRSVANDERTRAMP which is an acronym for the words that, in past tense(passe composer), are conjagated with the word etre(vs. avoir). We have to write down the words on a peice of paper and when everyones done, she sees how many got 80% riht or more. She wont stop this until EVERYONE in the class has 80 or more right. its lots of fun... aslo we are competeing with the other classes to see who can get it first. I know i just blabbed on and on there... but i know u can probably think of somthing lol
:)

Answer 10

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