Scoot in Action

Recently, I posted this picture and my excitement about trying out the game of "Scoot" in my classroom. I'm a week late with blogging about this activity in my class, but better late than never!

Generally with the game or learning structure of "Scoot," you place a different problem/task card on each desk. Students have a set amount of time at that desk, and then they move on to the next desk/task card and begin work on the new problem. Students use a recording sheet to record their work, and then the problems are reviewed at the end of the exercise.

I love the idea, except for the fact that I don't want students to have to wait to the end to know if their work is correct. This prompted me to make color coded answer keys to go with my task cards. 

I put the desks in groups of four. Student rotated around the desk four times to complete the problems. I was surprised at how many grumbles I got about getting up and moving from one desk to another, but when they heard the music at transition time, the grumbles decreased. After the group finished, they checked their work on the corresponding answer key.

After they checked their work, they moved to a new group of four task cards. I allowed students to change groups if they wanted at this point, which meant they could work with a new group of students if they chose to. They just had to got to a new set of cards so that they were working on a new set of task cards.

Sorry for the blurry picture.

Since the solutions were completed worked out on the answer key, students were able to see where they went wrong on problems. This also gave them the opportunity to have discussions about the problems, since they all worked them individually. Students had great discussion around the answer keys. 

I printed the problems on 2" x 4" Avery address labels and then affixed them to colored index cards. It made the assembly of color coded cards really easy. Here's a link to the files used to make this Rational Number Operations Scoot that we used in my 8th grade math class.

I am so enjoying trying new things in class lately. On next week's list is the Origami Frog Olympics to review 2D geometry and probability. Here's a little peek at what's to come...

Hot Seat Jeopardy

I'm not a huge fan of playing PowerPoint Jeopardy games in my class. I think this is mostly because of lack of management of the game on my part, and in turn, lack of participation by my students. Recently the planned lesson by a member of my team was another Jeopardy Review. This was the best Jeopardy Review we've done in my class because of the structure that was added.

Students were placed into teams of 3-4 students and sat in a line (one behind the other). The person at the front of the row was designated as being in the hot seat! Each student had a recording sheet which matched the Jeopardy categories and point values to show their work for each problem.

As we selected a problem, all students worked the problem on their recording sheet and as they finished could pass their paper up to the team member in the hot seat to offer their solution and help. As the team member in the hot seat decided on a solution (only with the work of his teammates, but without talking), he then passed their papers back. I then took answers for the team only from the hot seat.
After we finished the problem, students rotated up a seat, putting a new team member in the hot seat! The front student went to the back of the team line.

I really enjoyed this structure and so did the kids. All students were working. Accountability came from me taking up individual recording sheets and using their work to help their team! I think I will continue to do any Jeopardy lesson this way and not dread them so much now!