Kagan Structure #3

I like to use Find someone who when we come back from a long break form school. It's a great way to get kids talking and find out what they did over their break from school. We always find out something interesting.

Students were each given a notecard with half of a fact family triangle that was missing two of the numbers. Students used stand up, hand up, pair up to match up with a partner and solve for the missing number in their new fact family triangle. We did this several times so students could make multiple fact families. It took a little bit of practice but eventually they got it and had a blast giving each other high fives and getting to work. 

A lot of articles online say to use chart paper and post it notes for a feedback carousel. I decided to use QR codes and Microsoft forms instead. It was much easier for the kids to fill out their feedback on a form. I've done this with post it notes before and kids lose their post it notes and they go every where.

Students traveled to different "Wax Statues" and listened to students talk about who they are pretending to be for the wax museum. Our theme was American Revolutionary Heroes. After listening to speeches, students gave feedback on a microsoft form. 

We used the round robin strategy for our reflection after Bloxels group work. The CEO started and answered the question first, then all went around the circle and answered something different than what the person before them said. I explained the strategy before we started, and I pulled us back together before every question. The kids liked it, and it helped give them talk/reflection time as a group. 

Students in my 7/8 ELA class have been paring up (different partner each day) to read chapters of Buddy Not Buddy. After 10 minutes of reading the partners each get 45 secs (teacher timed) to share what they read. Reading continues, but the time to read (10 minutes) decrease by one minute each time, until all pairs finished the chapters. Most pairs are usually finished after the second read (9 minutes). A few pairs will need the additional 8, but not many.

The first day we did this I was very surprised how on task students were. The second day I thought students would be disappointed with having to switch partners, but they weren't. They were just as focused as the first day. They third day went well too. I think it helped that I didn't start this until they were hooked on the book.