July 7th Weekly Finds

1. Move Around

Back in the June 9th edition of Weekly Finds, I mentioned that my summer goal is to read the first EduProtocol Field Guide book and I’m a little more than halfway finished. The authors are BIG proponents of using tech, but also moving around the room and having students collaborate as much as possible.

So when I saw the below tweet from Marcus Luther, I wanted to learn more and there’s a bunch of info about how to get students up and moving around the room during lessons. I definitely encourage you to check it out!

Students should be getting out of their seats every lesson. ALL grade levels, every single lesson.

Teachers: what is your go-to learning strategy to get students up and moving mid-lesson?

(Feel free to include the grade level and any resources/examples, if you're willing!)

— Marcus Luther (@MarcusLuther6) July 5, 2023

My favorites so far are:

Whole-Class Peer Annotating

For me, a new one this year that was super-successful was having students leave their close-read annotations on their desk (via #TQE often!) and silently going around the room to "annotate the annotations" on peer desks—and then debriefing in small groups after! pic.twitter.com/eqAH44nJPk

— Marcus Luther (@MarcusLuther6) July 5, 2023

Would You Rather with students moving to different sides of the room

Quick Intro with "Would you Rather", 2 choices on opposite sides of the room. Level up by having them jump into a quick huddle and give 1-2 reasons to explain their choices. #PurposefulMovement

— Rosalyn W., PhD 🚗➡#ISTELive23 (@Rosalyn_Teach) July 5, 2023

and Taboo – classroom edition!

My favorite one is Taboo. Have them get up and find a partner. I put a list of words on the board related to the lesson or previous lesson. One of the students faces the board and gives clues about the words, the other faces away from the board and guesses. 👍🏻

— Chris Saucedo-Gomez 👨🏻‍🔬🧪 (@saucedoscience) July 5, 2023

2. Building Assessments

We’ve all felt that shift after the pandemic and know that things are just not the same in the classroom. So why should our assessments stay the same? The below tweet challenges teachers to design assessments and grade based on evidence of learning, not the vehicle used to deliver the evidence.

As you're thinking about classroom assessments next year, remember that we grade against criteria for standards, outcomes, learning goals, i.e., evidence of learning, NOT the vehicle used to deliver that evidence. So, unless we're teaching the assessment format itself, whether or…

— Rick Wormeli (@rickwormeli2) July 5, 2023

3. Pre-test Highlight

I love this quick pre-test strategy to help students understand all the material and words. What a game-changer! And even though you may not be able to do this on state testing or bigger exams, this can become a testing strategy students can do for themselves and teach them (or remind!) how to use context clues to figure out what the questions may be asking.

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A post shared by Teacher2Teacher (@tchr2tchr)

4. Conversation Speed Dating

Yet another example of getting students up and moving during class! A great way to change up a worksheet!

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A post shared by Teaching History Creatively (@teaching_history_creatively)

What’s your favorite Weekly Find this week? Do you have a Find to share and think it should be featured? Leave a comment below!

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