Utilizing Role-Playing in the Classroom

Role-playing has been used intentionally and unintentionally in the classroom. When students take on a specific role, especially if it is career-related, they take accountability of the classroom activity. Incorporating play in the classroom provides students a venue to showcase their creativity and make use of their innovative skills. Utilizing the RAFT and GRASPS techniques, the students are able to take on the role while targeting various standards that are specific to a certain level. This is a fun way to incorporate all the topics that the students have learned in the school year.

Submitted by: Jeremie Gallardo, Aguila Elementary School, Aguila Elementary School District

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Thinking Boards

Thinking boards is a variation of Peter Liljedhal's VNPS (vertical nonpermanent surfaces) practice. Two to three students per board are randomly assigned to vertical whiteboards (aka Thinking Boards) to work. Students are standing, thinking, writing, and solving together.

Submitted by: Lori Rogers, Harris Elementary School, Gilbert Unified School District

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Museums Galore

We use Virtual Field trips to visit museums and take a walk through history and science. But, rather than just the teacher clicking through the app, we send the Virtual link to the students’ Seesaw account or Google Classroom and allow the students to roam the museum. To create a focus, there are some follow-up questions that allow the teacher to lead them to items that support the topic being studied.

Submitted by: Teresa Crosno, Peralta Elementary School, Cartwright Elementary School District

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FinCap Fridays

I use the FinCap Friday mini lessons from Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) in order to engage my students on relevant, real-world topics in the financial sector. Students engage in a variety of financial topics that prepare them for life after high school.

Submitted by: Nicole Smith, Chaparral High School, Scottsdale Unified School District

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Design and Reflect in PE

In one of our PE units during each Jr. High learning year, scholars are asked to create a game play for the unit they are in (Pillo Polo, Football, Hockey). They must create the play, draw and explain what will happen in it. They must assign a position to each member of their team and explain in detail what that teammate will do. After testing their play during a game in class, they will then reflect back on if it was successful or not and explain their answer.

Submitted by: Konnie Bonini, The Odyssey Institute for Advanced and International Studies

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Anticipation Guides

Anticipation Guides are a pre-reading strategy used to activate a student's prior knowledge about a topic and build feelings of anticipation or curiosity about a topic to be studied more indepth.

Submitted by: Stacey Shannon, Rainbow Valley Elementary School, Liberty Elementary School District

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Pair it Down

Pair It Down is a strategy I use with my Middle School students to build self-confidence and leadership skills. Once we have learned a new standard, students are asked to create a 5-10 minute demonstration of their learning to share with a younger student.

Submitted by: Melissa Potts, Estrella Foothills Global Academy, Laveen Elementary School District

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Building Community Engagement through Mus

Holding an evening music concert for every grade level over the course of the year is an exciting and engaging way to grow your community involvement. These events can become student projects where multiple content areas such as: Math, English, Reading, Writing can be incorporated.

Submitted by: Alyssa Weed, Acacia Elementary, Washington Elementary School District

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Visual Note Taking

Using visual note-taking is one way teachers can see what students understood from the lesson. Visual note-taking (or “doodle notes” as I call it) can be structured by the teacher or left open for students to draw what they hear and focus on during the lecture.

Submitted by: April Lesher, Mesquite High School, Gilbert, AZ.

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Using Kahoot for Fun, New Knowledge, and Review

Kahoot is a "game website" where you can use others content or create your own of ANYTHING. I have created vocabulary or content review sessions. There are also options that others have created around holidays, TV shows, literally every content area. Students enjoy it for the competitive piece that makes the learning more fun. The top three students get put on a podium and the more points you score before time is up drives the "game". You can do it as a whole class, or even assign it as an individual task. There are also options for collaborations and lesson embedding options.

Submitted by: Christina Salazar, Legend Springs Elementary School, Deer Valley Unified School District.

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Creator Mindset Lessons

Creator Mindset lessons focus on helping students establish a growth mindset in which they learn to take responsibility for their successes as well as their failures. It is a mindset that involves not blaming others and keeping a positive attitude no matter the circumstances. They view obstacles and problems as challenges they can overcome. The lessons for creating this mindset involve journaling, roleplaying, and analyzing situations to determine how they can act as a creator of their life rather than a victim of circumstances.

Submitted by: Cindee Badalamente, Camelback High School, Phoenix, AZ.

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Inquiry Journaling in Math

Inquiry journaling in math is a great way to start a new standard. Generally, I will show an image along with some guiding questions for students to start thinking about the new content. By allowing for inquiry time, students will pull from their background knowledge and they will have time to explore and come up with their own reasoning prior to being given definitions or formulas for the math.

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Stomp Virtual Concert

I am currently teaching 2 separate classrooms and a group of online students during the same class period--57 students total! I am doing this by creating a curated list of activities based on the topic we are studying. I create a document with a table listing the activity title, a description, a section for notes, and a column for the students to mark it as completed. The first item on the playlist is always a video I have created listing the expectations for the list, including the days the students have to complete the list. The playlist is broken up with daily checkpoints, and I include videos I have created, videos from Youtube, Google Forms surveys/quizzes, guided notes pages, Padlet, and Nearpod activities.

Submitted by: Julie Thibodeaux, Madison Park Middle School, Phoenix, AZ.

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Flipped Learning Playlists

I am currently teaching 2 separate classrooms and a group of online students during the same class period--57 students total! I am doing this by creating a curated list of activities based on the topic we are studying. I create a document with a table listing the activity title, a description, a section for notes, and a column for the students to mark it as completed. The first item on the playlist is always a video I have created listing the expectations for the list, including the days the students have to complete the list. The playlist is broken up with daily checkpoints, and I include videos I have created, videos from Youtube, Google Forms surveys/quizzes, guided notes pages, Padlet, and Nearpod activities.

Submitted by: Tasha Grant, Barcelona Elementary School, Alhambra Elementary School District.

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TEA Lights/Take Apart/Put Back Together/and How To Writing

I was able to pick up a tea light at the stem resource center for every student in my second grade class. I did a "take apart and put back together" lesson with the students. I asked them to look at the tea light and "wonder" .... what is it? What do you wonder about ? What might be inside, etc. For example, they responded with the following: I wonder if I will get electrocuted, I wonder if it will break, I wonder if there are wires, batteries, I wonder how long they last? etc, Next, we took it apart. Then, they had to put it back together. WE DID THIS ALL VIRTUALLY! Our class does one or two stem activities every week online. I incorporated a "How to..." writing lesson. The children had to write how to take it apart with a topic sentence, directions, and conclusion. You can differentiate this by having them write the directions on how to put it back together. My daughter is an engineer for Amazon Robotics so she did a great job explaining and drawing pictures of the "current" etc. Next, we are going to use the shavers I picked up at eh resource center and talk about what they might be? How could we use them in space? or a deserted island? Great writing project! Thank you for the lights. I can hardly wait to do it again next year. One student said, "Mrs. Schmidt, this was the BEST!"

Submitted by: Lori Schmidt, Broadmor Elementary, Tempe Elementary School District.

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Using Pear Deck for Teaching with Engagement Online

Pear Deck gives teachers the ability to create interactive lesson slides that allow for immediate feedback of student understanding as well as higher levels of engagement. Teachers can develop formative assessments using different tools such as short response, multiple choice, drawing, drag and drop, and more. Students are able to follow along with the lessons and answer questions to demonstrate their understanding, all in real time, which allows for engagement from students during class. Since each Pear Deck presentation is created by the teacher, the levels of difficulty and types of questions asked can all be based on the teacher's knowledge of the students within the class. Once the lesson is complete, students are able to access the slides at a later date if they choose in order to help revisit their learning or enhance it should they choose. This also gives the teacher reteaching opportunities for small and whole group should the need arise.

Submitted by: Amanda Porras, Winters' Well Elementary School, Saddle Mountain Unified School District

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