10. Students think we are doing something fun because they get to move around the room. We are, but you'd think we were having a party sometimes.
9. Students seem more willing to ask for help (maybe because the room is in action with everyone moving around and it feels safer than when they are only sitting at their desk).8. ANSWER KEYS: easy checking! Immediate feedback!
7. If I am using them for two days, I can use the first day's results to create a small group for the following day.
6. My task cards usually provide two days worth of practice--easy, engaging, and effective lesson plans! I make more than enough task cards so that no one is able to complete them all in one session.
5. After using task cards in a whole group lesson, they are EASY PEASY to move to a station for more practice or review, use in an intervention group, or to differentiate for students who still need to work on the concept.4. Students seem more willing to persevere!
3. Self-motivated students have the opportunity to push themselves. (They often are less likely to do this when the instructional mode is...textbook pg...wait...discuss...next textbook pg...wait...discuss. Anyone else use Math Expressions and have this problem?)
1. When it's time to go to recess, the kids yell "No. I don't want math to be over!" So rewarding! I would love to skip recess and keep doing math, but they never agree to this trade-off :)
Click here to check out my engaging task cards (each on a theme that you can use all year long). Although task cards are great for centers and stations, I always use them in whole-group instruction first.
Do you make task cards for each student? How does that work? I am starting to plan out to use Task Cards in my math classroom...If you could possible Email me that would be great. (persianog@ringwoodschools.org
ReplyDeleteHi Gina,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your inquiry into how I use task cards. I typically make one or two sets of them depending on how many are in the set and how many students. Lately, I have been creating or purchasing larger sets and breaking into sets for my students. For example, this week, we are using a set of 52 cards. I have Set 1 as 1-28 and Set 2 as 29-52. (These cards become increasingly more challenging, so as students finish one set and show mastery, they move on to the more challenging set.)
In another post about my math routine/schedule where I discussed thinking about task cards and materials on a continuum and placing students into task card work based on where they fall in the continuum. I have another post that I will hopefully finish tonight that shows how my first two weeks of departmentalizing math has went.
Thanks for stopping by!