These 7 ideas can follow or precede your independent reading time, if you incorporate it as well.) ( Remember, I always begin with 10 minutes of independent reading. You can mix and match these ideas to your heart’s delight. For me, bell ringers are a routine, but variety within them (both in terms of appearance and use) adds enough intrigue that students don’t tire of them…and neither do I! Plus, flexility is freeing. They don’t all look the same or print neatly for binder use. So now! Let’s explore 7 bell ringer ideas that are easy to implement and effective for students.ĭisclaimer: I don’t love packets, so these ideas are not digitally or physically combined and neatly stapled together for the whole year. If you operate in a standards-based system, you could use bell ringers as evidence of proficiency. This mindset shift has developed slowly, but now I view bell ringers as practice opportunities that inform my teaching. I use bell ringer responses to get an idea of where my students are and what instruction they still need, but I don’t often enter points for their work. If we are only doing it for accountability’s sake, we may just want to reconsider the type of work we are doing as bell ringers. English teachers have enough on their plates to “grade” without feeling the need to assign points to bell ringers. We have to be careful about “grading” bell ringer work. My students have loved every minute of this word work, and I am passionate about showing them the value of language. I’ve also started every period consistently with a vocabulary word of the day and corresponding activity. This is my favorite! However, I still find that I often follow up this 10 minutes of reading with a different type of “bell ringer” task that is more directed at an ELA skill.

For one, I have used 10 minutes of independent reading as the common denominator at the beginning of class. Some teachers choose to be consistent and use the same type of bell ringer every day. BELL RINGER APPROACHES To Be Consistent or to Mix it Up? This sentence pairing flows more smoothly and has some personality. Here, I’ve added some description, phrases, and even personification. It may seem odd, but I want to touch one. The next day, students can come back to this same sentence and revise it to make it more fluid! Have them incorporate whatever grammatical element(s) you are working on at the time.Įxample: Rainbows glow proudly in the sky after a dark and moody storm. The author may have done this for clarity, but many would find this sentence boring. Why? It’s short, consisting of two simple sentences joined with a semicolon. Students may point out that this sentence is choppy. Why does the author use this punctuation? How do the parts of the sentence and the punctuation impact the flow?Įxample: Rainbows (noun) are (linking verb) beautiful (adjective) I (pronoun) want (verb) one (pronoun).

Then, have them justify the punctuation in the sentence. Learning sentence types? Project a sentence on the board, and ask students to identify the parts of speech.

We can use any type of task or question to continually provide additional practice for core standards. ReviewĬlass starters also provide a convenient opportunity to spiral review. Getting ready to begin an essay? Review the importance of the writing process, citation skills, or comma rules. For instance, if you are going to begin a new story, why not project several images on the board and ask students to make a prediction about the theme of the new story based on what they can infer from the images? Previewīell ringers allow us to preview new content. Bell ringers provide a few minutes to take attendance, confer with readers, respond to pressing emails, or walk around the room to provide support. In order for bell ringers to be as organized as possible, I recommend training students at the beginning of the year… where they can find the task for the day? Your white board? Smart board? Be consistent about having the task up when students enter the room, and this will provide for a smoother start to class (which actually results in a more fluid classroom experience overall, start to finish).īell ringers don’t only help with student organization! They can also help teachers take a breath and get in the right mindset to begin working with the next group of students. When students know what to do when they enter the room, they can get calm and start being productive. They are a classroom routine that provides stability and predictability. I needed organization and purpose.īell ringers can help students get focused right away. Answering student questions while trying to monitor what everyone else was doing was frustrating and an inefficient use of class time. I first began incorporating bell ringers when the start of class made my head want to explode.

Quick word bell ringers