Week Two Discussion Two

When I first started teaching, I wasn't really a fan of warm-up activities because I couldn't really find one that worked for ALL of my kids or that was something they all could enjoy. After a little over a year of experience now teaching ASL, I have found the perfect warm-up activity that we do once a week, the day before the weekly Friday quizzes (so, Thursdays). It's always review based on the new vocabulary they have learned that week (as there are over 100 new vocabulary words and phrases they have to learn every few weeks, the constant review is necessary and helpful).

Students already have designated "shoulder partners" (that I chose) and groups of 4 (that they picked themselves), so depending on the amount of vocabulary in the warm-up, they may be in either pairs or groups of 4. Regardless, each group gets one set of vocabulary cards. Half of the cards are signs (written in English) and the other half of the cards are images of them being signed. When the bell rings, the students know that that's when the timer starts. They have to work with their group to pair up all of the vocabulary words with their signs (correctly) as quickly as possible and lay them out, face up, on their desks. When they think they are correct, they raise their hands, and I sign to them their time (e.g., 2:04). [If it's a period where one of my TAs is there, I have the TAs sign the times to the groups so I can walk around as they work on making the vocabulary pairs]. The faster they can pair them all correctly, the more "beads" they get (the beads are participation points, which are a grade each unit). Each minute that passes is a bead less. When most or all of the groups are done (they all usually finish within the same 1-2 minutes), I come around and check them for accuracy. If they are all correct, they get all the beads possible for their time. If they are not, I tell them how many are incorrectly paired or sometimes tell them to look again at a particular row on their desks to help them find the error and then they have another chance to get them correct. If they find the error and fix it, they still get all the beads possible for their time. If they do not before the warm-up is over, they still get all the beads minus just one. (I found out very quickly that if I DIDN'T take any away for inaccuracy, they just paired up anything to get the fastest time.)

Once the warm up is over, I have them all hold up their "trouble cards" (words they had difficulty pairing) and we quickly go over them before moving onto the day's lesson. I have found that it is not only successful because it's a fun game, but it also is a competition - something they CRAVE in my class. It's also an awesome activity because I can use the cards in other ways. I have them play Memory with them, I have them create stories in ASL with them, and I sometimes even use them for pair quizzes by giving them a phrase in English and having them create the phrase in ASL using the image cards. It's a great activity and they are re-usable every year! :-)