Bellwork - Start of class activity



The concept of having "bellwork" or a beginning of the class activity was new to these teachers.  I explained how this gives students some learning activity to begin as soon as they enter the classroom.  It settles the students down, helps them focus, while the teacher gets organized.



This was the "bellwork" I had on the board as the teachers entered the workshop.  The "start of class activity" was based on a reading assignment I'd used yesterday for the reading comprehension workshop.

In this "start of class activity" I gave various options teachers could use:  students could write summary sentences, note if the statement was true or false / fact or opinion, or the activity could be multiple choice.

With the true or false and fact or opinion statements , we talked about how to extend the activity.  If the students agreed the statement was false, them rewrite the statement to make it true.  If it was an opinion, rewrite to make it a fact.