“And the Winner is…….” Award Show

Last year after the BET Awards, my kids came to school excited about what had transpired. They talked about the performances, the clothes, and of course the awards. Then an INGENIOUS idea hit me. Why not create an award show activity in my room for review?!

 

So this is how it works. This activity is best used at the end of a unit for review. It can also be used during the lesson for more motivated students. Anywho, after studying a unit with several different concepts (in history I use it during a unit where we studied several different people), as a class, develop a list of the important people in the unit

• Tell them the class is hosting an awards show (Grammys, BET, MTV, Hip Hop, Country Music Awards, People’s Choice, etc.- choose the one that would most interest YOUR students). 
•  Next, hand out this Rank Order Chart. Have each student vote on which person (or concept) is the most important/relevant/or had the greatest impact 
• Take the sheets up and have one student tally the votes. 
• While the votes are being tallied, divide the class into collaborative groups of 3-4 students. Allow each group to pick one person from the list (for less independent classes you might have to assign a person to each group)
• Have each group come up with 5-7 reasons (for the textbook, homework, supplementary materials, etc.) why there person should win the award for most relevant. 
•   Each group should also pick one student from their group that will play the person their groups choose. The group will help that student write an acceptance speech if he/she wins. The speech should include actual things that person might say and/or people he or she would actually thank 
• After approximately 15-20 minutes, have students hand in their handout with the reasons and begin the awards show. The teacher can play the host or you can allow the student who tallied the votes to be the host. Either way, announce the nominees in each category and read 1-3 of the reasons from the list. After all the nominees are announced, announce the winner. Allow the student who chose to portray the winner to come to the podium and give an acceptance speech as if they actually were that person.

 

Variation

You can develop other categories (most innovative, most popular, etc.) and announce the other people as winners. This time when announcing nominees, give 1-3 DIFFERENT reasons from their respective lists. This allows the class to review ALL of the people studied. At the end, a short assessment could be give (3-2-1 assignment, teacher-prepared multiple choice questions, etc) to ensure students were paying attention and retained knowledge needed for the test. 

Setting the Scene

To be even MORE creative and set the scene (and to encourage my students to get into it), I purchased a small trophy (approximately $2.50 from Target) and created a red carpet (use extra red butcher paper). You can even film it (a digital camera or smart phone) and show the BEST ones for review before the test OR include on your class website or blog. Just make sure to have the proper documentation (some schools or districts have funny rules about how you can video tape your students and why. My students get a KICK out of seeing themselves on video or on my website or blog. In the future I would like to have one of the red carpet backgrounds (the ones celebrities take pictures on) and a microphone (even if it doesn’t work) to make it more fun.

Application for Reading- Pick several characters from a reading selection as the nominees. Create categories such as who had the most impact on the story, who was the best hero, or who was their favorite character.

Application for Language Arts- Pick several types of words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.) as nominees. Create categories such as sentence changer, most important, or best describer.

Application for Science-Pick several types of chemicals as nominees. Create categories such as most powerful, most dangerous, and most useful.

Application for Math- Pick several types of numbers (positive, negative, integers, whole numbers, etc.). Create categories such as easiest to multiply, hardest to solve, most relevant.

Application to Social Studies- Pick several events in a unit (battles, laws, people). Create categories such as which had the biggest historical impact, most powerful, most important.

SPED Accommodations- Start the SPED students off with at least one example already filled in on each sheet. Allow them to give fewer reasons and give them pages numbers as hints to where to find reasons.

Scavenger Hunt!

This activity is STUDENT APPROVED! It is so easy and my students love it!  Even the never-want-to-participate kind.

 

Before you can begin you, you must have a few things.
1. Study Guide with approximately 10 questions
2. Scavenger Hunt questions- pre- printed and cut out. It may be easiest to print each set of questions on different color paper. It might be easier to print them on a business card template. (See this template)
3. Paper clips or rubber bands- To keep the cards together
4. Resources for the students to find answers (textbook, notes, articles, computers)
5. Students are put into groups of not larger than 3

There are two ways to do a scavenger hunt.

1. Textbook and Notes Only- Groups all start out by getting question #1 from their stack. Each group looks through their textbook and notes and write their answer on a small dry erase board or a sheet of paper. If it is incorrect, they go back until they get the right answer. If it is correct, they get question #2. The group who gets to last question correct first, is the winner.
2.  Textbook + Computer+ Other Resources- With this variation, direct students to find some answers in the textbook, some on bookmarked websites on a class computer, some in class workbooks or teacher resource books, and even some on class posters or quality work of other students (that you may have posted on a brag board).

At the end of either scavenger hunt, pass out the study questions worksheet (which are the same study questions from the game except they are on one sheet). Quickly go through the questions and answer, since students have answered most (if not all) of them and can readily give the answers. I usually have a PowerPoint or smart board activity with the answers ready to help those students who need to see it visually.

When to Use This Activity
1. At the beginning of a lesson or unit to force the to find the answers on their own. This activity is a lot more fun then just reading and answering the questions.
2. After they should have read the assignment (either for homework the night before OR during class) to see if they paid attention.
3. As review for a test- I use those multiple test questions that come with the textbook or others similar to the ones on the test. (Make sure to remove the answer choices so there are only questions. If students have answer choices they will keep guessing.)

Application to Math- Give students a set of practice problems. This is more fun then giving them a worksheet and since you probably have worksheets with the problems, it is easy for you to make.

Application to Science- Give students a set of questions involving an experiment they completed. Ask them about the steps of the experiment and why the results turned out the way they did.

Application to Reading- Ask students about a story they should have read for homework. If they read they should be able to quickly answer the questions.


Application to Language Arts- Ask students to identify and change the mistakes in sentences. Or they can make changes to a paragraph. 

Application to Social Studies- Ask students to a series of events in a unit. Answer study questions in preparation for a test.

SPED Accommodation- For SPED students, give them a set of cards with pages numbers (and even hints to which paragraphs to read) to find the answers. Make sure to pair them with another student that would help guide them. Also make sure with SPED students, they have had the change to read the material before hand. Do not use as a beginning activity with this group of students. See the SPED version in this sample.

CHEAP Alternatives To Dry Erase Boards

I have played several games or done several activities that required each student to have a dry erase board. As you probably know, getting one for each student can be EXPENSIVE (not to mention you have to get markers and erasers for them). Well here are a few alternatives that can help.

1. Shower/Tile Board- Tile board is usually used in- you guesses it- showers. Well this board (which cost approximately $20-$30) can be cut into smaller boards and used just like dry erase boards.They can usually be found at your hardware stores.
2. Plastic Chi net Plates- These plates are very inexpensive and can be purchased WalMart. They work just like dry erase.
3. Card stock in plastic sleeves- Buy card stock and put it in those plastic covers. It ends up being as durable as a dry erase board and easy to store.  
4. Laminate paper or card stock- One method that I've tried that seems to work is to laminate cardstock. This is also very cheap and easy to store. 

Now for let's say you have enough dry erase markers but erasers are a problem. Simply hot glue a small felt pom pom to the end of each marker. Works just as well!