Time Filler Activity: Everything You Know

Are you curious to know what your college students learn about a specific matter? Or do you surprise about what they really retained out of your final lesson? The following exercise is an efficient technique to discover out rapidly. The aim is straightforward: discover out all the things your college students learn about a specific matter in 5 minutes or much less. It’s an excellent time-filler exercise, or it may be used as a gap bellwork exercise. You can do it as a full class exercise, in small teams, or as a person exercise, and solely a few provides are required.

Materials Needed

• Stopwatch
• Writing implements — pencil and paper or cell telephones/tablets/Chromebooks (if you happen to’re doing this individually or in small teams), or a blackboard/sensible board (if you happen to’re working with a full class)

Instructions

1. Choose a timeframe to work in. Use smaller increments for smaller teams — for instance, 1–2 minutes for people, 3–4 minutes for small teams, and 5 minutes for a full class. Adjust as obligatory, relying on how a lot time you need to fill.

2. If you might be working in small teams or as a full class, choose one particular person to be the note-taker (one per group). Choose the scholar who’s the quickest author/typist.

3. When the trainer says “GO,” college students will write down all the things they learn about a specific theatrical matter. If they’re working individually, they’ll write out all the things they know concerning the matter by hand or digitally. For some college students, it could be quicker to make use of talk-to-text know-how or do a voice recording, and that’s okay too. If they’re working as a full group, you possibly can have college students shout out their solutions, rapid-fire model, or have them increase their palms. Just be fast!

Point type notes are effective, however every level must be an entire thought and make sense. Students can at all times add further notes or develop factors additional as obligatory.

Some matters may embrace “Everything you know about…”

• Theatre etiquette
• Stage make-up
• The play the category is at the moment finding out
• Stage fight
• Commedia dell’arte
• The lesson that we simply completed right this moment/yesterday
• A specific actor/playwright/theatrical historic determine
• Warm-ups
• What ought to be included in a present programme
• Improvisation

4. When writing “everything you know about…” college students can write actually something they will consider referring to the present. For instance, if the subject is the play the category is at the moment finding out, college students may begin with issues like:

• Play title: The House
• Playwright: Lindsay Price
• There are 28 characters.
• It’s set within the current day, in October.
• There are 4 separate tales throughout the present.
• Liath seems in all 4 tales.
• Liath is pronounced “LEE-EH” (not “lee-ath”).

For “Everything you know about stage combat,” lists may embrace:

• If it isn’t secure, don’t do it.
• Stage fight = the phantasm of violence.
• Stage fight should at all times be finished beneath the supervision of a battle director.
• Never do an actual slap.
• Always do a warm-up and battle name throughout pre-show.
• Run every battle twice throughout battle name: as soon as at half velocity and as soon as at efficiency velocity.
• The sound {that a} slap/punch/blow makes is named a “knap.”

And so on. They can speak about content material, themes, characters, guidelines, definitions, memorable quotes, no matter they learn about it. Once they’ve obtained the fundamentals out of their brains, they will go deeper (throughout the time restrict). The aim is to expire of time earlier than they run out of concepts!

5. Students will write as rapidly as potential for the complete period of time you’ve chosen. When the timer goes off, college students should cease writing instantly. If you’re working as a full class or small group, have college students embrace their initials subsequent to their solutions, so you realize who contributed what.

6. If time permits, you possibly can have your college students share their solutions verbally, or have them submit the solutions to you.

When you’re deciding on a subject, you may select one that you simply’ve just lately studied at school to see what data your college students have retained and might rapidly recall. It’s a direct evaluation of what your college students took away from the lesson. If there are noticeable sections lacking in college students’ notes, that offers you an concept of what must be reviewed. Remember that some college students might not work nicely beneath stress, and may be capable to recall extra data in a distinct setting. In that case, if time permits, observe up the exercise with a category dialogue.

Conversely, you may select a subject that you simply haven’t but centered on to gauge what information your college students at the moment possess. This manner you possibly can see what you might focus your classes on, the place your college students’ pursuits lie, and the place their information gaps are.

Let us understand how your college students reply to this exercise!