Bell Ringers & Warm-up
Activities
“Teaching Bell to Bell”
Knox Doss Middle School at Drakes Creek
Co-Planning Session #1
October 25, 2010
Why Use Bell Ringers?
 Transition from hallway leisure to classroom learning
 RAP a lesson
 Review And Preview
 Teacher Duty Time
 Attendance
 Student Needs
 Shuffle
 Focus students on the
Learning
Bell Ringer Ideas
 Political Cartoons: Historical and Current
 Video Clips
 TCAP Coach Questions
 Games and Activities
 Art and Images
 Documents
 Pre-assessment & Review
 This Day in History
 Short Readings
 Frayer Model
Political Cartoons
 Use APPARTS or SOAPS to analyze cartoons
Author
Place and Time
Prior Knowledge
Audience
Reason
The Main Idea
Significance
Subject
Occasion (Context)
Audience
Purpose
Speaker
Political Cartoons
Video Clips
 Discovery Streaming
 TeacherTube; YouTube
TCAP Coach Questions
 Antitrust laws, designed to prevent monopolies in the
United States, would most likely be implemented in
which situation described below:
A. Several steel factories lay off employees in order to
increase profits
B. A small company sells products or services under
contract to a larger company.
C. A national bank buys up most smaller banks within a
geographic area
D. Newspaper workers go on strike when contract talks
with company officials fail
TCAP Coach Questions
 During World War II, the United States experienced
many shortages of resources.
Identify two shortages the United States experienced
during World War II.
Games
 With your partner, play Paper, Rock, Scissors for 5
minutes and keep score of who wins each game,
including the ties
 Good introduction to the 3 Branches of
Government/ Separation of Powers. After 5
minutes of play, wins and ties should be roughly
equal….balance of power. And students can
associate Paper with the Legislative branch, Rock
with the Executive branch, and Scissors with the
Judicial Branch
Activities
 When teaching the
Protestant
Reformation, have the
students create a Top
10 List of things they
would change about
their school. Relate
this activity to Luther’s
95 Thesis.
Art and Images
In AP European
History, finding Point
of View of documents,
including works of art,
is vital to the success
on the AP exam.
Ask students to:
•Identify the era which
the work was created
•Analyze the point of
view of the artist (who
is he, what does he
know, how does he
know it?)
Art and Images
When analyzing images,
ask students to try to put
the image in context:
•What is going on the in
the image?
•What is the subject(s)
doing, thinking?
•What message is the
creator trying to convey?
Is there bias?
Documents
 We the people of the United States, in order to form a
more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic
tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote
the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the United States of
America.
 What are the six goals stated within the Preamble of
the United States Constitution?
 Restate these goals in your own words
PreAssessment
 This could take the form of a short quiz, or a
simple ID:
List 3 things you
know about Native
American culture.
Review
A-B-C
D-E-F
G-H-I
J-K-L
M-N
O-P-Q
R-S
T-U-V
W-X-Y-Z
This Day in History
 The History Channel offers a minute video on their
“Lead Story” in This Day in History.
 Browse through different topics ranging from Old
West, Disaster, Automobile, to World War II.
 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do
 www.amomentintime.com
Short Readings
 Primary Source Documents
 Paul Harvey: The Rest of the Story
End of class – now what??
EXIT SLIPS
When those final few minutes of class
arrive, three options are available:
review
prediction
critical thinking
Review
five-fact (or five-finger) review – “List
five things we learned in class today on
your exit slip.” Such an inquiry can be reworded or reworked for more advanced
learners – “Recall five things discussed in
class, and rank them in importance from
most relevant to least relevant.
”
Prediction
“Considering what we discussed in class
today, what might we do tomorrow?” This
style of prompt works for nearly any subject
area, as nearly every class uses continuing
curriculum. A good rule to give students
regarding exit slip responses has to do with
the subject of length. Ordinarily, three to five
well-written sentences should suffice, unless
the question involves deeper thinking (see
next paragraph).
Critical Thinking
A final purpose for exit slips involves
critical thinking. The possibilities for this
type of exit slip prompt are endless:
“How might you have taught today’s
lesson if you were the teacher?”