It is really
easy to fall into a lesson planning rut this time of year. After all, you know
your students and what generally works to help them learn. The downside of
that, however, is that it is all too easy to become complacent and boring. Here
is a brief list of some quick ideas that can help you as you plan the most
dynamic lessons possible. If you need a fresh look at what you are asking students to do, you should be able to find something in this little list to adapt for your own students.
1.
Write a paragraph.
2.
Electronic flashcards
3.
Write a paragraph to defend you position on a
topic we studied today.
4.
Look over your notes from yesterday’s lesson.
Circle the key words.
5.
List what you already know about…
6.
Listen to a recording and take notes.
7.
Watch a brief video clip and take notes.
8.
List five things that you can recall we did
in class yesterday.
9.
Create a rhyme to help you recall some of the
key facts from class.
10.
Summarize what you have learned in the last
five minutes.
11.
Pick a partner and play a quick game of
“hangman” with your vocabulary words from this unit of study.
12.
List the key ideas in today’s lesson.
13.
Make quick flash cards to review the
vocabulary words we have studied this week.
14.
List the steps in…
15.
Predict what caused…
16.
Open your book and read the first three
paragraphs from yesterday’s lesson. What is something new that you learned
today that you hadn’t realized yesterday?
17.
List ten words associated with the lesson we
are currently studying.
18.
What is your objective for this class today?
19.
Write out a study skill that you have
recently mastered.
20.
Time a classmate while that person intently
reviews yesterday’s lesson. Switch roles and repeat.
21.
Scan your text and find… (Provide your
students with specific facts or information to seek. This is an excellent
review technique.)
22.
Predict what will happen next.
23.
Here’s your word of the day: ___________.
Copy and define it and then use it correctly in a sentence.
24.
What is the most important quality for a good
student to have?
25.
Provide another example of your own for…
26.
Supply the missing words in this cloze
exercise. (Find a reading assignment that is appropriate for your group and
then cloze it.)
27.
Unscramble these vocabulary words.
28.
Match the items in column A with the items in
column B.
29.
Find the similarities in these two
photographs.
30.
What do you need to accomplish this week?
Make a “To Do” list for this week’s activities.
31.
Write a set of instructions for…
32.
Looking back over this week, what did you
really learn?
33.
List ten things you learned in class today.
34.
Read this short newspaper article and respond
to it in your journal.
35.
Practice the process of elimination on these
multiple-choice questions.
36.
Complete these analogies that relate to the
lesson we are going to study today.
37.
Tell why a change in ___ occurred.
38.
Brainstorm every possible solution you can
think of for…
39.
Design a ___ to___.
40.
Judge the value of…
41.
Make a proposal to…
42.
Describe what would happen if…
43.
Look over the first three paragraphs of your
homework reading last night. Write a brief paraphrase of them.
44.
List the factors you would change if…
45.
Describe the turning point in…
46.
What are the underlying principles of the
lesson we are studying?
47.
What is the correct procedure for …?
48.
Justify the rule about. …
49.
Defend your position on. …
50.
Defend your teacher’s position on the topic
of .…
51.
How can you modify ___________ so that it is
more efficient?
52.
Proofread this paragraph and make as many
corrections as you can.
53.
What solutions do you have for the problem of
___________?
54.
Demonstrate the proper way to ___________.
55.
How does what you learned in this lesson
really apply to your life?
56.
Why is it necessary for successful people to
use time wisely?
57.
Pick a partner and show that person how to
use one fact from the lesson that you learned in this class yesterday.
58.
There are seven errors in the reading passage
you were given as you came into the classroom. Can you find them all?
59.
Take two of the vocabulary words you have
been studying this week and use them both in the same sentence.
60.
Write one of the key words from this lesson
on a scrap of paper. Pass it to a classmate. Time that person as he/she has
only one minute to tell you five important things about it.
61.
Why is it useful to learn the information in
the unit we are now studying?
62.
Pick a partner and brainstorm a list of all
the ways you can use the information that you have learned in this class in the
last three days.
63.
What did you learn in another class this week
that you can use in this class today?
64.
What have you learned in this class lately
that you can apply to another class?
65.
Take the items on the board and group them
according to a criteria that you devise based on the information in yesterday’s
lesson.
66.
What are some of the assumptions you had
about today’s class?
67.
Play an online game to benefit those less
fortunate.
68.
Create an online survey about…
69.
Using what we learned in class today as
proof, justify the reason for …
70.
Create a word search puzzle that you will
share with a friend tomorrow. Use the key words from today’s lesson.
71.
Use all of your vocabulary words to create a
quick short story.
72.
Create a fair test question about the
information you have learned today.
73.
Take a list of words and create relationships
among them.
74.
Ask a classmate a question about the current
lesson that will absolutely stump that person.
75.
Make a 3-D graphic organizer.
76.
Combine ideas with another student and…
77.
Skim their homework and make predictions.
78.
Brainstorm the causes of …
79.
Create an inventory of…
80.
List as many ways as you can that you are
like the people we have studied in today’s lesson.
81.
Find the cause of a crime in the news.
82.
Write a review of your favorite television
show.
83.
Categorize the facts that you learned in
class today.
84.
Go through your notes and label the main
ideas.
85.
Read ahead to see if your predictions are
correct.
86.
Free associate as many ideas as you can
about…
87.
Use these terms in sentences…
88.
Research a social problem that concerns you.
89.
Make a set of electronic flashcards.
90.
Invent a dialogue between ___ and ___.
91.
Tell how a celebrity would use what you have
learned today.
92.
Record data related to…
93.
Review your notes with your study buddy.
94.
Evaluate your progress to date on this unit
of study.
95.
Annotate the selection for…
96.
Skim the next chapter for facts and take
notes.
97.
Make a flow chart.
98.
Prepare a monologue.
99.
Fill in the blanks while listening.
100. Create a
motto that expresses what you learned this week.
101. Set up your
own art gallery.
