Fill-in-the-Blank Procedures Activity

Today was my day for teaching procedures. I found out I had more than I realized and I didn't want to hand out another list or just stand in the front of the room reading to the class. I also wanted to do something different to "disrupt student expectations through alternative activity structures".

I created a fill-in-the blank procedure activity. I started by just creating a list of procedures. I had 40 originally but narrowed it down to 27.

 

Then I went through and highlighted key words so that I could create a word bank. I made sure to highlight some of the same words over again. This is what I used as my answer key.

 

Then I went back and erased the highlighted words and put blanks for students to write on. I also double spaced it so students would have room to write. Done! This is what I actually handed out.

I thought the activity went fabulous. Some students said it was fun (but of course there were complainers too) and it took most of the hour. The biggest benefit to me was that students were actually engaged with the material and actually thinking about what procedures made sense. I did give a few hints and it was definitely easier for students who have had me before. I read the answers at the end of class and we turned it into a competition to see who got the most right. Nobody even expected a prize! A lot of students asked me if it was worth a grade and when I said no they said 'good' but they continued working while I thought to myself 'good'. I had them turn them in to me and I am keeping them as proof that we did talk about procedures.

I've really liked my trend so far of creating things that they work on the whole hour and I don't have to talk. Although I feel very awkward and wander aimlessly around the classroom. I hope that this is setting the tone for the class and I hope I remember how nice this is as I continue to plan lessons and strive to get away from lecture and direct instruction in favor of students doing work and engaging with material.

Hopefully you can download the files and tweak them to fit your classroom. This was a bit time consuming to create but it was worthwhile. I even heard some students repeating procedures throughout the day.

#Nguyening