Anticipation Guides

Anticipation Guides (Tierney & Readance, 1999) activate a student’s prior knowledge and also set a purpose for reading and/or viewing. Both of these things are critical for readers to do. Anticipation Guides work best if the reading/film contains controversial issues, problems, or opinions that don’t have an easy answer or solution. Note: This activity does take a little prep time to prepare the series of statements.
So here's how it works:
Students are given a series of these controversial statements, and—before reading or discussing—are asked to agree or disagree (or agree strongly, agree somewhat, disagree somewhat, disagree strongly). These statements can be used as some discussion starters after students complete the “guide.”
Once the reading has started (or is completed), students should revisit their marks of agreement/disagreement and make changes, if necessary. These before/after results and the reasons for changes can be the focus of discussions.

Below are a few of the statements I used in an Anticipation Guide for the Greek tragedy Antigone, but Anticipation Guides can be written for both fiction and nonfiction (in fact, they work well for science and social studies readings).
Some are thematic ideas from the play that I worked into antithetical statements. These were ideas that I knew we would be discussing later, as the students read the play, worked on some improvisations and group activities, and did some independent writing:
1. Nothing is worth dying for.
2. Youth should submit to elders; inexperience should submit to experience.
3. No one is above the law.
4. Let your conscience be your guide.
5. There is no happiness where there is no wisdom.

If you have any questions or comments about this or any of the ideas, please leave a comment on the blog.

Sticky Notes

One easy activity to encourage students to make inferences or just to note their thinking is to use sticky notes.

There are lots of different ways to have students use sticky notes as they read.

Here's one:

1.  Give students very small sticky notes before they read.

2.  If you are studying a specific concept (like greed, ambition, lust for power, foils, metaphors, causes of a specific event, characteristics of some concept, etc.), ask students to write some code words, pictures, labels, etc. on the sticky notes to represent the concepts.

3.  Then, as they read, the students use the sticky notes to post in the text when they note an example of the concept or whatever you want them to notice and think about as they read.

This concept can also be used for students to note places where they agree with the author (a check on the note), where they disagree (a minus), when they don't get it (a question mark), etc. The class can decide on the symbols.

As a warm-up for the following day, students can share with a partner some of their "comments."

Squares, Triangles, and Circles

Another easy idea to encourage student thinking about a text is the Squares, Triangle, and Circles strategy. As students read, listen to a lecture, or view a film, they should look for important ideas from the text/discussion/film and continually think of questions those ideas engender. This mnemonic is one way:
Students would write down notes for—
• Four ideas that square with my thinking (Square)
• Three important angles (points, ideas) from the text/discussion (Triangle)
• One question that keeps going around in my head (Circle)
You could design an graphic organizer if you like, or just tell them Squares, Triangles, and Circles, and the students just jot down the 4, 3 and 1 thoughts.

Think/Write-Pair-Share

This is a slight variation of the traditional Think-Pair-Share activity.  It can be used before reading/discussion to build background knowledge and during or after reading/lectures/presentations, etc. to encourage critical thinking and organization of thoughts.  

I've seen it used very successfully with students from primary grades to adults in a large lecture hall.  You can also use it for  vocabulary or concept development, comparison-contrast activities, sharing parts of homework, summaries, inferences, problem-solving, etc.

This particular description is from Jeffery Zwiers (Building Reading Comprehenison Grades 6-12, 2005) but you can find it described in lots of different places.

1.  Create a question or prompt that will get students to use their background knowledge, etc., and ask the to think of an answer for about 20-30 seconds, then write (quickwrite) an answer on a piece of paper.  This should take 2-3 minutes, tops.

2.  Then have students work in paris.  One person shares at a time--each partner should listen politely, show interest in his/her partner's thinking (I actually model what this should look like--eye contact, nodding assent, etc.), and ask clarifying questions if needed (this should also be modeled).  The partner talking needs to give support for his/her ideas (evidence from the book, background knowledge, experience, discussion, etc.).  The time should be limited as well.

3.  Once both partners have shared, then they turn to another pair and share.  Instead of sharing his/her own ideas, each partner should share what his/her partner said instead.

Other variations could be Think-Pair-Write-share, Read-Pair-Share, etc.

3-2-1: an admit or exit ticket idea

3-2-1--
tell students: write down 3 things you learned, 2 questions you still have, and 1 connection you'd like to share--or
3 similarities between . . . , 2 predictions about . . . , 1 something else---
the 3-2-1 topics can be anything, and if they are related to the lesson, the next day's work, the unit theme, etc. so much the better

Graphic Organizer Roulette

If you haven't checked online for graphic organizers to share with students, here is a link to one source:
http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/ If you google graphic organizers you'll get lots of sites.
At times, I have just given students a packet/bank of about 20 to keep in their notebooks, and one activity (can be group or individual) would be to pick one that might work for the content/assignment/topic and fill it out, kind of a "graphic organizer roulette." I had them recreate it so they would always have the bank to refer to. You could also have them recreate it filled out on larger sheets of paper and use that in a gallery walk. Yesterday I did a similar assignment (using visual representations instead of graphic organizers) and had them work in pairs--then once the papers were hung, one person stayed and one strayed--went around to the other stations. So the one who stayed became the docent and explained the visual to the strayers as they progressed around the room at my signal. Part way through, the pairs switched and the former docents became the strayers.

Give One, Get One

This "Give One-Get One" is an activity designed to tap into and build students' background knowledge.  It's originally from Kagan (1997)--here are the steps:

1.  Generate a topic idea (related to the text to be studied, the topic to be researched or discussed, etc.)

2. Have students fold a piece of paper in half horizontally and number 1-4 above the fold ("Ideas I will give", 5-8 below ("Ideas I got").

3.  Give students a few minutes (short) to write down 4 ideas related to the topic you generated.

4. Have students circulate and exchange their ideas for at at least three-four different ideas (from 3-4 different students).  These new ideas go on lines 5-8.  The students need to write the student's name after the new idea they got. 

5.  After several minutes (be careful not to spend too much time--they'll lose focus), the students can share out in small groups or as a whole group the ideas they got from others.  

6.  Discuss responses, then introduce the text/topic, etc.