Dance It – Chance It
Purpose
Students respond to a question or text, collaborate with a friend, and then take two chances as they solve problems.
Materials
Instructions
- Select slide(s)/music prompt(s) and project for students to see (if using the provided template).
- Play music as students dance around the room.
- Students get a partner closest to them when the music stops.
- Present students with an assessment question, vocabulary word, visual stimuli, or text excerpt.
- Students assign themselves a role (A or B) and take two chances:
- Partner A: Take a chance and justify the correct response, describe the term/visual, or summarize the text.
- Partner B: Take a chance and predict a mistake, provide examples of the term or visual, or infer from the text.
- Observe students’ thinking and clarify/verify as appropriate.
Classroom Management
- Preview music clips to ensure they are appropriate and role-play how students should appropriately dance (or walk around) as a funny way to infuse the playful “vibe” of the strategy.
- Ensure every student has a partner when the music ends.
- Remind students there will be no harm or humiliation for incorrect answers because correcting mistakes is a sign of intelligence!
Differentiation
- Promote access by allowing students to preview the prompts/questions with a supportive peer/adult.
- Promote access by providing sentence stems to frame responses.
- Promote access by providing students with the correct response to justify and/or a specific common mistake to correct.
Think It Up!
- Have students think more deeply about the concept by responding to a Think It Up prompt as an exit ticket or journal entry:
- Predict another mistake and correct the error.
- Evaluate the word/question difficulty (easy, medium, complex) and explain your reasoning.
- Encourage students to use lead4ward’s Thinking Stems (English/Spanish) to frame their responses, if needed.
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