strategies banner

Rise and Shine

Purpose

Students get a partner based on common interests and collaborate to answer a question or complete a task.

Materials

  • 4 numbered choices (e.g., 4 candy bars, 4 colors, 4 ice cream flavors, etc.)
  • Questions, tasks, vocabulary words, visuals, or texts

Instructions

  1. Students choose their favorite item from a list of 4 numbered choices.
  2. Students hold up the number of fingers representing their favorite and then rise to find one or two students who have the same response.
  3. Pose a question, task, vocabulary word, visual, or text.
  4. Student pairs or triads shine as they collaborate to offer solutions, descriptions, examples, or responses to text.
  5. Observe students’ thinking and clarify/verify as appropriate.

Classroom Management

  • Role-play how to get into pairs or triads by showing 1, 2, 3, or 4 fingers to represent a student’s choice.
  • Ensure everyone has a thinking partner.
  • Remind students there will be no harm or humiliation for incorrect answers because correcting mistakes is a sign of intelligence!

Differentiation

  • Promote access by previewing the question, task, word, visual, or text for the activity.
  • Promote access by providing a summary, visual, or description of the content or allowing the use of teacher/student notes.
  • Provide access support by offering response/thinking stems and/or allowing the use of speech-to-text or word prediction support to answer before talking with a peer.

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 how this concept might be assessed on a test.
    • Draw a conclusion about why this concept is important.
  • Encourage students to use lead4ward’s Thinking Stems (English/Spanish) to frame their responses, if needed.