One Minute Paper

Purpose

Students summarize their learning with a quick writing activity.

Materials

• Prompt or question for the summary
• Notebook paper

Instructions

1. Ask students to summarize the ideas, concepts, skills, and processes they learned by writing for approximately 1-3 minutes. Students may write a paragraph, a bulleted list, or create a graphic organizer.
2. Students share their One Minute Paper using the movement and discourse strategy Think and Throw. (Students crush their papers and toss 3 “snowballs” randomly around the room.)
3. After picking up a 4th snowball, students huddle into small groups, share papers, and read out 2-3 of the best.
4. Students submit the One Minute Paper they are holding as an exit ticket.
5. Observe students’ thinking and clarify/verify as appropriate.

Classroom Management

• Model the One Minute Paper strategy using a think-aloud or provide examples of well-written papers.
• Allow students up to 5 minutes to complete the quick write.
• Role-play how to crush/throw papers appropriately.

Differentiation

• Promote access by providing sentence starters and allowing students to process the task with a supportive peer/adult.
• Provide response support by allowing students to dictate ideas to a scribe and/or using a speech-to-text or word prediction support.

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:
  • Draw a conclusion about why this information is important.
• Encourage students to use lead4ward’s Thinking Stems (English/Spanish) to frame their responses, if needed.