Purpose
Students brainstorm everything they learned in the unit and then identify areas where they feel confident or are confused.
Materials
- Paper plates
Instructions
- Provide each student with a paper plate.
- Students brainstorm everything they learned in the unit (concepts, skills, vocabulary words, visuals, processes, etc.).
- Rock Star Ideas: Students draw a star beside the 2-3 ideas they understand the best.
- Loopback Ideas: Students circle 2-3 ideas they are still confused about.
- Students participate in 3 rounds of Musical Mix-Freeze-Group:
- Round 1: Share brainstormed ideas and add new ideas.
- Round 2: Summarize Rock Star ideas.
- Round 3: Explain/coach each other about Loopback ideas.
- Collect and evaluate the paper plates and adjust instruction, review, and intervention as appropriate.
Classroom Management
- Model the strategy using a think-aloud.
- Roleplay the Musical Mix-Freeze-Group activity and ensure each student has a partner.
- Demonstrate how to select the Rock Star and Loopback ideas.
Differentiation
- Promote access by allowing students to process ideas with a supportive peer/adult.
- Provide response support by providing a word/idea bank, allowing students to dictate responses to a scribe, and/or recording ideas using speech-to-text or word prediction support.
- Access language supports by proficiency level ->
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 how your #1 Rock Star idea and your #1 Loopback idea will be tested.
- Encourage students to use lead4ward’s Thinking Stems (English/Spanish) to frame their responses, if needed.
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Read the video transcript
This instructional strategy is called What's on Your Plate. Make sure to save it to use in class. You start by providing each student with a paper plate. Students then brainstorm everything they learned in the unit. Next, they draw a star beside the two to three ideas they understand the best. Then they circle two to three ideas they are still confused about. And finally, students participate in three rounds of musical mix freeze group. Play music while students walk around the room and stop the music so they can find a partner. In round 1, they share brain brainstormed ideas and add new ideas. In round 2, they summarize their starred ideas. And in round 3, they investigate the circled ideas together. Collect and evaluate the paper plates and adjust instruction, review, and intervention as appropriate.

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