Warm-ups

Hello everyone,

Let this one count for two days. I won't be on campus tomorrow.

We used to call "warm-ups" "dispatches." Ten years from now, they may have another name; they may have a slightly different purpose; they may even be dictated from above. They will always have, however, at least two major purposes.

First, they are supposed to prepare the kids' minds for the lesson at hand.

Second, they are supposed to give the teacher some undisturbed time to take care of the roll and other essential business.

What this means on a practical level is that warm-ups need to be easy and interesting enough that the students will require almost no supervision while doing them; and they should be somehow related to the subject being taught.

If warm-ups are too difficult or require too much supervision, then they fail in their purposes.

All this, of course, raises another problem: Where do you find a never-ending supply of warm-ups that fill the bill? I frankly question the value of spending hours preparing things that should, at most, take ten minutes of class time to do and correct. Warm-ups should be easy enough for students to do with no supervision, and they should never be difficult for the teacher to set up or manage.

Let me give a few suggestions of possible warm-ups that can be used successfully, and require little preparation:

In English, I made journals my warm-up. Students were required to write for ten minutes a day, filling a fixed number of pages per week. I graded only on quantity, though I read every journal. Journals work for history as well. My journals were almost pure freewriting. (If you're interested, I will tell you the overall value of freely written journals. There's not enough time today.) Other teachers require students to write on assigned subjects or in prescribed modalities (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, faux-journalism).

In math, I would choose problems from areas that students had already mastered. Give them problems from chapters that they worked on last month or before. This way your picking from the textbook's already established problems and you don't have to find your own.

In science, I might consider either the math or the English approach. In more math-oriented classes (like chemistry), give them problems they've already "mastered" for review. In more informational classes, let them write. How about science fiction? Maybe observational journals, requiring them to keep track of science-related things they see in their daily lives. Keep it simple.

Sustained silent reading works if you focus heavily on the ritual of it at the beginning of the year. (It's hard to get going, but it keeps itself running well once everyone buys into it. It works across the curriculum also.)

When I require reading for homework, a simple quiz can function as a warm-up. ("Write five major points that you remember from last night's reading," or "What happened to Scout in last night's reading?")

Deftly handled, warm-ups can accomplish several other things as well: They can encourage students to arrive on time; they can encourage students to do their homework; they can fill gaps in students' learning (by reviewing old material); and they can help to establish order (especially if you require silence during warm-ups). Make effective warm ups part of an unvarying classroom ritual, and you will find that management of your classroom will improve.

Finally, always collect the warm-ups, even if you don't correct them or give a grade for them. Collect them as often as possible (every day is best, though I collected the journals once a week). If students once get the idea that you are not holding them accountable for warm-ups, then they become next to useless. (I'll write about accountability another time.)

See you next week.

Jeff Combe