Warm-ups are a great way to assess students' learning and retention of knowledge. A teacher may use warm-ups to assess what the class learned from previous lessons. Warm-ups can help answer the question: Is it time to move one, or do I need to spend more time on the concept? To do this the teacher may present a problem similar to problems students worked on in the previous class or as homework.
Warm-ups are also a great way to find out about student's interests and prior knowledge. When given prior to a unit, the teacher can use warm-ups as a sort of pre-test measuring what students already know about a topic. Warm ups are versatile! If a teacher wants to know what students want to learn about a concept, all s/he has to do is ask the students: Where do you use fractions in real life? What do you already know about fractions? What do you hope to learn about fractions?
Warmups also become routine. Routine is an important part of learning. Routine reduces stress because students know what to expect. Warmups get the brain focused, and the juices focused. They help student recall what they recently learned. The short-nature of warm-ups (5-10 minutes) means students have to think fast. It helps focus students, and transition them from the subject of their last class (such as U.S. history) to their current class (such as math)--It helps their brain switch gears.
No comments:
Post a Comment