Thursday, September 16, 2010

Self-Checking Practice Activity

Thought I'd share an activity with my readers that I have been using for the last couple of years. This activity is called a Star Chain. When you are tired of doing boring book work or worksheets, but your students still need a little extra practice, try a Star Chain!

Each student will get 12 problems of anything you'd like to practice. For me, it was solving linear equations.






Next, have students cut the problem cards apart.




After the cards are cut apart, students will pick any card they want to begin with. I usually tell them to pick the one that looks easiest to them. They work the problem and then find their answer at the top of another card. They tape the cards together. Continue the process until a chain is formed. If they do all the problems correctly, the last problem will match the answer at the beginning of the chain.



The next day, we connected all the chains and strung them up on the ceiling. I'll probably leave them there until the fire marshall gets me!




It's simple to make your own star chain on any topic! All you need is 12 problems with 12 UNIQUE answers. Just delete my problems and add your own!


Star Chain Solving Linear Equations

10 comments:

  1. Yeesh! FabuLOUS .... Thank you for the novel idea :).

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  2. Cool. Sharing this one with my math teachers.

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  3. I can totally adapt that to the Spanish classroom with translation! Or English--for key literary terms! Thank you!

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  4. That's a really neat idea!
    Thanks for sharing!

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  5. Super dee Duper! I have been thinking about this with the similar idea of those blocks with four answers along each edge, but every time I looked at one I got a head-ache. Now I can go for it and not even flinch! Going to use this idea for proportions. Thanks!

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  6. How do I send you the Star Chain I made for my Pre-Calc class to review all kinds of equations?

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  7. Like 'I HAVE, WHO HAS', but taking the teacher out of the mix...I LIKE It!!!
    THANKS!

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  8. That's a good idea. My college professor had us play a similar game. It's called "I have. Who has?" Cards are given out that begin with "I have" some math term. Underneath that there is a question that begins with "Who has" some math definition, description, or property. One person begins by reading their "Who has" question. The person who has the card with the word that answers the question correctly reads their "I have" statement and then asks the question underneath. The game progresses around the room and ends up with the person who asked the first question. The game helps them learn vocabulary.

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  9. This file is no longer available, is there anyway that you could reupload it or possibly email it?

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  10. Hi Krystal,

    I fixed the link. Let me know if it doesn't work for you.

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