Word Toss

We are getting ready to read the book Frindle, by Andrew Clements. I love all of Andrew Clements’ books, and so do the students! To give students a little hint of what they were about to read, I chose 11 words from the book that would get them thinking.  We used a cooperative learning strategy called Word Toss.

 

I typed the words and printed them out on different colored paper. This extra step was to reduce the number of extra or missing words between teams.

Students worked in teams of three to create a prediction for what they thought the book might be about. Most teams sorted their words into categories that they thought made sense. There were some heavy conversations going on.

After they had discussed what they thought the book would be about, as a team they wrote their prediction. I then read the back of the book to them. I heard some “yays” and “oh mans” while reading the back.

 

These charts will stay up in the classroom while we are reading Frindle. We will periodically refer to them and make changes along the way.

What just happened?

Students are practicing how to make predictions, and they are also going learning how to go back and evaluate those predictions. Prior knowledge has been established and reading comprehension has been supported.

This strategy can be used in other areas besides reading. What ways could you use it in your classroom?