Hooks To Start The Day With.

I'm always hearing that I need to hook students at the beginning of the period but I don't always know what to do.  I've used games such as Bingo, Kahoot, Estimysteries,  and I've even created short movie trailers to introduce the next concept but I know there are more things I can do to capture their interest. My goal is to have a months worth of hooks available to start class with.

There are several "hooks" teachers can use to engage students in the class. Once you capture their attention, it is easier to keep their focus through the rest of class and that is important.  

First show a list of words associated with the next topic to the students. After a moment or two, have students guess the topic they are going to learn about.  For instance, you are getting ready to introduce algebraic fractions so you could use words like part, whole, variables, common denominators to peak their interest. 

Or one can start with a short game such as Kahoot, bingo, a web based game, a dice or card game, or even a team building game.  I've used bingo before to cover many concepts. I pass out an empty bingo card so students can fill it out based on a list of possible answers.  I pull out questions which students have to workout to find the solution.  I've done it with fractions, binomial multiplication, trinomial factoring, geometric shapes, angles, and more.  

I've done relays where I divide the students up into teams, pass out a sheet with say 5 problems. The first person completes the first problem, the second person solves the second problem etc till all the problems are done. The first team with all the problems done correctly wins.  If they get done and I check the problems, they have to check their work if I find one wrong answer. 

I ran across a suggestion for the teacher to show a short video clip.  The video clip is shown in class and then students are asked to share "what they notice?", "what they wonder?" and what type of math do they see in the video.  You can also use a 3 act task that begins with a video or you can use iMovie to create a trailer that introduces the next topic.  I've made a couple that were a mission impossible type and another one that was a romantic type trailer to introduce complementary and supplementary angles.  

Incorporate activities that ask them to think about real world situations such as in Estimation 180, Would you rather, or Which one doesn't belong.  I've used all of them before and they were a great way to have students explain their thinking while using math to justify their answers.  The nice think about the Which one doesn't belong is that there are multiple answers so every student can be "right". 

There is always the Notice and wonder activities one can begin with.  You find an interesting picture, show it to the students so they can communicate what they notice about the picture and what they wonder about the situation.  

None of these activities should take more than 10 minutes.  They get the students into the right mood and allow students to practice their mathematical communications while hooking them so they are engaged in the lesson.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.