Ways To Use Task Cards

Task cards are a great activity to use in the classroom as it encourages independence, critical thinking, used for review, assessment, and can replace worksheets.  Task cards can be either in hard copy or digital form. Today I'm just exploring ways to use them in class and on Monday, we'll look at how to create digital versions that can be assigned via a learning platform.

A task card is a card with a question or task students are asked to do or answer.  These are great for reviewing a topic or concept and they are not a good activity for introducing something new. 

Task cards can be used in so many different ways in the classroom.  Rather than seeing them as "tasks", see them as a versatile element of instructional activities. It is important to know what process students are using the cards for.  It is a review, additional practice, or assessment so you know what the expected result is.

Task cards can be used with individual students to reinforce their learning of a specific concept or topic if they need a bit more time to master it.  In addition, a teacher can use the student's answer to assess their understanding of the material. Students can do a many as needed for them to learn the topic so if they just need one more time, they do one task card, if they need several more tries, they will do those.

Instead of sending home a worksheet or book assignment, use task cards so they an work on the skill outside of the classroom.  This is a perfect situation for either a physical or digital task card.  The advantage to using a digital task card is that the student cannot forget or lose it.

For students who are ahead of everyone else, create more challenging task cards so these students are not bored. These can be available to those students who always finish early or need enrichment.  Task cards can be created for students of different ability levels.

In addition, physical task cards can be used to create movement within the classroom.  It often helps students focus better if they can move around the classroom. Just make sure students know what you expect when they move around.  One way to do this is to place task cards around the room like you do in search and rescue and have students work their way through the cards.  They write their answers on an answer sheet where they can show their work.  At the end of the period or time, they turn in answers to the teacher.

Task cards can also be used in small groups by passing out one card at a time to each group and have all the members of the group write their answers on white boards so they can compare answers.  If any of the answers are different, it opens up the group for a dialog so they can work on determining which answers are correct or reasonable.

Turn the use of task cards into a game such as "Scoot".  In this game, students each get a stack of task cards. They need to answer as many as they can within two to three minutes. They can write answers in their notebook, on a whiteboard, or in a journal.  When time is up, the teacher calls "Scoot" and the students either move to the next stack to the right, or they pass the stack of cards to the right and they do it again.   Another possible game is to have two students, standing back to back,  in the middle of the room.  They are each given the same task card that the teacher reads the card so the class knows what they are doing.  Students write the answers on a whiteboard and when they are both done, they compare answers and then two new students are chosen.  

It is possible to turn the material on task cards into a board game that students play.  Task cards are ideal for interventions.  Use them when working with students who need additional help.  So many ways to use task cards instead of worksheets.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Check back on Monday to learn how to make digital task cards.