During a student’s middle school science experience, they learn SO many different topics within so many units and even more vocabulary. How do you get them to remember those topics long-term after you’ve already passed on to the next unit? It’s easier than you think and it’s the reason I use spiral review science warm ups daily.
What is the Importance of Spiral Review in Science?
Well, many science topics tend to blend together or build up on each other in many ways. Think about things like heat transfer and convection in the Earth’s mantle or talking about atoms and how they make up some of the tiniest life forms like single-celled bacteria. Not only that, but if you teach an 8th grade science class or any grade that has a standardized science test, it’s crucial that you review. Often, so much is covered on those state tests and it feels like you never have enough time to finish your own pacing guide, let alone review previous grade level material.
What is a Warm Up?
Warm ups, bellringers, Do nows, starters, etc. There are so many names to define the same thing. Basically, a warm up is a question or quick activity that students do the moment they walk in the door. It shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to do and those 5 minutes can be magic. How’s that?
- You can complete your attendance on time.
- Reduce student distractions during transition time in the hallway.
- Get students thinking about science the moment they walk in.
- Review previously taught material.
- After students work on them, I can review the question/address any misconceptions quickly.
I could go on and on about warm ups and why I love using them in middle school science but for now, let’s just focus on how I use them for spiral review.
How do you Choose Questions?
The questions I choose from my warm ups vary by topic. I try to include 1-2 Earth/Space questions, Life Science Questions and Physical Science questions per week. Each day, the students answer 1-2 questions in which they need to explain their answers. This has helped me expose my students to a little bit of everything for review throughout the school year. Questions for the unit I am currently teaching will be in the set of questions for the week as well.
Another tip I have for you is to never use multiple-choice or true/false questions. Why? Because students will just circle any old answer and say they completed the warm up. Some won’t even read the question. Now, I understand those standardized test questions are usually multiple choice and students need that exposure but, if you need to do it this way, have students explain why they choose their answer to you. Not only will they need to think about what they know but it will allow you to understand what their thought process was while they answered. This gives you another way to see what misconceptions or errors in thought need to be addressed.
How Do You Present Warm Ups to Students?
- Print out a template that already has the questions on them for students. This is a great method for creating your warm ups in advance and not having to think about a new question every day. I like to add images or clip art to mine so that students can easily find certain questions or use those images to answer them. This is how they look.
2. You can also give students a blank template and have students copy the question on their own from a presented slide or question written on the board. I give the same template, just blank.
3. Go completely digital! Have students keep a digital interactive science notebook of warm up questions. That way, you can keep it all on your school’s LMS and make grading easier.
How Do You Grade Warm Ups?
I go more in detail about this process in this blog post, but I check them daily for completion. I make sure they answered the question completely. It doesn’t even need to be correct, just answered. I want to see what students are thinking in relation to the topic. Guessing is better than “I don’t know!” I can address misconceptions with a wrong answer rather than a simple “IDK” written across the paper. So yes, these are a participation/completion grade in my class but you can choose to do them in a way that suits you and your students.
Using the spiral review method in my warm ups has decreased my stress levels in regards to review. I don’t worry about cramming content weeks before the testing season because we review little by little each day!
Grab the exact spiral review warm ups I use for my class on my website here or shop on TPT.
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