Day 55: The Brain Bowl

For the second straight year before Thanksgiving we brought the entire sixth grade together to do a "so far year in review" trivia challenge. Every student is given a TurningPoint Clicker and then given multiple choice questions from all four core subjects (science, social studies, ELA, and math) as well as pop culture and random trivia questions (who played college sports for example). The clickers keep track of score automatically for us, so the students enjoy the competitive aspect of playing for their homeroom and for their core team (either Alcott or Hawthorne in our school). After about 30 minutes, two students are then chosen from each of the ten homerooms to compete in a final round. Where we continue to give multiple choice questions and give those twenty students exposure and make all of the things that they have learned and worked hard to practice worth knowing - even if they asked, "When are we going to use this in the real world?" 

I like this activity on this day for two reasons. First of all, units are being wrapped up or should be put on hold if they are not being wrapped up at this time of the year. To give an assessment on this day is hard because the classes are shortened with a half-day. If classes were to be held as if it were business as usual, the students would be unlikely to bring the same level of focus we typically see and some students are also already gone to visit grandma in Connecticut. Second, it gives the students a sense of school pride and a positive affiliation with school. This is a marathon and the enjoyment of this experience is building the appreciation of each curriculum for the students. Did we get closer to conquering the common core, getting a perfect score on PARCC, enrolling in Harvard, curing cancer, and teaching the future first president to achieve world peace and plant wheat crops on Mars? Not quite. What we did do was give students a fun memory from the year and also got a decent formative assessment for our troubles.