Increase Student Engagement with Task Cards

I have always tried my best to make science fun for my students.  I know the main focus is learning, but why not make learning interesting and engaging?  Well, regardless of how hard I tried to create a great lesson each day, I always had several students that just didn’t seem to care.  I would hear, “This is boring” or “Do I have to do this” from these students.  Even worse, sometimes they would try to fall asleep in class.  I felt like I was failing these students.  I knew I wasn’t a bad teacher, but that’s how I felt.  Thankfully I discovered task cards.

Task cards are versatile, able to be used repeatedly, and offer a great change of pace within a classroom.  Of course there are still struggles in my class, but I have seen student engagement rise significantly.  Below you will find a list of ways that I use task cards in my class to increase student engagement.

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Rotations – Each task card has a number on it.  I place the cards around the room on desks, tables, or counter tops.  I set a timer and allow students to freely rotate to all of the cards and answer each question.  There’s just something about getting up and moving around that the students enjoy.  Even my most reluctant learners will participate in these rotations.  If a class needs more structure, I set a timer and only allow the students to rotate when the timer goes off.  I love to actively monitor during this time.  I can easily discover which card is causing the most difficulty for my students.  This gives me great insight into concepts that need to be retaught or revisited in a class discussion.

Stations – I love science stations and my students love being able to do a hands-on activity!  🙂 I usually do some sort of station activity every week.  I set up 6 to 8 stations in the room.  One of the stations is always a task card station.  Generally I keep this station relatively small with only 4-8 different task cards.  I have discovered that too many cards can be ineffective.  I choose task cards for the station based on the core concept my students need to understand or review by the end of class.

Tutorials – Oh man.  When I was in school and went to tutoring…BORING! Hah!  I open up tutoring to all of my students.  It’s not just for the struggling students.  I tutor after school, twice a week, for 45 minutes each day.  Task cards are so easy to set up and I can have different sets ready to go for different students.  This allows me to maximize each tutoring session so that each student is receiving a meaningful and worthwhile intervention.  It’s also much more interactive than going through a PowerPoint and listening to me talk for 45 minutes.  No more boring tutoring sessions!

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Review and Reteach Days – Task cards will be chosen over a worksheet by students every time.  No doubt about it.  I use task cards on test review days or reteach days.  I usually create a class competition, maybe boys vs. girls or one side of the class vs. the other side.  I tape the task cards face down onto the board and place a number on each one.  One team will choose a number and I will read their question on the card.  If they answer correctly they receive 1 point.  They also receive a chance to shoot my Nerf basketball into the hoop from a designated line for a bonus point.  If they answer incorrectly, then the other team can “steal” their question and earn 1 point for a correct answer.  We play until all of the cards have been answered.  I reward the entire class at the end of the game for actively participating with usually a jolly rancher.  The winning team also receives an extra prize (teacher choice).

Scavenger Hunts – A student favorite!  I hide the task cards around the room, some in obvious places and others in much more difficult locations.  The students must hunt for the card, answer the question once a card is located, and repeat the process until all cards have been discovered and answered.  Sometimes I hide a few cards in the morning knowing that my lesson for the day might be a bit short.  This is a great strategy for filling a little extra time at the end of class…and the students love it!

Substitute Plans in a Hurry – Occasionally you need a substitute at the last minute.  Task cards are the perfect back up plan in case of an emergency.  I have had numerous substitutes leave positive notes about how engaged and on-task the students were while using the task cards.  I don’t recommend doing a task card rotation with a substitute.  I would have the substitute give each student a card and the students can pass the cards to one another after a given amount of time.  Substitute days are the only days I do not encourage movement in my class!  😉

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Quiz – Quiz – Trade – Another student favorite.  Give each student a task card.  The students must find another student and ask the questions on the cards.  Once both students have asked and answered the questions they will trade their cards.  Students then find a different student and repeat the process again.  I allow 10-15 minutes to do this type of activity.  I always participate in this activity with a card of my own, so that I can engage the quiet, shy, or reluctant learners.

DMC or ISS Work – In my district we use the acronym DMC (Discipline Management Class) for students that have been removed from class for some reason.  I have heard it called ISS (In-School Suspension) by many other teachers also.  It’s a nightmare when students miss class, especially if they are in DMC for several days.  I have the solution!  At the beginning of the year I put together a bucket of all of my task cards, student sheets, and answer keys and store it in the DMC room.  If one of my students receives DMC, I notify the DMC teacher of the task card concept I want the student to work on.  The DMC teacher has the answer key to offer assistance when necessary and the student has a great activity to complete.  This has totally kept me sane when students miss multiple days of class due to behavior.

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There are so many other ways to utilize task cards (ex. partner work, independent study, question of the day, exit tickets, warm-ups, etc.).  If you are interested in using task cards in your class we have created a 30 Set Task Card Bundle that covers a huge variety of concepts.  Each of these task card sets is also available individually.  Each set includes a student recording sheet and answer key as well.  Just print, laminate (if you choose), cut, and go!

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We’d love to hear your comments below or strategies you use to boost engagement in your classroom.  Thanks for stopping by!  As always, feel free to contact us anytime!  We are here to help.

Take care,

Scott

 

 

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Hello everyone! We are Scott and Natalie of The Science Duo. We have 21 years of combined experience in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Science. Natalie has a BS in Geology from Stephen F. Austin University and Scott has a BS in Biology from Southern Nazarene University. You could say that we are pretty big science nerds. We now focus full time on creating interactive and engaging resources for middle school classrooms.

We strive to display our passion of science through highly engaging and differentiated lessons. We feel it is important to get students up and moving and actively participating every day. Most important of all, school should be a safe environment in which all students are respected and appreciated.

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