Roll a Question

One simple formative assessment I do fairly regularly with my students is to play "Roll a Question."  My students like this activity because it feels like a game.  I like this activity because I can sneak in opportunities for speaking and to assess content knowledge and/or vocabulary.  

Recently, we played "Roll a Question" in three of my groups.  Our current content units are:  3rd grade-States of Matter, 4th grade-Westward Expansion, and 5th grade-World War I.  It was the third day into the units so I thought it was time to do a quick assessment over the material we have covered so far. 

All you do is type up 6 questions and get out a die or some dice.  I try to make my questions span from low level questions to high order thinking questions.  Sometimes it is easier to get a variety of questions than others based on the content you are teaching and how far into the unit you have gotten.  I always leave #6 as a "Be the Teacher" question.  

You can do this activity as a whole group (1 die) or break into partners (multiple dice).  The student rolls and answers the question in a complete sentence.  Sometimes they need to look back at their notes or ask for help and that is ok.  I play that if they get the same number as someone else, they still have to answer.  If a student rolls a 6, he creates a question related to the unit and then gets to ask the group.  Everyone hopes for a 6! 

At the end of the game, I see what questions we haven't answered or struggled with and save those for next time.  Later, I will the ones we answered multiple times to get ready for the next time we play.  

Happy Adventuring, 
Heidi 

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