Whether they are used to start class, or they come after the
If the main goal of your lesson is introducing students to a new concept (e.g. Trophic levels in Biology, bias in social studies, or various types/definitions of love in an ELA class that is reading Romeo and Juliet) consider using accessible content like images, short scenarios or quotes, or videos about current life to prompt students to begin engaging with this the new idea.
Some activities that work for this type of activity are:
See-think-wonder or Notice-Wonder-Reminds
Four corners (seated adaptation)
Small scenarios with questions
Engaging Videos
Here are some examples from different types of classes:
Anticipation guides are a great way to get students thinking about the essential questions they will be answering in a lesson or unit. In this activity, the teacher provides students with a series of agree/disagree questions This strategy can be implemented as a partner discussion or four corners activity in which students walk around the room capturing their own and their classmates’ answers to the anticipation guide questions.
A KWL activity is a great way to check what students already know about a topic and gauge their level of interest or curiosity about a topic. This activity often follows a see-think-wonder or similar warm-up/do now and can be followed by explicit vocabulary instruction that begins to answer the questions students generate during the activity.
See - Think - Wonder is a strategy in which students look at an image and use it to create a list of inferences and questions that then can become a jumping-off point.