Keeping Students Engaged, Part 3: Quiz-Quiz-Trade

Welcome to part three of my four part blog series on Keeping Students Engaged.  If you missed the first two parts, don't worry, I have included links to those topics at the end of this post.

Student Engagement Quiz Quiz Trade

In this series, I have been sharing structured engagement activities. These are activities that can be used and reused throughout the year with different skills and content. The content may change, but the activity and how it works does not.  These structures allow students to be successful because they are familiar with them, and they don't get bored with them because the content is always different.

Let's take a look at this week's structure!


Quiz-Quiz-Trade is one of my favorite engagement structures from the folks over at Kagan.  It's versatile, easy to implement, and a student favorite.

What is it?
Quiz-Quiz-Trade is an activity that gets kids moving as they actively participate in their learning.  Not only are they moving, but they are interacting with each other.  Students take turns reading questions, and answering said questions within an allotted time frame.


It is a versatile activity that can be used with any skill or subject area.  That's the beauty of engagement structures, you can reuse the activity, but change out the content thereby keeping things fresh for the kids.

How to Play
My students have always been able to grasp this structure quickly. It's an easy one to pick up on.  Here's how I use it in my classroom.
  1. Give each student a card with a question printed on it.  
  2. Set a time limit.
  3. Students walk around the room and read their questions to each other. Student A reads his/her question to Student B.  Student B answers the question. Then, Student B reads his/her question to Student A.  Student A answers the question.
  4. After the two students have read their cards to each other, they trade cards and then find someone new to read to.
  5. Play repeats until time is up.
  6. At the end of the activity, go over the questions as a whole group.

Tip #1: Your time limit will depend upon how much time you have to spare for this activity.  I find that I usually keep our Quiz-Quiz-Trade sessions limited to no more than 5 or 6 minutes because we also need time to go over the questions as a whole group.

Tip #2: I highly recommend that you set a voice level for this activity.  You will have a room full of kids all talking at once.  That has the potential for getting quite loud.  I tell my students to use a "two inch voice," meaning they speak only loud enough for their partner to hear them.  

Tip #3: It's OK if your students don't get a chance to read a question to every single one of their classmates.  With all of the trading going on, it's likely they will end up answering most of the questions, and they may even answer a few of them more than once. Be sure to tell your students this before you begin playing. 

Materials
When using this structure, you will need some question cards, like these.

 
Or these.  These question cards are perfect for practicing the skill of speaking in complete sentences.
 
Student Engagement Quiz Quiz Trade

You can grab these free question cards here.

Task cards and flash cards, like these, work great too. 

These flash cards are from the Smart Cookie Math Series by Lucky to be in First



Tip #3: If you need questions that are specific to what you're reading or learning, make your own question cards.  I often use this structure during our whole group reading time when reviewing for reading tests.  Each question card also has the answer printed on it, but this isn't necessary.


Tip #4: Work SMARTER, not harder, and team up with another teacher to create materials like this.  Several years ago, my team worked together to create questions like this for all of the stories in our basal (so that we have the option of using them as needed/desired).

Tip #5: Let the students write their own questions.  Be sure to remind them to write very neatly, and be sure to check their spelling so that their classmates will have an easier time reading the questions.

Final Note
I'm so glad you stopped by today!  Want to save these tips and tricks for future reference?  Then, be sure to pin this post!

::PIN IT::

Student Engagement Quiz Quiz Trade

If you missed the first two posts in the series, be sure to check them out by clicking the links below.
Part 1: I Spy
Part 2: Scoot
Part 4: I Have, Who Has

Toodles!

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