During the two weeks of engaging your students with the hooks comment, reflect, and share on the blog about your experiences and how your students responded.
"I am the director, producer, stage manager, and lead actor for the one hundred eighty different performances that will take place in and around my room. It is my stage, and I honor and value it as such." (Burgess, 107)
- How can I transform my room to create the ultimate atmosphere for this lesson?
- Can I change the lighting for mood?
- Can I block out all light and just use accent lights to emphasize certain things.
- Can I cover or decorate the walls, the ceiling, or the floor?
- Can I change the entrance?
- How can I rearrange the desks for this lesson to be most effective?
- Can I create more space by removing desks?
- Can I add partitions to break the room into areas or to create maze-like corridors?
- If a theme park were opening up a new attraction based on my lesson, what would it include?
- What can I write on my board or have projected on my screen that will immediately spark curiosity and interest as the students enter my room?
- What type of message will create a buzz and provoke students to point it out and begin to talk to each other about it before the bell even rings?
- What can I write that will be intriguing and mysterious and compel students to approach me and ask questions before we get started?
- Can I just put a QR code on the board or screen and see what happens?
- Can I have an intriguing image projected that will eventually tie into my content?
THE COSTUME HOOK (First Grade)
- What can I wear as an outfit or costume for this lesson?
- Is there an existing character that I can impersonate?
- Can I create a character that is relevant to this lesson
- Can I invent a superhero or super villain for this subject?
- What accessory (something as small as a hat or glasses) can I wear to enhance my presentation?
THE PROPS HOOK (Second Grade and Specialists)
- What physical item can I bring in to add to my presentation?
- What image can I show?
- Instead of just talking about a book, can I bring it?
- Instead of just mentioning a person, can I show a picture?
- What can I bring that students could actually hold in their hands and pass up and down the aisles?
THE INVOLVED AUDIENCE HOOK (Third Grade)
- How can I consistently keep the audience feeling involved?
- Can I cue them to make certain motions or sounds at key points?
- Can I incorporate call and response into this lesson?
- Can I, unknown to their classmates, cue certain students to play a pre-arranged role?
- Can I bring students to the front of the room as volunteers?
THE MYSTERY BAG HOOK (Fourth Grade)
- How can I gain engagement by openly hiding something from the class?
- Can I have a closed box or a package on the front stand? (Mr. Luca's "BOX OF MYSTERY")
- How can I build up the suspense of the unveiling?
- Can I cut a hole into a box so that students reach inside and feel the contents but not see?
- Can I give hints and open the floor for guesses?
- What can I put into the mystery box or bag that would tie to my lesson?
- After displaying the item, how can I get students to try to figure our the relationship between it and the lesson?