Quiet transition activities...McGraw-Hill

Five Easy Transition Activities

1. Free-Writing Exercises
Give students who finish an activity early a guided, free-writing topic that
relates to the next subject that you are about to teach. You can ask them to:
• write everything they know about the subject
• write a list of questions they have about the topic
• write their personal feeling about the topic
• imagine they are another person, a historical figure perhaps, and how they
would view the topic

2. Big Question Writing
Ask students to write a paragraph about a "big question." A few suggestions:
• What qualities should a president have?
• If you could invite three people to dinner, whom would you invite? Why?
• If you could travel to the moon, would you go? Why?
• Do you believe there is life on other planets? Why?
• If humans are able to create sophisticated forms of artificial intelligence in
robots, what should they be used for?
• Does the planet need biological diversity to sustain its living organisms?

3. Challenge of the Day
Write a challenge question on the board and allow students to begin working
on it while they trickle into class. Award students points for effort and more
points for getting it right.

4. Homework Business
Ask students to review homework a final time prior to turning it in.
Have students write down new homework assignments that have been written
on the chalkboard.

5. Skim and Scan Pre-Reading
Ask students to skim and scan the next chapter in the textbook and create an
outline based on the table of contents, section titles, and/or first sentences of
the first paragraph in each new section.