Bait and Switch:
Give a quick, ungraded, true or false quiz. Thtwist- Although all the statments are plausible, they are all false. Examples- “All oceans have the same salinity”, “Nothing lives in anoxic mud”.
Collective Recall/ Information Dump
- Have students independently recall everything the know on a topic, include terms, symbols, sketches, etc.
- Meet in small groups, pool ideas on a shared whiteboard, paper, or slide.
Read Children’s Book
This can prompt students to surface what they already know about a topic, while building background knowledge and reading confidence. This doesn’t need to be perfectly aligned- Example: The Rainbow Fish before a unit on communism.
Use a KWL chart or a Concept Map
Visualize relationships between concepts.