Task cards are a great way to boost engagement and review important concepts or topics in your upper elementary or middle school classroom. There’s many different ways to use task cards with your students. Why not try a new way and watch your students interact with the questions. Task cards are a fun and effective alternative to boring worksheets!
Here are 10 Ways you can use Task Cards in Your Classroom
- Use the task cards to allow student movement around the room. I often hide the task cards around the room, under desks or on the floor. This makes the activity feel more like a scavenger hunt. Let kids get out of their seat!
- Try using the task cards in small groups. Each group could do one task card at a time and then compare answers. Working with a partner or a group often strikes up conversations about WHY an answer is right or wrong. Try pairing high achieving students with struggling students.
3. Use the task cards as a white board activity. Students can write their answers on the whiteboard so the teacher gets an overall class view of student learning. You can then hold a small discussion before moving on to the next one. Allow students to keep track of the “points” they earn for correct answers and consider offering a reward for the top scores.
4. Use the task cards in a game of “Scoot”. Give students different cards to answer within a certain amount of time. Students will answer it on their own recording sheet. When time is up, call out “Scoot!” Students will then move to another card and repeat the process. If you prefer that your students remain seated, you could allow the students to pass the task card to a new student.
5. Use the task cards to reinforce the skills and content with an individual student who may need more time to understand the topic. One to one learning is extremely effective and can be done before school, after school, lunch and learns or with co-teachers.
6. Use the task cards as a remediation activity for those who struggled on a formative or summative assessment or for small group interventions. It’s imperative that students understand what they missed on an assessment to move forward.
7. Use the task cards as an anticipation activity. Prior to a unit of study, allow students to work through the task cards as a means to assess prior knowledge.
8. Use the task cards as an enrichment activity for early finishers or those who have shown mastery.
9. Use task cards as an exit slip for spiral review.
10. Use the task cards with ANY game board! Jenga, Connect Four, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, or any other game that you can think of! Each student must correctly answer a task card before their turn. If the student gets the answer wrong, play goes to the next student.
