Literacy Strategy 38: Take 6 (p 110)

Description/Advantages: Take 6 is a quick and easy way to review vocab that you don't have to make a lot of preparations for in advance.  It is listed in the book as a sponge activity, but since reading about it in this book, I have used it every other week or so for review, especially right before a quiz or test.  The students work in pairs.  Each pair of students has one die (singular for dice, boys and girls), and one student rolls the over and over again until they get a 6.  In the mean time the other student is trying to write as many definitions as possible before the other student rolls a siz and time is up.  Once the first student gets a "6", they switch and the 2nd student is rolling over and over until he or she gets a 6 while the first one writes as many definitions as possible and then they switch again.  I posted a list of words on the board for them to work from, but there are other ways you could do this activity.   You could just have them think of as many terms as possible on a given topic or from a given chapter.  One teacher used it to review capitols and other locations in geography.  It makes reviewing quick and competitive, and lots of info can be covered in a short period of time.  The kids really seem to like it.  You can see a brief video of them doing this below.

Words of caution:  It is loud and it is only useful for rote memorization.  There are other ways of practicing this kind of material online.  Quizlet allows students to make their own flash cards, so they can continue the review at home.  Kahoot and Socrative both allow you to make competitive games out of multiple choice questions that the whole class can use together.  While these last 2 websites are not as useful for covering a lot of material in a short amount of time, they give you data as to who is having problems with what and Kahoot you even have a chance to stop and talk about where wrong answers come from and see how many you have in real time.

Rating:  I give "Take 6" 4.5 stars (out of 5) for how quick the set up is and how much material they can cover in a short amount of time while being completely engaged.  As long as it is used for the correct purpose, it is a great activity.