It is that time of year where the sun is shining more and students' needs are changing! Earlier this spring, I found myself with a school break approaching and a class full of squirrely middle schoolers. My students need lots of movement this time of year, and they need new activities–as some of the old favorite activities are becoming predictable. I found the perfect solution in a Musical Chairs-style activity, inspired by this Facebook post by Head Over Heels for teaching. We’re going to call it Stop and Scribble.
Stop and Scribble: A musical chairs-style activity for class
by Meghan Loveless
In this activity, every student starts at their seat with a blank worksheet. Students stand up and begin moving around the room as the teacher plays music. When the teacher stops the music, the students scramble to find the nearest worksheet. They pick up a writing utensil and start scribbling: completing ONE part of the worksheet. They might write the response to one question, illustrate one frame of a storyboard, or match one pair of sentence halves. The task will depend on the contents of the worksheet. When most students have finished the task, the teacher starts the music back up and students stand and begin moving again.
What you need for the activity:
With that in mind, all you need is a worksheet of your choice and a writing utensil for every student. Oh, and some music to play!
Make it no prep
You could even make this a no-prep or almost-no-prep activity by placing blank paper at every seat and then calling out instructions after each stop of the music. Once every student is at a paper, you can call out a question for them to answer or a task for them to complete.
What the activity looked like in class
At the time, my school and district were participating in Locura de Marzo–which is one of the popular bracket-style music competitions that run in March. I am always on the lookout for new activities that inspire communication but still involve the music we are listening to throughout the month. Stop and Scribble was perfect because I could use content totally unrelated to Locura de Marzo but play some of our LdM songs while the students moved around the room.
The worksheet I used was a ready-to-go printable set from a Grammar in Context lesson about Marambio Station with -ir verbs. Students’ Stop and Scribble task was to choose one frame of the storyboard to illustrate. With a 12-frame storyboard, I played and paused the music 12 times before the activity was done.
Caption: This is a 6-frame storyboard; it is not the 12-frame double-sided storyboard included in the Marambio Station plans.
What we did before the activity
Like most things we do in class, this activity didn’t just drop out of the heavens and land on students’ desks. There was scaffolding! By the time we Stopped and Scribbled, the students had already listened to a story multiple times and read it. The activity then became a chance for them to demonstrate their comprehension (formative assessment, anyone?) by illustrating one part of the story.
Materials needed
If you want to do this activity sequence exactly as I did, here’s what you need:
- A blank grid that will become a storyboard (this could be printed or hand drawn by students on the spot)
- A prewritten story, broken into chunks and formatted/sized so that each chunk of the story will fit in a single frame of the grid. Don’t make the chunks too long! Ideally, scramble the chunks so they are out of order on the original worksheet.
- Scissors
- Glue
- A pen or pencil
What story can you use?
ANY! Choose any co-created class story, use a story from the Somos Flex Curriculum, use worksheets about news stories from El mundo en tus manos… anything! When I tried this activity for the first time, I used the Dos astronautas story from the updated -IR Present Indicative Verbs Grammar in Context lesson that teaches students about Argentina’s Marambio Station in Antarctica.
Remember–you don’t even have to use a story! I did Stop and Scribble with a storyboard, but you can use any worksheet.
OPTIONAL: Scaffold the task
Distribute copies: Pass out photocopies of the text you are working with to students. The text should be broken into segments, and the segments should be arranged on the photocopy out of order. (See the example photocopy labeled with the Letter A in one of the previous photos.)
Cut apart segments: Tell students to cut apart the story segments. As they cut them apart, they could read aloud each piece to themselves or to a partner and begin considering the meaning.
Read aloud: Once everyone has their story segments in front of them, read the story to students. As you read, students glue the chunks of the story onto the storyboard in the correct order. Read slowly, and tell students which box they are working on as you go (1, 2, 3, etc.). If they can’t find one fast enough, don’t worry, you can read it again!
TIP: Slow it down!
You can build in processing time so that all your students can be successful on this task, with no one left behind. As you read, pause occasionally to ask processing questions, personalized questions, and comprehension questions. Each time you interrupt the reading with a question, resume afterward by re-reading that segment from the beginning.
Stop and Scribble activity sequence
First, have all students clear their work spaces so that only a writing utensil and the blank storyboard are in it.
Next, explain the activity procedures and expectations to your students. Be specific! What kind of movements are allowed? What is the expectation around singing and volume? What is okay and not okay to do as students scramble to get to a worksheet? If students are drawing, what is okay and not okay to draw?
- I’ll play music.
- As the music plays, sing and dance around the room (or just walk if you prefer!)
- When the music stops, move to the nearest worksheet. It probably won’t be yours!
- Pick any frame, read the paragraph, and draw a quick illustration. You will have 1 minute, so sketch it fast!
- When the music starts, put down the pencil, leave the worksheet there, and start moving around the room again.
- Repeat each time the music stops!
Ready to begin? Start the music playing! If you’re comfortable, help students get into the vibe by enjoying a little dance break yourself! My students love to laugh at me as I demonstrate my ridiculousness and it creates a space that they feel willing to take a silly risk! But, not all teachers are comfortable with that. Remember, you do you!
After a little bit (you decide how long!), stop the music and watch students safely scramble to the nearest storyboard. Help students find unclaimed storyboards and instruct everyone to get to work. Remind them that the task is to read any box and illustrate it with a simple, fast picture.
After one minute, play the music again. Reiterate the expectation that students must immediately drop their utensils and start moving around the room!
Repeat the starting and stopping of music until all parts of the worksheet are complete.
Send students back to their original seats and give them time to examine their completed storyboards–now illustrated by as many as six different classmates!
Play another song and give students a few minutes to add details to the illustrations on their storyboards.
How to grade it?
This activity should not be graded for completion nor for quality. The worksheets are completed collaboratively. If you have to assign a grade for every activity in your class, you can mark student participation: did they participate and follow expectations or not? If you have control over your grade book design, such a grade should be a formative grade and weighted minimally–if at all–in your grade book. You can learn more about how The Comprehensible Classroom recommends structuring grade books here.
Follow-up activities
There is no need to do a follow-up activity, but depending on the content and your learning objectives, you may want to add one or more in! Here are some quick ideas:
- Show a partner the co-drawn storyboard
- Up/down formative listening assessment
- Quick game of Pencil Grab
- 2 truths and a 1 lie
What music can you play?
ANY! Just make sure you preview the music you play but you can choose whatever music you want. I used the two songs that we were voting on in our Locura de Marzo brackets, but you could use songs that are familiar to your students or not.
Add some competition:
Many middle schoolers think Musical Chairs is the greatest thing ever. Something about the chance to touch other people as they fight for the last chair, probably! So if your students are disappointed when you describe Stop and Scribble as a Musical-Chairs-Style activity…and then don’t have that element of competition…there’s a way you can bring it back in.
A strong word of caution: only add this component if students can handle it! If there are classes with students who will struggle with big emotions brought on by competition, it might not be worth it to add this element. I preemptively remind my students of our affirmations:
- we are in control of our bodies,
- we don’t touch other students, and
- anyone who compromises the safety of other students will have to sit and complete the activity quietly on their own. (And guess what–giving students the option to sit and complete the activity quietly on their own; not as a consequence but as a preferential choice; is a great way to build in differentiation and create a space where all students are comfortable.)
To sprinkle in some friendly competition (emphasis on friendly!), after each round, take away one of the storyboards from the main area and put it off to the side. The last student who can’t get to a worksheet in the main area can head over to the sidelined storyboards, and continue the activity working on a single storyboard in that section (no more switching between music plays).
Use Stop and Scribble when you need an energy boost
This is exactly what we needed today, a fun story, music, and dancing! Try it and let us know how it goes!
