Need a no prep but engaging lesson? Try Card Talk

Have you ever shown up to school and realized you did have your lesson totally prepared? Your slides weren’t done, your copies weren’t made, you forgot the supplies at home?🙋🏻‍♀️ I know I have. I usually batch plan my lessons in advance but on more than one occasion I have shown up knowing what I was going to teach but realized I hadn’t prepared the slides. Teachers have busy lives with school, committees, clubs and sports, second jobs, family, and sometimes it happens. So I am here to provide you with an easy no prep activity that you can use over and over again: Card talk!

The premise of card talk is so easy!

1. Give your students a piece of paper and a prompt.

2. Students write or draw to answer the prompt.

3. Talk about your students’ responses.

Card talk can be done with any level (I have used it with fourth graders!) and about any topic so you don’t have to stray from your current unit. Students are essentially planning your lesson for you and they are immediately engaged because the topic of the class is about them! It is such a great activity for building community in your classroom.

I want to help you out more so here are some prompt ideas by topic and talking points.

• Describing Places (What it is like, what's there):

  • What is your ideal vacation (where, activities to do, what the place is like)?

  • What other country would you want to visit?

  • What is your favorite space in your home?

  • What would your dream home have? Where would it be?

  • What is your favorite place in town?

  • What is your favorite outdoor place?

  • you could travel back in time, when & where would you go (activities they would do)?

• Describing People (looks, personality):

  • Who is your hero?

  • Who is your favorite Disney character?

  • Who is your favorite Disney villain?

  • Who is your favorite book character?

  • Who is your favorite movie character?

  • Describe a family member

  • What is your future profession (personality/skill requirements, where they work)?

  • Who is the best superhero?

  • What is your special talent?

  • If you could eat dinner with a famous person (alive or dead), who would it be, why, where would you take them?

• Preferences & Opinions

  • What is your favorite class (time, reason, supplies)?

  • What is the best & worst school lunch?

  • What is your favorite breakfast, lunch or dinner?

  • What is the best weekend outfit?

  • What is the best/worst kind of music?

  • What is the most overplayed song?

  • What is your favorite animal (color, habitat)?

  • What is your favorite holiday (date, activities, people)?

  • What is your favorite sport / activity, overall or by season (season, when)?

  • What is the best/worst chore (when they do the chore, how long it takes)?

  • What is your biggest pet peeve?

  • What is the best Halloween candy?

  • What is one food you like and one you don’t like?

• Stories:

  • Summarize your favorite movie / TV show.

  • What is your favorite Disney movie?

  • Summarize your favorite book.

  • What is your favorite childhood memory?

  • What is your favorite family tradition?

  • What is a funny story from when you were little?

  • What kind act would you do if you won a million dollars?

The ideas could go on and on! Card talk is a great activity to have in your toolbox. Some prompts lean toward simpler language and some towards more complex. You can level up or down your language to meet your students' proficiency level.

Card talk can be as simple as students writing a few words or drawing a picture on a piece of paper which is great if you need a no prep activity. Or, students could add images and a blurb to a single slide to take it up a level. To take it up another notch you could have students create a whole slideshow or comic strip to tell a story that you can project and talk about.

Because I want to help you out even more I created a simple Google Slides presentation you can copy and add to your LMS for students to add images and notes about their answer. To get the SlideShow just sign up for our email list below!