Poster Review : a minimal prep activity for a year’s worth of review
This is my favorite review activity to do with my 8th graders at the beginning of the year. It is so simple and makes them feel proud about what they remember.
Supplies:
Several pieces large poster paper / Giant post-it paper (one for each category)
Markers in a variety of colors (1 marker in each color for each group)
You will need one paper for each category. You could do this on regular printer paper if you don’t have any giant poster paper. I picked my categories based on the range of topics we covered last year.
My categories:
Calendar / Weather / Numbers
Describing characters (looks/personality)
Describing places (adjectives, objects, types of places)
Stories (verbs, other words from the stories)
Culture (French or English words/facts)
Split your class into the number of groups based on the categories you have. Give each group a different colored marker. Label the posters with the category and prompts, and spread the posters around the room.
Groups will work on a poster for three - four minutes brainstorming all the words/phrases they remember about the topic, trying to spell it the best they can. When the time is up, groups rotate. They read the words of the previous group and should add to the list and they can fix any spelling mistakes. Groups continue to rotate until they have worked on every category.
The posters make great anchor charts to hang on the walls.
Variations:
Groups can rotate back to their original group and translate the list into English. I don’t do this so I can hang up the posters and leave them up for summatives.
As a class, write a story using the posters as a reference.
Students write a story independently using the posters.
Make it a competition. Students get one point for each word/phrase they add to their poster. Other groups can earn a bonus point if they have corrected the spelling of the other group.
Make each category a page in a packet instead of a poster. Students work on each page in the same fashion as the poster activity. Play like scattegories. Groups read off their words and gain points if no other groups have their word/phrase.
I like that I am able to quickly do a review of the entire year without spending more than a class period on it so it doesn’t drag on and become boring. Any other review I do is in context of a new lesson.
All the best,
Robyn
