What is a Starter (Do-Now)?
A starter (or do-now) is any activity that opens a lesson. It may or may not be related to the main lesson content and usually lasts anything from three to ten minutes. Starters should be accessible (can all pupils easily understand what to do?), fun (do they want to do it?) and give learners a feeling of success (are there opportunities for everyone to get at least some answers right?).
Here are some tried and tested ways to engage and focus your class right from the moment they enter the classroom:
- Find The Question. Choose 5-10 words or phrases. Tell them these are answers and that their job is to think of a question for each one. The answers could be general (e.g. ‘the sea’), to encourage creative thinking. However, many pupils will want to deal only with closed questions. In this case, a specific answer such as ‘Curley’s wife’ is easier to devise a question for (e.g. who did Lennie accidentally kill in Of Mice and Men?
- Quiz Noughts and Crosses On the board draw a 3x3 grid, and in each square write a letter or acronym. In teams pupils choose squares, but don’t automatically get to put their O or X – they must first answer a question relating to the letter. For example, which A. L. was the president of the USA who was assassinated at the theatre?
- Pictionary. This is especially good for foreign language teaching. Draw (or part-draw) any object, facial expression, symbol etc. The first student to name it is the winner. If pupils are struggling, give them two possible answers to choose from. It is a good idea to compile a list of words and their corresponding illustrations in advance, because you can be sure that a certain percentage of your class will turn up armed with precisely no ideas of what to draw and how to draw it! This starter works well with those who struggle with their confidence (especially in literacy); it gives them the chance to stand in front of the class without the fear of getting the answer wrong – they get to play at being teacher, and so wield a little much needed power!
- Spell it! Take 5 - 10 words the pupils need to learn. Taking each word in turn, show them 2 different spellings, e.g. necessary /necessary. (If possible prepare this as a PowerPoint presentation). Pupils write down their guess on mini whiteboards (or rough paper), which they hold up for you. Supply answers as you go along, so any wrong guesses can be corrected immediately. Having two possible answers to choose from appeals to many learners and puts them in the right frame of mind to cope with what might be a challenging lesson ahead. The beauty of whiteboards is you can give the thumbs up to correct answers without giving the game away to others who are still gathering their thoughts!
- Define it!. As above, but instead of choosing from two possible spellings, pupils choose from two possible definitions of a word. For example: The protagonist of a story is: A) The writer? B) The main character? In maths lessons, substitute calculations for definitions. For example: 270= A) 6 x 45? B) 5 x42?
Don’t try out too many starters at once – it is a good idea to test the same activity out with different classes. A day in the life of a teacher is a busy one and a bit of starter ‘recycling’ makes for a simpler life!
With thanks to fellow contributor Beth Lynne for the American English translation of ‘starter.’
Harriet Morris - I started my career in education in 1995 as a secondary (high school) languages teacher, with a B.A. degree in French from Manchester ...
