Bell Ringers

I'm sure many of you are way ahead of me in appreciating and using material from Matt Miller's Ditch that Textbook, like this Yelp Review template (for reviewing a place as a historical character), or one of these 20 ideas for exit tickets, which include

• The class sketchnote: At the end of class, ask students to draw, doodle, diagram, etc. a part of the lesson they remembered on the whiteboard/chalkboard at the front of class. Seeing everyone’s responses in one place is a fun visual experience. Plus, when you see lots of similar responses — or a lack of certain responses! — it can show you what stuck and what didn’t.
• The sticky note mosaic: Grab a few pads of sticky notes of different colors. Tell students what each color stands for: something that know for sure, something they’re still unclear on, something they need to tell the teacher, etc. Stick the sticky notes on the board randomly or in groups as they leave. The colors will help you sort them quickly.

A lot of Matt Miller's ideas sound really great (if you have a favorite, let me know). I was particularly taken with Caption This, the very first item on his list of "20 digital bell ringer activities to kickstart class." 

Per the Ditch that Textbook, the activity works because it forces students to make inferences and think about perspective. It's also fun!  

I was so taken with it that I made a few for Montana history--including one for Lewis and Clark, two for the fur trade, one for gold mining, one for the Tenth Cavalry, one for homesteading, and one for logging.

These were easy to do using Ditch That Textbook's template--and if you don't want to have your students working online, you can simply print out the slides. Feel free to use the ones I created--and if you create any others around a Montana history theme, send them to me and I'll add them to this shared folder so everyone can access them.