Chris, in a blog comment to https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/09/12/model-what-you-want-from-them/, questioned the value of bellringer activities, suggesting that kids seem to be annoyed by them and looking for possible options. Robert Harrell responded (made into a blog post here for ease of reference:
Chris, I have tried to do bell work. A few years ago I had something ready every class period every day – and with five preps a day, that was a lot of work. It still just didn’t quite work for me. Unless I collected and graded it, thus creating more work for myself, students didn’t bother to do it – not even copy down the right answers when we went over it. And I couldn’t give them a simple completion grade, because that is work habits and, according to my district, cannot be part of an academic grade.
Students also groan about the sameness of every class. Imagine going to six classes per day, and every one of them begins with a writing assignment while the teacher cooly takes roll – getting that paperwork done is obviously more important than the students themselves.
So, as soon as the bell rings (or right after announcements for fourth period), I greet the students and ask how they are doing. Yes, it’s formulaic:
-Guten Morgen/Tag!
-Wie geht’s?
-Welcher Tag ist heute?
-Was ist das Datum?
-Wer ist nicht hier?
But in between those formulaic greetings is some conversation in German:
-Wie geht’s? (How’s it going?) Oh, Ben is tired. Ben, why are you tired? When did you get up? When did you go to bed? Was the weekend too short or too long? etc., etc.
-Today is Thursday. I see guys in jerseys. Does that mean there’s a football game today? Who is the opponent? Are they good? Is Pacifica better? Who will win? Who won last week’s/yesterday’s game? What about the freshmen?
-Today is October 6. That’s German-American day. Do you know any famous German-Americans? Where does your family come from?
-Cody is not here. Why isn’t Cody here? Oh, Cody is sick. That’s too bad. Who will see Cody and tell him what we do in class today? Maybe he isn’t really sick. Maybe he’s a secret agent on a mission and just says that he’s sick.
Quite frankly, I find this time chatting with the students far more profitable than I ever found bell work. It means that I don’t submit attendance until later in the period, but that has advantages as well:
1. If a student comes in late (e.g. was seeing a counsellor), I don’t have to go change the roll data at the computer
2. Students see that I am interested in them, not just completing roll
3. Students have to acknowledge who the other people in the class are, even if only by their absence
4. By talking about who wasn’t there, I remember and have no trouble later when I do go to the computer to enter attendance
The attendance office has learned to deal with this. Only if I haven’t entered anything by 3:00 p.m. do they call me up to remind me. Otherwise they know that I will get to it when I am able.
My district stresses “bell to bell” instruction. I believe that I am doing that in a way that fits my personality and teaching style.
Oh yes . . . my opening sequence is pretty formulaic, and I have one girl in level 3 who simply rattles off the answers to the opening questions as a joke, so I will vary the order just to make her (and everyone else) think. Sometimes I will ask a different set of questions: What did you do/eat/see/hear over the weekend/last night? How’s the weather? What time does this period end today? (We have a rotating extension that changes the schedule every day, so this is a good reminder of what’s going on.) Who’s your favorite English/Math/German teacher?