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[Music] Welcome to "Bell Ringers,
Pyramids, and Big Ideas."

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Hi, my name is Bonny Bowen.

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I teach social studies to 6th
and 8th grade students

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at Plainwell Middle School in 
Plainwell, Michigan.

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In my opinion, review and helping 
kids know what they

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know and what they don't know--
it's almost a percentage game.

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I'm trying to get more kids every day
to be closer to the real meaning

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of whatever concept we're working on,
and so by talking about the concept

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and then refining what they know 
I think really helps.

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Bell ringers are the very first thing
that students do in my classroom.

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First of all, it's very comforting
to them because they know

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the expectation.

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I come right in, I look on the 
board, and there's always going

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to be some piece that is from 
the day before, or the week before,

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or maybe even the month before.

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So it's a review piece.

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It's some kind of connection to the 
learning that they've already done,

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and then we share it
as a group each day.

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I try, when I do bell ringers,
to make sure that probably

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about 60 percent of the kids can 
do it from instant recall.

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Because that boosts their confidence,
and it lets them know,

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"I know this already and that's
where i'm supposed to be."

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The other 40 percent I expect to go
to a source, go to their textbook,

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or a worksheet, or something we've 
done which let's them know,

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"it's okay if you don't know it right
now but this is a critical piece

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in whatever we're learning."

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The purpose is to connect the learning
that they've done from the day before

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or the week before but only take
about five to seven minutes.

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It's the start of the day
to get us ready for learning.

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One of the examples of a bell 
ringer might be

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"describe the spoils system
of Andrew Jackson."

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it's critical to understanding his
personality and how it was different

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from presidents before him,
and that's what we would talk about.

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Once we talk about the definition we,
would compare and contrast him

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to John Quincy Adams
or a president before him.

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Sometimes we use analogies.

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One that we used today for 6th grade was
"oxygen is to humans as __" and they had

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to fill in "is to plants."

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And so the kids just have to fill
in the answer and be able

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to tell the relationship.

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And that particular bell ringer ties
in to our study of the Amazon rainforest

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and how important it is that the 
trees are allowed to stay there

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for the oxygen that the 
whole world needs.

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When we use the bell ringer,
one of the critical parts is

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that kids are getting immediate
feedback, and that's very important

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to learning, and that's what makes 
a bell ringer so effective

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in the classroom.

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It's short, it's quick, and once 
the students have answered

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and they have shared their answers,
I let them know, "yes that's correct"

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or "no it's not," and we clear
up any misunderstandings,

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so when they move on to 
whatever else we're going

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to be doing, they know the right 
answer or the general definition.

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Sometimes half way through a 
unit I might do something

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called "the big idea."

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They'll take three or four
of the big ideas of a unit,

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and they have to recall
on their own what they know

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about a big idea.

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And then they'll work with a partner,
talking with someone else

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about the subject that they're learning,
and they'll use a different colored

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pencil, adding to their notes.

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And that lets them know what they know
and what else they probably knew

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but just someone had
to nudge them a little bit.

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And then they actually go
into the textbook

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and check their answers and see,
"are we correct or aren't we?"

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For example, look at a big idea
like the voting of the 1820s

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and how it affected who was 
elected president in 1828.

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And so by giving kids a chance to recap
on their own, what was the voting

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of the 1820s?

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And how did laws change?

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And who was elected and why?

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And prompts like that.

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They would write down what they know,
note taking, share it with a friend,

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check it in the book,
and then the next day I go

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over it specifically with them.

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"Did you have that over a million people
voted in 1828, as opposed to a third

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of that four years earlier?

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Okay, put a star there.
If you don't have it add it.

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That is a critical part
of this big idea."

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And that affirms that what 
they're doing is correct.

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It also adds information
if they don't have it,

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so it fills in the holes
when we're reviewing.

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i found through my teaching
that games are so important

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when you're learning vocabulary.

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The idea behind the game called
"a hundred thousand dollar vocabulary

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pyramid" is kids have to sort
out of their eight

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to ten vocabulary words which 
are the six most difficult words,

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and they put them into the pyramid,
the hardest being on the top

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and the less hard ones being
at the bottom.

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And the idea is that by one student 
trying to define each of those words

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to the other student and the 
student guessing what the word

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is, the children find out what 
they really know about the word

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and what they don't know.

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And so it is clarification for me.

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I walk around, and I listen 
to them give their

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definitions and their responses.

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We talk about those words--what was 
easy to define what was hard to define.

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And it's also a teaching tool
for me because, as I'm walking around,

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I know the words that they know well,
and then I also know the words

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that they're resorting to, "well it's 
kind of like" or different hints

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that really don't enhance the
understanding of the word.

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And then I know that I have
to incorporate

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that into my lesson the next day
or wherever it would fit in.

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I'm a big believer that if you continue
to go over information over time,

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kids will retain it, and once they 
figure out that they can retain it

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like that it really boosts their
confidence, and they believe

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in going back and discussing things
that we've already talked about.

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For more information about 
spacing learning over time,

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please see the additional materials
on the Doing What Works website.