What is it?The "Do Now" strategy is also commonly known as a "bellringer." It's a short independent activity that is prepared for the students to work on as soon as they step into the classroom. It's important that the students are already conditioned to get to class and immediately work on their "Do Now." The activity should be in the same place everyday and it should be something the students can get done, on their own, without any assistance from the teacher nor their classmates, in 3-5 minutes. The activity should also contain review of a previous lesson or anticipate the day's lesson. It should require that the students put pencil to paper. You, as the teacher should be able to see what the students are understanding and what needs to be reviewed. The teacher should have the answers prepared and he/she should circulate the classroom taking note of the responses the students are providing in order to properly review the answers to the bellringer. The review period should also only be 5 minutes long.
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Why does it work?The "Do Now" strategy is an effective strategy because it is a way to condition students to be ready to learn as soon as they get to the classroom. The strategy ensures that the students settle down and focus. Doing a "Do Now" on a daily basis, clasically conditions students into whatever behaviors you focus on when explaining the "Do Now" at the beginning of the year. Ensuring that the activity doesn't take up too much time reflects good time management skills as a teacher. The "Do Now" can also work as an assessment tool to check on the class progress on a previous lesson or it can gauge the Zone of Proximal Development (how much the students already know) on a new topic.
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Example:As a prospective math teacher, a "Do Now" could consist of a few math problems that review previous big ideas written on the board. As I walk around the classroom, I could take note of which problems are the most troublesome for the class. During the review period, I can review just the problems that caused the class the most difficulty in order to keep from wasting time reviewing the problems they already know how to work.
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