ThinkDOTS ©

Many such activities can help serve as formative assessments, increase cooperative grouping skills, and increase the modalities from which students experience the content.

ThinkDOTS©

After a conceptual unit has been presented and students are familiar with the ideas and associated skills, “Think DOTS” is an excellent activity for students to use to construct meaning for themselves about the concept they are studying.

• The instructor first defines readiness levels, interests, or learning styles in the class, using ongoing assessment.
• Each student is given a set of activity cards on a ring, a die, and an activity sheet. Each student rolls the die and completes the activity on the card that corresponds to the dots thrown on the die (that is, if a student rolls a three, she then finds the card with three dots on it and completes the activity written on that card). Each student then completes the activity on the activity sheet.

Think Dots Activities

The activities on the activity card should allow students to explore what they just learned from a variety of angles.

• You may consider having each activity card explore a concept or idea from a different level of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy.
• You can use the cards for a fun, engaging test review– put different formulas, important terms, or problems on each card.

 ThinkDOTS ©

Suggestions:

1. Use colored paper and/or colored dots to indicate different readiness levels, interests, or learning styles.
2. Have students work in pairs.
3. Let students choose activities – for example: roll the die and choose any three; create complex activities and have students choose just one to work on over a number of days.
4. After students have worked on activity cards individually, have them come together in groups by levels, interest, or learning style to synthesize.