Meaningful Work from Worksheets

I am not against worksheets, really I am not.  They have their time and place in the hallways of learning.  However, I really don't think *most* worksheets have a lot of think power to them.  Filling in the blank is rather easy at times and I find myself wanting more with each worksheet assignment given.

So what have I done to combat this?  Well, I try to bump it up!  When I see a worksheet in a teacher book that I think might go with my lesson, I see how I can enhance it to make the kids think just a bit more.

For this lesson, which had the students ordering decimals to the thousandths, I had them cut out the little gymnasts after they ordered them, and then write a paragraph explaining HOW and WHY the child chose to order the gymnasts the way she did.  She had to use math vocabulary and actually think about the processes she was using.

This final product came from a  fact and opinion sheet that was a regular "choose the fact, choose the opinion" piece.  I wanted the kids to think about it a bit more, so I had them create a Bridge Map for facts and one for opinions.  The relating factor was "is an opinion because" or "is a fact because".  They then had to describe WHY it was a fact or opinion.  Not just identify it.

I find that using little tricks like these really help my students understand the reasoning behind what they do....instead of just filling in a worksheet.