Case Study: Using the Learning Lab for Warm-Up Activities

By: Kate Harris, Learning Lab Coordinator, Pittsburgh, PA

The Learning Lab can be a useful and flexible resource to use when creating anticipatory sets that pique student interest, get them focused on content and skills quickly, and even challenge them to look at a topic in a new light. In this post, I'll highlight examples of collections created for a range of audiences and subject areas, all with the goal of igniting curiosity about the learning ahead.

Effective warm-up activities have a few things in common. First, they are short. Focusing on just one or a few resources allows students to engage in deep thinking rather than a quick perusal of a broad range of items. They also use inquiry questions (in different forms) to enlist students in an energetic investigation of the work ahead. These activities don't reveal too much: by asking, rather than telling, they encourage students to be curious and analytical thinkers. This active mindset will translate into greater engagement over the course of the lesson or unit ahead.

Many of these collections are designed to inspire discussion among peers about the topic at hand. For example, in this collection about an Alison Bechdel portrait, the teacher-author Tammy French uses just one resource to initiate a conversation about self-identity and how one is perceived, appropriate for visual arts or language arts classrooms. By carefully choosing a rich and provocative work and directing student attention to specific sections of it, French prepares them for a thorough discussion about portrayals and perceptions.

French incorporates the "30-second look" strategy, a looking strategy that challenges students to carefully observe a work for only 30 seconds, then turn away to compare what they saw with their peers. This strategy encourages students to practice their visual recall skills and compare individual perceptions. This is just one of many quick and easy-to-implement strategies that work well with these types of Learning Lab collections.

Another easy-to-use strategy is "What Makes You Say That?," as used in this warm-up for a science class, ideal for sparking conversation about human interactions with the environment and asking students to practice their skills of developing evidence-based hypotheses. This collection encourages students to make use of the zoom feature in the Learning Lab in order to explore the details of the apocalyptic scene, and also includes a webinar with a museum educator's interpretation, making this a collection that students could explore and learn from independently or as part of a whole-class conversation.

Another use of a visible thinking routine, See / Think / Wonder, is illustrated in this warm-up focused on ancient Egyptian stelae. This strategy encourages students to answer open-ended questions about what they see, think of, and wonder about when investigating each image. This warm-up is structured for students to begin work independently and then to join forces as the class compares the three stelae and draws conclusions about their connection to ancient Egyptian life and culture. (If these kinds of thinking and looking strategies are appealing, stay tuned. We'll be incorporating more and more of them into the Learning Lab over the course of the fall).

Sometimes it makes sense for teachers to develop anticipatory sets or "bell-ringers" that students can complete on their own, allowing for some time for individuals to settle into the classroom routine and for teachers to accomplish the daily necessary tasks. Here's an example of a collection that students can explore and record their answers completely independently, used at the beginning of a lesson on the Battle of Thermopylae. This collection scaffolds comprehension and analytical questions, giving enough context through information tabs and hotspots that students can feel confident in their answers.

Feeling inspired to use the Learning Lab to make your own classroom warm-ups? Some tips to keep in mind:

• Keep it short. These are intended as a point of entry to a topic or discussion, and you want to aim for depth over breadth.
• Thinking routines and looking strategies can help direct student inquiry, and, if used repeatedly, will become familiar ways for students to engage with new topics. We've got resources that can be easily dropped into collections using those routines, linked above, and a whole collection of other strategies from which you can pull the one that best fits your topic and classroom.
• For work that you would like students to complete individually, make use of annotation tools like hot spots and quiz questions. Hot spots can be a great way to offer insights or note details to students even when you are not right in front of them.
• Finally, like the format of a collection you saw here, but want to change the subject matter? Just copy it and adapt it to meet your own needs!

Image: Runners on Their Mark, Los Angeles, California, from the series Shooting for the Gold by Walter Iooss, Jr.. Smithsonian American Art Museum.
© 1984, FUJI PHOTO FILM U.S.A., INC. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Fuji Photo Film U.S.A., Inc.