This activity was all over the internet last school year. Elementary music teachers especially latched on tho the write the room activity because it gets students up and moving and they get to work collaboratively and independently as they please. After COVID this type of activity feels like a breath of fresh air in comparison to the regimented “stay six feet away from everyone at all time and sharing is NOT caring anymore.”
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want anyone to get sick. Seeing hundreds of kids and teaching them how to breath well had me cleaning everything! So write the room activities were finally allowed again and it felt awesome and like a wonderful return to normal after enduring the pandemic for so long.
What is a write the room activity?
A write the room activity is, at its simplest, where you place a bunch of flashcards, task cards, or something else all around your classroom. Students will take their recording sheet and a clipboard all around the classroom and record their answers for each question. This is supposed to be an easy way for you to asses things like vocabulary or basic reading skills.
Is write the room a valuable learning experience?
With all the undeniable research that says students learn better with movement throughout their day I would argue that this is valuable for the movement aspect and the novelty of the activity. We spend so much of our day telling students to hush and sit still, so this lets them move around and talk to each other for a few minutes and I think it just helps make the classroom less stressful, in addition to being a novel way of having students demonstrate learning.
This isn’t a worksheet where students have all the questions right in front of them and they write the answer. This is an activity where they only have the number of questions in front of them and they have to go find the questions and figure out the answer.
How do I set up a write the room activity?
All you need to do is post questions around the room.
I’ve done this by writing questions in sharpie and telling students to number their papers one through whatever. I’ve made a themed thing (they liked the aesthetic). I have also drawn numbers on and then taped my music flashcards around the classroom. There are so many ways to physically make a write the room activity.
I’ll say it again, I’ve written out the questions with sharpie and taped the paper to my wall for these activities. But now I also have several different Write the Room activities available on my Tpt store, you can check it out if you like.
What can I use this activity with?
I think the better question is what can’t be used in a write the room activity. I have used rhythms, note naming, solfege (I’ve taught choir too, just have more band knowledge), music theory concepts. I’ve seen where teachers have used story prompts to help students with creative writing (this might be an interesting way to get students composing). For middle school general music I will sometimes use a short reading passage and a few pictures to help introduce or reinforce a new topic in music history.
If you’re feeling that you need to shale things up a tiny bit in your classroom or want to combat the second semester blahs you need to give the write the room activity a try!
Displaced Pedagogy 