teach a year of third grade using no books or print media of any kind?
or
teach a year of third grade using no pencils, whiteboard, or writing materials of any kind?
Click the image to get your own free copy of ready-to-use and ready-to-make Would You Rather slides.
“Would you rather…” questions are great for practicing critical thinking because they require you to evaluate two different but seemingly equally appealing (or unappealing) options and choose one. One way to use these questions is to ask them whenever you have an extra few minutes. In a classroom setting, it can be valuable to have kids first choose by a show of hands and then discuss the question. If you want to get some movement into the activity, designate one end of the room for each answer and have students move to make their choice. Then ask students to share why they chose one option or another. Pose the question a second time to allow students the opportunity to choose a different option. This exercise is not only fun, but it also helps kids become more flexible on their thought patterns. Rather than holding onto an idea no matter what, they learn to consider others’ opinions.
There are several different kinds of this type of question that you can pose. Some are very basic:
- Would you rather be a pencil or a rubber band?
- Would you rather be a good athlete or a good student?
- Would you rather be able to fly or turn invisible?
These ones make good writing or discussion prompts and should always include a follow-up question asking why.
Some questions have an ethical bent and ask you to pick one value over another:
- Would you rather have someone give you $100 or give $1,000 to the charity of your choice?
- Would you rather have parents who loved you but were poor or have parents who did not love you but were rich and gave you everything you wanted?
These are great for discussion. You will learn a lot about your students as you listen to them defend their choices.
Some questions use the same variables:
- Would you rather be allowed to shower every day but never be allowed to wash your clothes or never be allowed to shower but have clean clothes each day?
- Would you rather never be allowed to eat your five favorite foods for the rest of your life or be allowed to eat only your five favorite foods for the rest of your life?
Some are fun and silly:
- Would you rather jump into a pool of marshmallows or a pool of jello?
- Would you rather have yummy edible hair that regrew each night or have retractable wheels on the bottoms of your feet?
or only offer unappealing choices:
- Would you rather go to school in your underwear or have to eat worms for lunch?
- Would you rather have a head the size of an orange or a watermelon?
Kids seem to especially like those one!
Asking the questions is great, but you can step it up by having kids come up with their own questions. Writing these questions requires kids to not only create two options but also to evaluate whether or not those options are roughly equal in appeal. Part of the process is answering the questions, so be sure and give students an opportunity to share their questions with the rest of the class. Consider creating a class Would You Rather Book.
Have You Used WOULD YOU RATHER questions with your students?
If you have any questions or advice, be sure and leave it in the comments!
This is one of my all time favorite games. I found an online version of Would You Rather Questions that I play almost everyday!
I downloaded your free 20, and then went back and purchased all of them when I saw how much my students loved them.
Because the kind of work I do is quite intense, I use them in the middle of the lesson for a few minutes for a bit of a breather with the child.
My one student loves them so much, she has now written her own list of "Would You Rathers" for our school newspaper.
So from me to you: A massive thank you!
Teachermum,
I love it when kids create their own. It is interesting to see how they balance two alternatives to make them more or less equal. How neat that one of your students got hers published in your school paper!
We play this game all the time and my 3 kiddos love it. My 4 year old asked us, "Would you rather stand in a fire ant bed for one minute or in a yellow jacket's nest for one minute?" My 7 year old daughter asked, "Would you rather crawl around on your knees for the rest of your life or scoot around on your bottom?" Such good times.
I'm really bummed. I've tried downloading the 20 free questions from various browsers and I keep getting a "403 Forbidden" message and cannot download them. 🙁
Hi Bren,
I have no idea why this link went bad, but I have fixed it. You should be able to download them now. Thanks for letting me know!
Rachel
I used these with my students this week, and they loved it! Thanks for the idea, I linked to you on my blog: http://www.6thgradetales.com/2013/08/get-to-know-your-students-with-these.html
This list is really great! I like “would you rather” questions because you can do so many things with them. They can be used as a topic starter, conversation at the family diner, fun game on a road trip, or writing prompts. Thank you for sharing it!
I love these would you rather question games . It really makes you think. Thank you for sharing.