Get 'Em Hooked

Updated: Nov 10, 2023

I have come to realize the importance of getting my middle schoolers hooked into our lessons as soon as possible so they develop an interest in their learning. One way to do this is through the use of Quickfires. The emergence of Quickfires comes from former Michigan State University MAET Director, Leigh Graves Wolf (MAET Blog, 2021). She was inspired by the cooking show Top Chef where contestants are required to make dishes with constraints such as limited time and ingredients. She applied this same idea to education where students complete a challenge with constraints such as time, resources, information or even materials (Graves Wolf, 2009).

During my MAET Summer Hybrid: Mindsets for Innovation courses I completed several Quickfires such as creating a short movie to introduce myself, exploring the world of Code.org, making a music playlist on education, and creating an infographic about an educational theory to name a few. I found these Quickfires to be educational, challenging and fun. They also forced the perfectionist in me to channel my inner Elsa from Disney’s Frozen and let go of the idea of everything always needing to be perfect and instead focus more on the task, my creativity and the thinking that went into the challenge itself.

Anna making a snowflake from a repeated cod. — The coding I created for Anna to skate making ten squares forming a snowflake. Click on the image to see how the repeated code makes Anna skate around the ice..

I quickly realized the tasks were more about moving through the process and learning rather than the final product which is exactly what I want for my students.

As I begin to plan for the new school year with my 7th grade social science classes, I believe using Quickfire activities will be “a great tool for introducing intimidating topics, reducing inhibition and inspiring creativity” (Graves Wolf, 2009) while also helping to develop an interest in the lessons and increase engagement. I can also challenge my students to look at our historical content in different ways while providing them unique opportunities to demonstrate their understanding. The Quickfires can be used to introduce students to new tools and have a chance to tinker with the tools or content before formal instruction.

Potential Quickfires for 7th Grade Social Studies

How many things can you label on a world map in 5 minutes? (3 minutes without resources & 2 minutes with a textbook)
Explore the Mayan Math Website and tools within (10 minutes) and post a reflection on Jamboard
ABC Board for a particular civilization (no resources)
CSDT Website Kente Cloth Coding
Create a playlist about the Islamic World
Write a Haiku about the Bubonic Plague
Illustrate or make a 3D representation of a vocabulary term
Construct/build a Roman Achievement with Playdough
Write a blog post about life as a samurai in their voice
Histagram It! - Create an Instagram post about a civilization and post a comment from the viewpoint of a key historical figure from that time period
Caption This - Provide students an image and have them caption it