Anticipatory Sets

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about anticipatory sets this week, probably because one of my professors really likes them, but it’s got me thinking. I’ve used them before and really liked them. Even more, the students like them and they work. I really need to start using them more often.

For those who may wonder what the heck I’m talking about, an anticipatory set is something that you can do at the beginning of a class to grab the classes attention, and more importantly, get them interested in what you want them to learn that day. I feel that how well these work depend on the class, but if you do them right they can be fun for the students, as well as you. This is the part of lesson plans that I really have my fun.

Here’s an anticipatory set I thought of after (of course I have my best ideas after the fact) I taught a lesson on adjectives and adverbs recently. The purpose is to get them excited and to show them hands on how they would use these parts of speech in their lives.

                           

Start off the day by putting a cupcake (or really good cookie) in front of the class, start talking about the cupcake (or cookie) using adjectives and adverbs. Get your student’s mouths watering. Then explain to the class that you couldn’t adequately describe this without using adjectives and adverbs (make sure you point out which words you used). Now ask them to get out a piece of paper and describe (in full sentences) this cupcake/cookie using as many adjectives and adverbs as they can. Give them 5-10 minutes depending on the class. The person who uses the most (correctly) gets the desert.

Here’s another idea, I would love to hear if anyone has tried something like this and how it worked.

Have the students create their own anticipatory sets. Assign each student a different aspect of literature, characterization, irony, imagery, etc., and a date. To start the class on their date they give a 3-5 minute presentation on their aspect of literature as an introduction to that day’s lesson. This not only gets the students involved in the teaching, but I think students pay more attention to their peers teaching. It’s something different. This could be incorporated with a class novel to add multiple levels to the lesson.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/classroom-solutions/2010/02/anticipatory-sets-meeting-students-where-theyre

This is a great article, from a teacher’s perspective, on the use of anticipatory sets. My favorite line from the article is  “There's a famous maxim that goes, ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.’ The problem with this statement is that it's just not true. The fact of the matter is that you can feed a horse salt so that it becomes thirsty.” This is the best way I’ve ever hear to explain the point of anticipatory sets. Sometimes you need to make your students thirsty for the knowledge you have for them.