Bell Work: Ideas and Activities for Daily Formative Assessment

Have you considered digital bellwork, but don’t know where to start? Maybe you’re stuck in a bell work rut. TeacherMade has you covered. We will give you everything you need to get started with a Question of the Day (QOTD) for your students. Keep reading to make your bellwork routine digital, paperless, and self-grading.

Bell Work Guide

What is Bell Work?

Bellwork is usually a short assignment done at the beginning of class. Usually, students complete bell work as they get settled before the bell rings. The idea of bell work is to allow your students to get focused, review material, and introduce something new.

What is Question of the Day (QOTD) for students?

Questions of the Day are usually another term for bellwork. Teachers often call bell work by many names: QOTD, bellringers, and starters. Questions of the Day can also be the essential question that a teacher aims to answer with their lesson. These essential questions can be tied into bellwork, formative assessment throughout the lesson, and the exit ticket.

The TeacherMade app streamlines bellwork and other assignments so that students can complete them online.

What is the purpose of bellwork?

Bell Work serves many purposes for teachers, and it can set up your class for success.

- For students: Bellwork gets your students focused. Your students will walk into your room more focused and ready to work when they know they have something to do every day. Teachers use bellwork to review previous material or introduce new material depending on the questions assigned.
- For teachers: Bellwork is a lifesaver for teachers. Not only will your classes start calmer and more on task, but you will be surprised how much you can accomplish in those precious minutes. You will now have time to take attendance, pass back work, and have a quick one-on-one chat with a student.

30 bell Work ideas

Download our 30 Bell Work Ideas PDF to get your students focused and ready for your class.

How to make an effective and good bellringer assignment?

Effective bellringer assignments should focus on the essential knowledge that teachers and students need to review. According to brain-based research, our brains only retain about 1% of new information. So it can be hard to get lessons to stick. Bellwork helps highlight important material for your student by focussing on a few essential questions. It also helps this information stick through repetition. You can evaluate how well your students learn your lessons by evaluating their responses.

Bellwork for Math and Science

Are you in need of math and science bellwork ideas? Bellwork should be quick for a teacher to execute every day. We outlined strategies to get started quickly with bellwork in your math and science classes.

A Roundup Of Apps And Websites For Elementary Math Bell Work

Access to technology has become increasingly easy. Technology is integrated into schoolwork effortlessly. Teachers can now use apps and websites for elementary math bell work. Here’s how to get started with online elementary math bell work.

Bellwork for English and Language Arts

The right start to class is everything. Your students start with the right attitude, energy, and curiosity. But today’s English and Language Arts classroom can feel cramped with standards. How do you prioritize precious time for bell work? We’ll walk you through the steps of getting your bell work in your ELA class to work harder for you and your students.

Can you do bell ringer activities in remote learning?

Yes! Bell Work in your remote learning classes is essential:

- Bellwork keeps things consistent for your students if you’re part of a hybrid learning situation.
- Bell Ringers allow all students to get their technology ready just as they prepare traditional materials at the beginning of class.
- Bell Work will enable teachers to get prepared to teach in a remote learning classroom.
- Bellwork gives teachers essential learning data that teachers should frequently evaluate in the learning process.

What apps can I use for online bellwork?

TeacherMade is the perfect app to add to your arsenal for online bellwork. It is easy to create online bellwork assignments. You can start each class with a quick gauge of what your students know. TeacherMade self-grades assignments– instantly!

6 Ideas for Bell Work to Get Your Students Ready for Standardized Testing

Standard Of Learning (SOL) assessments can be a stressful time for students. Educators want to encourage and uplift their students in any way they can. Creative and intentional bell work is an excellent opportunity to get students in the right mindset for successful SOL testing.

Start The Year Off Right With Bell Work: Get To Know Your Students

It’s a new school year, which means plenty of new faces in your classes. While connecting with each student individually might seem like a challenge at the onset of the semester, you know that you’ll be building rapport and making connections as the year goes on.

We’ll explore some bell work activities that will capture students’ attention, prepare their brains for active learning, and offer you some clear insight into their thoughts and feelings.

Bell Work Tips For Middle School Teachers

Middle school is a significant transition period for students. They start switching classes, having more autonomy, and testing boundaries. You must structure your middle school classes to account for these big shifts in behavior. You can follow certain tips to get started on the right foot each class period.

The key to this is establishing a dependable routine, and the best place to start is bell work. We’ll walk you through middle school bell work strategies so your class can start off on the right foot.

Bellwork and IEPs: Everything you need to know to do bell ringers with accommodations

Are you struggling to get your students with IEPs settled into a bellwork routine? Bell work helps every student. But your students with IEPs especially need bell work. We’ll explain why your SPED students need bell work and how to implement accommodations into this crucial part of your classroom.

We’ll also explain how you can use TeacherMade to make online bellwork to free up time for you, help your students with accommodations, and simplify classroom procedures.

Should I Grade Bell Work?

You’ve decided to take the leap in establishing bell work into your class routine. Great! Bell work is one of the most important ways to start your class period off on the right foot. But how will you get your students to take their bellwork seriously? Do you establish it as a graded assignment in your classroom?

We’ll dive into whether or not you should grade bell work and also give you some bellwork shortcuts.

Streamline your bellwork planning with TeacherMade

With TeacherMade it’s easy to convert your existing bellwork and questions of the day. If you’ve ever wondered how to convert your paper bellwork assignments into digital assignments, here’s how to do it in minutes:

1. Upload your file. The file you upload becomes the background of your new bellwork assignment.
2. Add a field for student responses.
3. Add answers to questions for self-scoring.
4. Send an assignment link to students (or sync with your school’s LMS platform).
5. Get instant feedback.

Teachers love TeacherMade

“The benefit of TeacherMade to me has been to save time primarily. With years of teaching under my belt, I have written and collated many resources that can be difficult to access by students on digital platforms, often due to incompatibilities with different versions or that students do not have access to software that is expensive to purchase… For the first time, I have been able to instantly upload my resources with a drag from the saved folder to the TeacherMade app, and by using the creative tools, make the worksheet accessible to all with a device. The integration with Google Classroom has also saved time, with no longer a need to move assignments and results manually.”

– Chris W., Teacher

“I use these as formative information beginning a lesson, usually tied to my objective. It allows for my students to get immediate feedback on their answers. It allows for my students to work at their pace. There is the upfront time involved in development but saves a lot of grading time and huge feedback plus to my students.”

– James S., Teacher