Check Mate

Ideas for Presenting in Workshops and Using in Classrooms

These are some strategies for introducing Check Mate to clients. These activities and ideas can be folded into a Day One introductory session, into a multi-day institute, into a follow-up day, or used in combination for a session dedicated to Check Mate. There is also a suggestion for using Check Mate in classroom demonstrations.

Session Activities

Introductory Activity (a/k/a the Blank Check Mate Poster Activity)

Estimated Time: 10-20 minutes

Handouts Needed: Check Mate poster (appropriate level); blank CM poster

Purpose: Use this activity to get teachers to think about highest priority conventions for their grade. This gives teachers a basis for eventually looking at Check Mate to see if their priorities are represented (which they inevitably are) in the level they look at. It also reinforces the value of Check Mate to them: While not all conventions are addressed in this resource, the ones that are the highest priority for them are.

Steps:

  1. Introduce to the group the concept of Check Mate: an easy-to-use, student-friendly resource that does for conventions what “word walls” do for correct spelling of high-frequency words. Show the teachers what Check Mate looks like (hold up, unfold, and so on), but tell them you don’t want to give it to them quite yet because you want them to think a bit about the conventions they most want addressed.
  2. Briefly display a CM poster and show the kinds of categories and specific rules that fall under those categories.
  3. Give teachers the blank CM poster handout and ask them to take a few minutes (4-5) to create their own “wish list” poster. Ask them to come up with at least 3 or 4 categories (like sentence writing, capitalization, commas, quotation marks, and so on) and then several specific rules related to that category that they would like to make a priority with students in their grade. [Note: You may have to push some teachers to come up with specific rules as they may want to just list “commas.” Which comma rules? Which capitalization rules? There are many!]
  4. Give teachers a few minutes to share their results with one another before you give the Check Mate samples out to peruse.

Notes: Depending on your available time, you can expand or contract this activity. But it’s a good one because it a) creates a little anticipation about what’s actually in Check Mate, and b) it confirms for teachers that their essential conventions are addressed.

Check Mate “Scavenger Hunt”

Estimated Time: 10-15 minutes (or more, considering the options mentioned below)

Handouts Needed: Check Mate samples

Purpose: Use this to get teachers to focus on specific features of the Check Mate student folders.

Steps:

  1. Point out these features of Check Mate:
  2. Rules (in simple language)
  3. Examples (from a variety of disciplines)
  4. Hints (tips and mnemonic devices)
  5. Notes (for clarifications and reminders)
  6. Ask teachers to look through their level of Check Mate and find examples that they like and think their students would find helpful.
  7. Give teachers a few minutes to share the results of their search with another teacher. For example: “If you were going to show Check Mate to another educator or a parent who was interestedin knowing about it, which examples would you show to point its best features?”

Notes: Especially with high school teachers who are looking at Level C, be sure to point out the CM rules that are designated as Top Twenty rules (those conventions that college freshmen most often make mistakes with). Even consider showing the Top Twenty to elementary and middle school teachers, too, as they are interested that some of their “greatest hits” are still a problem in college. If you have time, show the Top Twenty items 4-17 and let your audience and discuss what they think numbers 1, 2, and 3 are.

Another step that could be added here if time permits: Ask teachers to identify which CM rules they would make a priority with their students. A more formal activity related to selecting priority conventions is described below.

Grade-by-Grade Priority Conventions Activity

Estimated Time: 30-60 minutes or more

Handouts Needed: Check Mate student folders andCheck Mate posters for the appropriate level for each participant

Purpose: This process is similar to one that we have facilitated many times in the past: helping staffs identify the priority FCAs for each grade. In this case, we are helping staffs decide on which Check Mate rules will be set as priorities at each grade level. The goal is to allow teachers to focus their attention (and their students’ attention) on a subset of essential conventions—rather than all ELA teachers at a middle school, for example, trying to deal with all the essential convention rules in Check Mate Level B. John has described this process with one of his middle school clients where, after decisions were made as to which rules would be a priority at each grade, the classroom posters that were displayed in each classroom designated which rules were a priority for grade 6, grade 7, and so on.

Steps:

  1. Make sure that teachers are familiar with their level of Check Mate. This activity should only be done after teachers have done the “scavenger hunt” activity or have used Check Mate for a while with their students.
  2. To facilitate this discussion (and negotiation) ask each individual teacher to develop their own “short list” of priority Check Mate rules they think would be able to master by year’s end with practice (like the DQFS from the Teacher Resource Guide) and repeated use as a “third FCA.”
  3. Then have teachers from the same grade caucus and agree on a short list of priority conventions. Use the 80/80 rule in these discussions: Only include priority conventions at a grade if it is felt that 80% of students could use the convention with 80% proficiency. [Note: As with the process of selecting priority FCAs, part of the value of this process is asking teachers to commit to what they think they can accomplish—as opposed to what teachers at previous grades should have done.]
  4. Ask the grade level caucuses to report out their priorities and then facilitate the discussion needed to reduce overlap or fill in gaps that might exist.

Notes: Once decisions are made, encourage teachers to mark up their classroom posters (with markers, Post-it Notes, or Velcro arrows, for example) so that priorities are on display in each classroom. This is a terrific way to get a coordinated effort in an area that is a major concern in virtually every school in which we work.

Smarter Balanced Released Prompt for Editing Conventions

Estimated Time: 10-15 minutes

Handouts Needed: Smarter Balanced Sample Item 43599, rubric, and answer key with Check Mate correlation footnotes

Purpose: Even though there are myriad specific language skills mentioned in the CCSS, this released prompt gives us some idea of the kind of skills that are likely to be assessed . . . and Check Mate matches up very well.

Steps:

  1. Empathize with teachers over the daunting array of language skills in the standards (e.g., “reflexive pronouns” in grade 2, “modal auxiliaries” in grade 4). However, the emphasis in the CCSS is on using those skills rather than being able to explain them.
  2. “Let’s look at what kind of language skills might be tested.” Give teachers The Smarter Balanced Sample Item 43599 (11th grade). Point out that the SB task actually asks students to re-write the passage with corrections, but that the teachers can simply mark the corrections they find. If asked, don’t reveal how many edits there are (because students are not told). Give teachers 4-5 minutes (we do not know yet what, if any, time limits SB will have, but I’d use approximately the amount of time that would be given on the ACT sample test—see below for that activity).
  3. After 4-5 minutes, show teachers the Smarter Balanced rubric and reveal that there are 10 “fixes.” Give them another minute or two to make any adjustments.
  4. Give teachers the rubric/answer key and let them check their answers.
  5. Point out the close correlation with Check Mate rules.

Notes: Check Mate gives teachers and students a smart and strategic way to address conventions—rather than just working harder and faster.

Note on Cost Effectiveness: Remember, that at $20/pkg. of 25 student folders, Check Mate is only $.80/student. If you include a Check Mate poster for the classroom, that means you can supply a classroom for $1.00/student. The Teacher Resource Guide is a one-time purchase (it’s black line masters, so it can be used for years) of just $30. It’s a very modest investment for a school to make to address such a perennial problem as poor use of conventions.

ACT Sample Test Activity

Estimated Time: 10-15 minutes

Handouts Needed: ACT Sample Test (first two pages—13 items)

Purpose: This activity makes the point that students taking the ACT (51% of college bound students take the ACT; it’s reasonable to expect future SAT tests of this type, too) have to have a range of editing skills—with both conventions and “rhetorical” aspects of writing—as well as the ability and stamina to work through 75 edits with rather complex text in 45 minutes. This reinforces the need for students to have practice with editing tasks like those in our Daily Quick-Fix Sentences (found in the Essential Conventions Teacher Resource Guides).

Steps:

1.Point out that while the main goal of writing instruction (and Check Mate) is for writers to be able to use the conventions in their writing, they will also be assessed on their ability to edit text.

2.The kind of practice that is done in our Daily Quick-Fix Sentences not only reinforces the convention rules, but it also gives students practice at doing something they will be tested on.

3.Introduce the ACT Sample Test activity and review the guidelines that come with the task. Tell the teachers you will give them 8 minutes to complete the 13 item task (that is a pro-rated time allotment consistent with the 45 minutes given for the 75 question test).

4.Give teachers the answer key.

5.Let teachers talk among themselves about the difficulty of the task and what they can do to prepare students for this challenge.

Notes: This is a good way to reinforce the need for the DQFS aspect of the Essential Conventions Teacher Resource Guide.

Also, show the quote from Daniel Willingham from Why Don’t Students Like School?: “It is virtually impossible to become proficient at a mental task without extended practice.”

Daily Quick-Fix Sentences Activity

Estimated Time: 10-15 minutes

Handouts Needed: Sample Set of a Daily Quick-Fix Sentence (any level)

Purpose: Use this activity to point out the format of each set of exercises (focused practice, mixed practice, extended practice, and ACES activity) and show how the more difficult mixed and extended practices can be managed by the teacher to prevent some students from being overwhelmed.

Steps:

  1. Provide the sample set of DQFS to teachers and point out the format. Also share with them the example from the Teacher Resource Guide of how the set of exercises might be done over a five-day period of time.
  2. Model the process by having everyone do the Focused Practices (exercises 1,2, and 3).
  3. For Exercise 4 (a Mixed Practice) break it down into a series of brief tasks. For example: “On the first line of Exercise 4 there are 5 fixes. Find those in the next minute. Go!” Review and discuss. Then, “On the second line of Exercise 4 there are three capitalization fixes. Find those. I’ll give you about 30 seconds.” And so on.
  4. Have participants work with a partner to do the Extended Practice exercise. Break it down into smaller tasks, too, if that is beneficial.
  5. Do the ACES activity with the group.

Notes: This activity gives teachers a close-up look at how the DQFS work, the value they have for their students, and the flexibility it gives them working with their students.

Third FCA Activities

Once the Check Mate folders have been introduced to teachers, use them in other writing activities you do in the workshop. In other words, make Check Mate rules the “third FCA” for Ten Percent Summaries, argument writing, or with any of Jerry’s Sentence Building Activities that you do.

In-class Demonstration Activities

Whenever you can, use Check Mate rules as the “third FCA” with in-class writing activities you do with students. If the school doesn’t already have Check Mates, take a package with you, give them to students to use, and then collect them at the end of the lesson. Ask permission of your host before doing so: “I have a resource I’ve been using with a lot of my clients that I wanted to try out with your students today. Do you mind?”