What is a sprint?

A sprint is a review activity that involves students only getting one question at a time, having to solve it, then “sprinting” up to check their answer and get the next question. This can be done individually, or with groups. They could have to complete a task or game after they get a correct answer – like moving a jenga block (see Part 1 for more ideas). This just makes reviewing for state testing so much easier!

Reading Sprints

In Part 1 we talked about how to set up a sprint and do math sprints. Now how do you use this with reading? It’s actually pretty easy. You can do this with just a worksheet if you want. Just print off enough copies of the worksheet so that each group gets 1. Then cut the worksheet into strips (one question per strip). Make a stack of these strips so that each group only gets one question at a time – you can print them on different colored paper or put them in colorful baskets or folders to differentiate between teams. This is a great way to review homophones or multiple meaning words or prefixes and suffixes.

You can do the same thing with reading task cards – print a set for each group, make sure they are organized so that each group knows where to get their questions, again by using colorful paper, baskets, stickers, etc.

But what do you do with a passage? The same thing. Now, when I do this with passages, I like ALL students to have access to the passage – at the very most, they are in partners. Remember the idea behind a sprint is that even if they’re working in groups, everyone does every question. You could print a copy of the passage for each kid, or put the passage on the computer and only print the questions. Like using a worksheet for a sprint, you just need to print one question per group and then cut it up so that the kids only get one question at a time.

What if There is More Than One Passage?

This actually can make for fewer copies, believe it or not. You can have the passage in the “stack” with the questions, so that when a new passage set starts, the runner grabs passages and the first question. I have used a sprint with a four passage test, and I actually only made two copies of each passages’s questions. Then two of my groups started with one passage, the other two started with a different and I was able to rotate the passages into a new group after they were done with the other group. They were color-coded so my students knew they needed to do all four colors, and they knew the order to go in for the colors. It sounds complicated, but it really worked well. I mean, there is some level of chaos expected in a sprint, but generally, the students do great.

If everything is multiple choice or easily writable answers, you could even have the whole test be on the computer, and just have students write their answer on notebook paper, show it to you, and once they have it right, just click to the next question. I do find that this does work better with some sort of paper option. My class just completed a math sprint where all the questions were on the computer, but the answer sheet was paper.

Questions and Advice

Since it took me years to actually work up the courage to ask what a sprint was, here are a few of the questions I had or know are things you have to consider.

First and foremost, the name “sprint” implies running. We did this as a 3rd grade in the cafeteria and because we had the space, the kids were allowed to run. Last week in my classroom? Nope. We walk.

Color coding is your friend. I named my teams after Legends of the Hidden Temple teams, (seriously, I had the Green Monkeys, Silver Snakes, Blue Barracudas, Red Jaguars). I also put a red, green, silver, or blue star on each of their answer cards. The kids didn’t have to remember that they were the Silver Snakes, they just had to know they were silver and find the silver star. When we did this in the cafeteria with 9 other 3rd grade classes (yes, 9. that really happened, and yes, we were insane). We had each class with a colored basket so the students knew to go only to the basket with their color. You could put all their cards in a specific envelope or folder or on a specific desk. With this, being organized is key.

Finally, like all fun things in the classroom, you should only use these sparingly. If you did them every week, they’d lose their fun.

That’s it! That’s a sprint. It’s a really fun way to review for any sort of end of the year testing. Enjoy!