TeacherHero
Warm-Up · 3–5 min to activate prior knowledge

Notice & Wonder

Notice and Wonder asks students to record what they observe in a text or image and what it makes them want to know, before anyone explains it. TeacherHero writes it as a Warm-Up tied to the lesson's text, so the noticing points at the detail the modelling step is about to use.

Observe a text or image and record observations and questions.

Real generated output

Bellringer: Conceal and Choice

The Warm-Up phase of a Grade 6 ELA lesson, as TeacherHero generated it. Planned for 5 minutes.

  1. Student prompt

    On your own: In your notebook, define conceal from memory. Recall your fear-and-choice connection from “Day 3 — Two texts on the same idea,” using conceal in your response. Check your definition against Ada’s sentence. Record one detail you notice and one question you wonder about.

  2. Materials

    • Notebook and pencil
    • Projected Quick prompt card

  3. Teacher directions

    • Minute 0–1: Display Memory first, keeping Ada’s sentence hidden. Have students define conceal and recall their Day 3 connection independently.
    • Minutes 1–2: Reveal Ada’s sentence. Have students check their definitions against the sentence and revise if needed.
    • Minutes 2–4: Have students record one noticed detail and one question using the printed frames. Keep responses brief.
    • Minute 4–5: Scan notebooks for a definition and recalled connection. Confirm that conceal means hide or keep from being noticed; it does not mean remove.
    • Check recalled connections against students’ Day 3 work without supplying an informational-text quotation. Invite students to carry their observations into the paragraph model.

  4. Debrief

    • Clarify that hiding signs of fear does not necessarily make fear disappear.
    • Transition: Keep your recalled connection ready. Watch how the model turns an observation about Ada’s grip into a supported claim.
Why the coach chose it here — Notice & Wonder combines spaced retrieval of Day 3’s fear-and-choice connection with supported pretesting through a brief observation and question. Grade 6 students first recall conceal, then check its meaning against Ada’s actions. Short frames support access without supplying the connection. These notes prepare students to follow the claim–quotation–explanation model and later draft their own essay body paragraph.

Frequently asked questions

Is Notice and Wonder only for maths?

No. It became popular in maths classrooms, but the move — observe first, ask second, explain last — works on any text or image. The example on this page uses it on a single sentence from a short story in a Grade 6 English lesson.

What do students produce?

One detail they notice and one question it raises, written in a notebook. The generated version adds a recall step first, so students check a word they learned earlier against the sentence before noticing anything, and the debrief clears up the misreading the teacher is most likely to hear.

How does a Notice and Wonder lead into the lesson?

Through the debrief. In the example it closes by asking students to keep their noticing ready, because the model in the next phase turns that same detail into a supported claim. The warm-up is the first step of the lesson's argument rather than a separate activity.

Strategies that pair with it

Do Now

Warm-Up · Complete a short review or readiness task.

See the example

Finish the Thought

Warm-Up · Complete and extend a content-specific sentence stem.

See the example

Four Corners

Warm-Up · Move to and defend one of four responses.

See the example

Image Inference

Warm-Up · Infer context or theme from a compelling image.

See the example
Example free · generation with Pro

One move out of six phases.

A TeacherHero lesson generates all six with your course, unit, week and text in context, so the Warm-Up phase continues the one before it instead of starting over.

Explore a whole example lesson