Have you ever found yourself wondering ‘What are task cards and how are they used in education?’ I did when I first heard about them! I didn’t know about their existence until I saw teachers using them on the Teachergram, and I wanted to know more. And what did I find? That task cards are super fun, and you can really use them to engage your students into learning!
I’m always looking for fun ways to teach concepts or other things in my classes. My favorite thing is to get students moving, because I believe it helps them learn better. Task cards do just that: they get students to move around the classroom while finding the answers to questions! Let me explain all about it below.
Wanna skip ahead and see what I mean with ‘task cards’? Grab this free set of Modal Verbs task cards!
What are task cards in education?
Task cards are small cards – though not too small – that have tasks or questions on them. These tasks can occur in a variety of ways. For example, you can have math task cards that have a problem on them that needs to be solved by the student. For English I will use gap sentences in which the students have to fill in the correct word. No matter how you do it, students have to come away with the correct answer to whatever is on the card.
You will usually have a set of task cards about the same topic or concept. I’ve seen sets of 16 cards, 25 cards, or 30 cards. The teacher will then scatter the task cards across the room, and students have to go over to each task card and answer the question or problem on it on their recording sheet. Each card is numbered and students must make sure they find all the answers they need.
How do task cards work?
How to use task cards best, you ask? As I said you can scatter them across the room and tell students to visit each card and record all the answers. You could also have students take them to their seat and answer the questions there and then put the card back. You could also hang them up on the wall. Do this not only in the classroom but in the hallway and have students do a gallery walk. Students will receive a recording sheet on which they must note down their answers. They are done when they have found all the answers for the corresponding numbers on the recording sheet.
Task card activities for English
Regarding the subject of English you can come up with numerous examples of task cards.
- You could have vocabulary task cards that ask students to identify a word that they see in the picture, or fill the gap of a sentence with a vocabulary word.
- Or you could have a reading comprehension question! Students have to read a piece of text and answer a question about it.
- A fun idea is also to have a QR code that links to an audio file of sorts and have students answer a question about that after they have listened to it.
- You could have them answer a grammar question. This can be a gap question as well where they have to fill in the correct verb tense or grammar point. You could have a true false question, multiple choice question, or an open question.
- Or you could have a writing task on each task card. Students have to write a piece of text after they’ve read the prompt on the test card.
- And you could even have a speaking task where you’ll have students say things out loud in response to the question. For this last one you wouldn’t need a recording sheet.
So what is a task card?
It’s an excellent way to ask students to practice skills or revise things they learned! And it’s not a worksheet but an active way to learn!
Wanna see some task card examples? I created a set on prepositions of place, one on adjectives with -ed and -ing, several on seasonal vocabulary, and this free one on modal verbs!
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