Using ‘Rolling Starts’ at the Beginning of Class

The bell rings, and the teacher says, “OK, class, let’s begin.” The students act like the teacher isn’t there, continuing their conversations and moving around the room. Some students are still walking into class. This scene makes my heart race and my hands clammy. What will the teacher do to get their attention? How will the next 45 minutes of class go if it starts like this? Thankfully, I’ve had many classes that were very easy to start, but early on in my career I realized that I wanted more certainty about the start of class. 

Bell ringers—short, independent, simple assignments that students complete as soon as the bell rings have been one solution to this problem. However, I’ve used rolling starts with great success—independent, open-ended, high-engagement, low-demand activities that students begin as soon as they enter the classroom. 

What is a Rolling Start? 

Taking cues from the work of teacher trainer Harry Wong, a rolling start provides a positive activity for the students to do as soon as they enter, rather than leaving them wondering what to do and/or starting a negative behavior. 

Whenever students enter a space where we want them to be focused on a particular task, we can offer them an activity that will focus them toward that task. This activity is open-ended, and students can participate at different levels of engagement and skill. It’s a high-engagement, low-demand activity that students want to participate in so there is a “reward” for being on time (or early). These activities aren’t graded but give the teacher valuable information about the support that certain students may need throughout the class. 

The idea of a rolling start comes from auto racing. In a rolling start, cars take a few laps at a lower speed since some cars (especially in early racing) take more time and effort to fully engage their engines. This might sound familiar, as some students take more effort and time to get focused and fully engaged than others. The rolling start allows a flexible preparation time before the main objective (whether racing or learning). In a classroom, a rolling start provides flexibility so that if one student is having trouble getting going, it’s less likely that other students will be affected.

4 Ways to Get Started 

1. Simple instructions. If students believe they will be participating in a desirable activity, they’re more likely to get started. Additionally, you can use simple instructions to set up the activity in order to engage students. When I taught a series of music workshops to Chinese students, I created short instructions, translated in Chinese, on the board.

I don’t speak Chinese, and the students spoke limited English, but I could tell that when they came in for class, they were talking about what the game would be and wondering what music I would choose. When I was ready to start, I simply played the music, and the class began smoothly (and silently, which is often necessary at the beginning of most classes).

Online games like Kahoot and Quizlet Live already have rolling starts built into their interface and work well as bell ringers. Students log in as soon as they get into the classroom and then are “rewarded” with extra activities to do while they wait. In Kahoot, students can personalize their avatars. For Quizlet Live, students can review the words they will be quizzed over. 

2. Puzzles. Puzzles and word games are written on the board for students to solve or talk about as they come in. When they solve a puzzle or game, they generally enjoy keeping the solution to themselves and giving hints to their classmates. In a jazz unit, I wrote phrases like “Do Kelly Ton” and “Elle Laugh Fits Chair Old.” The students worked together to sound out the words, listening to each other to discover that these were transliterations of “Duke Ellington” and “Ella Fitzgerald.”

3. Exemplary student work. I often have exemplary student work, such as a video project, playing on the board as students walk in. As soon as the students recognize what they are looking at, they begin talking to their neighbors about the work. This offers a very smooth transition to working on their own projects later. To keep the focus positive, I instruct students (either orally or on the board) to focus on aspects that worked well and they would want to use in their own work. 

4. Open-ended questions and videos. Pair these together to keep students focused on the topic at hand. I think the videos need to be highly engaging, but not the type that students need to watch from beginning to end to understand. Music videos work well for this activity. 

For example, when students were studying simple machines, I started class with the OK Go video for “This Too Shall Pass,” which features a Rube Goldberg machine. You can instruct students to be ready to talk to their neighbors about the simple machines and energy transfers whenever the video is paused. I make sure to pause the video in a critical spot and let students know that I’ll only go on when I feel like everyone has shared and listened. 

Real-World Applications 

Classes and assemblies at school are some of the few instances where participants are expected to go immediately from not focusing on a topic at all to complete concentration (most of the time silently). 

Many types of gatherings—large conferences, weddings, athletic events—have “rolling starts” utilizing music, visuals, and even games and surveys. Organizers don’t want to have to rely on loud noises or stern commands to get the event started. This makes for a smoother start for the leaders and the participants. Teachers can do the same.