Should I use Task Cards or Worksheets?
Worksheets or task cards? What is the best thing for your lesson? What is actually the difference?
I actually didn't really know the difference for a long time. I sort of thought of task cards as just miniature worksheets and I wasn't really using them properly! So I figured if I was confused maybe other people were too.
So a worksheet and a task card - what is the difference.
For a start it is the number of questions or activities on each page. Task cards tend to be smaller cards with questions or tasks on them in shorter bursts. They are great for centres and group work they allow children to focus on the single task in hand and tend to be more in depth. They are great if you are looking for a more informal response to your questions with scope for discussion and a change of direction in your answers. Task cards usually take preparation before hand and can sometimes be quite limiting in terms of assessment and keeping children focused in a particular area.
Worksheets
Worksheets seem to have a bad name lately but I strongly believe they have just as much a place in the classroom as task card except they are for a different type of lesson. They are usually independent work, children can complete with discussion but they require one person to fill them in and are more suited to personal answers. Worksheets are a good resource for homework assignments or assessments as they can be taken away and worked on. Worksheets do not usually require any preparation as they are a complete activity on their own and this is great at times!
Whatever type of work you choose to set your students, it is a good idea to have a mixture of task cards and worksheets in your classroom to give children a chance to experience different types of learning.
Please take a look at some of the detailed lesson worksheets in my store.
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