Post-Quiz Noise Stopper & Mind Occupier

You give a rigorous quiz. To begin, everyone is working diligently. But people work at their own pace. Soon, the quick test-takers will finish, raise their hands and submit their finished product. You walk over. Collect. Then, a few more. Then, more. Suddenly, more than half the class is finished w/ nothing to do. The rest are still working hard and are normally the type who NEED the extra silent time to finish. Some finished students are getting impatient. Human nature pushes them to start actin' a fool.

How do I stop it? A post-quiz riddle. Hand in the quiz, I hand you a mind twister. Kids read, then proceed to sit dumbfounded (and silent). They've got something to chew on while the rest of the kids test-take. Periods later in the day, a few students STILL have their mini sheets trying to decipher the answer. I pass them to other teachers I catch in the copy room and we've got a topic to discuss for the rest of the day.

Answers aren't revealed til next week, on the next post-quiz riddle:The buy-in is zero in-class time but the pay out is immense and hella fun.