Activity aim: This activity will be assigned at the end of a class to check students’ understanding and progress. Materials needed: pen and paper Time: 5-10 minutes Activity Description: Post on the slide: 1) What are three major takeaways from … Continue reading Pyramid Takeaways (Chinese Literature)
Activity aim: To share notetaking strategies; to report back on group work in a more efficient way; to keep track of what happened during a learning activity for students’ later reference; to share questions and confusion in real time Materials: … Continue reading Collaborative Notetaking
Activity aim: To (quickly and effectively) check student competency in using a tech tool; to encourage collaboration and peer teaching Materials needed: A checklist with items that students should be able to know how to do. Time: 15-30 minutes (or … Continue reading Student Self-Check
Activity Aim: To understand the differences between three major philosophical schools in ancient China and their relationships with political issues of the time. Material needed: Pen, paper, whiteboard Activity time: 25-30 minutes Activity description: This activity will be done toward … Continue reading This or That Debate (Chinese Literature)
Activity aim: To co-create, consolidate, and review key concepts; to give students a way to refer back to previous concepts that they may have missed or misunderstood; to facilitate class community and collaboration Materials: Pen and paper Time: ongoing (can … Continue reading Collaborative Resource Creation
Activity aim: To understand the concept of the “national character” in Lu Xun’s short stories Materials: Pen and paper Time: 15-20 minutes Activity description: Post a question on slide: What constitutes the Chinese national character Lu Xun criticizes and tries … Continue reading Think, Pair, Share in Chinese Literature
Activity aim: Team work and collaboration; conducting marketing research; peer review Materials: See below Time estimated: See below Prep for teacher: See below Note: This series of 6 activities are distinct steps in a group research project that amounts to 30% of the student’s … Continue reading A Group Research Project in 6 Parts (Marketing)
Activity aim: To get students to apply course material to a real-life scenario Materials: Printed worksheets, Plickers/Top Hat (learn more about Plickers here; learn more about Top Hat here) Time estimated: 20 minutes Prep for teacher: Set up Plicker questions, set up … Continue reading Think / Pair / Share with Clickers (Library Science)
Activity aim: To provide students with an opportunity to gain exposure to multiple readings; to encourage students to review / synthesize / draw connections between multiple texts; to review reading in preparation for a discussion Materials needed: An article questionnaire … Continue reading Jigsaw Reading
Activity aim: Students should learn to strip sentences down to basic components necessary to determine the elements of ERD. They will learn to spot nouns and verbs in each sentence, and translate them into Entities and Relationships elements accordingly. Subsequently … Continue reading English Sentences into Entity Relationship Diagrams (CIS)
Activity aim: Learn normalization techniques by having students set up cases that need normalizing, and their peers resolving the normalization errors. Materials: Blackboard Discussion Board discussion. Time estimated: 30 minutes Prep for teacher: Set up Discussion Board discussion. Prepare the … Continue reading Normalization Game (CIS)
Activity aim: Spot common error in SQL statements, fix errors by writing correct SQL Materials: Printed worksheets Time estimated: 60 minutes Prep for teacher: Set up worksheets. Break students into pairs or groups (no more than 4) Note: Designed for … Continue reading Fix “Broken” SQL Statement (CIS)
Activity aim: To get students to understand and be able to differentiate between the domains of database, data, database management systems; to understand the professional roles and functions of database developer, data administrator, database administrator, data modeler, database architect, database … Continue reading Database Universe: Mix and Match (CIS)
Activity aim: Develop the applicability of the concept of slope to non-linear relations (curves). Students compute different rates of change: a velocity in one example and a rate of revenue increase in the other. They recognize the concept of slope … Continue reading Introduction to the Derivatives (Calculus)
An active learning module to analyze, process, and learn visual information with students providing content, research, and presentation (inside out lecture). Activity aim: Students will review, synthesize, and select exemplary samples of contrast on their homework reading to further understand … Continue reading Understanding Contrast (Graphic Design)
Activity aim: To prompt discussion; to develop synthesis skills; to build classroom community Materials needed: Sticky notes, poster paper (you can also just write topics on the board), pens Time: 10-15 minutes (or more), depending on the group size Activity Description … Continue reading Sticky note check in
Activity aim: To get students to synthesize the most important “takeaways”; to build student confidence to ask questions; to have students reflect on their points of confusion Materials: Nothing! Activity description: Think / pair / share is probably the simplest … Continue reading Think / pair / share
Activity aim: To review; to provide an authentic task for repetitive practice; to encourage class discussion without putting students on the spot; to help students formulate questions Materials: It can be helpful to have a printed worksheet or slide with … Continue reading Pyramid
Activity aim: To provide students with an opportunity to consolidate their learning or find the gaps in their own understanding; to review key concepts; to check understanding after a more passive task Materials needed: Each students needs a pen and … Continue reading “Writing to Learn” Journals (Interdisciplinary)
Activity aim: To prompt discussion; to facilitate peer teaching, content review, or practice Materials needed: Sticky notes, pieces of tape, or shipping labels. This is also possible to do without any of these things (students can hold up their cards … Continue reading What’s Your Number?
Activity aim: To engage students in higher-order thinking; to deepen and consolidate learning of abstract concepts; to gauge student understanding Materials needed: Varies Time: Varies Skip to a description of an activity for STEM-oriented class Skip to a description of … Continue reading Problem-Posing Journals
Activity aim: Four Corners can be used in a wide variety of ways: to facilitate class discussion, to help create a classroom culture at the beginning of the year, or to shake up the energy in the room and confirm … Continue reading Four Corners
Activity aim: To review reading material; to get students to review / synthesize / draw connections between multiple texts; to review reading in preparation for a discussion Materials needed: Each students needs a pen and paper. Time: 20-30 minutes (or … Continue reading Cadavre Exquis
Activity aim: To get students to review / synthesize / draw connections between multiple texts; to review reading in preparation for a discussion; Materials needed: Each students needs a pen and paper. Time: 20-30 minutes (or more), depending on the … Continue reading Ink Shedding
Activity aim: to model classroom discussion; to encourage more class participation; Materials needed: Nothing! Time estimated: 45-60 minutes (it can be shorter than this) Activity description: Using the fishbowl technique (and its many variations!) to facilitate class discussions can … Continue reading Fishbowl Discussion
Activity aim: to provide a more clear structure for group discussion; to allow students to have a chance to assimilate and “digest” information Materials needed: Nothing! Time estimated: This can take <10 minutes, but it could also be extended … Continue reading Roundtable Discussion
Activity aim: to encourage peer teaching; to encourage synthesis; to check student progress and generate questions; to review content Materials needed: A Pro / Con / Caveat grid (students can make them) Time estimated: 15-20 minutes (depending on follow-up … Continue reading Pro, Con, Caveat
Activity aim: To facilitate peer-to-peer / cooperative teaching (or review); to reinforce / review content; to get students to visualize abstract content in more concrete ways Materials + time needed: Activity 1: A list of vocabulary words or other … Continue reading Information Sort
Activity aim: To get students to review notes; to get students to synthesize the most important “takeaways”; to model a study strategy Materials: Class notes, index cards (or a small piece of paper), and Post It notes (or even smaller … Continue reading Boil It Down
Activity aim: To foster low-stakes group discussion; to review; to encourage synthesis and / or new connections Materials needed: Pieces of scrap paper, post-it notes, or cards (if scrap paper or cards, you’ll also need tape). Time estimated: This … Continue reading Affinity Maps
Activity aim: To encourage synthesis and reflection; to help students formulate questions; to check student progress Materials needed: A piece of notebook paper and a pen (per student) Time estimated: This is intended to be a <5 min. activity, … Continue reading One-Minute Paper
Activity aim: to encourage class discussion without putting students on the spot; to help students formulate questions; to break up a dying whole class discussion; to introduce students to active learning (this is an easy way to introduce the … Continue reading Value Line
Activity aim: To facilitate peer-to-peer / cooperative teaching and review; to understand what learners know and what is still confusing Materials needed: Pieces of scrap paper, post-it notes, or cards with one target vocabulary word / concept written on … Continue reading Review Mingle