A mole man action figure holding a pen

Collaborative Notetaking

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

Two action figures look like they're having a conversation with each other and stand against contrasting backgrounds

Jigsaw Reading

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

Geordi and Data from Star Trek stand next to each other. Data holds a calculator, and Geordi points to the camera. They're standing in front of a control room.

Think / pair / share

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

Chewbacca hanging upside down looking confused

The Muddiest Point and the Clearest Point

  Activity aim: to find out what students find unclear; to have students (themselves) reflect on what they do and don’t understand Materials needed: You can require students to bring notecards or provide them yourself, or you can just have … Continue reading The Muddiest Point and the Clearest Point