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 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 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: Group quizzes enhance students’ understanding of the material by having them discuss a set of questions to determine the correct answers. By working cooperatively, students can learn from each other and improve their grasp of the material. The “quiz” in this activity is meant … Continue reading Group Quizzes
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 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
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 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