Chalk talk

A discussion carried out, in silence, through writing. The teacher writes a question on the board. Students come up, individually to write responses, to the teacher's question or each other. Students can circle others' points for emphasis, or draw lines to make connections.

I used this on the Day of Silence, when three-quarters of my class were keeping silence. It enabled us to have a good "discussion" of the Chinese Revolution without saying a word. If you do it on-line via technology, you'd even have a permanent record. I don't think Google docs could do it, but perhaps some of the online whiteboards. But a regular old chalkboard worked just fine.

A good summary can be found here.

Find the Fib

Students write three sentences about the history, one of which is incorrect. Students write their answers on the board, and other students need to figure out which one is incorrect.

Collaborative Corners

Give students a few choices (two, three, four), and have them move to a particular corner depending on their choice. For example, in a discussion of ideologies, I had students move to corners for "liberal," "conservative," "moderate," and "don't know." Each group then had to define what the term meant to them (except the "don't know" group--I talked with them myself). Students could also be challenged to come up with the best possible argument for their position, and then try to convince others to change corners.

Thumbs-up True-False

A simple and quick check for understanding method. Pose questions to the class. Each student does thumbs-up for true, thumbs-down for false, and thumbs-sideways for "not sure."

It's a simple technique, and easy to do, and good for a quick read on how well students understand.

Password

Students are divided into teams. One person from each team is chosen as the clue-giver. Each clue-giver is given a list of terms. They alternate giving one-word clues to the other members of their respective teams. If a team guesses correctly after one clue, they get 10 points; after two clues, nine points; and so on.

Summary ball

After presenting information, have students stand in a circle. Give the ball to a student. That student must state some fact or concept just presented, and pass the ball to another student, who must do likewise. Give students a short time (e.g., five seconds) to say something, in order to keep things moving.

When I tried this with students, there was a little lack of enthusiasm, which I think came from their uncertainty as to what to say. I think it might be easier if they could just throw out facts (e.g., Truman, Stalin, containment). Another possibility is to have students say a term and toss the ball, so the other student must identify the term, the say another term and toss the ball.

Running dictation

Post sentences on a wall. One student sits. The other student (or students) run/walk to the piece of paper, memorize one sentence, return to the first student, and repeat it. The writer writes it down. Continue until all sentences are written down.

I've used this when discussing sequence (e.g., Russia Revolution or 1905). The sentences/terms list certain events out of order. Students must transcribe the sentences/term and then put them in the correct order.