Moving summarizations

Students come up with actions to 'act out' the meaning of a sequence of events

Wordsplash

"Splash" terms all over a sheet, and have students make relationships between the terms. I usually have students write out a couple sentences on the board using as many terms as they can.

Usually, descriptions of this call for a "predictive" phase before you study, then students check on their predictions. However, I've used it simply as a summing up tool after studying material.

It works effectively both for reviewing specific terms, and for getting students to think about relationships, i.e., go beyond recall.

Taboo

Students create taboo cards--write the term, and five words that can't be used as clues. Then one person from the other team tries to get his/her team to guess the term without saying any of the taboo words.

Good for review of terms, students enjoy it.

Frayer model

Four boxes around concept: essential characteristics, nonessential characteristics, examples, nonexamples. See Wormeli, Summarization in Any Subject

This worked well for summarizing primal religions.

Could be useful for abstract concepts, like absolutism or constitutionalism.

Have students write it on the board so they can compare.

P-M-I

See Wormeli. Good for getting discussion on ethical isses, e.g., evaluation Peter the Great's westernization program

3-2-1

Three questions, the first calling for three answers, the next for two, the last for one.

For example:

What were three scientific discoveries in the Scientific Revolution?
What were two ways in which those discoveries affected people's lives?
What is one aspect of life not affected by those discoveries?

Create a test

Have students write test questions.

Crossword puzzles

Students usually think these are fun

Point of View

Ask students to describe material studied (a narrative, a way of life, a set of beliefs), from a particular point of view. e.g., describe modern American society from a Hopi point of view, describe Lincoln's emancipation policy from various political viewpoints

Partners A and B

Divide students into pairs. Partner A talks for one minute about everything he/she remembers or that occured to him/her on the topic. Then Partner B talks, but cannot repeat anything that Partner A said.

Good for processing/summarizing after lectures and discussions, when it's less about specific facts and more about general ideas. Also good for on-the-fly, in the middle of a lecture, say.

Concrete spelling

Ask students to write a term in a pictoral way, which reflects the meaning of the word (See Wormeli, Summarization in Any Subject, for examples)

Share one-get one

Students get or draw a nine-by-nine grid. In the top three squares, they put three facts or ideas from the lecture, reading, or other material. They then walk around and compare notes with other students. They fill in the blank squares, copying from other students--no student may contribute more than one idea to a given student, and no student may repeat any ideas in his/her squares.

Tic-Tac-Toe

Students have nine terms on index cards, arrange them in a three-by-three grid, must make sentences of the three terms in each row and column. See Rutherford.

This is a good exercise. It works well, and gets the students really thinking.

Could be used effectively with flash cards, as a way to process and cement learning, once they've memorized

Inside-Outside Circle

See Kagan for details

Flashcard Game

Courtesy of Spencer Kagan

Numbered Heads Together

I've used this when playing review Jeapardy. It has been especially effective when I used whiteboards, so that all teams can answer at the same time.

Carousel Brainstorm

Either divide students into group, or have them work individually. Assign students a topic, and have them brainstorm on the board. After a certain time, tell everyone to rotate to the next station.

A good way to get lots of information on the board first, which can be useful if you want to do comparisons. Having students/groups use different colored markers/chalk enables you to track group contributions.

Another way to do this is to set up multiple wikis (say, in moodle) and use those for the brainstorm. The advantage is that the information is then preserved and accessible.