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.