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.