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.

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.

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.

Wordle

Generates a tag cloud based on imported text.

Could be used to process student inputs, look for patterns, or generate text for word splash

At http://www.wordle.net/

Human continuum

Put a line on the ground (I usually use masking tape), and give students a question (e.g., attitudes towards tradition) and ask them to stand on the continuum. The longer you can make the line, the better.

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.

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.

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