Student teachers

Give small groups of students a problem to solve or a questions to answer.  Allow time for discussion, depending on the difficulty or complexity of the questions, and then have each group "teach" their problem to the rest of the class.  They should present the question and then explain their process for solving it in addition to the answer they came up with.  It's nice for the rest of the students to hear the process from someone other than the teacher, and the process of explaining to the rest of the class helps the student teachers solidify their understanding of the problem.

Best idea/Biggest Challenge

Either to start a large group discussion or to wrap up a small group discussion, have people share the best idea they come up with and what was the biggest challenge in the reading (large group) or discussion (small group).  This will tend to bring up a wide range of ideas from different people.  It also lets people air what they struggled with and get new perspectives on those challenges from other students.

Fact grouping

Give each student a fact on a notecard.  All the facts will be related to one subject.  Have a few headings within the overall topic, and have students get up and walk to the heading that they think their fact best fits with.  Students can talk to others who go to the same place to decide if they all agree with the facts being where they are.  Go around and have people read their facts and then talk about any that could have fit more than one place.  Students get a chance to get up and move and to talk to each other while practicing a skill they will eventually have to do alone.

Rotating tables

Divide into small groups and each sit at one table.  Each table gets a question on the reading written on a big paper.  The groups write answers to the question, then move onto the next table.  At the end, each group has been to each table and written answers to each question.  When people are back where they started, go around the room and have each group summarize the responses for the class.  Everyone's perspectives will be heard, and groups get to consider many different perspectives.

Context clues

Use images to work on visual literacy.  Give students an image with no caption.  Give several options for what it's a picture of.  Ask students to look for hints in the picture to try to guess what the correct option is.  Are people happy or sad?  Mostly men, mostly women, or a mix?  How are they dressed?  What is the scenery like?  These are all questions you could ask to help students interpret an image.

Handheld devices/Clickers

Voting devices like iClickers can be a great way to get responses from every student, even those more hesitant to raise their hands and answer questions verbally.  Students also answer questions without being swayed by others' responses.  Using these devices can help keep every student accountable and engaged.  If used consistently, they can also track attendance and participation.

Wall of Ideas

Use either a white board or a long piece of paper form a large roll on the wall.  Write about 2 questions on the top, which should be relatively open-ended.  Give each student a marker and have them write their own answers to the questions on the board or paper.  They should also read other answers and respond to those.  Whole conversations can happen on the paper.  This activity gives students a chance to have conversations even if they tend not to be very comfortable talking.  They also see many different responses to questions and get lots of perspectives.  It's usually a pretty quiet activity, and you can even tell them not to talk- only write what they want to say.

Human Venn diagram

This is a good activity for teaching how Boolean operators work.  Give the class statements like "people who like cats AND dogs" and "people who like cats OR dogs."  Have them stand up if they fit the description.  In this example, the first one would have only people who like both animals standing up, and the second would have anyone who likes either animal standing.  It helps to make the way Boolean operators work more clear by giving a clear visual of what the results are like when different operators are used.

Teachingbooks

Teachingbooks.net is an amazing website that offers lesson plans, author interviews, name pronunciations, and samples of audio recordings from books.  This can really help engage learners in many different ways.  Those who might not be very interested in a book at first can be pulled in by learning more about the authors from the authors themselves.  It also offers lesson plans for teachers to use.

Google document discussion

Have one Google Document for the class, and each group is assigned one section to fill in as they discuss.  You can see what other groups are talking about at the same time, so you can collaborate with separate groups in real time.  It also gives a final product that people can go back to for reference.

Puzzle pieces

This activity works well for citations, but could also be used for other things.  Citations were broken up on separate pieces of paper and teams competed to make a correct citation first by sorting the pieces into the right order.  It was engaging and sort of exciting, uses teamwork.  Competition is an incentive for some learners.  Can build and add more types, then it can serve as review and learning new concepts.  Could also have people each hold a card and arrange themselves in order.  This involves more movement.

Gallery walk

After any small group discussion activity that involved groups writing notes on large pieces of paper, have the whole class get up and walk around to look at other groups' lists.  This lets people get a taste of other ideas without having each group presenting.  As they walk, they can also have conversations with people nearby if they see something particularly interesting.

Regrouping

Simple techniques like the "quiet coyote" hand signal or "if you hear my voice clap once" are easy ways to get the attention of students and bring the large group back together after doing small group activities or discussions.

Aha!/Mmhmm/Say what?

Groups divide paper into three sections.  Aha! is something that they hadn't realized or thought of before but they like.  Mmhmm is something they had thought of before but agree with.  Say what? is something that they do not agree with from the article.  It's a focused discussion that draws people back into the text.  It allows people to air concerns they had about the reading or places they thought were strange or particularly interesting.  Individuals could also do with post-its as they read.

Four-square

Divide a large paper into four quadrants- definition, symbols, examples, challenges.  Using information from the reading, fill in each quadrant.  Define any confusing terms, use symbols and drawings to show meaning, give a couple real-life examples, and then list some challenges that may arise.  The captions for each quadrant can change depending on the reading.  The four sections allow students to conceptualize something in four different ways.  Different sections are good for different learning styles, and it’s all very collaborative.

Jigsaw

Each small group gets one part of an article to become “experts” on.  The groups read and discuss, then share their conversations with the whole group.  Once everyone has presented, then the sections of the article should fit together like the pieces of a puzzle.  It allows students to focus on one part of an article rather than the whole thing, which makes it a little easier to digest and helps focus thinking.

Musical shares

Write down a topic you want to research, the circle the room writing questions for other people’s topics.  When the music plays, move around, and when it stops, go to the nearest paper and write a question about the topic written at the top.  Do this about 5 times, and then each person will have suggestions for specific questions from 5 different people to help them narrow down their topic.  This activity is interactive, interpersonal and lets people move around the room.

Sliding group members

Small group discussion on a question, then one group member shifts to the next group (in a circle) and explains what their group talked about.  Then get a new question in new groups.  This gets different perspectives into existing groups and gets people talking to new people.  Choose a random characteristic to decide who rotates rather than having groups pick (closest birthday, who stayed up latest, etc).  Could also do a game to pick, like “the nose goes”.  Having questions printed helps, as does having them individually on different colors of paper to help groups keep track of where they are.

Continuum

Students sort cards in a spectrum according to any criterion you want to set.  This can be done in small groups or as one large group.  One example would be sorting different teaching techniques from a reading assignment in order of how helpful you found them.

Diamond sorting

Give each small group 9 cards.  Each person gets one or two to write a statement about the reading on- it can be something they agree or disagree with.  The group should then sort the cards into rows of 1, 2, 3, 2, and 1 in a diamond shape.  The 1 at the top is something the group strongly agrees with, row 2 is somewhat agree, 3 is neutral, 2 somewhat disagree, and 1 strongly disagree.  You can also have people write cards then trade with another group.  This way, no one needs to argue for their own statements to be in a certain place and people may feel more comfortable.  It's a collaborative activity that lets people think about the strengths and weaknesses of an article or chapter.

Index card sorting

Write one example (or problem, etc) on each of 6-10 index card and have groups sort cards into sets in different ways that make sense.  Then move to a new table and guess how that group sorted their cards.  This helps people think about the concepts.  It is social, collaborative, and tactile and allows for moving at different speeds

Flexible learning space

Having a classroom that can be easily rearranged makes different groupings very easy.  Students can easily get into two large groups, six small groups, small groups at a computer, tables to the side to let students move around, etc.  This makes many different types of learning activities possible, enhancing the classroom environment.

Grouping based on interest

Putting students in discussion groups based on their interests allows people to discuss readings with people who share their goals.  This lets people interpret class material as it relates to their area of specialization.  School librarians and special librarians have different needs, and it is helpful to let them work together to find what will be the most helpful for them in their careers.

Spider Diagrams

Spider diagrams help students think relationally about various topics.  A central topic is given, then several subsets.  Students work in groups to categorize items from the reading or other subject as a web all coming off of the central topic.

Icebreakers

Icebreakers like the name game and two truths and a lie help a group get to know each other and become comfortable.  They can help create a safe environment and learning space for a group.