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.