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.