Strategies for Active Learning
The active engagement strategies below range in complexity are designed to motivate students in various ways. Knowing your students’ ability levels and interests will enable you to appropriately align these strategies within instruction. Also, getting to know each individual learner will allow your students to feel they are valued in a culture for learning.
Here are some examples of strategies that promote active engagement in the classroom:
Think-Pair-Share: Students are asked to think about a question or problem and turn to a peer to discuss and provide a response to share with the larger group.
Socratic Seminar: Students sit in a circle and are provided a topic or subject for debate. Each student is given two pennies to contribute their “two cents” about the matter. Each student is required to participate in the discussion at least twice; each time they can drop one of their pennies into a box in the center of the circle.
I Have, Who Has: Each student is provided with two index cards; one card has a vocabulary word written on it, the other has the definition. Collect the cards and create two piles, one for each type of card. Shuffle each pile and provide each student with two cards: one word card and one definition card. Taking turns, each student reads their definition aloud as others try to match the correct word with it from their second card.
Summarizers: Students develop a written summary of a reading, content, or learning activity that clearly articulates their understanding of the main ideas. This can be completed on an index card or sticky note.
3-2-1: Students record three things they learned from a lesson or learning activity, two questions they have, and one misconception or concept they wish to learn more about.