101 INTERACTIVE  TEACHING TECHNIQUES

These techniques have multiple benefits: the instructor can easily and quickly

assess if students have really mastered the material (and plan to dedicate more

time to it, if necessary), and the process of measuring student understanding in

many cases is also practice for the material—often students do not actually learn

the material until asked to make use of it in assessments such as these. Finally,

the very nature of these assessments drives interactivity and brings several

benefits. Students are revived from their passivity of merely listening to a lecture

and instead become attentive and engaged, two prerequisites for effective

learning. These techniques are often perceived as “fun”, yet they are frequently

more effective than lectures at enabling student learning.

Not all techniques listed here will have universal appeal, with factors such as your

teaching style and personality influencing which choices may be right for you.

Instructor Action: Lecture

1. Picture Prompt – Show students an image with no explanation, and ask them to

identify/explain it, and justify their answers. Or ask students to write about it using terms

from lecture, or to name the processes and concepts shown. Also works well as group

activity. Do not give the “answer” until they have explored all options first.

2. Think Break – Ask a rhetorical question, and then allow 20 seconds for students to

think about the problem before you go on to explain. This technique encourages students

to take part in the problem-solving process even when discussion isn't feasible. Having

students write something down (while you write an answer also) helps assure that they

will in fact work on the problem.

3. Choral Response – Ask a one-word answer to the class at large; volume of answer will

suggest degree of comprehension. Very useful to “drill” new vocabulary words into

students.

4. Instructor Storytelling – Instructor illustrates a concept, idea, or principle with a reallife

application, model, or case-study.

5. Empty Outlines – Distribute a partially completed outline of today’s lecture and ask

students to fill it in. Useful at start or at end of class.

Kevin Yee | University of Central Florida | kevinyee@mail.ucf.edu

6. Classroom Opinion Polls – Informal hand-raising suffices to test the waters before a

controversial subject.

7. Total Physical Response (TPR) – Students either stand or sit to indicate their binary

answers, such as True/False, to the instructor’s questions.

8. Hand Held Response Cards – Distribute (or ask students to create) standardized

cards that can be held aloft as visual responses to instructor questions. Example: green

card for true, red for false. Or hand-write a giant letter on each card to use in multiple

choice questions.

9. Student Polling – Select some students to travel the room, polling the others on a topic

relevant to the course, then report back the results for everyone.

10. Self-Assessment of Ways of Learning – Prepare a questionnaire for students that

probes what kind of learning style they use, so the course can match visual/aural/tactile

learning styles.

11. Quote Minus One – Provide a quote relevant to your topic but leave out a crucial word

and ask students to guess what it might be: “I cannot forecast to you the action of

______; it is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” This engages them

quickly in a topic and makes them feel invested.

12. Everyday Ethical Dilemmas – Present an abbreviated case study with an ethical

dilemma related to the discipline being studied.

13. Polar Opposites – Ask the class to examine two written-out versions of a theory (or

corollary, law of nature, etc.), where one is incorrect, such as the opposite or a negation of

the other. In deciding which is correct, students will have to examine the problem from all

angles.

14. Pop Culture – Infuse your lectures, case studies, sample word problems for use during

class with current events from the pop culture world. Rather than citing statistics for

housing construction, for instance, illustrate the same statistical concept you are teaching

by inventing statistics about something students gossip about, like how often a certain

pop star appears in public without make-up.

15. Make Them Guess – Introduce a new subject by asking an intriguing question,

something that few will know the answer to (but should interest all of them). Accept blind

guessing for a while before giving the answer to build curiosity.

16. Make It Personal – Design class activities (or even essays) to address the real lives of

the individual students. Instead of asking for reflections on Down’s Syndrome, ask for

personal stories of neurological problems by a family member or anyone they have ever

met.

17. Read Aloud – Choose a small text (500 words or less) to read aloud, and ask students to

pay particular attention during this phase of lecture. A small text read orally in a larger

lecture can focus attention.

18. Punctuated Lectures – Ask student to perform five steps: listen, stop, reflect, write,

give feedback. Students become self-monitoring listeners.

19. Word of the Day – Select an important term and highlight it throughout the class

session, working it into as many concepts as possible. Challenge students to do the same

in their interactive activities.

20. Recall, Summarize, Question, Connect, and Comment – This method of starting

each session (or each week) has five steps to reinforce the previous session’s material:

recall it, summarize it, phrase a remaining question, connect it to the class as a whole,

and comment on that class session.

21. Focused Listing – List several ideas related to the main focus point. Helpful for starting

new topics.

22. Background Knowledge Probe – Use questionnaire (multi-choice or short answer)

when introducing a new topic.

23. Goal Ranking and Matching – Students rank their goals for the class, then instructor

combines those with her own list.

24. Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklist – Assesses interest and preparation for the

course, and can help adjust teaching agenda.

Kevin Yee | University of Central Florida | kevinyee@mail.ucf.edu

25. Documented Problem Solutions – Keep track of the steps needed to solve specific

types of problems. Model a list for students first and then ask them to perform similar

steps.

Instructor Action: Lecture (Small Class Size)

26. Pass the Chalk – Provide chalk or a soft toy; whoever has it must answer your next

question, and they pass it on to the student of their choice.

27. Quaker Meeting – Students highlight key passages of the reading, and there is silence

(like a Quaker meeting) until someone wants to read his/her out, and others follow. End

with brief writing about what they learned from the sentences.

28. Town Hall Meeting – Abdicate the front of the room for a student willing to speak out

on a controversial subject, and when she is done with her comment, she selects the next

speaker from the hands raised.

29. The Half Class Lecture – Divide the class in half and provide reading material to one

half. Lecture on that same material to the other half of the class. Then, switch the groups

and repeat, ending with a recap by pairing up members of opposite groups.

30. Tournament – Divide the class into at least two groups and announce a competition for

most points on a practice test. Let them study a topic together and then give that quiz,

tallying points. After each round, let them study the next topic before quizzing again. The

points should be carried over from round to round. The student impulse for competition

will focus their engagement onto the material itself.

Student Action: Individual (many of these can be used as partnerwork or groupwork instead;

or may escalate to that after some individual effort)

31. One-Minute Papers – Students write for one minute on a specific question (which

might be generalized to “what was the most important thing you learned today”). Best

used at the end of the class session.

32. Muddiest Point – Like the Minute Paper, but asks for the “most confusing” point

instead. Best used at the end of the class session.

33. Misconception Check – Discover class’s preconceptions. Useful for starting new

chapters.

34. Drawing for Understanding – Students illustrate an abstract concept or idea.

Comparing drawings around the room can clear up misconceptions.

35. What’s the Principle – After recognizing the problem, students assess what principle

to apply in order to solve it. Helps focus on problem TYPES rather than individual

specific problems. Principle(s) should be listed out.

36. Haiku – Students write a haiku (a three-line poem: 5-syllables, then 7, then 5) on a given

topic or concept, and then share it with others.

37. Bookmark Notes - Distribute full-length paper to be used as a bookmark for the

current chapter. On it, record prompts and other “reading questions”, and require

students to record their notes, observations, and objections while reading onto these

bookmarks for collection and discussion in class.

38. True or False? – Distribute index cards (one to each student) on which is written a

statement. Half of the cards will contain statements that are true, half false. Students

decide if theirs is one of the true statements or not, using whatever means they desire.

Variation: designate half the room a space for those who think their statements are true,

and the other half for false.

39. “Real-World” – Have students discuss in class how a topic or concept relates to a realworld

application or product. Then have students write about this topic for homework.

Variation: ask them to record their answer on index cards.

40. Concept Mapping – Students write keywords onto sticky notes and then organize them

into a flowchart. Could be less structured: students simply draw the connections they

make between concepts.

41. Advice Letter – Students write a letter of advice to future students on how to be

successful students in that course.

Kevin Yee | University of Central Florida | kevinyee@mail.ucf.edu

42. Tabloid Titles – Ask students to write a tabloid-style headline that would illustrate the

concept currently being discussed. Share and choose the best.

43. Bumper Stickers – Ask students to write a slogan-like bumper sticker to illustrate a

particular concept from lecture. Variation: can be used to ask them to sum up the entire

course in one sentence.

44. One-Sentence Summary – Summarize the topic into one sentence that incorporates

all of who/what/when/where/why/how creatively.

45. Directed Paraphrasing – Students asked to paraphrase part of a lesson for a specific

audience (and a specific purpose).

46. Word Journal – First, summarize the entire topic on paper with a single word. Then

use a paragraph to explain your word choice.

47. Truth Statements – Either to introduce a topic or check comprehension, ask

individuals to list out “It is true that...” statements on the topic being discussed. The

ensuing discussion might illustrate how ambiguous knowledge is sometimes.

48. Objective Check – Students write a brief essay in which they evaluate to what extent

their work fulfills an assignment’s objectives.

49. Opposites – Instructor lists out one or more concepts, for which students must come up

with an antonym, and then defend their choice.

50. Student Storytelling – Students are given assignments that make use of a given

concept in relation to something that seems personally relevant (such as requiring the

topic to be someone in their family).