101 INTERACTIVE  TEACHING TECHNIQUES PART 2

51. Application to Major – During last 15 minutes of class, ask students to write a short

Teaching method

article about how the point applies to their major.

52. Pro and Con Grid – Students list out the pros and cons for a given subject.

53. Harvesting – After an experience/activity in class, ask students to reflect on “what” they

learned, “so what” (why is it important and what are the implications), and “now what”

(how to apply it or do things differently).

54. Chain Notes – Instructor pre-distributes index cards and passes around an envelope, on

which is written a question relating to the learning environment (i.e., are the group

discussions useful?) Students write a very brief answer, drop in their own card, and pass

the envelope to the next student.

55. Focused Autobiographical Sketches – Focuses on a single successful learning

experience, one relevant to the current course.

56. Course-Related Self-Confidence Surveys – Simple questions that measure how

self-confident students are when it comes to a specific skill. Once they become aware they

can do it, they focus on it more.

57. Profiles of Admirable Individuals – Students write a brief profile of an individual in

a field related to the course. Students assess their own values and learn best practices for

this field.

58. Memory Matrix – Identify a key taxonomy and then design a grid that represents those

interrelationships. Keep it simple at first. Avoid trivial or ambiguous relationships, which

tend to backfire by focusing students on superficial kinds of learning. Although probably

most useful in introductory courses, this technique can also be used to help develop basic

study skills for students who plan to continue in the field

59. Categorizing Grid – Hand out rectangles divided into cells and a jumbled listing of

terms that need to be categorized by row and column.

60. Defining Features Matrix – Hand out a simple table where students decide if a

defining feature is PRESENT or ABSENT. For instance, they might have to read through

several descriptions of theories and decide if each refers to behaviorist or constructivist

models of learning.

61. What/How/Why Outlines – Write brief notes answering the what / how / why

questions when analyzing a message or text.

62. Approximate Analogies – Students provide the second half of an analogy (A is to B as

X is to Y).

101 interactive teaching techniques

63. Problem Recognition Tasks – Offer case studies with different types of problems and

ask students to identify the TYPE of problem (which is different from solving it)

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

64. Switch it up! – Ask students to work on one problem for a few minutes and

intentionally move to a second problem without debriefing the first one, then solve the

second one and only then return to the first one for more work. A carefully chosen second

problem can shed light on the first problem, but this also works well if the problems are

not directly related to each other.

65. Reading Rating Sheets – Students fill out a ratings sheet on the course readings, on

how clear, useful, and interesting it was.

66. Assignment Assessments – Students give feedback on their homework assignments,

and evaluate them as learning tools.

67. Exam Evaluations – Students explain what they are learning from exams, and evaluate

the fairness, usefulness, and quality of tests.

68. Group-Work Evaluations – Questionnaires asking how effective groupwork has been

in the class.

69. Teacher-Designed Feedback Forms – Rather than use standardized evaluation

forms, teachers create ones tailored for their needs and their classes. Especially useful

midway through the term.

70. Writing Fables – Students write an animal fable (or at least sketch its outline) that will

lead to a one-sentence moral matching the current concept discussed in class. May be

done verbally instead.

Student Action: Pairs

71. Think-Pair-Share – Students share and compare possible answers to a question with a

partner before addressing the larger class.

72. Pair-Share-Repeat – After a pair-share experience, ask students to find a new partner

and debrief the wisdom of the old partnership to this new partner.

73. Teacher and Student - Individually brainstorm the main points of the last homework,

then assign roles of teacher and student to pairs. The teacher’s job is to sketch the main

points, while the student’s job is to cross off points on his list as they are mentioned, but

come up with 2-3 ones missed by the teacher.

74. Wisdom of Another – After any individual brainstorm or creative activity, partner

students up to share their results. Then, call for volunteers of students who found their

partner’s work to be interesting or exemplary. Students are sometimes more willing to

share in plenary the work of fellow students than their own work.

75. Forced Debate – Students debate in pairs, but must defend the opposite side of their

personal opinion. Variation: half the class take one position, half the other. They line up

and face each other. Each student may only speak once, so that all students on both sides

can engage the issue.

76. Optimist/Pessimist – In pairs, students take opposite emotional sides of a

conversation. This technique can be applied to case studies and problem solving as well.

77. Peer Review Writing Task – To assist students with a writing assignments, encourage

them to exchange drafts with a partner. The partner reads the essay and writes a threeparagraph

response: the first paragraph outlines the strengths of the essay, the second

paragraph discusses the essay’s problems, and the third paragraph is a description of

what the partner would focus on in revision, if it were her essay.

78. Invented Dialogues – Students weave together real quotes from primary sources, or

invent ones to fit the speaker and context.

79. My Christmas Gift – Students mentally select one of their recent gifts as related to or

emblematic of a concept given in class, and must tell their partners how this gift relates to

the concept. The one with a closer connection wins.

80. Psychoanalysis – Students get into pairs and interview one another about a recent

learning unit. The focus, however, is upon analysis of the material rather than rote

memorization. Sample Interview Questions: Can you describe to me the topic that you

would like to analyze today? What were your attitudes/beliefs before this topic? How did

your attitudes/beliefs change after learning about this topic? How will/have your

actions/decisions altered based on your learning of this topic? How have your

perceptions of others/events changed?

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

Student Action: Groups

81. Jigsaw (Group Experts) – Give each group a different topic. Re-mix groups with one

planted “expert” on each topic, who now has to teach his new group.

82. Pick the Winner – Divide the class into groups and have all groups work on the same

problem and record an answer/strategy on paper. Then, ask groups to switch with a

nearby group, and evaluate their answer. After a few minutes, allow each set of groups to

merge and ask them to select the better answer from the two choices, which will be

presented to the class as a whole.

83. Lecture Reaction – Divide the class into four groups after a lecture: questioners (must

ask two questions related to the material), example givers (provide applications),

divergent thinkers (must disagree with some points of the lecture), and agreers (explain

which points they agreed with or found helpful). After discussion, brief the whole class.

84. Movie Application – In groups, students discuss examples of movies that made use of

a concept or event discussed in class, trying to identify at least one way the movie-makers

got it right, and one way they got it wrong.

85. Student Pictures – Ask students to bring their own pictures from home to illustrate a

specific concept to their working groups.

86. Definitions and Applications – In groups, students provide definitions, associations,

and applications of concepts discussed in lecture.

87. TV Commercial – In groups, students create a 30-second TV commercial for the

subject currently being discussed in class. Variation: ask them to act out their

commercials.

88. Blender – Students silently write a definition or brainstorm an idea for several minutes

on paper. Then they form into groups, and two of them read their ideas and integrate

elements from each. A third student reads his, and again integration occurs with the

previous two, until finally everyone in the group has been integrated (or has attempted

integration).

89. Human Tableau or Class Modeling – Groups create living scenes (also of inanimate

objects) which relate to the classroom concepts or discussions.

90. Build From Restricted Components – Provide limited resources (or a discrete list of

ideas that must be used) and either literally or figuratively dump them on the table,

asking students in groups to construct a solution using only these things (note: may be

familiar from the Apollo 13 movie). If possible, provide red herrings, and ask students to

construct a solution using the minimum amount of items possible.

91. Ranking Alternatives – Teacher gives a situation, everyone thinks up as many

alternative courses of action (or explanations of the situation) as possible. Compile list. In

groups, now rank them by preference.

92. Simulation – Place the class into a long-term simulation (like as a business) to enable

Problem-Based Learning (PBL).

93. Group Instructional Feedback Technique – Someone other than the teacher polls

groups on what works, what doesn’t, and how to fix it, then reports them to the teacher.

94. Classroom Assessment Quality Circles – A small group of students forms a

“committee” on the quality of teaching and learning, which meets regularly and includes

the instructor.

95. Audio and Videotaped Protocols – Taping students while they are solving problems

assesses the learner’s awareness of his own thinking.

96. Imaginary Show and Tell – Students pretend they have brought an object relevant to

current discussion, and “display” it to the class while talking about its properties.

97. Six Degrees of “RNA Transcription Errors” – Like the parlor game “Six Degrees of

Kevin Bacon” (in which actors are linked by joint projects), you provide groups with a

conceptual start point and challenge them to leap to a given concept in six moves or

fewer. One student judge in each group determines if each leap is fair and records the

nature of the leaps for reporting back to the class.

101 interactive teaching techniques

98. Replace Discussion Boards - Create a Facebook “group” (private/invite only) and use

the Wall as the class discussion board. Students are notified by home page notification

when someone replies to their thread.

99. Notify Students Quickly - Message all members of your Facebook group with one

click; this will reach your students much faster than an email, because most of them

check Facebook regularly.

100. Fan Page - An alternative to a group is a “fan” page, which has the advantage that your

“status updates” will show up for students on their Live Feed. Disadvantage: some

students turn off Live Feed and only see status updates of their friends.

101. Direct Facebook Friendship - Allowing your students to “friend” you will give you

unfettered access to them (unless they’ve set up a special role for you), but more

importantly, your status updates will be visible to them on the home page (unless they

block you manually). Disadvantage: too much information will be revealed on both sides,

unless both you and the students set up “lists” with limited access allowed.