We had a great online professional development last week, with teachers coming together to share their favorite engagement techniques. Here are a few ideas that came out of the session.
Silent discussion: If you have middle school students who are hesitant to participate in discussions because they are anxious about what their peers will think, try a silent discussion. The teacher who presented this idea said she puts questions on big poster boards around the room. Students circulate, answering the questions on sticky notes. She then puts students into groups and gives each group one of the poster boards and asks them to organize and synthesize the answers on the sticky notes and then report out.
Character Day: First day of the unit is Character Day. Characters can be people or items—in the Africa unit, salt is a character. Each student chooses a different character—they must do a little research on their character, then when the character comes up, the student shares their research.
Inquiry: Have student questions that guide your unit of study using the Right Question Institute's Question Formulation Technique. There is LOTS of free information on the Right Question Institute's website (though you have to register to access it). And they'll be offering a free training for 12 renewal units next spring (you can sign up for the waitlist here.)
Primary Sources: Maps, historic photographs, objects... This is obviously a favorite of mine.
Participants also pointed to ideas shared on the website Ditch That Textbook and in the book Teach Like a Pirate. They also talked about games they play with students ("Would you rather" and "Four Corners"), asking students to tweet as characters, rewriting the Declaration of Independence as a break-up message, and more.
Thanks to all the creative teachers who participated in the session! I learned a lot.
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