Talking Chips

Teammates place talking chips in the center of the table to make sure everyone contributes to the team discussion.

Spend-a-Buck

To make a team decision, teammates use play moneyand “spend a buck” to vote on their top picks. The option wiht the most bucks is deemed the team decision.

Showdown

Teams have a set of question cards stacked facedown in the center of the table. The teacher selects one student on the team to be Showdown Captain
for the first round.

One Stray

One teammate strays from his or her team to a new team to share or gather information.

Mix-Pair-Share

The class mixes until the teacher calls “pair.” Students find a new partner to discuss or answer the teacher’s question.

Inner-Outer Circle

Students rotate in concentric circles to face new partners for sharing, quizzing, or problem-solving.

Find Someone Who

Students circulate through the classroom, forming and reforming pairs, trying to find “someone who knows” an answer, then they becone “someone who knows.”

Fan-N-Pick

Teammates play a card game to respond to questions. Roles rotate with each new question.

Student-Authored Textbooks

Student-Authored Textbooks What if instead of approaching vocabulary as something they had to learn each week, they approached their words as something they needed to be able to teach others? I’ve been fascinated by Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine’s book In Search of Deeper Learning lately. One of the chapters is about a project at one high […]

Vocab Magic Spells

Vocab Magic Spells Like the Tattoo Design activity, I think magic spell vocabulary has the potential to grab the attention of students who are really tapped out when it comes to studying vocab. If your class loves Harry Potter, try having them create magic spells that involve the words they’ve been assigned. Rowling does this with spells like […]

Vocab Tattoo Design

If you’re really struggling to get kids interested in the power of words, try an activity where you assign each student a word and ask them to create the tattoo image for someone who wanted this word as part of a tattoo.