Active Learning

1. Active Learning By: Kira Wiman, Madison Pinherio & Nadine Abukhzam

2. How to Build Community: • Set expectations for both teacher and student • Constitution • Community building activities • E.g. Yarn example • Drama games → Build trust and comfort • Class meeting • Could be weekly or daily • E.g. Peach and Pit (highlight and low) • Get to know your students • First couple weeks do “where you’re from projects” • Get to know your teacher

3. Active Learning Definition: Active learning is a student-centered instructional approach in which students are engaged in the learning process through a variety of hands on activities that allow for exploration, interaction with their peers and teacher, and reflection on what was learned.

4. Rationale: Reasons why we use active learning in the classroom: According to Teaching with the Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen, students in grade K-12 have an attention span of about 5-15 minutes of direct teacher instruction with new content. (10, Teaching in the fast lane: how to create active learning experiences) Active learning is an exceptional way to counteract the above statistic, not only by engaging the student every step of the way, but by allowing the student to question, discover and create. It is especially effective when the students are working with each other. When the students work with each other, the students have a chance to learn how to work in a team, listen to others, re-evaluate and be social. With a student-centered environment and hands on activities, there is no place for the student to hide causing the class community to grow. The teacher benefits from active learning by being able to sit amongst the students, talking to them while reviewing each of them and giving feedback.

5. Ways to implement: • Act-it-out • Drama, dance, music can be incorporated • Working with one another- small group, big group, whole class • Games • Activities • Thinking outside the box/critical thinking • Get to know students-play to their personal strengths and weaknesses • All should be heavily student involved

6. Theorist: Albert Bandura & Lev Vygotsky • Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory • Learned behavior through modeling • The adult models the correct behavior/action • The child observes and imitates what is seen • Lev Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory • Zone of Proximal Development: the zone in which the child can reach new skills with assistance • To find, understand what the child can do unassisted and what is out of reach for the child, then find the zone of proximal development • Scaffolding: • Show and tell, tap into prior knowledge, give time to talk, pre-teach vocab., use visual aids, pause, ask questions, pause, review (6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students) • Bandura and Vygotsky • Both believed that social interaction was good for cognitive development • Modeling and Mentoring can increase the effect of active learning

7. 5 Things Learned from Development Inquiry: 1. How much brain development happens during pregnancy. 2. How much exposure to extracurriculars affects growth in personality, beliefs and morals. 3. There is a big cognitive difference in ages. 4. Early exposure to different languages creates both pros and cons. 5. As you grow older, the impact people have on you increases.

8. Importance of Lesson Planning • Teacher knows the content = more confidence • Allows the teacher to research more • Creates smooth transitions • Creates organization in the classroom • Maximizes time and learning • Create routine • Allows prep time • More unified lessons • Allows for reflection on teacher’s instruction and student’s work

9. 50 Active Learning Strategies 1. Ask the Winner: Ask the winner can be used with any subject. Simply put a problem on the board, overhead, etc. Have the students solve individually. Once all students have solved the problem, give the students the answer to the problem. Then ask the students who got the correct answer to raise their hands. Those students who don’t have their hands raised will then pair up with a student who did to ask them how they got the answer. This creates peer communication and a better understanding of the subject. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 4) 2. Real-world:This strategy allows students to compare and contrast past historical events to the present. You can also use this with fictional texts and bringing those events in a book to the real world. It helps students relate the lesson to personal life and gives the student a chance to step into the characters or person’s shoes. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 4) 3. Brain Drain: Brain drain is a great anticipatory set and it gets the students to think outside-of-the-box. The teacher divides the class into groups of five or six. Then will pass out charts with six rows and three columns. Each group will get a blank grid to start off with. The teacher will then ask a question on the new subject. Each person on every team will fill in a hypothesis for a possible answer in each box of the first row. After a set limit of time or once everyone has had a chance to fill in a box, the charts will be passed to another group. The next group will fill in the next row, but cannot repeat answers from the first group. This chart can rotate as many times as the teacher feels is needed. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 7)

10. 50 Active Learning StrategiesCont’d 4. Balloon Pop: Balloon pop is a fun way to delegate tasks or ask random questions. The teacher will blow up one balloon for each student with a task or a question. Each student will pop one balloon and read the paper that came with it for their assigned task or question that they have to answer. This would be great for science labs to delegate, group students into small or large groups, math practice, etc. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 7) 5. Beach Ball Bingo: The teacher will get a beach ball and write out subject questions, vocabulary or steps. The students will pass the beach ball around until all students have gotten it or all vocabulary has been reviewed or steps have been filled. This can be used for all subjects and all grades. This is also a great community builder and can be used on the first day of class to get to know your students. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 3) 6. Picture Prompt: Picture prompt is a great anticipatory set or can work as an assessment. The teacher will show the students a picture relating to the lesson or unit that the students have learned or will be learning. The teacher is not to say anything about the picture, just have the students discuss the picture with their tables or partner. After a certain amount of time, the teacher will bring the whole class together and then ask the students what they discussed. After the whole group discussion, the teacher will then explain the picture further. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 1) 7. Everyday Ethical Dilemmas: This strategy makes students think about ethical issues and probably better to use with the higher grades, e.g, fourth grade and up. The teacher will present the students with an ethical dilemma related to their studies. The teacher can either pair the students up or have a whole group discussion. This strategy would be interesting when learning about the environment or with a book that the class has been reading with a large issue. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 2)

11. 50 Active Learning StrategiesCont’d 8. Make Them Guess: This is a great anticipatory set that the teacher can do with the students. The teacher will introduce a new topic that some students may already know, but most won’t. The prompt or question should be engaging and interesting. The students should answer without any prior knowledge. After discussion, the teacher should give the answer and discuss the new topic. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 2) 9. Word of the Day: The word of the day can be used to highlight an important word that ties into the unit or lesson. The teacher and students will try to use this word as many times during the day. It would also be good to define the word in the beginning and end of the day. This can also be used, just to introduce new vocabulary to the students with words that are not related to a lesson. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 3) 10. Tournament: This strategy is great for assessment or reviewing for the assessment. The teacher will divide the class into two groups or more. The teacher will give the students a practice test. The teacher can either allow the students to study a topic before the test, do an open-note test, etc. The teacher can do as many rounds as needed or wanted. If there is more rounds, the points should carry out in each round. The teacher can chose the reward for the winner of the tournament. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 3) 11. Photo Homework: This strategy is perfect for science or research. The students will take a picture of something in that they see in their city, home, etc. that relates to the topic that is being learned in class. This can be shared whole class or by presentations. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 4) 12. Who am I?: Students will have a index card taped to their back with a name or term. The students will walk around the room and only ask yes/no questions to try to find out what their card says. The cards can be related to a history lesson or book. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 12)

12. 50 Active Learning StrategiesCont’d 13. Kahoot!: The website Kahoot.com is great for review with the students. Teachers have to make an account and can use pre-existing quizzes or make their own according to the topic. The quiz can be taken individually, partners or small groups. The students will need either a computer, iPad or cell phone to answer the questions. 14. Ghost Chapter of missing scene: This strategy is perfect for literature. When reading a class book or after, the teacher will put the students into groups. Each group will come up with a scene or part of the book that they think would fit well into the story. Each student will present and act out their scene in front of the class. (Wilhelm, Action strategies for deepening comprehension, 2006, p. 164) 15. Inside/Outside: This is a strategy that is similar to a debate, but more one on one. The students should be instructed to get into two circles, one inside the other. The inside circle will partner with someone in the outside circle and face them. The inside circle will be given a point of view they have to argue for and the outside will be given the opposite point of view. There should be multiple rounds and the outside circle should move clockwise to the next person or two after a minute or so. This gives the students opportunity to think about each side, even if they don’t necessarily agree with that point of view. The teacher may switch the views of the circles after so much time. This is great to do when doing history lessons, predictions or character’s feelings in a book. (Wilhelm, Action strategies for deepening comprehension, 2006, p. 94, 95) 16. “What if?” Scenarios: What if scenarios were originally used for historical learning, but can be used for all different subjects. When going doing a historical lesson, reading a book, doing a science experiment or even math problems, the whole class should discuss what if problems? This is great for whole class discussion, partner or table work and it gets the students discussing the topic. Also thinking about different possible situations will allow the students to think outside the box. (Wilhelm, Action strategies for deepening comprehension, 2006, p. 146)

13. 50 Active Learning StrategiesCont’d 17. Scene Extension: Scene extension is very similar to ghost chapter, however the students will be extending onto a scenario. The scenario will be given to the students either from a story they are reading or historical scene. But it allows the students to think about what would have happened afterwards that the author didn’t write. The students should be instructed to act out their scene in front of the class. (Wilhelm, Action strategies for deepening comprehension, 2006, p. 57) 18. Fate Cards: Fate cards are a really useful tool when doing historical learning. When learning a specific part of history, the teacher will pass out the fate cards, one to each student. The fate cards should be specific to what the students are learning about. For example, when learning about the holocaust, you would pass out fate cards that relate to people that were a part of the holocaust. The students will read their cards and then write or discuss how their fate makes them feel and how it affects their fictitious life. (Wilhelm, Action strategies for deepening comprehension, 2006, p. 56) 19. Character Walks: Character walks are great for diving into characters or important people and getting to know those people or characters more. The teacher will place chairs for half the student in a circle facing out. Half the students will sit in the chair and the other half with stand pairing with a seated student. The seated students are passed an index card with a question that pertains to the book the students are reading or historical events that they are learning as well. The standing students will take on the role of one or more characters and will answer the questions on the index card as if they were that person or character. The seated student will act as the characters friend or confidant to discuss the situation together. The teacher can switch the students roles so that all students have a chance to take on the situations. (Wilhelm, Action strategies for deepening comprehension, 2006, p. 73)

14. 50 Active Learning StrategiesCont’d 20. Dress Up Book Reports: Dress up book reports are a perfect way for students to show what they are interested in and teach their classmates what they have learned. The students will pick a person to research and read their biography. The teacher will pick a day to have the students come in dressed as the person they researched. They will present themselves as the person they researched to the class and tell them all the information they learned. (Wilhelm, Action strategies for deepening comprehension, 2006, p. 77) 21.Think Break: Ask the 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 think about the problem-solving process even when discussion is not feasible. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 1) 22. Bumper Stickers: Ask students to write a slogan- like bumper sticker to illustrate a particular concept from lecture. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 5) 23. Board of Artwork: Post publicly the collected drawings/abstract concepts from this class, as assigned by the teacher. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 4) 24. Pass the Chalk: Provide chalk or a soft toy; whoever has it must answer your next question, and they pass it onto the student of their choice. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 3) 25. Focused Listing: List several ideas related to the main focus point. Helpful for starting new topics. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 3) 26. Word of the Day: Select an important term and highlight it throughout the class session, working it into as many concepts as possible. Challenges students to do the same in their interactive activities. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 3)

15. 50 Active Learning StrategiesCont’d 27. Pop Culture: Infuse your class studies, case studies, sample word problems for use during class with current events from the pop culture world. Rather than citing statistics or 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 makeup. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 3) 28. Turn my Back: Face away from the class, ask for a show of hands how many people did their reading. After they put hands down, turn around again and ask to hear a report of the percentage. This provides an indication of students preparation for today's material. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 2) 29. Grab a Volunteer: After a minute paper, pick one student to stand up , cross the room, and read and other students answer. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 2) 30. Student Storytelling: Students are given assignments that that make use of a given concept in relation to something that seems personally relevant. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 5) 31. Word Journal: First summarize the entire topic on paper with a single word. Then use a paragraph to explain your word choice. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 5) 32. What/ How/ Why Outlines: Write brief notes answering the what/ how/why questions when analysing a message or text. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 5) 33. Reading Rating Sheets: Students fill out a rating sheet on the course reading, on how clear, useful, and interesting it was. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 6) 34. Make it a Story: Encourage students to submit thier group projects as a comic or story created online. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 7)

16. 50 Active Learning StrategiesCont’d 35. Updating Notes: Take a break for 2-3 minutes to allow students to compare their class notes so far with other students, fill in gaps, and develop joint questions. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 1) 36. 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. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 2) 37. Punctuated Lecture: Ask student to perform five steps: listen, stop, reflect, write, give feedback. Students become self-monitoring listeners. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 2) 38. Recall, Summarize, Question, Connect, and Comment: This method of starting each session (or each week) has five steps reinforce the previous session’s material: recall it, phrase a remaining question, connect it to the class as a whole, and comment on that class session. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 2) 39. Background Knowledge Probe: Use questionnaire (multi-choice or short answer) when introducing a new topic. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 2) 40. Bingo Balls of Doom: Every student is assigned a number: when the faculty member pulls that number from the bingo cage, that student has to answer the next question.(Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 2) 41. 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. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 2)

17. 50 Active Learning StrategiesCont’d 42. Three Part Interview: Pose the following question to the entire class: “What do you think are the three biggest issues related to____?” Choose the student with the birthday closest to today’s date and have them stand and share their 3 responses to the question for one minute. Move clockwise around the room until all have shared. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 2) 43. Drawing for Understanding: Students illustrate an abstract concept or idea. Comparing drawings around the room can clear up misconceptions. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 3) 44. Video Selfie: Ask the students to make a video of themselves performing the homework (or lab), as they will take it more seriously and be more likely to avoid mistakes. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 3) 45. Gallery Walk: Provide colored dot stickers to students and ask them to “vote” on statements they agree with the most, by using up their limited dot supply on the pre-written topics displayed around the room on poster boards. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 3) 46. Media Break: Designate a two minute break in the middle of class for students to check their electronic devices, with the understanding they won’t use them otherwise in the entire class period. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 3) 47. Advice Letter: Students write a letter of advice to future students on how to be successful students in that course.(Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 4) 48. Opposites: Instructor lists out one or more concepts, for which students must come up with an antonym, and then defend their choice. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 4)

18. 50 Active Learning StrategiesCont’d 49. 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. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 6) 50. World Cafe: Small groups tackle the same driving question; plenary debrief, then everyone except the table hosts find a new table (new groups) for a second discussion question. The host leads discussions and draws ideas between rounds, taking notes for sticky wall posters. (Yee, "Interactive Techniques", p. 7)

19. “It takes big hearts to teach little minds.”

20. Works Cited 6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students. (n.d.). Retrieved March 03, 2018, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber Rollins, S. P. (2017). Teaching in the fast lane: how to create active learning experiences. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.