Teaching Tips

Distribute a partially completed outline of the day’s lecture and ask students to fill it in. Useful at start or at end of class.

Students either stand or sit to indicate their binary answers, such as True/False, to the instructor’s questions.

Select an important term and highlight it throughout the class session, working it into as many concepts as possible.

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.

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.

Like the Minute Paper, but asks for the “most confusing” point instead. Best used at the end of the class session.

Students illustrate an abstract concept or idea. Comparing drawings around the room can clear up misconceptions.

Students share and compare possible answers to a question with a partner before addressing the larger class.

Give each group a different topic. Re-mix groups with one planted “expert” on each topic, who now has to teach his new group.

In groups, students create a 30-second TV commercial for the subject currently being discussed in class and could act it out.

Learning moves faster when it builds on what the student already knows.

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.

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.

Distribute index cards several times during the semester and ask students to give you feedback on the course.

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.

Ask students to write a slogan-like bumper sticker to illustrate a particular concept from lecture or sum up.

To reinforce conceptual understanding, begin and end your lectures or discussions with a summary statement.

Students exchange drafts with partners. The partner reads the essay and writes a three-paragraph 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.