$10,000 Pyramid - This educational game is a way for students to review key words or concepts from a unit and make connections between them. Students deepen their comprehension by describing concepts in as much detail as possible to another classmate. By making this learning strategy into a game, students are excited and engaged. 

3-2-1 - This strategy provides a structure for students to record their own comprehension and summarize their learning. It also gives teachers the opportunity to identify areas that need re-teaching, as well as areas of student interest. 

5-3-1 - This summarizing technique is a quick and useful tool to assess students’ background knowledge or their level of understanding.  Asking students to determine the most important concepts, facts and points is a valuable skill.  Intermediate students can use their responses as a note taking device and the teacher can quickly check for understanding.  

Back and Forth - This technique allows students to explain a concept or idea and share thoughts with a partner. Students not only explain their understanding of the concept, but are able to listen to a classmate’s explanation and check it for accuracy. In this way, students are able to help each other correct misunderstandings. 

Buddy Journal - This tool, which is a written correspondence between two classmates, gives students a purpose for their writing. Buddy Journals promote student interaction and collaboration, and they can also help improve students’ grammar, punctuation, and spelling. 

Card Sort - This strategy gives students the opportunity to work with vocabulary, terms, and concepts. Students sort cards with the terms and concepts into categories based on meaning. Sorting the cards gives students a structure to talk meaningfully with one another about content and helps teachers check for understanding. 

Concept Map - Concept maps are visual representations students create to connect ideas, concepts, and terms. Students can use them to organize information they already know and to incorporate new learning with this prior knowledge. Concept maps help you see how students understand content. 

Entry Ticket - This technique (sometimes called Warm-Up, Do Now or Bell Ringer) gets students working as soon as they enter the classroom, increasing instruction time. Students are given Entry Tickets as they arrive at the door, follow the instructions, and complete the task immediately.  Entry Tickets are an effective strategy for monitoring student learning and introducing or reviewing instruction. 

Exit Ticket - Use this technique to show you what students are thinking and what they have learned at the end of a lesson. Before students leave (for recess, lunch, the end of the day,  their next class, or are transitioning to another subject area), they have to hand you a “ticket” filled out with an answer to a question, a solution to a problem, or a response to what they’ve learned. Exit Tickets help you assess if students have “caught what you taught” and plan for the next lesson or unit of instruction. 

Four Corners - This technique stimulates student learning through movement and discussion, and it can also be used as a formative assessment. Students are presented with a controversial statement or are asked a question. In each of the four corners of the classroom, an opinion or response is posted. Students express their opinion or response by standing in front of one of four statements, and then talking to others about why they have chosen their corner. Four Corners promotes listening, verbal communication, critical thinking, and decision-making. 

Graphic Organizers - Graphic Organizers are useful educational tools in any subject area. They help students organize their thoughts and ideas for answering questions, function as a pre-writing tool for essays, and provide a visual display of information. They can be an easy way to differentiate instruction for a variety of learning styles as well. 

Guided Notes - Guided Notes are teacher-prepared handouts that outline lectures, audiovisual presentations, or readings, but leave blank space for students to fill in key concepts, facts, definitions, etc.  Guided Notes promote active engagement during lecture or independent reading, provide full and accurate notes for use as a study guide, and help students to identify the most important information covered. 

Inside/Outside Circles - This discussion technique gives students the opportunity to respond to questions and/or discuss information with a variety of peers in a structured manner. Students form two concentric circles and exchange information with a partner until the teacher signals the outer circle to move in one direction, giving each student a new peer to talk to. 

KWL - The KWL Chart starts students thinking about what they Know about a topic, what they Want to know, and what they have Learned in the end. This note-taking device guides students through a three-step process to activate background knowledge, develop a purpose for learning, and summarize. 

One Minute Note - This note-taking technique gives students the opportunity to write down the key points that they remember after five to ten minutes of input from an oral or written source. Asking students to write down the information that they learned not only solidifies new content, it also provides real-time feedback on students’ comprehension. 

One Minute Problem - This strategy allows students to discuss responses with a group before sharing them with the class, giving students both confidence in their answers and a way to correct any misconceptions. Students expand their own understanding by seeing their peers’ responses. As a teacher, it allows you to assess students’ comprehension of concept. 

One Minute Sentence - This strategy encourages students to form a concise summary of what they just learned. Students are able to demonstrate their understanding of an idea or concept by writing only one sentence to capture the most important elements. This strategy allows students to practice their writing skills and gives teachers a way to check students’ understanding. 

Popsicle Sticks - This discussion technique ensures that all students have an equal opportunity to participate and share their responses in class. The randomness of drawing a student’s name using the Popsicle Sticks method also helps with classroom management. 

Quiz, Quiz, Trade - This cooperative-learning technique has students review information with other students by asking and answering questions. Working with peers in a nonthreatening manner builds confidence, encourages greater participation, and results in more thoughtful discussions. 

Stop and Jot - This processing activity gives students the opportunity to respond to questions in writing.  Asking students to think and write about what they are learning promotes retention and comprehension.  These quick checks for understanding help students make sense of what they are learning before moving on in the lesson. 

Student Response Cards - This strategy is meant to keep students actively engaged while you perform a quick and easy check for understanding. At any point in the lesson, you can pose a question to your students and rather than hearing from just one or two students, you get to see everyone’s answer. 

Study Cards - Study Cards are created by students to synthesize information learned in a lesson. After creating them, students can use them to quiz a classmate or review for an assessment. As a teacher, you can collect and review the Study Cards to assess a student’s understanding of a concept. 

Tableau - The name of this strategy comes from the term tableau vivant which means “living picture.”  In this activity, students create a still picture, without talking, to capture and communicate the meaning of a concept. Students must truly understand the meaning of a concept or idea in order to communicate it using physical poses, gestures, and facial expressions rather than words. This collaborative strategy is appealing to kinesthetic learners and allows all students to be creative while strengthening their comprehension of a concept.

 Total Physical Response (TPR) - Total Physical Response (TPR) is a method of teaching language or vocabulary concepts by using physical movement to react to verbal input. The process mimics the way that infants learn their first language, and it reduces student inhibitions and lowers stress. The purpose of TPR is to create a brain link between speech and action to boost language and vocabulary learning. 

Triangle-Square-Circle - This strategy encourages students to reflect on their learning and process information presented in the lesson. Similar to other closing strategies, it asks students to pick out important pieces of information and to question anything they don’t completely understand. As a teacher, it is a tool that will be used to gauge understanding and determine if anything needs to be re-addressed in future lessons.

 Whip Around - This strategy actively engages students and encourages participation by all. Students write down responses to a question or prompt given to them by the teacher and quickly share their responses with the class. Students have to pay attention and listen closely to their classmates’ responses to compare them to their own. 

White Board Wipe-Out - This technique allows students to respond to a prompt in writing and show their response immediately for the teacher to see. It allows the teacher to quickly see the level of comprehension of concepts that were just taught and keeps students engaged.