The Carousel activity, not to be confused with a Gallery Walk, is great for activating students' prior knowledge and for reviews over questions and topics for discussion that are pre-selected by the teacher.
A Gallery walk is a great way to get students thinking and moving! In the video, you will see students not only participating in a gallery walk but will also see the pre-work that goes into conducting a successful gallery walk in the classroom.
The Jigsaw method is another collaborative tool that allows the teacher to intentionally group students and allow for self discovery learning to take place. By splitting the work, students now have the shared responsibility of not only learning the material but teaching the material to their group members in a nonthreatening manner.
With Think-Pair-Share, students work together to solve a question or problem, provided by the teacher. Students must first think independently and then collaboratively to find a solution.
This activity provides students with the opportunity to develop speaking and listening skills while simultaneously learning how to provide and receive feedback. It will provide them with the opportunity to practice relevant appropriate reciprocal conversations.
In Collaborative Study Groups (CSGs), students identify a specific question from a content area, collaborate to develop and deepen their understanding through Socratic inquiry, and apply their new learning in order to enhance classroom performance
Teambuilding
Have students participate in a quick icebreaker or team builder to build relational capacity.
Students group up based on a given requirement (same color shirt, same hairstyle, matching shoes, etc.) and discuss the answer to a question. Have students regroup for each new question based on a new requirement. This is an easy way to make unit reviews more engaging.
Mingle Mingle
Have all students stand up, play music and have students dance around the class. When you stop the music, students pair up. Provide prompts/questions for students to discuss/ solve together.
Have a group share their thinking. Repeat the process with students picking a different partner.
Numbered heads is a great activity to get students moving and thinking. While it is similar to the Jigsaw strategy, it is different in the aspect that students who have grouped together all work to answer or solve the problem to a question. While students work collaboratively together, the teacher is walking the room to listen to academic conversations.
Have students form random groups of 3 to 5. Tell students to number from 1 to the highest number (i.e. Groups of 4 would number 1 to 4). Give students a topic to discuss. At the end call a random group and a random #, that person reports out on the conversation.
Line Ups/Conga
Conduct a line-up, where students face a partner in two lines. Ask students to discuss a topic then rotate the line.
For added fun play conga music and have students dance to the end of the line.