Quick activities to get students talking with each other

Our campus was fortunate enough to have Dr. Christine Harrington on campus last month for a series of workshops.  An active learning classroom turned out to be a good fit for Christine's lively, participant-centered style of workshop delivery; the fact that each session was peppered with a variety of classroom activities turned out to be an added bonus of being a workshop participant.  A few of my favorite activities from the sessions are shared below.  Each activity described here makes use of index cards but small pieces of scratch paper are likely to work just as well.  (UWEC instructors - stop by Printing Services in Schofield 18 to pick up free pads of pre-cut scratch paper.)

Five Card Pass (in 5 minutes or less)

Provide students with a prompt (answer a question, make a list, etc.) and 1-2 minutes to write down their anonymous response on an index card.  With everyone out of their seats, students then exchange cards five times - the exchanges have to be with classmates that are not sitting at their pod/table.  The cards (and ideas) have now been randomly shuffled, so to speak, and students can be asked to do a number of things with the info on their new card - add, discuss, find an example, respond, etc. 

Brainwriting (5-10 minutes)

Provide students with a prompt, index cards, and 1-2 minutes to respond with one item or detail, writing it at the top of the card.  Next, instruct students to pass the index card to the right and write down another item/detail on the card that is now in front of them.  Same prompt, but the response must be unique - i.e., it cannot be the same as one written or read on other cards.  Continue passing and responding until the time is up or the possibilities have been exhausted.  

A more thorough overview of brainwriting is available on the Knowledge Sharing Toolkit wiki.  For an argument in favor of using brainwriting, check out this video from the Kellogg School of Management - it also highlights a variation of the brainwriting exercise described above.

Save the Last Word for Me (10-15 minutes)

This activity is designed to give everyone in the group a chance to be heard and practice listening skills.  Plus, it gives students something to do with an assigned reading and gets them talking (with each other!) about it.  See more information about this activity on The Teacher Toolkit site.

Often times, students are accustomed to directing questions, comments, responses, etc. to the instructor and need an extra nudge to, instead, exchange ideas with one another.  The activities shared here are relatively low-prep ways to get students engaging with one another in the classroom - and each has the possibility of being implemented in 15 minutes or less.  Perfect for getting students talking with one another with little preparation and each of these activities can be adapted to a wide variety of topics, prompts, and readings.