Active Learning Strategies

Active learning allows students to be engaged in the learning process. Students are encouraged to think critically, creatively, and actively participate in the lesson being taught. Active learning strategies can be incorporated into all content areas, grade levels, and used for a multitude of reasons. For example, they can be used to gather pre-assessment data, access prior knowledge, discover misconceptions, and check understanding.

            One of my favorite and most used active learning strategies is Think-Pair-Share. In Think-Pair-Share the teacher poses a question, has the students to think quietly about their answer for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then has the students pair with a partner to discuss their answers for 2-3 minutes. This strategy is excellent because it increases the level of student participation and interaction. It also naturally builds wait time into the lesson and provides teachers an opportunity to check for student understanding.

            Another one of my favorite active learning strategies is Graffiti. This strategy is perfect for gathering pre-assessment data and accessing students’ prior knowledge. Graffiti also works wonderfully as a summarizing strategy. Graffiti works best when students are paired into groups. Each group will be assigned a color marker and a piece of chart paper. The different colored markers make it so that the teacher knows which responses belong to which groups. The teacher will pose a question or topic and the students will work together within their group to formulate responses.  Once each group has finished their responses, the class will discuss all of the posters and the teacher will provide feedback.

            In my future classroom I would love to implement Interactive Notebooks. These are a great tool for keeping students engaged in the lesson and also providing them an opportunity to be creative. The students are able to be prideful and take ownership of their learning. Interactive Notebooks make learning fun and give students an easily accessible and organized study tool. My favorite thing about active learning strategies by far is that they are completely free! These strategies make such a huge impact on student learning and will really vamp up your instruction. I think all teachers can agree that when our students are having fun and are engaged in the lesson, it makes the whole process better for everybody involved.