Teachers can be a little fearful of letting students move around the classroom without a purpose. However, movement can be a great way to break up the routine of the classroom. It also has been proven to help the brain retain more information. Here are some ideas for incorporating movement in your lessons.
The polls
This strategy is great for formative assessment. After giving a lesson, have students get up and place themselves in a line that corresponds to their understanding of the material. One wall can be “completely understood” while the other can be “completely lost”. Of course, most will be somewhere in between, but it will give you a broad idea whether you need to spend more time or not.
Stand-up Think/Pair/Share
Think/Pair/Share has been a great active learning tool that helps students discuss their ideas about the topics that come up during a lesson, but it’s normally done with a table partner. Simply play some music for about 30 seconds while students get up and find a new TPS partner every time one of those opportunities come up.
Shared writing
Writing doesn’t have to be a solitary activity. In this activity, each student starts a story or essay with one sentence, then gets up and passes their page to another student, who adds a sentence that works off of the first one. The pattern continues until everyone has contributed to everyone else’s work.
Centers
Centers have long been the domain of the elementary teachers, but they get forgotten about in secondary schools. In a particularly challenging course of study, organize centers around the room that mimic departments in a college. Students have to go around gathering the knowledge they need for the end result. This works particularly well in the project-based classroom.
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