Reading: Divide & Conquer

This strategy is designed to conquer a reading assignment. It works great for reading that may be more difficult or important, but could work with any peer reviewed article or textbook chapter that the class is assigned.

  1. Ask students to bring the reading they are working on.
  2. Divide the reading up into sections. (Pro Tip: Do this ahead of time when you’re planning your session.)
  3. If you have a smaller group, assign a section to every student. If you have a larger group, ask students to get into smaller groups and assign a section to each group.
  4. Students will read and summarize their assigned section. Their summary should be 3-5 key points or sentences.
  5. Ask each student or group to present their summary.
  6. Encourage students to ask questions and be prepared as the SI Leader to emphasize areas students may have overlooked. (Pro Tip: As you’re doing the reading beforehand, use a post-it note and create a list of points you want to make sure students don’t miss.)
  7. After everyone has presented, discuss the article as a whole.

IDEA: Get one student volunteer to stand up at the whiteboard and make a concept map or mind map based on the summaries each group presents.

Current Events

Bring in copies of a credible article, infographic, or similar document relevant to what students are currently learning. Have students read the article and highlight any points they found interesting or that they did not understand/follow/agree with and then discuss the points raised. You could do something similar with YouTube videos or TED Talks.

This can allow students to see beyond the material presented in class and apply that material to real life situations or other knowledge they already have. It can also help to answer the question “what am I going to need this for?”

Previewing: Haven’t started anything new in class yet? Pick out an article about the content coming up. You don’t have to be responsible for introducing students to new course content, but you can prime their brains for the topic by thinking about current events.

Adapted from the International Center for Supplemental Instruction