Thursday, February 28, 2013

Speed Dating Review Exercise

No no, nothing fishy going on here!  I found an idea from Twitter and decided to try it out myself in the classroom.

I am always looking for new ways to review material before a test.  Lots of stuff gets old really fast with as many tests as we give.  Fortunately, this is a new activity I like and the students like it too.  It is fast-paced and requires 100% engagement for it to work, so students that usually don't contribute are forced to on a smaller scale.

It is more of a "speed-networking" exercise, which is becoming more and more popular in the business world as a way for clients to meet a lot of prospective businesses at once.




Here's how its done:

  1. Beforehand, use a bracket-generating site like challonge.com and create a round-robin tournament for your students.
  2. Go here and download the accompanying sheet for students to use.
  3. Come up with enough terms/information for students to research (1 per student)
  4. Assign each student one term.  Give them around 8-10 minutes to create a 30-second description.
    • Make sure they focus on putting their term in context of what you are studying.  Do not, I repeat, DO NOT just provide a definition.
  5. Find a way to time each round.  I use online-stopwatch.com.  Set the timer for 1-minute rounds.
  6. Project the bracket on a screen or find another way so each student can see the schedule.
  7. Have students gather with their partner, and each of them have 30 seconds to "introduce themselves" to their "date".  I usually call out after 30 seconds so they know when to switch.
    • Student A describes themselves while Student B writes lists them on their sheet.  When Student A finishes describing themselves, Student B will circle "yes" or "no", as in "Do you understand this material?"  Then, they flip after 30 seconds.
  8. After the minute is over, repeat step 7 for the next rounds (however many you have).
It will get loud.  Students will be engaged.  It will be awesome. :-)

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