Purpose: To facilitate review and/or higher level processing of a topic or concept.
Description:This activity is designed to provide students with opportunities to formulate challenging questions regarding a topic or concept and to be challenged by the questions of others.
Procedure:
Divide the class into small groups.
Give each group of students an envelope.
Have each group write a challenge questions on the front of the envelope. Encourage higher level questions that have prompts like:
What might be…?
What could be…?
What if…?
Have each group generate the answer or criteria for a response and include a sample response. These should all be placed inside the envelope.
Scramble the envelopes and have the groups rotate the envelopes through the class. When a group receives and envelope, the question is to be addressed and then checked against the answer or criteria inside the envelope.
Have each group put their own response to the question inside the envelope when they are done. They should then send the envelope back into circulation.
As the envelopes begin to fill with responses, the groups are to compare their responses to the others that are in the envelopes.
Rogers, S., Ludington, J., & Graham, S. (1999). Motivation and learning: A teacher's guide to building excitement for learning and igniting the drive for quality. Evergreen, CO: Peak Learning Systems.
