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Here is a cool resource to help with language objectives! Check it out! :)

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Lesson Preparation
Links to use Google Forms as "Escape Rooms" can be found in the comments OR "The Lock" images on slides 11, 14, & 18 will also take you to the How-To webpages

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National Association of Biology Teachers

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National Association of Biology Teachers

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About.com Has guidesites on Botany, chemistry, ecology, genetics, neuroscience and 700 other topics. Action Bioscience The web site provides peer-reviewed articles by scientists, science educators and students on issues related to seven bioscience challenges: environment, biodiversity, genomics, biotechnology, evolution, new frontiers, and biology education.

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All Biology Ideas

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Biology Lesson Plans: NGSS Activities, Labs

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Biology lesson plans, labs, activities, experiments, and projects for high school life science teachers. Free NGSS Life Science curriculum

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This collection of lessons and web resources is aimed at classroom teachers, their students, and students' families.

Biology Research Overview
Resource: All Audiences
https://www.nsf.gov/news/overviews/biology/index.jsp
A bat, a mushroom, a long blade of prairie grass. They're easy to identify as "life." what about a cold virus? Mold growing on a slice of bread? Or seeds encased in hard protective "shells" that can lie dormant for centuries? What, in essence, is this thing we call life? This Web page on the National Science Foundations's Web site gives us answers to many biological questions. Beautiful images can ignite the interest of all ages.
Videos Naked & Amazing: Mole rats in the city How research on bacterial immune systems led to CRISPR Profiles of Scientists and Engineers: Biochemist Tomato: Decoded -- Science Behind the News Material mimics real bone to repair injuries faster--Biotech's Future See more videos related to Biology in the NSF Multimedia Gallery

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This collection of lessons and web resources is aimed at classroom teachers, their students, and students' families. Biology Research Overview Resource: All Audiences https://www.nsf.gov/news/overviews/biology/index.jsp A bat, a mushroom, a long blade of prairie grass. They're easy to identify as "life." what about a cold virus? Mold growing on a slice of bread?

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This worksheet was created for an introductory biology class because they struggled with ...

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The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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Teaching Literacy through History (TLTH) is an interdisciplinary professional development program that uses primary sources to improve K-12 education. TLTH workshops are beneficial for elementary, middle, and high school teachers who teach American history, social studies, civics, and English language arts.

In the TLTH program, educators learn a series of integrated literacy skills that directly impact student understanding and performance. Student skills addressed in TLTH sessions include

Evidence-based writing

Vocabulary development

Analysis of documents and visual materials

TLTH sessions demonstrate how to make primary source documents a building block of pedagogy. Teachers will acquire a classroom-ready approach for designing lesson plans and meeting state standards with proven strategies, such as

Unlocking primary source documents through scaffolded shared reading

Using text-based questioning to promote a better understanding of complex primary sources

Building authentic interactions with primary sources to create student ownership of their learning

Program Options

Teaching Literacy through History programs can range from a single day of pedagogical instruction to multiple sessions that refine skills and train participants to become teacher-leaders within their school. Strategies and content are tailored to school or district requests. The Institute can also provide master-class videos upon request.

Sessions

A day of pedagogical instruction can include one or more sessions of approximately 2½ to 3 hours each. Pedagogy sessions can be combined with a lecture by an eminent historian on a topic of your choice. Teachers will leave each session with classroom-ready lesson plans and resources to take back to their schools.

Presenters

Each session will be presented by a Gilder Lehrman Master Teacher Fellow. Each is a current or former classroom teacher with expert knowledge of American history and thorough training in the Teaching Literacy through History approach.

Grade Level

Teaching Literacy through History sessions can be conducted at any K-12 grade level. View sample lesson plans here.

Costs

Costs vary based on location, number of participants, and scope of the program. Please call Josh Landon at (646) 366-9666 ext. 37 or email tlth@gilderlehrman.org for more information or to receive a quote.

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Teaching Literacy through History | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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Teaching Literacy through History (TLTH) is an interdisciplinary professional development program that uses primary sources to improve K-12 education. TLTH workshops are beneficial for elementary, middle, and high school teachers who teach American history, social studies, civics, and English language arts.

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Best U.S. History Websites for Students

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Best U.S. History Websites for Students | Common Sense Education

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Web-based resources with in-depth info on U.S. history. Explore this Best U.S. History Websites for Students Top Picks list of 27 tools curated by Common Sense Education editors to find relevant and engaging edtech solutions for your classroom.

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I know it is says Colorado, but give it a look. They have some good stuff.

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National History Education Clearinghouse National History Education Clearinghouse is designed to help K-12 history teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the classroom. With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, the Center for History and New Media (CHNM), Teachinghistory.org was created with the goal of making history content, teaching strategies, resources, and research accessible.

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Password is: information

This is a place where ALL things EL can be found. If you need something else, let me know and I will find it and add it here!

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Password: literacy

If you are looking for resources or research regarding literacy in your content area look no further! This linked Padlet will provide you with some rational AS WELL as links to relevant texts that are sorted by content and grade level. If you need something else, let me know and I will find it and add it here!

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Building Background and Comprehensible Input

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Strategies and Scaffolding to help move your class through the lesson cycle while promoting student independence and higher order thinking

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Learning Styles and How they Impact Self-Advocacy

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Learning Styles and How they Impact Self-Advocacy

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Link to more detailed directions: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jAwHk5CzQ0n5uox9PkYGQWAus_yT1DE5

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Link to more detailed instructions: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1StI2ZK72NpHcxwDC-d8a5gegrlF92fFfuuqNUk67KAA

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Use these writing organizers to help students become aware in their writing trends in an attempt to help diversify their sentence structures and their word choices.

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Password: VWW

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Flipgrid is where social and emotional learning happens! The leading video discussion platform for millions of PreK to PhD educators, students, and families.

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Interactions are the ways you teach and build relationships with your students.

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The Benefits of Teacher - Student Interactions

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The Benefits of Teacher - Student Interactions

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Teacher-Student Interactions: The Key to Quality Classrooms

By: University of Virginia Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning

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Teacher-Student Interactions: The Key to Quality Classrooms

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Every day, teachers make countless real-time decisions and facilitate dozens of interactions between themselves and their students. Although they share this commonality, educators all over the country often talk about these decisions and interactions in different ways.

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Additional Information and methods to groupings and beneficial activities.

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This links you to Dr. Spencer Kagan's website where he explains his philosophy behind the Interactive Structures he encourages ESL teachers to implement in every lesson. His methods are based on...

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A complete summary and breakdown.

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Struggling to Create Quality Interactions in Your Classroom?

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Struggling to Create Quality Interactions in Your Classroom?

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Here is a resource on various activities you can use to get your students speaking in an academic and constructive manner.

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Nunn - Designing Simple Interactive Tasks for Small Groups (TESL/TEFL)

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The selection and design of tasks to practise interactive ability whichsimulate real-life language use is important to any course that includesthe aim of improving ability in spoken interaction.

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Practice and Application of the various SI Strategies and Skills

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You can also use  https://memegenerator.net/ to save and print your own wordless meme cards if you do not like the provided meme pictures or if you need more.

The students should match a vocabulary word, a concept, a process, or a topic to a meme picture. Then they need to add a caption to the picture, making an appropriate connection between the “term” and the meme. Additionally, the students need to be able to explain or justify why they paired the meme with the word and why the used that caption.

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More Memes

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lead4ward makes a difference in the lives of students by helping educators focus their work, creating structures that give teachers and students a sense of hope and confidence, and supporting leaders with systems they can trust.

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If you are not a twitter'er, post your answer to our Big Questions in the comments! :)

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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If you want to use EOC TEK targeted questions this is the resource for you!

*English Teachers Pro Tip: Use TEK Clusters to find TEKS and Question Stems targeted at specific genres of texts.

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lead4ward makes a difference in the lives of students by helping educators focus their work, creating structures that give teachers and students a sense of hope and confidence, and supporting leaders with systems they can trust.

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This website offers 15 alternatives. I only every use the FIRST one. Simply Paste the URL where it says  "Paste the video link here" and then click download.
A window will open asking what kind of download and what kind of quality you want. Make sure you select an MP4.
I think every time I select the best possible quality and I have not experienced any problems. However, every once and a while it will not download and you will need to come back and try again later or select a lower quality of video.

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KeepVid once was a very popular video downloader that allows you to simply copy and paste URL to download video from any video sharing websites like YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Facebook, etc. However, recently, KeepVid has shut down its online video downloading service. The website is still there, but now it only displays educational tips for video download solutions. People who are used to downloading videos from YouTube and other websites with KeepVid now may be desperately looking for sites like KeepVid to grab videos from online.

The good news is that there are many websites similar to KeepVid and can be considered as great alternatives to the KeepVid downloader. Below are the top 14 ones we have picked for you.

Free Video Downloader (Best Keepvid Alternative)

Score: 8.5/10, Address: Free Online Downloader

The first recommended website similar to KeepVid is our free online video downloader which allows you to download videos just like KeepVid did before. Downloading videos is almost the same as KeepVid: simply copy and paste the web video URL and then click on the download button. Once the source of video is detected, choose a format that suits your need, right-click on the smaller download icon beside it and then select "Save link as" to download this video clip. It really doesn't take long to download a video at all.

Step1 Choose a format

Once the video is recognized, a new window will pop where you can choose which format of the video you would like to download.

Step2 Download the video

To get the video, use your mouse to hover. Point the cursor to the blue download button beside the format chosen. Just wait until it is downloaded.

Video Keeper

Also, if you're looking for alternatives to KeepVid that have more advanced functions to control over the downloading progress and the video format, you can get Video Keeper. This is a standalone program which works perfectly on Win/Mac. It also supports batch downloading and allows you to convert your video to various formats like WMV, AVI, MP4, MOV, MP3 and many more. you can start your free trial by using the download button below. Choose the right platform of your PC

Step1 Download Manually

There are two different ways on how to download videos using this tool. The first one is by downloading it manually. This is usually used to get videos from open source sites like Youtube, Vimeo, Daily motion and a lot more. You just need to copy the link of the video, the look for the "Download" tab. Next, click the "Paste URL" button to add the video to the download list.

Step2 Download using auto-detection

The other way is by downloading the video using the built-in detector of it. This works both on open source sites and encrypted ones. Simply stream the video or movie you want to download and play it. That is by going to the "Detect" tab and use the built-in browser to stream. Once the tool detected that there are a media being played, the tool downloads it in no time. You can also check if the video is added on the download queue by switching tabs from "Detect" to "Download".

Step3 Playback the acquired video

Lastly, to check the downloaded file, click "Completed". From there you will see a list of each movie you download. To play it, use your mouse to double-click the file name or right-click and choose play.

Comparison

As you can see there is a wide selection of available sites like KeepVid on the market which you can use freely to download online streaming videos. It's up to you which one you will use as most of them are very efficient. Although in case you are looking for a more professional video downloader, we recommend that you use the Video Keeper from AceThinker as the desktop version has many advantages over the free online services. Below is a comparison chart:

Products

Free Online Video Downloaders

Video Keeper (Desktop)

Online Video Converter

Score: 8.0/10, Online Convert Official Page

This website is a great KeepVid alternative and is actually much better than KeepVid. It not only allows you to convert online videos to multiple file types after providing the video URL, but also lets you convert locally stored videos into your desired format. Though the interface is a bit out-dated, you can still get the task done easily. Simply navigate to the site's home page and click on "Video Converter" and choose an output file format. After that, enter the URL of the video you need to convert and confirm the pre-set options to download online videos to the specified format.

To use this tool follow these steps:

Step1 Select Video Format

First, go to Online Video Converter's official Website. Choose the foramt that you need then, proceed by clicking the "Go" button as shown in the picture.

Step2 Set Downloading Details

After getting into the downloading page, paste the link into the search bar and after setting the details of the conversion. If you wish to modify the downloading or keep it as it is, you can hit the Convert button at the buttom left-hand side of the interface.

Zamzar

Score: 7.5/10, Zamzar Official Page

Zamzar is an online solution to all sorts of video downloading and conversion needs. It can change file formats for any clips on your computer hard drive and also grab videos from the web as well. This program is a suitable Keepvid alternative because it is free, allows for easy downloading and conversion of digital files and also offers a paid subscription model with even more options. To use it, you will need to provide an email address to receive the downloaded files.

Refer to the steps below to see how this URL video downloader works step by step:

Step1 Choose URL Converter

Once in the official site, choose the second tab that says "URL Converter" as shown in the picture below.

Step2 Download

To continue with the conversion,First,choose your prefered video format.Next,enter your email address.Lastly, click the convert button to initiate the download.

ClipConverter

Score: 7/10, Clipconverter Official Page

While this website isn't as popular as other options, it still provides competent video download capabilities and is considered as one of the best alternative sites to KeepVid. All you need to do is enter the video URL to download your file. Multiple output formats are available for both online and local video conversion. With it, you can watch your favorite online videos offline almost on any device. You can also upload your video onto your social network accounts to share your interest with other fans.
To try out the benefits of this tool, here are the steps for you:

Step1 Paste URL

Go to its official website then past the copied link to the URL box then choose "continue".

Step2 Choose Format

Choose the format that you prefer then click start to initiate the conversion.

Step3 Download

Finally to get the video just click the download button then your good to go.

Fastest Tube

Score: 7/10, Kwizz Official Page

No matter what browser you use, Firefox, Chrome, IE or Safari, FastestTube is a small and quick browser video downloader that will not interfere with the other work you're doing on your computer. Enable this browser add-on to make the convenient download button show up to your internet video viewer. When you have a video you want to download, all you need to do is clicking on the button. However, this quick and easy KeepVid alternative only allows downloading in FLV and MP4 file types.

To install and use this app, follow these guidelines below:

Step1 Install the add-on

In contrast with the earlier solutions, as this one is an add-on, it firstly needs to be downloaded from the official site and installed directly in your browser. This you can do straightforwardly by accessing the official website.

Step2 Go to your video and download it

After you are ready with the installation, you can visit your favorite video where from now on you will see the integrated downloading feature where you can simply see the available downloading options after starting the video, so all you need to do is download the one which suits you.

Video Grabber

Score: 7/10, Videograbber Official Page

Video Grabber is a decent alternative to KeepVid that allows you to download videos on YouTube and other popular sharing sites without any headache. You just need to navigate to the video you want, copy the website address or URL of that file and paste it in the appropriate slot on the site. All that is left to do is hit the download button and save the video to your computer. You can rename it with an FLV file extension if you require it.

Check out the steps below to have a clear overview about this tool's benefits:

Step1 Paste Video URL

Once you open the official website, paste the link copied into the URL box then, click download.

Step2 Choose Format

Once the video has been analyzed on its hosting website, you will be presented multiple options of your video with different quality and size options to download. Simply select the one which is the most suitable to your needs and click on the grey Download button to get that version.

Keep HD

Score: 7/10, Keephd

Do you want to grab YouTube videos and save them in many file formats for using on your computer and mobile devices afterwards? KeepHD does just what its name implies. Similar to KeepVid, it lets you download videos from whatever URL you put in the text box. You can get these in a 3GP file type as well as FLV and MP4. Automatic conversion is also available as an option.
To use this program, check the guidelines below:

Step1 Paste Video URL

Once you accessed the official website, the interface of the program is similarly straightforward where you can easily input your video's URL into the search bar and press the Download button without hesitation.

Step2 Download

Once you are done with the input of your URL to the search bar, the program will analyze the video hosting website and present you the final downloadable video where you can simple click on the Download Now button to start your download and save it to your computer.

VideoGrabby

Score: 7/10, Videograbby Official Page

VideoGrabby is yet another decent simple website like Keepvid that lets you download videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and others. The interface is quite clean and there is no need to install any software or sign up in order to download online videos. The website is quite fast to load and all you need to do is to enter the video URL and download it as a video file or an MP3 track. If you don't have the URL, you can even use its search function to look up the video and pick the one you wish to download. Compared with KeepVid, VideoGrabby is faster and offers the MP3 output option.

Below is the simple way to download video with VideoGrabby:

Step1 Copy Video URL

Firstly, you can navigate to find the video you want to download and copy the video URL from the address bar at the top and you're ready to grab it.

Step2 Paste and Download

Now go to VideoGrabby site and click on the field saying "Search or paste link here" to paste the URL you have copied earlier. VideoGrabby will then automatically start to analyze the link. After that, press the Record Video button and you will be presented with the window to choose a location to save the recorded video file.

Alternatively, you can enter some keywords to search for related video and it will list all the available video for downloading. You can just pick one and save it.

CollectYoutube

Score: 7/10, Collectyoutube Official Page

Collect Youtube is a great site like Keepvid that allows you to download YouTube videos. It now has gained more and more popularity for its relatively versatile functions. Though it's a free online service, it enables you to download multiple videos at a time, which is much better than regular online video downloaders. It offers multiple ways to download videos from YouTube so you can get the video you need in your preferred way. Moreover, it can help you instantly download YouTube entire video playlists and channel videos with subtitles. Aside from YouTube, you can also use it to download videos via Download Manager like IDM and extract the audio from the video.

To use this solution and learn more about its operations, here are more details to follow:

Step1 Paste Video URL

Once you decided on going with this tool, go to the official website and enter your video URL to the first search bar where you can also see the mild text as description about what to insert into it. Then you can click on the Go button to proceed.

Step2 Adjust Accordingly

After hitting the red Go button, new options will appear on the left side of the screen where you can set the downloading specifics, such as the preferred quality and format which you wish to download your video in from the website. After setting everything, you can finally click on the Download button and your video will be automatically saved on your computer.

CatchVideo.net

Score: 6.5/10, Catchvideo Official Page

No registration is necessary on this website. It is very similar to Keepvid.com in that it allows downloading and saving from many different sharing sites around the web. Some of these can include YouTube, Dailymotion, MetaCafe and SevenLoad. Just enter the URL to identify which video you want to grab and press the "Catch" button. Downloading can be a bit slow with this service, because conversion is included in the process. Don't forget to select which type of file you wish to save your video in before you begin.

Are you ready to learn more? Refer to the steps below:

Step1 Copy a Video Link

Firstly, all you need to do is visit the official website and copy the link of your video to the available search bar to initiate the recording process. Afterwards, click on the orange Catch button so the program will start the actual process to prepare your video.

Step2 Select your video

When the processing is completed you are going to be offered several choices of the downloadable video where you can choose your desired quality and related video size to be downloaded which is exactly suiting your downloading needs. Then you can simply click on the related green Download button and receive your video is a second.

SaveVid

Score: 6.5/10, Save-vid Official Page

SaveVid is another online video downloader like KeepVid and can be used as a decent solution to the KeepVid not downloading issue. It allows you to download videos from a large number of video streaming websites, including YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Metacafe and so on. Moreover, some of the latest and most popular videos and music are listed on the main webpage for you to select. The same as KeepVid, you can simply copy and paste the video URL to start the downloading directly.

Step1 Copy and Paste Video Link

Find the video you want to download and copy its URL from the address bar and then visit the SaveVid website. Paste the URL you've just copied and click Download to proceed.

Step2 Select to Download the Video

Save-Vid will analyze the video link and display the video info with available downloading sources. You can then choose the format and resolution you need and then click the Download button located at the right to save the video.

SaveTube

Score: 6/10, Savetube Official Page

Just like KeepVid, this website allows you to save online videos from many different popular sites. The first step in getting the video you want is downloading it using the on-site program. Conversion comes next. You can convert any type of online video format to the widely compatible AVI file format. Downloading videos with SaveTube requires you to install a browser add-on which gives you an icon to press when you have navigated to the video you are interested in. After you get the conversion bar, it will appear near every YouTube video.

To utilize this program, you can have a look at the steps outlined here:

Step1 Insert your video URL to the search bar

First of all you can open the official page where you can directly insert the URL of your HD video which will be analyzed and downloaded later on via the program. When you entered the link to this search bar, the site will redirect you automatically to the next page before the downloading can begin.

Step2 Convert and download your video

Once your video is analyzed, you are able to set it on the emerging window to see the HD Video related options. Here you can modify the original aspects if you wish it, otherwise, you can simply click on the big blue Convert button to have your video be prepared and downloaded to your computer's hard drive.

YooDownload

Score: 6/10, YooDownload Official Page

YooDownload is also one of the best alternative websites like KeepVid that allows you to download videos from all leading video streaming and sharing sites as well as social media website, including YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Instagram, Vine, Twitter and more. You can simply paste the URL of the video you wish to save and this free URL video downloader will instantly grab the video from the provided link. You can download videos with all available formats and qualities, including the HD ones. Moreover, this free online app comes with a converter that helps you download and convert YouTube videos to MP3 so that you can enjoy the MP3 music file offline.

Below is a quick guide on how to use YooDownload to grab YouTube video.

Step1 Copy and Paste Video URL

You can first browse to find the video you prefer to download for offline viewing and copy its URL from the browser address bar. After that, visit the official website of YooDownload to paste the URL in the box saying "Enter Video Link" and click the "Download" button to continue.

Step2 Download Your Video

YooDownload will analyze the video link instantly and grab the video from that URL. The final download page will appear soon, offering the available downloading options. You can then select the one you need and click the Download icon beside it to save the video to your local hard drive.

Deturl

Score: 6/10, Deturl Official Page

Deturl is another online video downloader like KeepVid. The same as KeepVid and other KeepVid alternative URL downloaders, you only need to paste the video URL in order to download the video. In addition to YouTube, this free service also supports other popular video sharing websites, including Vimeo, Facebook, Metacafe, Dailymotion, Break, etc. and more video sites are added. To use this free video downloader, you don't need to register or install any plugins. And it also offers a faster way to download YouTube videos by replacing the www in the link with pwn. If you're a YouTube lover, don't miss Deturl!

You can now follow the simple steps below to download YouTube video with Deturl.

Step1 Copy and Enter YouTube Video URL

To start, please first navigate to find the YouTube video you wish to save for offline enjoying and copy the video URL. Next, go to Deturl webpage and paste the URL in the URL box and click "download video" to start the downloading.

Step2 Save Video to Your Computer

After a few seconds, you will be given the option to either download the video or convert it to an MP3 audio file from different resources. Simply select one and click it to continue.

For instance, here we click SaveFrom and another page will open, showing you the available output formats and qualities. You can then select the one you prefer and click Download to save the video.

Conclusion

If you have ever come across any KeepVid-like website for downloading online videos for free and the site isn't listed here, you can share it in the comments area and we will verify and add it to the article. Thank you!

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Top 15 Free Sites Like KeepVid to Download Online Videos

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KeepVid once was a very popular video downloader that allows you to simply copy and paste URL to download video from any video sharing websites like YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Facebook, etc. However, recently, KeepVid has shut down its online video downloading service. The website is still there, but now it only displays educational tips for video download solutions.

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PDF Directions COMING SOON

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The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies

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The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies

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Check out this cool list of resources with links, explanations, and comments from other educators! :)

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
When I worked with student teachers on developing effective lesson plans, one thing I always asked them to revise was the phrase "We will discuss."
We will discuss the video. We will discuss the story. We will discuss our results.
Every time I saw it in a lesson plan, I would add a note: "What format will you use? What questions will you ask? How will you ensure that all students participate?" I was pretty sure that We will discuss actually meant the teacher would do most of the talking; He would throw out a couple of questions like "So what did you think about the video?" or "What was the theme of the story?" and a few students would respond, resulting in something that looked like a discussion, but was ultimately just a conversation between the teacher and a handful of extroverted students; a classic case of Fisheye Teaching.

The problem wasn't them; in most of the classrooms where they'd sat as students, that's exactly what a class discussion looked like. They didn't know any other "formats." I have only ever been familiar with a few myself. But when teachers began contacting me recently asking for a more comprehensive list, I knew it was time to do some serious research.

So here they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging. If you've struggled to find effective ways to develop students' speaking and listening skills, this is your lucky day.

I've separated the strategies into three groups. The first batch contains the higher-prep strategies, formats that require teachers to do some planning or gathering of materials ahead of time. Next come the low-prep strategies, which can be used on the fly when you have a few extra minutes or just want your students to get more active. Note that these are not strict categories; it's certainly possible to simplify or add more meat to any of these structures and still make them work. The last group is the ongoing strategies. These are smaller techniques that can be integrated with other instructional strategies and don't really stand alone. For each strategy, you'll find a list of other names it sometimes goes by, a description of its basic structure, and an explanation of variations that exist, if any. To watch each strategy in action, click on its name and a new window will open with a video that demonstrates it.

Enjoy!
a.k.a. Chat Stations
Basic Structure: Stations or posters are set up around the classroom, on the walls or on tables. Small groups of students travel from station to station together, performing some kind of task or responding to a prompt, either of which will result in a conversation.

Variations: Some Gallery Walks stay true to the term gallery, where groups of students create informative posters, then act as tour guides or docents, giving other students a short presentation about their poster and conducting a Q&A about it. In Starr Sackstein's high school classroom, her stations consisted of video tutorials created by the students themselves. Before I knew the term Gallery Walk, I shared a strategy similar to it called Chat Stations, where the teacher prepares discussion prompts or content-related tasks and sets them up around the room for students to visit in small groups.
a.k.a. Values Continuum, Forced Debate, Physical Barometer, This or That
Basic Structure: A statement that has two possible responses-agree or disagree-is read out loud. Depending on whether they agree or disagree with this statement, students move to one side of the room or the other. From that spot, students take turns defending their positions.

Variations: Often a Philosophical Chairs debate will be based around a text or group of texts students have read ahead of time; students are required to cite textual evidence to support their claims and usually hold the texts in their hands during the discussion. Some teachers set up one hot seat to represent each side, and students must take turns in the seat. In less formal variations (which require less prep), a teacher may simply read provocative statements students are likely to disagree on, and a debate can occur spontaneously without a text to refer to (I call this variation This or That in my classroom icebreakers post). Teachers may also opt to offer a continuum of choices, ranging from "Strongly Agree" on one side of the room, all the way to "Strongly Disagree" on the other, and have students place themselves along that continuum based on the strength of their convictions.

Basic Structure: Students are divided into 4 groups. Three of these groups are assigned to represent specific points of view. Members of the fourth group are designated as "provocateurs," tasked with making sure the discussion keeps going and stays challenging. One person from each group (the "speaker") sits in a desk facing speakers from the other groups, so they form a square in the center of the room. Behind each speaker, the remaining group members are seated: two right behind the speaker, then three behind them, and so on, forming a kind of triangle. From above, this would look like a pinwheel. The four speakers introduce and discuss questions they prepared ahead of time (this preparation is done with their groups). After some time passes, new students rotate from the seats behind the speaker into the center seats and continue the conversation.

Variations: When high school English teacher Sarah Brown Wessling introduced this strategy in the featured video (click Pinwheel Discussion above), she used it as a device for talking about literature, where each group represented a different author, plus one provocateur group. But in the comments that follow the video, Wessling adds that she also uses the strategy with non-fiction, where students represent authors of different non-fiction texts or are assigned to take on different perspectives about an issue.
a.k.a. Socratic Circles
Basic Structure: Students prepare by reading a text or group of texts and writing some higher-order discussion questions about the text. On seminar day, students sit in a circle and an introductory, open-ended question is posed by the teacher or student discussion leader. From there, students continue the conversation, prompting one another to support their claims with textual evidence. There is no particular order to how students speak, but they are encouraged to respectfully share the floor with others. Discussion is meant to happen naturally and students do not need to raise their hands to speak. This overview of Socratic Seminar from the website Facing History and Ourselves provides a list of appropriate questions, plus more information about how to prepare for a seminar.

Variations: If students are beginners, the teacher may write the discussion questions, or the question creation can be a joint effort. For larger classes, teachers may need to set up seminars in more of a fishbowl-like arrangement, dividing students into one inner circle that will participate in the discussion, and one outer circle that silently observes, takes notes, and may eventually trade places with those in the inner circle, sometimes all at once, and sometimes by "tapping in" as the urge strikes them.
a.k.a. Affinity Diagramming
Basic Structure: Give students a broad question or problem that is likely to result in lots of different ideas, such as "What were the impacts of the Great Depression?" or "What literary works should every person read?" Have students generate responses by writing ideas on post-it notes (one idea per note) and placing them in no particular arrangement on a wall, whiteboard, or chart paper. Once lots of ideas have been generated, have students begin grouping them into similar categories, then label the categories and discuss why the ideas fit within them, how the categories relate to one another, and so on.

Variations: Some teachers have students do much of this exercise-recording their ideas and arranging them into categories- without talking at first. In other variations, participants are asked to re-combine the ideas into new, different categories after the first round of organization occurs. Often, this activity serves as a good pre-writing exercise, after which students will write some kind of analysis or position paper.
a.k.a. Speed Dating
Basic Structure: Students form two circles, one inside circle and one outside circle. Each student on the inside is paired with a student on the outside; they face each other. The teacher poses a question to the whole group and pairs discuss their responses with each other. Then the teacher signals students to rotate: Students on the outside circle move one space to the right so they are standing in front of a new person (or sitting, as they are in the video). Now the teacher poses a new question, and the process is repeated.

Variations: Instead of two circles, students could also form two straight lines facing one another. Instead of "rotating" to switch partners, one line just slides over one spot, and the leftover person on the end comes around to the beginning of the line. Some teachers use this strategy to have students teach one piece of content to their fellow students, making it less of a discussion strategy and more of a peer teaching format. In fact, many of these protocols could be used for peer teaching as well.

Basic Structure: Another great idea from Sarah Brown Wessling, this is a small-group discussion strategy that gives students exposure to more of their peers' ideas and prevents the stagnation that can happen when a group doesn't happen to have the right chemistry. Students are placed into a few groups of 4-6 students each and are given a discussion question to talk about. After sufficient time has passed for the discussion to develop, one or two students from each group rotate to a different group, while the other group members remain where they are. Once in their new group, they will discuss a different, but related question, and they may also share some of the key points from their last group's conversation. For the next rotation, students who have not rotated before may be chosen to move, resulting in groups that are continually evolving.

Basic Structure: Two students sit facing each other in the center of the room; the remaining students sit in a circle around them. The two central students have a conversation based on a pre-determined topic and often using specific skills the class is practicing (such as asking follow-up questions, paraphrasing, or elaborating on another person's point). Students on the outside observe, take notes, or perform some other discussion-related task assigned by the teacher.

Variations: One variation of this strategy allows students in the outer circle to trade places with those in the fishbowl, doing kind of a relay-style discussion, or they may periodically "coach" the fishbowl talkers from the sidelines. Teachers may also opt to have students in the outside circle grade the participants' conversation with a rubric, then give feedback on what they saw in a debriefing afterward, as mentioned in the featured video.

Basic Structure: One student assumes the role of a book character, significant figure in history, or concept (such as a tornado, an animal, or the Titanic). Sitting in front of the rest of the class, the student responds to classmates' questions while staying in character in that role.

Variations: Give more students the opportunity to be in the hot seat while increasing everyone's participation by having students do hot seat discussions in small groups, where one person per group acts as the "character" and three or four others ask them questions. In another variation, several students could form a panel of different characters, taking questions from the class all together and interacting with one another like guests on a TV talk show.
a.k.a. Pyramid Discussion
Basic Structure: Students begin in pairs, responding to a discussion question only with a single partner. After each person has had a chance to share their ideas, the pair joins another pair, creating a group of four. Pairs share their ideas with the pair they just joined. Next, groups of four join together to form groups of eight, and so on, until the whole class is joined up in one large discussion.

Variations: This structure could simply be used to share ideas on a topic, or students could be required to reach consensus every time they join up with a new group.

Whereas the other formats in this list have a distinct shape-specific activities you do with students-the strategies in this section are more like plug-ins, working discussion into other instructional activities and improving the quality and reach of existing conversations.

One of the limitations of discussion is that rich, face-to-face conversations can only happen when all parties are available, so we're limited to the time we have in class. With a tool like Voxer, those limitations disappear. Like a private voice mailbox that you set up with just one person or a group (but SOOOO much easier), Voxer allows users to have conversations at whatever time is most convenient for each participant. So a group of four students can "discuss" a topic from 3pm until bedtime-asynchronously-each member contributing whenever they have a moment, and if the teacher makes herself part of the group, she can listen in, offer feedback, or contribute her own discussion points. Voxer is also invaluable for collaborating on projects and for having one-on-one discussions with students, parents, and your own colleagues. Like many other educators, Peter DeWitt took a while to really understand the potential of Voxer, but in this EdWeek piece, he explains what turned him around.

A backchannel is a conversation that happens right alongside another activity. The first time I saw a backchannel in action was at my first unconference: While those of us in the audience listened to presenters and watched a few short video clips, a separate screen was up beside the main screen, projecting something called TodaysMeet (update: TodaysMeet has shut down. Use YoTeach! instead.) It looked a lot like those chat rooms from back in the day, basically a blank screen where people would contribute a few lines of text, the lines stacking up one after the other, no other bells or whistles. Anyone in the room could participate in this conversation on their phone, laptop, or tablet, asking questions, offering commentary, and sharing links to related resources without ever interrupting the flow of the presentations. This kind of tool allows for a completely silent discussion, one that doesn't have to move at a super-fast pace, and it gives students who may be reluctant to speak up or who process their thoughts more slowly a chance to fully contribute. For a deeper discussion of how this kind of tool can be used, read this thoughtful overview of using backchannel discussions in the classroom by Edutopia's Beth Holland.
a.k.a. Accountable Talk
Talk moves are sentence frames we supply to our students that help them express ideas and interact with one another in respectful, academically appropriate ways. From kindergarten all the way through college, students can benefit from explicit instruction in the skills of summarizing another person's argument before presenting an alternate view, asking clarifying questions, and expressing agreement or partial agreement with the stance of another participant. Talk moves can be incorporated into any of the other discussion formats listed here.

Whole Brain Teaching is a set of teaching and classroom management methods that has grown in popularity over the past 10 years. One of WBT's foundational techniques is Teach-OK, a peer teaching strategy that begins with the teacher spending a few minutes introducing a concept to the class. Next, the teacher says Teach!, the class responds with Okay!, and pairs of students take turns re-teaching the concept to each other. It's a bit like think-pair-share, but it's faster-paced, it focuses more on re-teaching than general sharing, and students are encouraged to use gestures to animate their discussion. Although WBT is most popular in elementary schools, this featured video shows the creator of WBT, Chris Biffle, using it quite successfully with college students. I have also used Teach-OK with college students, and most of my students said they were happy for a change from the sit-and-listen they were used to in college classrooms.

An oldie but a goodie, think-pair-share can be used any time you want to plug interactivity into a lesson: Simply have students think about their response to a question, form a pair with another person, discuss their response, then share it with the larger group. Because I feel this strategy has so many uses and can be way more powerful than we give it credit for, I devoted a whole post to think-pair-share; everything you need to know about it is right there.

TWO MORE YOU'LL LOVE

Since writing this post, I have learned about two more discussion strategies that teachers are finding to be incredibly effective and powerful for getting students to talk, especially about books and other texts:

This protocol has students come up with their own Thoughts, lingering Questions, and Epiphanies from an assigned reading. Teachers who have used this method say it has generated some of the richest conversations they have ever heard from students!

This strategy places students into one-on-one conversations, getting them to learn each others' names better and create a track record of what they talked about. Excellent for classes where you want to assess for discussion and help students get more comfortable with each other.

So what else do you have? I would like to think this is a pretty complete list, but I'm sure more strategies are out there. If you use a discussion strategy that's not mentioned here, please share it below.

Come back for more.
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The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies

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Here they are: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging.

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Search and Discover

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Search results for enzymes | Search | Live Science

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Live Science is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

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Biology GCSE, IGCSE Question Bank, Self-assessment questions with exercises and discussions

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Questions. Most of the questions are for self-assessment. The information can be found in the pages of and .

Sections 1-5 correspond to the sections in GCSE Biology and IGCSE Biology. Sections 6 and 7 are drawn from Chapters 30-39.

Exercises and Discussions. These questions are more demanding and test Interpretation of data (I), Hypothesis formulation and design (H), Experimental design (E), Application of biological information (A), Comprehension of scientific articles (C) as well as simple recall (R).

The documents are offered in Word format. If you do not have Microsoft Word installed see for advice on how to view them. The documents can be viewed or downloaded individually, or complete sections can be downloaded in a zip file with the All zipped links.

Interactive questions. The interactive multiple choice questions correspond to the multiple choice questions in GCSE and IGCSE exam papers. They are in PowerPoint format and should be run as a slideshow. Each set contains approximately 20 questions. Correct answers are indicated as well as explanations of the reasons for rejecting the alternatives. We recommend that you download the PowerPoints and run them from your disk. If you do not have PowerPoint installed you can download PowerPoint Viewer free .

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Biology GCSE and IGCSE Question Bank, questions for self-assessment or teaching, by D G Mackean

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Questions. Most of the questions are for self-assessment. The information can be found in the pages of and . Sections 1-5 correspond to the sections in GCSE Biology and IGCSE Biology. Sections 6 and 7 are drawn from Chapters 30-39. Exercises and Discussions.