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With free discussions, students are often prompted with a question about a particular topic and are asked to discuss it with their peers. This allows them to engage with their classmates and let their own voices be heard. The method also allows students to create their own questions within the question which is beneficial for their own learning/understanding of the material. This can be done either in-person or online using an online discussion board format.

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With a Scavenger Hunt, students are asked to look for specific pieces of information about a topic. This can be done with researching information online or by having students up and moving in your classroom. Not only does it introduce students to your classroom, with an in-person method, but it also can be made a game with your students to engage the "entertainment" part of school.

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This method is a very basic idea that has been done in classrooms for awhile. The idea of a pre-assessment, often known as a pre-test, is to see what students know about a specific topic and what they don't know. As an example, students in a social studies class might be given a pre-assessment about the American Civil War and asked which states were on which side of the war. This method is a quick and easy way for educators to monitor their students' learning as the lesson progresses.

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KWL(H) Charts are a tool that can be used in almost any subject. These charts have 3, or 4, categories which stand for "I Know", "I Wonder", "I Learned" and "How Can I Learn More". The "H" box can be removed or added at any point for any lesson. The charts can go along with any from direct instruction, an educational video, or even just from presenting a topic to students.

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An image gallery is a series of pictures of a topic, such as a battle in a war, and students are asked to describe what they see in these pictures. The students can describe what details they see, what time period they think it might be, and what exactly is happening in these photos. This can help students get an idea of the topic they are about to learn by looking at it in great detail.

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With this method, students are given a few sticky notes and are presented with a topic that they may or may not know anything about. With the sticky notes, the students can draw anything on them to set them apart from the rest and place their note under 3 categories "I Know A Lot", "I Know A Little" and "I Don't Know". This method allows students to see what exactly their classmates know and so the educator can see where students are in their mastery of learning.

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This method is a lot simpler than the others because it involves students reading and highlighting. Students are given a section of text about a topic and are asked to highlight what they deem important to their understanding. This puts the learning in their hands so they can highlight what they feel they might need to know before learning about the subject.

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Students are presented with a random topic. Once they have a few moments to think about said topic, they are asked to write as much as they can about the topic. It can be either if they know anything about it or what it might be about. They only have a certain amount of time, such as 30 seconds, to write but they are expected to write as much as they can.

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This is one of the most commonly used methods of assessing background knowledge that most teachers use on a daily basis. Students are given a topic and then asked to think about it for a specific amount of time. After they are done, they are to turn to a partner, sometimes assigned sometimes not, and asked to discuss what they think about that topic. Once discussion time has passed, the entire class shares. This method is very simple to use and it gets students thinking about the material beforehand and allows them to hear what their peers are thinking.

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Concept maps can be very useful if they are used properly. The main idea behind a concept map is that students are given an idea/topic and are asked to come up with 3 separate categories related to that topic. Sticking in the world of social studies, the topic could be famous political leaders and students could break it down by countries, time periods, or any other categories that they can think of.