Two Strategies for Crowdsourcing Learning

Here’s are two quick strategies to help students retrieve and "crowdsource" what they've learned. No prep or grading required because students take charge!

The Big Picture, created by high school students in South Africa:

1. Each student retrieves and draws a picture of what they've learned about a particular topic.

2. When students are done, paste all individual drawings onto a wall or a big sheet of paper to create The Big Picture.

3. Students discuss what they forgot, why they forgot it, and similarities/differences to examine connections in learning.

Beat the Clock, a strategy by a high school teacher in Omaha, Nebraska:

1. The class is divided into three (or more) groups.

2. Place three (or more) pieces of poster paper around the classroom. Each poster asks students to recall all they know/learned about a particular topic or concept that they recently learned. Each group begins at a particular station, or poster.

3. Students have 30 seconds to write everything they know about that topic or concept.

4. After 30 seconds, groups rotate to the next piece of paper. They add information to the sheet that a different group began.

5. After 30 seconds, groups rotate one more time until all groups have been to each "station" and had an opportunity to add content to each poster.

For both of these activities, you and your students have a crowdsourced evidence of retrieval practice in action. Do this for multiple classrooms, course sections, or your entire school for even more retrieval practice!