Go to Your Post (Immediate Learning Involvement Strategy)

OVERVIEW

This is a well-known way to incorporate physical movement at the beginning of a class. This strategy is flexible enough to use for a variety of activities that are designed to stimulate initial interest in your subject matter.

PROCEDURE

1.  Post signs around the classroom. You can use two signs to create a dichotomous choice or several signs to provide more options.
2.  These signs can indicate a variety of preferences:
  • Topics or skills of interest to the students (e.g., word processing, databasing)
  • Questions about course content (e.g., “How does a turbo engine work?”)
  • Different solutions to the same problem (e.g., capital punishment versus life sentence)
  • Different values (e.g., money, fame, family)
  • Different personal characteristics or styles (e.g., auditory, visual, kinesthetic)
  •  Different authors or well-known people in a field (e.g, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy)
  • Different quotations, proverbs, or verses in a text (e.g., “Honor Your Mother and Father" versus “Question Authority”)

3.  Ask students to look at the signs and choose one. For example, some students might be more interested in word processing than databasing Have them “sign up” for their preference by moving to the place in the classroom where their choice is posted.

4.  Have the subgroups that have been created discuss among themselves why they have placed themselves by their sign. Ask a representative of each group to summarize their reasons.

VARIATIONS

1.  Pair up students with different preferences and ask them to compare their views. Or create a discussion panel with representatives from each preference group.  

2.  Ask each preference group to make a presentation, create an advertisement, or prepare a skit advocating their preference.

 

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