Ball Toss Activity

This semester, in our master’s level Career Development class, rather than use a textbook, we are having the students research articles on various topics.   The students like it, because they can research what they find to be of interest.  The challenge has been how to discuss their findings in class.  We started out by allowing them to share, and although we specified “briefly,” it was anything but.  Then, I came up with two ideas:

1.  Do a “ball toss” activity.  The students form a circle, then toss a ball to each other.  Whomever has the ball shares one sentence from their article.  They then toss the ball to another classmate who hasn’t shared yet.

Reaction: The activity went really well, although the students struggled to come up with just one sentence.  Discussed next time allowing them two or three sentences.

2. Allow them to interrupt me in my lecture to share the findings of their article.

Reaction: This also went well.  The positives were that their sharing was relevant to the current discussion, so it flowed better.  The negatives were that there is  no elegant way to figure out who has shared and who hasn’t.