Spruce up your Humanities Course with nClass

Spruce up your Humanities Course with nClass

We’re sure you’ve already heard active learning is revolutionizing education, but don’t let STEM monopolize the discussion. Active learning works great for the Humanities as well. Don’t know where to start? Check out a few of our ideas:

Concept Mapping – If you’re covering a nuanced poem, a difficult philosophical thesis or dense chapter, your students might be lost at first. How do you bridge the gaps? First, you’ll need to figure out what’s missing with content mapping.

• Do this with nClass – Start with a reading assignment the students completed the night before. Pick a key concept from the reading that serves as a starting point for each student’s map. Once each student maps the reading around this concept, they submit their results the easy way–with a photo from their device sent directly to nClass. From there, you can review the maps with your class instantly.

 

Muddiest Point – Another great way to tackle those gaps in knowledge–ask students what didn’t make sense. Collecting a list of muddy points from class can start great discussions.

• Do this with nClass* – At the beginning of each class, have students submit a short answer or long answer to the question “What point did you find muddiest from last night’s reading?” Pull five or six muddy points from the pile and use these to start a class discussion with a quick introduction and a question. As the discussion rolls up the point, simply move to the next.
  
  *Bonus points if you follow up on students’ understanding with an exit ticket.

One Minute Free-Write – Need to get the creative juices flowing in a writing course? The best way to break up writer’s block is to allow a little free writing.

• Do this with nClass – Section off the first ten minutes of each class for a quick free write on a topic of your choice. Each free write should be set up as a long response so that students have enough space to write to their hearts content. The best part–no paper means no writer’s cramps.

 

Quick Feedback Debates – Whether debates are a core feature of your course or just the occasional enhancement, nClass makes it easier to collect and distribute feedback for your student debates.

• Do this with nClass – To declare a winner after each debate, set up a poll with each participant’s name as an option–just don’t stop there. Give students short answer follow up questions regarding each participant’s performance. This means no more running to the copy room to print out forms like this and no more doodles submitted along with reviews.

How do you incorporate active learning into your humanities classroom? Let us know in the comments.