ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a variety of classroom approaches that allow students to demonstrate their understanding at a deep level. Students can use smartphones, tablets and computers to provide their answers, and information can be culled for reports. Growth in knowledge can happen for many students in giving them time and space to write about what they are learning, whether in ELA or social studies or any other class. There is a wide range of classroom activities in which students collaborate to process learning and demonstrate understanding. Students come to the circle to discuss their ideas and impressions of the assigned reading and, through academic discourse, share thoughts with one another. One activity that allows students to actively participate in their learning is debates. Students must research a topic thoroughly enough to be able to offer a rebuttal in an instant. Lindsay Yearta uses debates to teach her students to see different perspectives on an issue.
