27 Ways to Draw Out Students Performances

April , 2014
 There are a multitude of  theories and approaches that conceptualize the Learning act. According to behaviourists, learning is a performance-based process in which the learner gets to practice the learned act to the point of mastery. Constructivists and cognitive psychologists severely criticized this approach blaming it for the mechanization of human learning and for the subordination of the social and affective constructs in learning. They instead proposed a problem based  framework of learning where learners get to explore and discover new insights through hands-on activities. And while no single approach alone can provide answers to the pedagogical implications of learning, an amalgam of different approaches seem to hit the mark.

The visual below is a good example of how a mixture of the behaviourist and constructivist approaches can help in developing activities to draw out students performance. Mia featured here 27 ways that teachers can use to engage students in a performance based learning, check them out below and share with us what you think of them.

Here is a quick round-up of the 27 ways to draw out student performance:

• Model the behaviour several times before you ask the students to perform
• Motivate the students intrinsically and extrinsically to want to perform and show off what they understand
• Ask students to make a video diary of the performance. Let them script it, perform it, and critique it.
• Let the artists perform using the arts.
• Use music to signal when the performance should begin.
• Journal throughout the lesson. Ask the students to share part of their journal.
• Have the students announce when they are ready to demonstrate what they know.
• Set a timer and give each student 60 seconds to show what they have learned. Do this in rapid succession.
• Ask students to stand up or signal when they are ready to perform.
• Toss a balloon or ball around the classroom. If you catch it, you share something you learned.
• Call on students
• Talk to your students. Interview them. Get them comfortable to perform.
• Build teams, let the team's spokesman share what the team understands about the material.
• Have the students draw out in picture form what they understand.
• Pick a part to perform. Break down the objectives.Place them in a hat. Ask students to pick their part to perform.
• Explain to students what you want to know they know first.
• Build trust with students.
• Stand-up for the students who are struggling.
• Create a game out of it. Give points  and rewards
• Ask students to blog about what they learn.
• Create a multi part challenge
• Interview the students as you go. Collect snippets of what they say. Create a collage of what they say.
• Give students a sticky note and ask them to add one thing they leaned.
• Take what you learned home. Tell someone about it. 
• Go on a scavenger hunt and collect artifacts about the lesson. Bring them back and create a story out of them.
• Impress each other, friends, and family with odd facts about the lesson. Record reactions.
• Experiment with what you learned. Try to find and solve a problem with your new found understanding. 

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