For History 97, the sophomore tutorial, students peer review each other's work. Each student writes a primary source based paper, which is based on a shared source base that all of the students have read. Students have to provide detailed written and oral feedback on each of their peers' papers. To guide their responses, the instructors provide a list of questions or points to consider. Students are to identify the argument and evaluate the extent to which it is supported by evidence, the organization of the paper, and the quality of the prose.

The purpose of this activity is for students to present a complicated academic debate within their own debate. Asher Orkaby assigned students to a position in the debate and had them prepare their arguments before class. The students were paired together and asked to debate JFK's performance during the Cuban Missile Crisis. They based their arguments on readings assigned for the week. After presenting their arguments, the students fielded questions from their classmates.

Meredith Quinn uses Harvard's map collection to enhance lessons about the Ottoman Empire. The Harvard Map Collection is a wonderful resources, with librarians available to help identify relevant maps.

Emmanuel Asiedu-Acquah uses debates to get students to read about and formulate informed opinions about important historical topics. 

In this simulation, students become familiar with the arguments used by different players in the debates about Galileo. 

In Ann Blair's gen ed course, "Reason and Faith in the West," students use clickers to share their religious backgrounds and to review for exams.

To prepare students for an exam, the teacher sets up essay questions on posters around the room for students to review. The movement helps keep energy up at the end of the semester.

How did race, gender, employment, and other characteristics condition people's responses to revolutionary activities during the American Revolution? In this activity, students take on different personas and consider whether they would support a boycott of British goods. 

In this activity, students examine posters to identify different viewpoints on the Affordable Care Act.

By using a case study, students identify different interests that can compete when formulating health policy. 

In Elisa New’s course, Poetry in America, all students must memorize and recite 8-14 lines of poetry.

By describing periodicals from the 1840’s for the class, students in Elisa New’s seminar begin to understand the course material and find a voice in the classroom.

This close reading activity challenges students to “translate” poetry into propositional statements in order to make students more attentive to the nuances of language.

How do you craft a good thesis statement? In this activity, students work together to refine their ideas and put together possible evidence for different topics. The purpose is to teach students how to connect their thesis statement with the rest of their paper, and to revise the two in tandem (start with a draft thesis, bring some evidence together, revise the thesis to better reflect the evidence, revise the evidence to better fit the thesis, etc.)

For Professor Kiely’s freshman seminar, the students chose their favorite paintings depicting the life of Jesus and gave presentations about their impressions of the art.