Six Degrees of Separation requires students to form connections between two ideas.  In the party game Six Degrees of Separation, players try to connect two seeming unconnected people.  In this lecture buster version, however, students are making connections between content.

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Pause your lecture and identify two pieces of information--

• two vocabulary terms

• a term and a person

• an event and a person

• a skill and a term

• two characters

• a character and a term

• a character and an event

etc.​

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You can pick two ideas from your current lecture or pull related material from a previous lecture within related content so students have to make connections between your current lecture and its broader context.

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Give students a couple minutes to talk with a partner about how to connect the two ideas.  If needed, copy and laminate a dry-erasable class set of the Homework Buster version below to help students keep track of their thinking.  Then have partners share their paths to connection.

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Another variation would be to cold-call a student to start the chain and call on additional students to make subsequent connections.

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As students share their connections, you'll be getting an idea what they're understanding and where the gaps may be while providing students an appropriate brain-break to take a moment and think through what you've covered.

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Variations:

-Six Degrees can be used as a Homework Buster!  See more here.

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