At an appropriate time in the lecture, instructors ask students to take three minutes to write a reflection on a particular question related to the lecture, or to write what they have learned so far in the lecture. The instructor directs students to take a moment and think about a specific question. Then students discuss and compare their answers with one other student. Finally, the instructor opens the discussion to the entire class. Having spoken with another class member, and perhaps gotten social support for their idea, even students who rarely speak in the large class are more likely to do so.
Many instructors use ungraded quizzes to raise the level of involvement in their large classes.
Actually responding to a test question and getting immediate and ungraded feedback is even more motivating. And the whole class can do it. Lecture Summaries Instructors ask students not to take notes in the lecture . After the lecture, students work individually for several minutes to rebuild the lecture. Then they meet with several other students to pool their memories to see how much of the lecture they can reconstruct.