Teachers can write a problem on the board and have different groups of students come up and solve the same problem within a five minute time frame. The next ten minutes can be spent discussing the best solution. For example, in a history class the teacher can ask student groups to list out their opinions on how a notable historical figure should have approached a certain situation. At the end of the five minutes, the class can discuss the pros and cons of all the suggestions together.
Students can be asked to stand up and role play different situations within the context of the lecture material. The remainder of the class can be asked to evaluate the role play. In an English class, students can be asked to role play different characters in one scene of a book. In a math class, a student can be asked to role play the head of a household with a budget and come up with strategies to manage purchase decisions.
The teacher can interrupt the class with a one minute pop quiz. Students can be asked to write down the answer to a question in one minute and turn it in. The teacher can then go around the classroom and ask a sampling of students what their answers were to initiate discussion. The graded quiz can be returned the next day.
Students can be asked to break up into groups and discuss a series of questions within their group for 10 minutes. A group representative can be asked to communicate the point of view of the group at the end of that time. Teachers can critique these answers at the end of the session. As an example, in a marketing class each group can be asked to come up with a marketing strategy for a specific product. At the end of the 10 minute session the group representative would give an overview of the strategy.