Midterms!!!

So we're in the middle of Midterm Madness at school.  The 1st Quarter ends on Tuesday and my students are psyching up for their midterms.  Well, maybe psyching up is an over-exaggeration.  Freaking out maybe?  So I took this opportunity to... well, teach my students a lesson.

This is my first year at a new school and although I really love it, I'm not sure I feel as effective as I could be.  It could be that I'm just tough on myself.  I feel like math is accessible for everyone and that given the correct set of circumstances anyone can learn it if they put some effort into it.

Well, no surprise to teachers out there - some of my students have been sitting back, coasting in the process of their learning, not really applying themselves,  So I decided to shake it up a bit.

Every student took 1 piece of paper, folded it hot dog and hamburger until they had quarter pieces of paper.  Then, we looked at the Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 questions and students were asked to write questions they had on one of their quarter pages.  These problems were taped on the board and either I or students who knew how to do them did them.  We had some music playing, students were up and out of their seats solving problems and the tempo was very productive.  Our 2nd day of review followed the same format but with a topic list so they were more focused with their question-asking.

I think this strategy was more effective at getting students to do problems on the board than anything else I've tried this year.  I want students to get into the habit of explaining things to each other and making sense of math but there seems to be an inverse relationship between mathematical confidence and actual confidence in my class.

Any suggestions on other strategies you use to get students to explain math to each other?  I want students to be engaged in our activities and for students to become more confident about their math abilities.