PLUG AND PLAY PROTOCOLS

Plug and Play Protocols are a revolutionary suite of resources designed to transform your classroom into a hub of creativity, critical thinking, and purposeful play. These ready-to-use tools are crafted with flexibility in mind, allowing educators to seamlessly integrate them into any lesson plan, regardless of content area or grade level. Whether you’re a seasoned educator looking to rejuvenate your practice or a new teacher eager to create an engaging learning atmosphere, the resources in this collection offer the tools and inspiration you’ll need (along with a student-friendly how-to-use-it slideshow for each!) to ignite curiosity and foster a lifelong love of learning.

PLUG A BRAND NEW PROTOCOL INTO YOUR CLASSROOM TODAY:

Make one small change or as many as you’d like: these protocols are super low prep and built for ultimate versatility across the board.

Microlab Quartet

Go big with Microlab QUARTET! Scale the conversation up to four voices, giving students structured turns while preparing them for larger group dialogue. Built-in 30–90 second timers help teachers grow speaking stamina as conversations expand toward full-group discussions.

Microlab Duet

Scaffolding for the win! Microlab DUET adapts the original Microlab protocol for pairs, giving every student more speaking time and tighter dialogue. With built-in 30–90 second timers, teachers can easily build conversation stamina while upgrading everyday discussions.

Stoplight Slides

Ready, set, go! Stoplight Slides is a Plug-and-Play Protocol that lets your students signal confidence in real time while they work. No hand-raising. No whole-class stops. Just clear color cues that help teachers see who’s cruising, who’s stuck, and where to step in next.

Pinwheel Conversation Protocol

Put an empathetic spin on content sharing with the Pinwheel Conversation Protocol. This fast-paced, rotating discussion strategy gets students thinking critically, speaking from multiple perspectives, and learning from one another in real time. Plus: setup is a breeze!

Write, Right, Fight!

Write, Right, Fight! gives students the chance to practice stating a position, expanding on arguments, and countering opposing claims—all in a low-stakes, engaging format inspired by Two Truths and a Lie. Fast-paced and low prep, fighting over content never felt so fun!

Diamond Mined Details

Unearth key takeaways with Diamond Mined Details! This graphic organizer helps students categorize insights into 12 diamonds of varying sizes, highlighting the most important ideas like gems. A creative way to boost reading comprehension and critical thinking!

P.I. Discoveries

P.I. Discoveries is a fantastic one day protocol for any course or grade level. Give your classes their chance to practice at research, writing, and a bit of argumentative debate as you place students hot on the trail to discover the truth in your current unit of study!

Two Word Check In

Empathy matters. And as humans, it is perfectly normal to feel more than one emotion at the same time. This simple and super low prep protocol helps teachers hold space for all sorts of emotional nuance. In just two words, you’ll have your students talking in no time.

One Word Window

Sometimes, less can be so much more. That’s what makes this simple and effective Plug and Play Protocol just so much fun! Students have to take a single slide and show their understanding of something with just one image, word, and a short note to explain their thinking.

What If?

This is a low prep activity where students have to think through all kinds of imaginative possibilities, all inspired by a single, simple question: “What If?” We’ve included prompts to help get you started — give a click to see how you can inspire some serious thinking!

Triad Convos

In the Triad Convos Plug-and-Play Protocol, groups of students have the chance to explore your content together in groups of three. They listen, ask questions together and learn to explore together as each member of the Triad will play a different role for each new round.

Silent Talk

What happens when students communicate entirely without speaking? Silent Talk turns your classroom into an interactive, idea-sharing hub, where students use writing, doodles, and visual connections to build a collaborative conversation—all without saying a single word.

Expedition Reflections

The most important journeys aren’t just outward—they’re inward. Expedition Reflections guides students on a self-discovery mission, where they explore their learning, goals, and growth through thought-provoking prompts. Give a click to bring this journey into your class.

Each Teach

Have you ever heard that the best way to learn something is to try and teach it to someone else? Welcome to the Each Teach protocol, a super low prep approach to pint-sized pedagogy 101 where your students get to become the teachers. Class is in session! Ready to play?

Post-It Pause

In a fast-paced world, learning often moves at lightning speed. But deep understanding doesn’t happen in a blur—it happens in moments of pause and reflection. Post-It Pause gives students the space to slow down, process information, and generate thoughtful questions.

Annotation Scramble

Are you scrambling for a low-prep activity that will get your students to take their independent reading just a little bit more seriously? Say hello to Annotation Scramble, a Plug-and-Play Protocol that’s every bit as high engagement as it is minimal assembly required.

Beats & Bonds

Crank it to 11 with this super easy to implement protocol where students will have to find connections or bonds to the focus question and some lyrics. This protocol comes with over 30 lyrics on handouts to get you started. Enjoy the sweet sounds of success and rock on!

Open Session

Open Session is as easy to run as it is student centered! Young people have all sorts of things on their mind — why not give them a clear, structured way to share their thoughts with their classmates? Give a click and take the Open Session for a spin in your classroom.

Matrix Markings

Make a splash in your next slideshow with Matrix Markings! In this super low-prep Plug and Play Protocol, students can sound off on any number of topics of the teacher’s choice by adding custom stickers into a digital display that lives right inside of your slideshow.

Brainstorm F.I.R.E. Frenzy

Looking to heat things up with pre-writing, idea generation, or longer term project planning? Brainstorm F.I.R.E. Frenzy fuses the iterative design process with a quick-fire battle of wits and idea generation to help torch the dreaded Writer’s Block once and for all.

The Big Sort

Can you spot what’s out of sorts?! This protocol is all about sorting and grouping bundles of related words. Students will use a “basket” of words and create piles to sort them into. But keep your eyes peeled — because rival teams might be trying to sneak one by you!

Contour Content

Take your students to the summit of closer reflection! Contour Content takes about 15 minutes, and is designed to help your classes level up their learning with a series of timed rounds that will push their thinking and perspective to the next level. Give it a try today!

Divvy Up Double Down

With EMC² Learning’s Divvy Up Double Down, learning isn’t just a task—it’s an adventure in intellectual exploration that promotes collaboration, critical thinking, and confident communication. Are your students ready to dive in, debate, and decide? Let the showdown begin!

Snowball Swap

Welcome to the Snowball Swap! There’s a chill in the air and a frosty breeze blowing through the sky. What better way to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year than with a good old fashioned snowball fight? Grab some blank sheets of paper and let’s play!

Compass Points – Navigating Groups

Compass Points is a quick Plug-and-Play Protocol that will work in just about any class to help students reflect on their role in a group and what they bring to each team that they belong to in your school. This activity can also make a great advisory lesson! Game on.

Compass Points – Navigating Understanding

Set sail for student-centered learning in your classroom! This variant of Compass Points is a great way to get students thinking through the pros and cons of an idea or decision as they make sense of something in your content. Give this 30 minute activity a try today!

Blue Sky Brainstorming

Disney’s Imagineers speak of the “blue sky phase” to refer to a time very early in the development of a project when all limitations are intentionally ignored so ideas are able to flow freely. This protocol helps students dream up something truly magical of their own.

Lock In

Lock In gives your students the power to review your course content in a “press your luck” style showdown where teams get to choose when they want to lock in their answer. Up to four clues are given, but with each clue, those point values drop. When will you Lock In?!

Just Like

This wacky game of connection also forces students to write a solid metaphor. They are trying to earn hearts as they are worth more points than just likes. Let’s see what your students can do with this one!

Black Sheep

In the Black Sheep review protocol, you’ll have the chance to challenge students to pick the correct odd option in a list of four. They need to explain what all parts of the question mean. It is an awesome game and pushes students to higher and higher levels of Bloom’s!

Angels & Demons

Boost critical thinking and teamwork with the Angels & Demons protocol! In this Fortune 500-inspired exercise, students take sides to defend and critique their projects, making it the perfect end-of-project checkpoint for deep dives into team-based solutions.

Puzzle Piece Patch Up

This timeless classic gets a nice facelift to help explain to students and teachers how to run this powerful protocol. Give this one a try when you have a ton of information that needs to be pulled together.

Cold Case Conclusions

This is a fun activity that can be as big or as little as you like. Your students become detectives trying to solve the case statement for the day. You provide them with quotes, artifacts, and or images to help them put together their case file and conclusion.

Project Planning Pre-Mortem

Don’t fear the reaper! Believe it or not, there is actually a great deal of research to suggest that imagining a project’s untimely demise before you even begin it can give a team all sorts of new life and energy. This easy to use Plug-and-Play Protocol is to die for.

Halftime Huddle

Whether you’re looking to “Win one for the Gipper” or just trying to get a longer term project back on track after a sluggish first half, this Plug-and-Play Protocol is designed to help teams make the necessary halftime corrections to bring their A game right to the end.

Sticky Note Polling

This protocol is the perfect tool for sparking conversations by letting students visualize their opinions alongside those of their peers. Whether it’s gauging confidence levels or voting on hot topics, this activity sets the stage for rich, meaningful debates.

Three Two One Pause!

This is a simple and clean protocol that has your students thinking though an aspect of our unit together. They will have three steps to follow and you will get some deep thinking.

You Said What!?!

This is a great one to get people discussing in your class. You will need some quotes so the setup is a bit longer but it can really be a great way to talk about big topics or touchy subjects.

No. 10 Treasure Mine

Students and teachers will love this quick and engaging protocol that has students looking at data, reading a passage, analyzing a picture, you name it. The old no. 10 Mine will have you exploring some information.

Last Word Protocol

In this protocol students will be exploring a reading passage looking for deeper meaning and connection to the main point. They will have to find, justify, as well as clarify their thinking in this powerful protocol.

Microlab Matinee

We’ve all had those days where we inevitably end up showing a movie in class. But sustaining student engagement through a full length film can be a trick. So kick back, relax, and let the Microlab Matinee turn your movie day into a must-see showcase of student learning!
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