Pin the Tail on the Donkey

 

This activity asks students to take quotations from authors and pin the tail on the donkey: Which author said what? The discussion that follows can be illuminating.

Ahead of time, the instructor writes some ventriloquized remarks that reflect what the course's authors might want to say in response to each other.  The instructor can write this as an anonymous conversation among the authors.  Then the instructor separates the class into two groups:  actors and interpreters.  The first group of students simply reads out, in parts, what the instructor has prepared; after each line is read, the other half is asked to identify the author.  The instructor then opens up the discussion to assess the claims that the authors make, above and beyond questions of attribution.  [In time, this can be done again -- but with students preparing the ventriloquized remarks ahead of time.]