Why use this activity?

• This is a great activity to get students talking

• When students don't have a LOT to say, they can always use the same response twice

• Or - if a student hears a great answer from another peer, they can "steal" it and use it on their next turn

• It's OK if a student doesn't have an answer - at least by LISTENING to someone else, they can walk away with an answer/perspective that they did not have before

When to use this activity

• Review before a test

• Ice breakers - getting to know one another

• Share an opinion

Procedure

• Divide the class in half

• 1 half will be an inside circle, the other will be the outside circle

• Accountability for "who talks first" Inside circle talks first, then outside circle goes (or, visa-versa)

  • Establish accountability for time - how long will each person have to speak? (30 seconds?)

• Rotate outside circle two places to the right (or, some other arbitrary number of spaces) and boom - new partners!

• Rinse and repeat

Big concept here! Make sure you model/discuss GOOD LISTENING habits (see Think/Pair/Share)

Variations

• Ask one question, and rotate through new pairs to re-answer the same thing each time (maybe for an opinion prompt)

  • • This allows students to re-use the same answer multiple times if they are struggle with speaking

    • This also allows students to steal something they hear, and re-use it for themselves on the next pass

• For each rotation, ask a new question (and then ask specific pairs to share out)

• Set this up with similar topics as Think/Pair/Share

• This can be used as a variation of Give One, Get one

• Use this as a review - publish a set of review questions/study guide and ask students to think about responses BEFOREHAND. Then use this activity, sorting through the questions on the review/study guide