Rally Robin

What is Rally Robin?

Rally Robin is an engaging Kagan Cooperative Learning strategy, similar to Round Robin, but done in pairs instead of small groups. It’s designed to promote turn-taking, active thinking, and equal participation between two students. 

In Rally Robin, students work with a partner to take turns responding aloud to a prompt or question posed by the teacher. They go back and forth like a “rally” in tennis—hence the name!

Key Features:

• Pairs-based: Just two students per team.
  
  

• Turn-taking: Each student shares one idea, then the other responds.
  
  

• Quick-paced: Encourages rapid idea generation or review.

How it Works: 

1. Teacher poses a question, prompt, or task (e.g., “Name things that have mass” or “List causes of the Civil War”).
   
   

2. In pairs, students take turns responding aloud, one answer or idea at a time.
   
   

3. The “rally” continues for a set time or until ideas run out.

Variations:

• Timed Rally Robin: Partners go back and forth for a specific time (e.g., 1 minute).
  
  

• Recorded Rally Robin: Students write down the answers as they say them.
  
  

• Rally Coach: One partner explains how to solve a problem while the other coaches or encourages.

Great For: 

• Brainstorming
  
  

• Reviewing vocabulary or facts
  
  

• Practicing academic language
  
  

• Warming up at the beginning of a lesson