Inside/Outside Circles
Inside-Outside Circles a great activity that promotes discussion and interaction among students. It is good strategy for having children get out of their seats to provide that kinesthetic movement. It gives the students who normally would not talk the opportunity to interact and exchange ideas and/or information with each other.
This is how it works: Teacher provides the students with a question and then are asked to think quietly to themselves to formulate an answer to the question. Half of the students in the iniside circle are group #1. The other half of the students is the larger circle are group #2 facing a partner from the inside circle. Partner 1 speaks first with a time frame of one minute to discuss their thoughts on the question. Then partner 2 speaks for the same amount of time, adding information to what was already discussed. After each partner has had their time, partner #1 moves two people to the right and meets with a new partner. They will discuss what they have talked about with their previous partner. For the third move, all students move two people to the right to meet with a new partner. They continue elaborating ideas and exchanging turns. If partner #1 went first now is partner #2 turn to speak. Depending on the size of the class, teachers may have students rotate a couple of times to complete the activity.
This is how it works: Teacher provides the students with a question and then are asked to think quietly to themselves to formulate an answer to the question. Half of the students in the iniside circle are group #1. The other half of the students is the larger circle are group #2 facing a partner from the inside circle. Partner 1 speaks first with a time frame of one minute to discuss their thoughts on the question. Then partner 2 speaks for the same amount of time, adding information to what was already discussed. After each partner has had their time, partner #1 moves two people to the right and meets with a new partner. They will discuss what they have talked about with their previous partner. For the third move, all students move two people to the right to meet with a new partner. They continue elaborating ideas and exchanging turns. If partner #1 went first now is partner #2 turn to speak. Depending on the size of the class, teachers may have students rotate a couple of times to complete the activity.