Placemat activity provides an opportunity for small groups of up to 4 or 5 participants to come together around a piece of flipchart paper with organized sections to record individual responses and ideas. Each participant reflects and records their ideas in their designated section on the flipchart, then shares their response with the group. The flipchart is structured with sections for each participant’s ideas and a central area for discussion and summarization.

What is the activity good at accomplishing and how does it accomplish that?

Below is a list of some of the things you can accomplish with your students using this active learning technique. Before making changes to the technique, check (and add to) all that the Placemat activity is contributing to your students’ learning experience and make sure you maintain those through the changes that you are making.

• Engages and builds on students’ prior knowledge, personal experiences and stories (through structured prompts and sections on the flipchart)
• Gives each student a dedicated, structured space to brainstorm and record their thoughts and reflections which prepares students for teamwork. 
• Provides all students with the opportunity to contribute to the instructor-provided prompt. 
• Offers an opportunity for students to collaboratively discover and theme common ideas and perspectives that emerge during the discussion. 
• Provide a dedicated space to record responses, which can then serve as a primer for further discussion. Individual ideas and responses are directly recorded on the flipchart paper, preserving them for future discussions.
• Others?

Flipchart & Activity Design:

• Ensure that the individual sections as well as the central, group section are neatly, clearly and legibly drawn and labeled on the flipchart paper. Consider printing labels if your handwriting is difficult to read. 
• If using tables to place the flipchart paper, ensure there is enough space around the tables for students to sit and provide ample space for movement.
• Have a plan for how you are making groups  (i.e.: provide colorful index cards and assign a color to the placemat flipchart; put place cards on the tables to assign seats for more intentional grouping of students)
• Avoid using flipchart marker colors that are more difficult to read such as orange, pink, yellow etc. 

Individual Responses & Recording:

• Ensure that the question you are providing is clear, properly scaffolded, and that students have any necessary prerequisite information they need to engage with the question. 
• Provide the reflection question both orally and in written format (If possible, provide the question to students in advance).
• Specify how much time students will be spending on reflection.
• Check in to see if the majority of the students are ready to move to the next part of the activity before moving on.

Group Work:

• Clarify expectations around tracking/recording/theming their findings/responses (i.e: who is taking notes in the central section of the placemat?)
• Provide students with a list of tasks written down in steps, and time those steps (i.e: share your reflections, 2 min each, then work together to generate themes for 2 min). Timing the steps prevents one person from dominating the conversation. 
• Specify how much time each student should spend sharing their individual response/perspective

Step 1: Identify essential components

Identify the components/aspects of the placemat activity that are essential for learners to meet the learning outcomes of the lesson.

• How does placemat activity help learners meet the learning outcomes of the lesson?

Step 2: Identify obstacles

• Which parts of these essential components/aspects are an obstacle for this learner?

Step 3: redesign to remove obstacles

• How can we redesign these essential components to remove the obstacle for the learner but still equally support them to meet the LO of the lesson?

Using activity meta objectives to redesign for temporary accommodation:

Below is an example of a redesigned Placemat activity while maintaining the activity’s meta objectives. I encourage you to engage in the same process to redesign this activity for other accommodation needs. 

This redesign removes the need to record responses on the flipchart in order to engage with the activity, which can be more accessible for students who might be experiencing mobility or visual impairments or fine motor skill challenges. 

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