Activity Suggestion
One activity mentioned in the textbook that I thought was useful was conversation circles. This is the activity where students form a circle inside another and pair off to talk about a topic, and then rotate partners by moving a certain number of people to the right or left. I like that this gets students up from their desks and talking to others whom they may not necessarily choose to talk to if they were allowed to pair up by themselves. This fosters a sense of community in the classroom and allows students to see a greater range of perspectives.
One potential problem is that students may end up saying the same thing to each partner they face and could get tired of repeating themselves. A workaround for this is to have students think of (or write down) a number of points they want to bring up and present one point per partner.
There is also the issue of students not paying attention to or understanding others’ comments. Teachers should encourage students to (1) paraphrase what their partner has said, and (2) reflect on what they said. Here we can teach students how to frame their responses using language suitable for respectful discussion, such as: “So you’re saying that…” and “I like your point on… which makes me think of…”
Finally, there are some logistical concerns with the conversation circle activity that are difficult to solve. I have noticed that during think-pair-share sessions the class gets quite loud and often it difficult to hear and be heard. With conversation circles students may be standing quite near to one another (especially due to space constraints) which could aggravate the problem. Also, this activity requires a large open space, usually necessitating desk rearrangement. Moving around desks takes away a fair amount of time that some might argue could be better spent. Still, I think the conversation circle activity would be a great addition to a lesson if it were planned out well.