# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Brainstorming is a process teachers use as part of their teaching strategies to help students generate ideas. It is a great educational tool that encourages critical thinking and student participation. Many teachers use these brainstorming teaching strategies to facilitate cooperative learning. In a traditional brainstorming session, students may be in a whole-group setting, where the teacher encourages students to raise their hands to share their ideas. Unfortunately, in this type of setting, not all students get the opportunity to share their opinions. However, when using the Round Robin discussion teaching strategies, all students in the group get an equal chance to share.

Here we will take a brief look at what the Round Robin discussion strategy is and how you can effectively use it in your classroom.

The Round Robin strategy is a brainstorming strategy where students are situated around a table in an academic discussion. Like other brainstorming sessions, students generate ideas on a specific topic or question. However, with this strategy, there is equal participation among students as well as multiple discussions taking place.

Equal Participation - The most effective thing about this strategy is that each student within the group has an equal opportunity to participate in the discussion. One student leads the discussion, then each student takes her turn voicing their opinion on the topic. In some cases, one student will be assigned the recorder where their job is to record everything that each student says. If the teacher finds that students are talking out of turn then sometimes they will use "Talking chips," where students must turn in one chip each time they voice their opinion.

Group Discussions - Tables are arranged around the classroom and positioned so that there are multiple brainstorming discussions taking place at one time. When the timer goes off or when the teachers says, each group moves to another table where the topic is different. Once groups have rotated to all tables, the Round Robin discussion strategy is over.

How to Use it

Follow these steps to effectively use the Round Robin Discussion strategy in your classroom.

Steps:

1. The best way to implement this strategy into your classroom is to first think of the topic that you want students to discuss.

2. Next, decide on the amount of questions or topics you would like to be discussed so you know how many tables/groups you will need.

3. Arrange the desks or tables so that discussion flows nicely and students can move about easily. Also, consider the placement so that groups won't be distracted by other groups.

4. Give each table one discussion sheet (preferably a different color) along with a variety of different-colored pens (this will help distinguish groups from one another). Assign one person the leader of the group and another the recorder.

5. Set a timer for each group. Also, give groups tokens so when it's each student's turn to talk, they must turn in a token. This helps the groups move along.

6. Once each group has gone (and before they move to the next group), have the leader present their group's ideas.

Tips to Making it Effective

Follow these tips to ensure that you are implementing an effective brainstorming discussion strategy.

Try to make groups as diverse as you can. Do not make them too small or too large. The ideal size is about four students to a group, two boys and two girls.

After posing the question or topic idea, make sure that you give students a few minutes to think about it versus having them answer right away. The ideal think time is about one to three minutes.

Use the three-step method when implanting this strategy: 1. Pose the question (What are the planets are in our solar system). 2. Have students take turns brainstorming the answers (mars, earth, etc.). 3. Have the recorder write down the answers then the leader read them back to the group.

Use the Round Robin Discussion teaching strategies to ensure equal participation by all students as well as a means to enhance a collaborative group learning environment.
How do you use the Round Robin Discussion teaching strategies in your classroom? Do you find this technique to be an effective method to use? Please share your input in the comment section below, we would love to hear what you have to say.
Janelle Cox is an education writer who uses her experience and knowledge to provide creative and original writing in the field of education. Janelle holds Masters of Science in Education from the State University of New York College at Buffalo. She is a contributing writer to TeachHUB.com, TeachHUB Magazine, and Hey Teach. She was also the Elementary Education Expert for About.com for five years. You can follow her on Twitter @Empoweringk6ed, on Facebook at Empowering K6 Educators, or contact her at Janellecox78@yahoo.com.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to Use the Round Robin Discussion Teaching Strategies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Brainstorming is a process teachers use as part of their teaching strategies to help students generate ideas. It is a great educational tool that encourages critical thinking and student participation. Many teachers use these brainstorming teaching strategies to facilitate cooperative learning.

# data[].attributes.body
Round Robin Ideas

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After three or four rotations, the process enters a new phase. The teacher can ask each group to rank the best three or four ideas or ask them to annotate the various answers in terms of classifications designed by the teacher (or students) such as 'the most creative ideas', 'the most practical ideas', ideas which meet criteria A, then B.

# data[].attributes.body
Three Creative Ways to Use Jigsaw Groups

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Jigsaw Group technique is one that I use a lot to ensure that students work efficiently with each other on research projects and report back with their findings in a creative way. There are three ways in which I use the technique most often.

Method 1: Each group researches the same question in the same way

The simplest way of organising 'jigsaw' groups is to divide the class into teams, then to give each group the same task, divided between the team members in the same way. For example, each group might be researching the impact of World War Two on the Home Front, and each of the four members in each team looks at this from one angle: economic, political, social and military. Each student researches their area alone for a certain period, then the groups are 'jigsawed' by each person moving to sit with other people in the class who have researched the same theme. After exchanging findings in their 'expert' groups, students return to their original 'home' groups and teach each other about what they have learned, in the following manner:

This method is

Method 2: Each group researches the same question in a different way

A slightly more sophisticated approach is to provide each group with the same broad question, and to give each member within it the same angle to look at, but to give each team a different focus point. For example, the class might be investigating " What are the most common causes of war? ". Within each team, different students could be required to research military, social, economic and political causes. However, the crucial difference is that each team will consider a different war altogether. In this way, the 'expert group' phase can be much more engaging in terms of spotting comparisons and contrasts and thinking about how best to present these to the 'home' groups later on.

Method 3: Each student in the class researches something totally different

Another way of using Jigsaw Groups is as a way of getting students exchanging their ideas with as many people as efficiently as possible. This method involves creating groups, breaking them up after a few minutes, and then creating new groups with different members. It creates a sense of urgency to the discussion phase and gets the students moving around the room a bit too.

1. Start by deciding how many groups you want to have. Base this around the number of people you have in the class to ensure groups are the same size (e.g. six groups of four students in a class of 24). If this isn't quite possible, pair certain students together for the sake of this exercise.

2. Then allocate each student to a particular group (e.g. 1-5). To avoid arguments you can use the ClassTools Random Name Picker.

3. Once students are sat in their groups, give each student a fresh number to signify the order in which they will be speaking (e.g. 1 = first, 2 = second, 3 = third).

4. Explain that each person has to speak within a strict time limit (I project the ClassTools MultTimer on the board for this).

5. Start the timer and let the discussion proceed. It helps at this stage for each student to have a clear focus to ensure they listen carefully (e.g. "At the end of the discussion be prepared to explain which one of the other speakers made the most convincing argument overall").

6. At the end of the discussion, it is time to 'Jigsaw' the groups. Give each student in the group a new number, which corresponds to their new group. Then tell the students to move to the spaces in the classroom set aside for their groups.

7. Each group will now consist of a group of students who have not yet talked to each other. Return to step [3] for the second phase of the discussion.

Example

My Year 9 students had each investigated a different 'historical hero' in the Historical Heroes Research Project outlined here. In class, the jigsaw group approach was used to get students explaining to the other members of their groups what was so heroic about the individuals they had researched. Prior to the exercise, I told students that their objective was firstly to persuade the members of their groups that their choice of character was indeed 'heroic'. Their second objective though was to listen carefully to the other people in the groups they spoke within and to decide which one of these was the most 'heroic' overall. Thereafter they selected a range of characters to organise into a diamond 9 diagram.

Taking it further

The 'Jigsaw Groups' approach works most simply in the way described above. (home group, expert group, return to home group for feedback). However, it is possible to arrange things so that a third round of discussion can take place in fresh groups consisting of students who have not yet talked to each other already. To do this, adjust stage [6] in the instructions above so that instead of simply giving students a new number, give them not only a number, but also a letter, in this format:

Group 1: 1a, 2b, 3c, 4d, 5e

Group 2: 1b, 2c, 3d, 4e, 5a

Group 3: 1c, 2d, 3e, 4a, 5b

...etc

In this way, when the 'Jigsaw' phase takes place, all the students with the same number sit together as before. But at the end of this phase, another 'Jigsaw' phase can take place by asking all the people with the same letter to sit together.

Comments

comments

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Jigsaw Group technique is one that I use a lot to ensure that students work efficiently with each other on research projects and report back with their findings in a creative way. There are three ways in which I use the technique most often.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Simon Says Game - THE KIBOOMERS Preschool Songs - Brain Break

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ESL Korea - Simon Says (1st and 2nd Grade)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Bridge Education Group TEFL TESOL Certifications

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
TEFL LIKE A PRO: Teaching English Grammar with Board Races - TEFL ESL

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
"Hot Seat" ESL Game (Gangwon-do, South Korea) English Camp

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tic Tac Toe : Hangman -  Easy ESL Games Video#34