• Make a slide show with topic-related questions and present it with the projector.

• Make a circle with chairs in the room.

• Draw a circle on the board where students can see, and add their names to it (it helps if the order is aligned with where they are seated).

  
  

Instructions:

• Clear questions; keywords should be highlighted.

• Students must be oriented to raise their hands to answer each question. If another student wants to disagree/agree/add to the previous one, they must also raise their hand.

• After two or three students interact with the same question, skip it.

• Make sure they see you crossing a line whenever a student talks. This will instigate them to participate.

• Offer them a bonus for participation. Positive logs for pertinent and well-built arguments and a respectful attitude in the Circle are always a great plus.

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Make how many stations you want. The picture above was taken in Austin class, we chose to do 5 stations.

• Station 1 was a teacher-led discussion, a mini-lesson about the topic.

• Station 2 was the tech one. It had 4 Chromebooks and headsets ready to go, with a YouTube video about the theme. In this station, students had note-takers and pens available, and they should leave them on the desk for the teacher to ensure they took notes.

• Station 3 had a hard copy with topic-related text and different color highlighters; they should read it while highlighting key information. After that, they should check if their peers have highlighted the same parts of the text.

• Station 4 had a big piece of paper with post-its and pencils, and each student had a case study they should analyze, writing it down with their names.

• Station 5 was a Word Wall. Since it is an AP class, the teacher wanted to ensure they knew a proper vocabulary, so we hung a piece of paper close to the board, and each group chose 5 words they should give meaning to.

  
  

Instructions:

• It is fundamental to have two teachers for this class. While one is the subject teacher leading a mini-lesson in one of the stations, the other makes sure students are following through the process, working, and preparing the stations for the next group, like resetting the video, collecting the evidence, and making sure students understand the process.

• The stations, in this case, were made for groups of 4 students, and the seating chart was also strategic.

• Make sure to have a timer on the board. Usually, 10 minutes for each station is enough. All instructions must be given to students at the beginning of this class, quickly explaining what they have to do in each one. Regardless of that, they will have other questions, this is why it is important to have two teachers participating.

• Set up the room with two circles of chairs, the inner and the outer circle.

• Have a slide show with questions; each slide has a question/problem.

• Have a sheet of paper with clear instructions (as seen in the example below) that must be highlighted in a different color. This paper contains the same questions in the slide show, with a space for partner one (add name) and two (add name).

  
  

"You need to answer each question using two different answers. From partner 1 and partner 2."

• Students should sit in one of the circles, facing one student from the other circle.

• Explain that when one question is displayed on the whiteboard, they should write down their partner's answer. And after some time (you decide), the inside circle rotates right for partner 2.

• After some questions, the outside circle is now the one that moves left.

• Each student must have two different answers from two different partners by the end of the lesson.

High points of this activity:

• students get to learn with each other.

• students get back on track if they were lost at some point.

• scaffolding is easier at this point of collaborative work.

• student engagement.

• the student is exposed to answers, materials, ideas, vocabulary, etc. There is no cheating. Whatever they do, they will be exposed to the content (since there's a teacher supervising and they are held accountable for returning the sheet completed as a formative assessment).

This facilitates:

• Team building

• Targeted intervention

• More than one content delivery simultaneously

• Unobtrusive assistance

• Gathering data

• Choose a topic, text, or question for discussion.

• Add it on a padlet, whiteboard, big piece of paper, Google Classroom, or any other collaborative platform.

• Give students time to respond to it (opinions, analysis, etc)

• Now, they must comment on each other responses.

• In small or large groups, students must share aloud their takeaways.

Instructions:

• Have the students sit in a circle.

• Students should have a book, article, or any other text.

• Read. One after another.

• Make pauses to make sure they are understanding. Ask questions such as: What is your understanding of this part of the story? Can you think of something when you read this? What ideas come to your mind about this?

  
  

  Using this strategy weekly is helpful.

  
  

• Select or create content

• Print the content (mind maps, texts, articles, etc.) and hang it in different parts of the room.

• Print sheets of paper with questions for the students.

• Students should walk around the room, looking for their answers.

• Review the answers and reflect on the topic with students.