End of the Christmas Holidays, and your thoughts turn to getting back into your classroom. Time for a change? Don’t want to stand at the front talking? Want to introduce a new topic? Want to do retrieval on an old topic? Got a tricky group that you just want to try something different with? Something to try this year, take a risk with a teamwork carousel lesson.
Carousel lesson
1) Put desks into teams format e.g. 4 team desks layout
2) Put one folder per table for the team to keep their work in
3) You set the teams (mixture of abilities)
4) They assign a leader who looks after the folder and moves it from desk to desk
5) When students arrive they just bring their pencil case all other bags and coats left somewhere safe
6) You explain there are 4 activities and they will get 10 minutes on each one. They can vote at the end on which one they liked best
7) Each table has a different activity and one set of instructions for the team leader
8) After 10 minutes (on a timer) students move around to the next activity
9) They can talk at the tables, so they can chat while they complete the activities. This should lead to a nice calm vibe. You can quickly see anyone who is not behaving 100% and nip it in the bud with some proximity and encouragement.
10) Team leaders hand in folders at the end – reward team leaders (I usually give ridiculously big rewards so being a team leader is a very big deal and a sought-after role)
Follow up lesson
1) Next lesson hand out awards to those that did the best work in the session
2) Ask for honest feedback – did they prefer this format? Some groups will like this others will not.
3) Students link this to the world of work – working in a team, being supervised by a leader etc.
Suggestions for carousel activities
· Booklet from notes
· Paper plate spinners
· Pros and cons
· All on the one-page diagram
· Wordsearch
· Crossword
· Team brainstorm poster
· Tarsia
· Gapfill
· Worksheet questions
· Past paper multiple choice questions (work through as a team)
Lots of ideas here - FREE to download
Final thoughts
Make sure all the activities can be completed in about 8 minutes for an average student, this allows for time to move around and time when the activity is being explained to them by their team leader. These should be quick-fire activities where students feel motivated with the completion.
Have extension activities on the table so that those needing and wanting some stretch and challenge have something purposeful to do.
If you have 5 groups in a day, you could leave the tables in team structure all day (if you normally have rows) and try out a range of activities all day. Find out which are the most popular. This helps you to know which activities will work best in the future as a starter with that group.
Hope that helps or that you have read something useful today. Please follow me on Twitter, Insta, Facebook, and Pinterest if you want more ideas.
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