Discussion in Groups
It can sometimes take a leap of faith to move from a nice, safe model of teaching with the teacher at the front and the children sat listening, to one where everyone’s talking at the same time. We think it’s a leap worth making because once you’ve got children talking to each other, they’re exploring and reinforcing ideas and actively learning. Here’s our guide to group discussion:
Talking in a small group- Five or six children discuss the topic of the day. Twos to Fours is a great way of getting them into this smoothly (that's when they talk about something in pairs and then join with another pair to make a four). Once they’re there, there are lots of ways of setting this up so it doesn’t become an argument or a lecture from the loudest child. You might try giving everybody a set time to speak first and then go into the discussion, with time for everybody to ‘sum-up’ at the end. Each group might have a ball or soft toy as a conch (obviously great if you’re teaching Lord of the Flies) or you might allocate specific roles- chairman, critic, scribe etc.
Jigsaw- We bet you remember this from your teacher training. In groups of four or five, the children are given a different task, story, topic or question. They then have some time to get on with it. Once they’ve done this, they shuffle round so you have a child from each group in a new group. Here they are the expert and they have the opportunity to share what they know with the rest of their new group. For example, if you were learning about the Labours of Heracles, you might give six small groups a version of one of the labours each. They might read their story together, answer some questions and get really familiar with it. Then they’d split into different groups, so each group now has an expert on their story. They could have a statement to discuss, such as ‘Heracles relies on just brute strength- discuss’. Each child will have a different story to draw on for the discussion- in this case hopefully explaining that in their story Heracles has to use brains as well as physical strength. In addition to being a great vehicle for learning, this is brilliant as it gives every child the chance to be an expert amongst their peers, and that’s a great feeling to have.
Carousel- Same sort of thing, but this time the whole group moves around five or six different activities. To continue with our Heracles example, the group might whizz round five of the stories, each with a task attached. The more different these can be the better, so they might find:
Table 1- The Ceryneian Deer- a simple version of the story to read and the task to present the story in three quick pictures.
Table 2- The Erymanthian Boar- a slightly longer written version to read and then summarise as a group.
Table 3- The Stymphalian Birds- the problem of how to catch the birds laid out and the task to come up with a plan of how to do it. How Heracles manages it is in a sealed envelope that the children can only open when they’ve formulated their own plan.
Table 4- The Cretan Bull- a short film clip from YouTube on a computer or laptop. The group watches it and then discusses, following some prompt questions.
Table 5- The Mares of Diomedes- a short version of the story for children to read and discuss. Then they have to photograph themselves acting out the worst and best moment for Heracles.
Once children have been around all five tables, they’ll be familiar with five of the stories, have photographs, drawings and notes for their books and have really enjoyed themselves. They’ll remember these stories much better than if they had just sat and passively listened to them.
Group activities like these take a bit more work to set up, but the learning that springs from them can be wonderful.
Whole-Class Discussion
Paired Discussion
Talking in a small group- Five or six children discuss the topic of the day. Twos to Fours is a great way of getting them into this smoothly (that's when they talk about something in pairs and then join with another pair to make a four). Once they’re there, there are lots of ways of setting this up so it doesn’t become an argument or a lecture from the loudest child. You might try giving everybody a set time to speak first and then go into the discussion, with time for everybody to ‘sum-up’ at the end. Each group might have a ball or soft toy as a conch (obviously great if you’re teaching Lord of the Flies) or you might allocate specific roles- chairman, critic, scribe etc.
Jigsaw- We bet you remember this from your teacher training. In groups of four or five, the children are given a different task, story, topic or question. They then have some time to get on with it. Once they’ve done this, they shuffle round so you have a child from each group in a new group. Here they are the expert and they have the opportunity to share what they know with the rest of their new group. For example, if you were learning about the Labours of Heracles, you might give six small groups a version of one of the labours each. They might read their story together, answer some questions and get really familiar with it. Then they’d split into different groups, so each group now has an expert on their story. They could have a statement to discuss, such as ‘Heracles relies on just brute strength- discuss’. Each child will have a different story to draw on for the discussion- in this case hopefully explaining that in their story Heracles has to use brains as well as physical strength. In addition to being a great vehicle for learning, this is brilliant as it gives every child the chance to be an expert amongst their peers, and that’s a great feeling to have.
Carousel- Same sort of thing, but this time the whole group moves around five or six different activities. To continue with our Heracles example, the group might whizz round five of the stories, each with a task attached. The more different these can be the better, so they might find:
Table 1- The Ceryneian Deer- a simple version of the story to read and the task to present the story in three quick pictures.
Table 2- The Erymanthian Boar- a slightly longer written version to read and then summarise as a group.
Table 3- The Stymphalian Birds- the problem of how to catch the birds laid out and the task to come up with a plan of how to do it. How Heracles manages it is in a sealed envelope that the children can only open when they’ve formulated their own plan.
Table 4- The Cretan Bull- a short film clip from YouTube on a computer or laptop. The group watches it and then discusses, following some prompt questions.
Table 5- The Mares of Diomedes- a short version of the story for children to read and discuss. Then they have to photograph themselves acting out the worst and best moment for Heracles.
Once children have been around all five tables, they’ll be familiar with five of the stories, have photographs, drawings and notes for their books and have really enjoyed themselves. They’ll remember these stories much better than if they had just sat and passively listened to them.
Group activities like these take a bit more work to set up, but the learning that springs from them can be wonderful.
Whole-Class Discussion
Paired Discussion
