Daily Assignment #86: Inside-Outside Circle

Inside-Outside Circle is a summarizing strategy developed by Spencer Kagan.  This is a great strategy to get students to interact with each other and to get them up and moving.  It is especially helpful for ESL students who need to practice oral language.

Procedure:

1. Half of the students stand up and form an inner circle, facing out.  They are Partner A. 
2. The other half of the class forms an outer circle, facing a partner from the inside circle.  They are Partner B.  
3. Put a question or a statement on a board, or have students summarize  a text, etc... 
4. Give the students "Think Time," about 10-15 seconds.   
5. Partner A shares their response for 1 minute.
6. Partner B shares their response for 1 minute.
7. Ring a bell, chime or just say "Switch".
8. The outside circles slides 2 people to the left, clockwise.
9. Repeat #5,6,7, 8 alternating which Partner responds first.

The teacher needs to decide how many times the circle moves and how long the responses should be.  Some teachers shorten the response time each time the circle moves.

This is also a good strategy for the teacher to do an assessment of student learning.  The teacher stands in the middle of the inner circle and listens to the conversations.

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Best Effort,

Linda103