Around the table

This strategy will help students to:

• identify prior knowledge, understanding and skills

• work collaboratively to learn from and share with others.

Implementation

1. Divide the class into small groups. 

2. Give each group a large sheet of paper and a pen.

3. One at a time, each student writes what they already know about the given topic, then they pass the paper and pen to the next student who repeats the process.

4. Instruct students to avoid repetition of ideas by ticking the comments they agree with, writing comments next to ideas and writing their own new responses on the graffiti sheet.

5. The process is repeated until the paper is returned to their original owner. 

6. Groups read, discuss and summarise the sheets. Comments may be categorised in order to draw conclusions or present a brief summary presentation to the class. 

7. Planning for further learning experiences can be carried out using the students' responses.