"Stroll-Pair-Musical Chair" @Westylish's Very Own Kagan esk Structure

About a month ago we had our third instalment of Kagan Structure training @Rossett. This allowed us to re-evaluate our progress so far and taught us a few new structures. One of these was Stroll-Pair-Share. The aim of this was to pair students up, get them to stroll around arm-in-arm (like off-of a promenade at a generic coastal resort, I'm thinking Whitby N-Yorks but you can insert your own coastal-resort-of-choice) and share their thoughts on the topic being taught. The teacher then selected 'students' at random to feedback the thoughts of their'Strolling-Partner' to the group. The aim of the structure was to 'oxidise' our brains and 'get the glucose going'.

I had two thoughts about the structure:

1) I thought that the students wouldn't take it seriously and the arm-in-arm style might be an issue.

2) That said, I liked the element of fun that it brought to our staff training and felt that if it could bring that element of fun to my classroom it would be a good thing.

With this in mind I tried it with my Year 7 classes that week using my random selector to pair the students and get them to discuss the Renaissance:

The students really enjoyed the experience but the responses that the students gave were pretty poor. Many of them had little idea about what their partner had said. They hadn't really focused on the task.

With the above reflections in mind I decided to keep the strolling and pairing elements of the structure but to add a 'musical chair' element. This activity could be used as a starter but I feel it is better placed as a plenary at the end of the lesson. The lesson needs to have been based around two or more different themes. In the case below we had been looking at the Reformation and some basic differences between Catholics and Protestants in the 16th Century. This was an introductory theme to Henry VIII and the Tudors.

Here is how to make it happen.

1) Randomly Pair the Students; and explain that they cannot leave their partner.

2) Set up a space with two or more lines of chairs.

3) Get the class to stroll around, arm-in-arm, in the middle of the space.

4) Shout out a fact that applies to one of the lines of chairs, the students have to try an get a seat in the correct section.

5) Any students who do not find a seat (for both them and their strolling partner) in the correct section are out. If one of the pair gets a seat but their partner doesn't they are both out.

6) Keep reducing the number of chairs until you have a winner.

Below is a (poorly taken) video of my Year 7 students Stroll-Pair-Musical Chair-ing:

1) The students seemed to really get into it.

2) We played it a couple of times, with different winners.

3) Unlike the original stroll-pair-share the student focus was excellent.

4) Even those who were 'out' were still getting involved.

5) It brought an element of competition to the classroom (my co-constructos always talk about how they would like more competition).

I am going to speak to my groups next week and add some of their thoughts onto this blog.