Around the world is a tool for creating paired student verbal discourse in a format that facilitates shifting partners from time to time. It is useful for peer to peer discussion of student produced products, homework, worksheets, or content material.
It has the advantage of integrating motor breaks and adding diversity to peer – peer conversations by switching partners. Ideally, the room should be set up in a roughly circular format with students seated facing one another across a table. The instructor can assign seats or students may choose on their own because whatever pairs begin the lesson are quickly changed.
Students begin discussing the material chosen for the lesson according to parameters set by the teacher. After a predetermined amount of time, the command is given for students to rotate. Students on the inside in the outside of the circle rotate in opposite directions so that new pairs are created. The teacher can have either or both "rings" of students rotate to adjust pairings at will.
This format creates an opportunity for the teacher to circulate among the students listening in and commenting on discussions as a means of formative assessment. The format is flexible and can be adjusted to different lesson goals. It is an ideal format for fostering verbal discourse in ELL students who can be given scaffolded material such as sentence frames to facilitate their participation.
An alternative version of this lesson is called line dance (described on this page) which can be substituted for lesson diversity.
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Vote with your feet
I will ask a question and assign different corners of the classroom for different answers. Go to the corner you most agree with. Then, be prepared to defend your choice in a collaborative whole class discussion. Remember our class norms for respecting others during a discussion!