Fishbowl Discussion Directions: Whole group reads the article, story, etc. Participants are divided into 2 groups: outside circle & inside circle Teacher poses a question to the group. Inside Circle discusses following these rules: You should only state supported ideas, agree with a speaker by adding supporting information, or disagree with a speaker by offering refuting information. No one may interrupt a speaker. No one may speak a second time until everyone has had a chance. Outside circle does the following: Listen quietly.   Take note on discussion skills. Share observations about the discussion when inside circle is finished. Circles switch roles and repeat process with same or new question.

Fishbowl Discussion Fishbowl discussions allow for greater student engagement. Teachers should let students take the lead in conversations, just sit back and watch. The structure ensures that everyone must pay attention to the whole conversation because they must make conclusions of their own using evidence from the entire discussion. A whole class wrap up should be done to ensure thorough understanding.

Reciprocal Teaching Put students in groups of four Each member is assigned a role: Summarizer Questioner Clarifier Predictor Have students read a few paragraphs of the assigned text. Encourage them to use note-taking strategies or post-its. At the given stopping point, the Summarizer will highlight the key ideas up to the stopping point of the reading. The Questioner will then pose questions Unclear parts, puzzling information, connections to other concepts, etc. The Clarifier will address confusing parts and attempt to answer the questions that were just posed The Predictor can offer guesses about what the author will tell the group next or might suggest what the next events in the story will be. The roles then switch by rotating clockwise and reading the next portion of the text. Process continues and role switch until entire selection in read.

Reciprocal Teaching This strategy is a compilation of 4 comprehension strategies. Before the strategy can be complete successful, students must be taught and have had time to practice the different roles with teacher feedback. Make sure to pick reading selections that lend themselves to all four roles. The order that the students report out is not crucial and can be fluid to keep the conversation rolling.

Quick Writes Quick Writes can be used before, during, or after instruction. Here are some suggested prompts. Before Instruction: What do you already know about this? What questions did you have from your reading? Write one key point from yesterday’s lesson. What is something important for you to know about this topic? During Instruction: What do you think about this information? How is this like_____? What is a significant question you would ask? Why? What do you think will happen next? Identify a potential problem or issue. After Instruction: What is something important you learned today? What od you think are the two most important points? Write three things you would say to explain this to a younger child. What did you do to participate today? What would you like to know more about? What did you enjoy and/or not enjoy about this discussion? What is something you are doing to help yourself learn?

Quick Writes Students are allowed the opportunity to make critical mental connections between their thought processes and the content to be learned. Helping to make this high rigor and relevance. Students who write in response to material are learning to: Think independently, develop insight, explore thoughts and feelings, develop intellectual courage, reason logically, etc. Where to use Quick Writes: Read & Reflect Connect to Learning might be a “Write Now” to activate prior knowledge or “Wrap Up” to reflect on content. Track understanding Blog reactions: Comment on others blog posts Tweet it: Practice micro-blogging with 140 characters Silent debate: Students respond to a two-sided or controversial aspect of the lesson by forming pairs. One member supports one side of the issue and the partner supports the other. Then they trade papers and respond to each others thoughts and opinions. Papers can be passed back and forth for several rounds