How can I use carousel in the classroom?

Carousel is a great cooperative learning activity for reinforcing knowledge and skills AFTER learning. It can also be used at the very beginning of a unit or lesson to activate prior knowledge. For example, if you are teaching a unit on Sound, you might want to see what students already know about Sound. Instead of using a KWL chart or something similar, Carousel is a great option.

How does carousel work?

Generally the teacher creates about 5-7 numbered “stations” around the classroom. Each station consists of a piece of chart paper with a question written on the top. For example, if you are doing this as an activation strategy before your Sound unit, some questions might be, “What do you know about how sound is made?” or “What are some different sounds that you hear every day?” The idea is to get students thinking about the subject matter that they are about to learn.

Students are divided into small groups. The number of students in each group may depend on the number of stations that you have. I like to limit groups to about 3-4 students.

Each group begins at a different station. The teacher sets a timer, and students stay at each station for that set period of time. I like to limit this to about 1-2 minutes at each station. I find that the brisk pace keeps students motivated. I would rather them not have enough time to put all of their thoughts down, rather than having too much time – that is when classroom management issues arise!

During the time that students are at each station, they read the question, skim over any previous answers by other groups, and then add their own ideas to the paper. When the timer goes off, they move to the next station.

When the groups have visited each station, there is a short discussion to de-brief. Try not to drag this out. With younger students you may want to choose a couple of points to highlight and discuss from each paper, rather than reading every single thing that was written.

What do I need to keep in mind before and during the carousel activity?

• How many students will you have in each group? Sometimes too many students can cause issues, as there is not enough for each person to do. In my opinion, three people is always a nice number.
• What is your purpose? Is your purpose to reinforce? Assess? Activate prior knowledge? This will affect the types of questions that you ask.
• How will students know where to go next? Are the stations labelled? Do they travel in a predictable way around the classroom?
• How much time do students need? If you notice that students are getting off-task, it probably means that you are giving them too much time at each station.
• How will you decide who does the writing? Is there a designated student in each group? Will they carry the marker with them or will you leave a marker at each station?

The post How To Use the Cooperative Learning “Carousel” Strategy appeared first on Shelley Gray.

Gallery walks are a great way to get students out of their seats and moving around the classroom. Some teachers shudder at the thought of having all of the students out of their desks moving around the classroom at the same time, but in reality, it can be a very effective technique for classroom management. Your students need a certain amount of time out of their seats, and this will give them that opportunity. The most important thing to remember is to establish expectations before beginning the activity. Keep reading for some information on gallery walks, as well as some ideas for incorporating them into your classroom.

How can I use gallery walks?

Gallery walks can be used in any subject area and for any topic, simply by setting up your activity a bit differently. For example, gallery walks are great for math concepts such as number sense. Post about 20 different tasks around the room. Have students rotate from task to task, solving them on a personal clipboard. Students are doing what could have been an in-desk activity, but by incorporating movement you will increase interest and motivation. Another way to use gallery walks is to post questions on chart paper around the room. Have students rotate from paper to paper, adding their answer to the chart paper. This is sometimes called a carousel.

Another way that I love to use gallery walks is in the computer lab. When I have students create PowerPoint presentations for a certain concept, I like to use the computer lab for a final gallery walk. Each student opens her presentation on one computer and inserts a slide at the end for comments. When the gallery walk begins, students rotate from computer to computer, reading another person’s presentation. When he is finished reading, he types a positive comment on the last slide. Now when the gallery walk is finished, each person has a page full of positive feedback to read about their presentation.

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