Networking Session

This activity idea comes from Total Participation Techniques by Pérsida Himmele and William Himmele.

Purpose: This speaking activity can be used for brainstorming, problem solving, processing new information, or review.

Prep Time: None

Materials: An open-ended question for students to answer.

Prep: Design a thought-provoking and open-ended question for students to answer, preferably one that will deepen the learning that is taking place in a lesson.

Procedure:

1. Instruct students to stand up and walk around. Then instruct them to form a group of 2-3 with the people standing near them. You may want to specify that it needs to be someone they haven’t talked to yet today.  If your classroom is crowded, consider going in the hall.
2. Get the attention of the class.
3. Post and ask the question you developed while preparing this activity.  For example, in a beginning lesson about family, ask students, “Say all the family words you know.”  In an intermediate lesson about housing, you might ask, “What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in an apartment?” Repeat the question a couple times. You might wish to have students repeat the question after you.
4. If needed, provide students with a sentence starter. Say it and have the class repeat it. In the intermediate housing lesson, the starter might be, “An advantage of an apartment is…”
5. Give the groups time to discuss their answers. Float and observe. Take notes about interesting responses so that you can call on students to share their answers with the class later.
6. Get the attention of the class so everyone can return to their seats.
7. Call on a few students to share some interesting responses.

Variations:

• Invite multiple students to write their responses to the question on the board.
• Call on students to share what their partners had to say.
• Give each student a mini whiteboard and have them each write one idea to hold up and share (instruct them to write big).