We are reviewing “Special Person” details from interviews we have been doing in class. I wanted to share how we went about it today.

First I asked students to volunteer information about any of the last five classmates we’ve interviewed. Students raised their hand and volunteered information. It sounded a little like this:

Student 1: Jazy habla inglés y español.

Student 2: Dillon es de Spanks, Ohio y camina a la escuela en un minuto.

Student 3: Maria juega al fútbol. Su número es treinta y dos.

Student 4: Sydni nada cinco días en una semana, pero no le gusta nadar.

As kids volunteered, I reinforced with circling questions where I thought we needed it.

Next, I asked them in their groups of 5 or 6 to collaborate, writing as much as information as possible about each of the five people.

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Next, we did an activity called “One Stray, the Others Stay”. It works like this:

One member of each 6 person group rotates to another group. She or he then shares the sentences his/her group wrote. The other 5 group members stay put. The strayer from another group comes to them. They add any new information to their list they did not originally think of.

After two minutes, the strayer rotates to the next group.

IMG_2161After all groups rotated, we reconvened as a class and reviewed.

They don’t know it yet, because I don’t announce quizzes ahead of time, but tomorrow they’ll be asked to write 3 sentences about each of the five people. I’m pretty sure that after such comprehensive review, they’ll do quite well.

“Special Person” review activity

4 thoughts on ““Special Person” review activity

  • November 27, 2015 at 3:46 pm
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    I like how the chairs are organized so as to foster communication for this activity. Having visited your classroom, and having seen how they are normally set up, I can see how this is a perfect set up for collaboration. I am wondering what you would suggest for my smaller classes. Would you anticipate this working just as well with groups of 3-4 students, since my largest class is 11 students?

    • November 27, 2015 at 4:13 pm
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      Groups of 3 or 4 would be fine, Laura. I generally have at least 5 kids in a group but sometimes fewer. Thanks for the comment and the visit!!!

  • December 2, 2015 at 3:34 pm
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    Hey Grant, I am assuming this is the activity you were trying to explain to Bryce and I in October but I was too tired to grasp it. Thanks for writing it down!

    Question: Does the same student rotate from group to group (the strayer)? And so this person would not ever get any new information, they just report what their original group wrote, to each group they visit?

    It seems we could do this activity with not just personal interview info but any set of subjects (e.g. details about different class stories, Spanish speaking countries, local hot spots, etc). Of course the love that gets ladled on students, to use your metaphor, using personal interview details, is hard to surpass.

    • December 2, 2015 at 4:02 pm
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      Yeah. The strayer eventually returns to their home group and I give the group a couple minutes to share with the strayer.

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