Convo Circles: A Student Favorite

*This is a classic post from my previous blog, Musings de la Maestra McH. Enjoy!*

I posted awhile back about doing conversation circles ala Amy Lenord (@alenord).  This week, at the request of the students, we had our 3rd or 4th conversation circle day.  Since starting this, students love them and stay in TL 99% of the time!  When students saw “Convo Circle” on the agenda, they were excited!

This time we talked about graduation, summer, looking  back on this year and what they hope for next year.  I had about 10 students this time which was a nice size.  I gave them about 10 minutes to come up with questions they wanted to ask then we circled up and started talking.  My students love to “fight” with each other and disagree or refute points.   It’s pretty funny and all in good fun.  (Last time we had a 5 minute argument about onions which involved every student in class!)  The next day, one of my track kids who was gone for the circle was mad she missed it!

The more we do, the better students get at extending phrases or getting brave and jumping into the conversation more.  I’ve also seen improvement in their phrasing as their speech becomes more fluid and less halting as they think of what to say.  This has been a really great activity and I’m thankful to Amy for sharing it!

Until Next Time,

Maestra McH