Classroom Carousel is a way of generating lots of ideas to a set of open ended questions in groups of no more than six.

Adapted from Learning at City’s series of blog posts around creative teaching activities. Check the original post for more details about the activity and references.

Instructions

• Split the class into groups of no more than six students.
• Organise the room so that there’s space to move around and have students sit near to a wall. Create 5-6 stations with the furniture where the students will work.
• Place flipchart paper on the walls or squiggle glass with the relevant open ended question (for example, ‘for what reasons…’). Aim for 5-6 questions.
• Assign students a starting point to begin the idea generation process.
• Give each group a set time to generate ideas (typically 5 minutes)
• After the set time, indicate (by clapping, using a bell or horn) to them to move to the next question, the students move onto the next question and repeat the process. This continues until all of the groups have had the opportunity to generate ideas around each question.

What the activity achieves:

• Informally assesses the knowledge of each member of the group
• Helps students to focus on a particular topic
• Students can explore multiple perspectives
• Fosters the skills of team working and communication within the group
• Helps students form a deeper understanding of a topic by thinking about open ended questions

Alternative

• Have groups of students focus on only one aspect of a topic/problem using the Syndicate Groups method