The Words on the Wall go Round 'n Round

Of the activities that we have done in class, the one that I am the most intrigued by is the carousel brainstorm.  During the activity, students have the opportunity to get up and move, comment as an individual and a group, write and read responses, reflect and dive into deeper thinking and understanding of the topic chosen by the teacher, and view multiple perspectives on what is being discussed.  The carousel activity is one that I can see myself using in my own classroom.  I feel that it reaches many different types of learners and can create a sense of autonomy amongst the class because as groups are moving and writing answers, they are not saying who has said what.  That way if students do not feel comfortable sharing to the whole class they can still share what they feel is important while they are in their individual groups.

As students partake in this activity, the developmental domains that are being focused on are physical, intellectual, and social.  The other two domains, moral/ethical and emotional/psychological, are being addressed, but not to the extent of the other three.  The physical domain is being addressed by the pure fact that students are up and moving around the classroom.  It helps them to stay active physically, and intellectually.  The carousel activity is active learning.  It makes students do the describing and higher level thinking of the material that they already have some experience within and outside of the classroom.  This activity also allows students to work as a group and socialize to some extent as well.

In order to facilitate this activity I would have students already have read some information on the topic, or in the case of using it in my ELA classroom I would possibly do an activity using a book that we have just read.  Questions and topics of each poster or chart could be on the author, what they found interesting in the book, what they have learned from the book, what the moral of the story is (the theme), etc…  Next, I would divide the class into small groups of three to five, depending on the number of students and posters/charts in the activity.  I would have already had students think about the story, and would use this activity more as a wrap up of all the information.  After students have gone through and answered all of the questions, I would have students go back to their original poster and pick out the main ideas and have one group member explain what those are to the class.  This would hopefully lead into a class discussion on the book and create an even deeper understanding of the material.  I would end the class period with my students writing down the main ideas from the book for their own information to reference to in the future. 

As I have already alluded to, the most appropriate time to use this strategy is at the end of a unit, when students have already had time to think about and discuss the book, poem, unit, etc…  This can help students to gather all of their thoughts and put them down on paper, while allowing the teacher to assess what students know.  However, one down fall is that some students may not do the work prior to the carousel brainstorm, so it ends up that not everyone participates at the same level.  It is also difficult to assess individual understand of the material when it is a group effort to put all the facts together.  No matter the case, I think that this activity has potential to be effective in creating a safe environment that promotes higher level thinking.