A few years ago, I had the chance to attend a Kagan conference. It was the most fun I've ever had while getting professional development hours. The Kagan strategies all emphasize teamwork and team-building. Each day, we were seated in a pod of four, and the first thing that the trainer would do was take us through an activity or two to help us form a positive relationship with our new "team." We would do goofy activities and games, so that before we did anything academic, we had already had positive experiences with our group mates. I have used this same concept in my classroom since.
For me personally, the learning structures I learned during my Kagan training are my favorite take-aways. Below I outline two of my favorites, and how I use them in an acquisition-driven classroom.
1. Quiz-Quiz-Trade (Kagan, 2009).
I use this strategy probably close to once a week per class, if not more than that. It allows the kids to be up and moving, and it's a great way for students to review information without being glued to their desk or a worksheet.
While students are still seated, give each student a card that has a question or problem on it. You can make cards with answers on the back if you want. I typically don't because the kids will accidentally show whoever they partner the answer if they hold the card the wrong way.
Explain to students that as soon as you give them the go ahead, they are to stand up, raise their hand, and partner up with someone. To partner up with someone, they give them a high five. My students are seated in pods of four, so I tell them their first partner has to be someone from a different pod.
Once students are partnered together, you can start Quiz-Quiz-Trade. Students will take turns asking each other the questions on their cards. So student A asks student B the question on his or her card, and student B answers. Then, they reverse roles. Once both students have asked and answered their question, they switch cards before they part. Then, their hand goes back up and they go partner up with someone new who also has their hand up.
Repeat this until students have answered a number of questions, until you begin to see off-task behavior, the kids are answering the same question multiple times, etc. Use your judgment as a teacher to see what's best for you and your class. I typically let this activity go between 5-10 minutes depending on the type of questions.
A few rules to keep the kids in check:
-Once a students' hand goes up, they partner up with whoever is closes to them. Partnering up is based on location to another classmate, not who I feel like talking to today. (Kagan goes into much more detail on this, and how to encourage students to do it).
Ways To Use Quiz-Quiz-Trade (Kagan, 2009) in the CI Classroom:
Comprehension questions about a novel or class story.
One of my classes is currently reading "Brandon Brown Hace Trampa." I purchased the teaching guide in addition to the book, and with each chapter you get about ten comprehension questions in Spanish to get even more repetitions of essential vocabulary. Lately, I've been printing the comprehension questions on little cards so that the students can use them in Quiz-Quiz-Trade. I like that the kids have to read the questions out loud, and I like that they get a little more listening practice.
Note on student interactions:
Sometimes, if student A understands the question, and student B doesn't, student A will just immediately start translating the question for student B. I instruct my students very specifically that when we're using Quiz-Quiz-Trade, they perform the following steps to help their classmate understand: 1. Read the question in Spanish. 2. Read the question a second time, this time showing them the words as they read if possible. 3. Help their classmate with any words/phrases they're stuck on.
They may only have to read the question once in Spanish, but these are the steps I have my students go through if a classmate is struggling to understand.
Questions to practice specific structures.
2. Fan-N-Pick (Kagan, 2009).
This one has grown on me as time has gone on. This one requires students to be seated in groups of four facing each other. You also need some sort of "placemat" or paper that tells each student their role during each part of the activity. Lastly, you need the set of question cards.
There are four jobs or roles:
Fan out the cards so that the next student can pick one.
Pick one of the cards and read it for the group (and specifically, for whoever has job 3).
Answer the question.
Congratulate student 3 on a job well done, help them if needed in responding to the question, be a cheerleader.
After each one of these four steps is complete, students must rotate the "placemat" once so that each student has a new role. Student 1 is now student 2, student 2 is now student 3, etc. Now each student completes their new role.
Ways to use Fan-N-Pick in the CI classroom.
-Comprehension questions based on a novel or class story.
I would almost recommend this over Quiz-Quiz-Trade for this type of question. For my students, questions about a reading in the target language can be tough, especially if they're just hearing it and not seeing the words. Fan-N-Pick forces the whole group to slow down and make sure they understand the question. Like Quiz-Quiz-Trade it forces students to practice speaking and listening, which some of my students are hesitant to do.
-Teambuilding.
This is not directly a "learning" activity, but I think it's important. As I mentioned, I have my students in pods of four desks, and they have two different partners within that pod. Sometimes they work with a partner, sometimes it's the whole group working together. Anything you can do to encourage positive relationships between students that are seated together helps. You want the kids to be predisposed to getting along well and having patience with one another.
The genius thing about both of these structures? Students aren't facing the pressure of "messing up" in front of the whole class. They are interacting one on one or in small groups.
There are about a million more ideas I want to share with you, and a million ways to use each of these activities, but I'm going to stop here for now. Let me know if you have any questions, or if you try any of these strategies in your own classroom!
Additional resources:
Fan-N-Pick: Kagan Cooperative Learning, pages 6.30-6.31
Stand Up-Hand Up-Pair Up: https://www.kaganonline.com/free_articles/dr_spencer_kagan/374/Breakouts-To-Energize-Brains-and-Boost-Achievement,2
Great CI curriculum (This resource is not affiliated with Kagan. I specifically recommend SOMOS 1 from the Comprehensible Classroom).
Source: This material has been adapted with permission from Kagan Publishing & Professional Development from the following book: Kagan, Spencer & Kagan, Miguel. Kagan Cooperative Learning.San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing, 2009. 1.800.933.2667. www.KaganOnline.com.