STRATEGY FOCUS

Circle the Sage

PURPOSE

This Academic Dialogue strategy provides students with the opportunity to share what they know with other students. The students (sages) who are knowledgeable and comfortable sharing about a given topic spread about the space and the small groups of other students circle around to ask questions, listen, and take notes to enhance and deepen their understanding of a topic.

Adolescent Literacy Model- Circle the Sage

PROCESS

  1. Poll the group or predetermine students who are knowledgeable and comfortable sharing about a given topic (sages).
  2. Spread the sages around the classroom space.
  3. Divide the remaining students evenly among the sages. 
  4. Instruct the sages to share what they know while listeners ask questions and take notes.
  5. Ask the listeners to return to their seats or table groups and share findings.

PROBING  QUESTIONS

CONSIDERATIONS

  • Why were you selected to share with the group?
  • What did you learn through this process?
  • What is the value of learning from your peers?
  • Students don’t have to be experts; they might just have information to share.
  • Give students sentence stems to use when first practicing this strategy until they can formulate their own questions.
  • Consider what notetaking structures may need to be put into place for the listeners, especially during the first attempts of using this strategy. 
  • Remind students to thank the sages for sharing with them.
  • Keep group sizes to a minimum of 3-5 students.

CONTENT APPLICATIONS

HEALTH & PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Students on a basketball team teach others how to dribble the ball.

SOCIAL STUDIES

Students jigsaw the Bill of Rights and explain to their group how this right transfers over to their daily lives.

SCIENCE

Students investigate the structure and function of a protein in the human body. Then they share what they know about these proteins with other students to help them explain how differences in a protein’s structure affects its function.

MATHEMATICS

 Students demonstrate how to correctly solve an equation.

VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS

 Lead instrumentalists demonstrate to the others in their section how to play a certain section of the music.

 

CAREER & TECHNICAL EDUCATION

 Students identify areas of strength, and lead focus groups on different cooking techniques. Modeling the skill and offering targeted feedback to help others develop their capacity. 

Sources

eMints. (2004). Cooperative Learning. Retrieved on July 20, 2011 from http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/cooperativelearning.htm

Adapted from Spencer Kagan: Cooperative Learning