Classroom Management & Discipline Special Times in the Year
In my conversations with teachers, I hear a common concern about Morning Meeting at this time of year—how to move forward with sharing. Teachers have long lists of varied greeting and activity ideas and are growing more comfortable with embedding academic content into their messages in ways that involve students and get them excited about learning. But sharing has stalled out.
Many teachers began the year with highly structured, around-the-circle sharing with teacher-chosen topics, to help students ease into sharing. This structure worked well at first and students participated eagerly—but now teachers are finding that students are getting tired of this routine. At the same time, teachers know from observations during the day that many students aren’t ready to make the leap to a more open, dialogue sharing structure.
This is a great time to begin using structured partner sharing. In this format, two students sit face-to-face and take turns talking and listening in response to a teacher-generated question. This structure provides an effective bridge to dialogue sharing. It can be used throughout the year to keep sharing varied, lively, and engaging. Partner sharing gives students a chance to practice the key skills of speaking clearly and concisely, listening carefully, and responding appropriately to each other’s ideas and experiences—skills that are essential for successful dialogue sharing as well as for other kinds of academic conversations. It might also be a safer format for children who are reluctant to speak up in front of the larger group, helping them build confidence and find their voice.
Here are some ways you can get the most out partner sharing in your classroom:
Are you needing to work on class cohesiveness? Then pair students up who don’t know each other very well. Give them a “getting to know you” topic, such as “What’s one thing you like to do after school?”
Or, you might consider pairing students who are interested in the same academic topic. For example, if the class is studying animal habitats, pair students who are both interested in animals of the tropics.
In around-the-circle sharing, students get lots of practice in responding succinctly to a focus question or teacher-chosen topic. In partner sharing, you can build on this skill by having them respond with a main idea and two or three supporting details. For example, for a topic such as a favorite book character, the person sharing would name a character and give a few reasons why this character is their favorite.
Students have also had practice in listening respectfully to each other. Partner sharing offers an opportunity to teach them how to listen and then respond to another’s sharing with a question that elicits more information (“Does your favorite character remind you of someone you know?”) or a comment that connects to the sharer (“Sounds like you really admire this character’s bravery”). Again, teach, model, and practice each of these skills.
One such structure is Inside-Outside Circles sharing (from the book Energize Your Meetings!). Here’s how to set this up:
Carol Davis is the author of 80 Morning Meeting Ideas for Grade 3-6.