Classroom Exercise: Round Robin

One of the keys to Classroom Management is getting students to work well together.

Group work is tricky if students don’t know one another. Why should I share something with this guy who doesn’t say two words in class?

Exercise: Round Robin

Download a printable PDF of this Exercise including Character/Conflict sheets at the end of this post.

This exercise encourages students to work together and to think quickly. Tell students that they have to have a unanimously agreed upon product at each stage of this exercise.

Outline

• There are two stages in this activity: Character and Conflict.
• Each group will complete a task three times for each stage: 3 times for character, 3 times for conflict.
• Each group will then select one character and one conflict to use as the foundation for a short monologue.

Materials

• Character/Conflict Sheets (download these at the end of the post)
• Each stage requires a variety of prompts. These prompts will be scattered throughout the room. You’ll need enough so that groups can visit three different prompts per task. (e.g. If you have 15 students in groups of 3 you will need 5 prompts for each task.)
  • Character: Individual pieces of clothing.
  • Conflict: Objects both natural and manmade. The objects should be small enough to hold in your hand (e.g. rocks, packet of letters, toys, stuffed animals.)

Instruction

• Students are divided into small groups.
• Start with Character. Tell students that each group is to go an area of the room where they will find a piece of clothing.
• Each group studies their piece of clothing. Students will create a character who might wear this piece of clothing. Groups must unanimously choose the following details about the character: Gender, age, name, physicality, job, hobby, family, where do they live, and significant relationship (e.g. a person, an animal, a plant, dead relative, imaginary friend).
• Direct students that they have five minutes to choose their character details.
• Once the time limit is up, groups rotate to a second area of the room and repeat the exercise: study the piece of clothing and create a character who might wear it.
• Once the time limit is up, groups rotate to a third area of the room and repeat the exercise: study the piece of clothing and create a character who might wear it.
• Groups now have 3 character descriptions.
• Groups will repeat the process to create a conflict. The Conflict prompt will be an object.
• Each group moves to an area of the room where there is a conflict object. They are to study the object and answer the following questions:
  • What is the object?
  • What problem has this object caused?
  • What emotion is attached to the object? Why?
• Direct students that they have a three minute time limit to answer their conflict questions.
• Once the time limit is up, groups rotate to a second area of the room and repeat the exercise: study the object and answer the conflict questions.
• Once the time limit is up, groups rotate to a third area of the room and repeat the exercise: study the object and answer the conflict questions.
• Groups now have three character descriptions and three conflict objects. Groups will choose one character and match him or her with one conflict.
• Groups will write a monologue for the character about the conflict. The character is speaking to whoever or whatever was chosen as the character’s significant relationship. Direct students that they must use their chosen conflict. How does the character talk about the object and the problem the object has caused? How does the character try to solve the problem in the monologue?
• Groups share their monologues with the class.