Carousel: A Reading & Prewriting Strategy Melissa King, Great Valley Writing Project • [email protected]

Carousel is a creative response activity that promotes active participation in small-group discussions. These small-group discussions provide opportunities for students to explore a variety of topics and encourage them to collaboratively build on the responses of other group members. The activity promotes mental engagement and critical thinking, and it supports both comprehension of reading and idea development for writing. When Should It Be Used? Carousel may be used as an “INTO” activity (to activate students’ prior knowledge about a given topic— or set of topics—being introduced. It may also be used “THROUGH” and “BEYOND” a unit of study to review content, explore related ideas, and/or prepare for more formalized assessment. How Is It Facilitated? The teacher will need: (1) large sheets of butcher paper; (2) a timer; (3) assorted crayons or markers (one color for each group, avoiding pale colors that are difficult to read against white paper). The teacher identifies a theme or topic and prepares a series of subtopics, questions, quotations, or images related to that topic/theme. The subtopics might be directly linked to the assigned reading, or they might have indirect relevance (with the intent to prod student thinking about related ideas). Each subtopic is written as a heading on a large sheet of chart paper or butcher paper, leaving ample space for students to record their written responses. The charts may be posted at eye level around the perimeter of the room –OR– the charts may be placed on group tables, ensuring one chart per group. The class is divided into teams. (The number of groups must equal the number of subtopic charts.) The teacher explains that teams will move from station to station, as if they were traveling on an imaginary carousel. (When introducing Carousel for the first time, the teacher should physically demonstrate the rotation plan, moving from station to station to model procedure.) ...If you are nervous about having students move around, groups may pass charts from one group to the next. Be sure to demonstrate the direction of movement so that every group receives each chart! At each station, team members take 2-6 minutes (depending on age/difficulty level) to consider the topic, brainstorm ideas, and record their thoughts in the colored marker assigned to their group. With each rotation, the new team arriving at the station considers not just the chart heading, but also the comments of the previous groups. (NOTE: Team recorders should add their ideas to the previously recorded responses, but should not repeat comments posted by previous groups. Instead, if they strongly agree with a comment, they should add underlines or stars with their team color.) By the third or fourth rotation, teachers should to add 1-2 minutes to the rotation schedule – allowing time for the students to entries from read previous groups and to think beyond the more obvious responses. Because the room will be filled with student voices, it is important to have a nonverbal signal (timer, chimes, flashing lights, etc.) to indicate when students should move to the next station. Providing Transition or Closure: After each team has visited each station, the teacher invites students to return to their first-assigned station to review the responses and comments of their peers. If charts are on tables, post them for all to see. When Carousel is used as an introduction or transition activity, the teacher might lead a brief discussion about the activity, and then assign a journal-writing prompt. (example: “Draw a T-chart with “Know” and “Want to Know” headings. List 3-4 things you already know + 3-4 things you want to know more about.” When used at the end of a unit, the teacher might ask each group to (1) review one carousel chart; (2) summarize key ideas in an outline, paragraph, or illustrated poster; and (3) orally report back to the class.