Popcorn Reading

This is something that's been running around our county a lot, and I'd love to give credit where it's due, but I can't remember where it came from. Since it landed in my inbox the first time, I've done some tweaking with it, and here's what I've come up with:

my classroom has chairs instead of desks, so I put half of them in a circle, and then the other half in a second circle inside the first, so that the chairs are facing each other.

You should have a circle in which everyone faces inward. Inside that, you should have a secondary circle with everyone facing outward. Each kid should have a partner facing him/her, basically.

Each student should have a copy of the text, a small whiteboard, and a whiteboard marker. The outside student will stay where he is throughout the entire activity. The inside student will, when you say ding or ring your bell or say 'move' or whatever, scoot over one seat clockwise.

This is easier to do than explain, but here goes:

Outside student reads one sentence to inside student, who is not looking at his paper. Inside student illustrates what outside student read. Inside student shows picture to outside student, who either approves or questions.

Inside student reads next sentence to outside student. Outside student, no longer looking at his paper, illustrates what inside student read. So forth. They continue to read to each other (switching off) for two minutes, until you say ding or ring a bell or something. Then inside students stand and move to the right. The process begins again.

When they move, they check to see to where their new partner got. They begin at the EARLIEST place, which means that the person who got further gets repetition. This is good.

Anyone who has questions asks his partner first, and then me. If I get asked, I answer the question, write the word on the board and gloss it. Before asking me a question, they should check the board to see if the answer is already there.

It lets the students self-differentiate, not resort to L1, read a text with a partner, hear/draw/see/read, etc., and it tends to get to just about every modality. It also allows the students to help each other, which sometimes feels safer than admitting to me that they don't understand.