Cooperative Learning Structures

CIRCLE THE SAGE

1. The teacher polls the class to see which students have a special knowledge to share. For example the teacher may ask who in the class was able to solve a difficult math homework question, who had visited Mexico, who knows the chemical reactions involved in how salting the streets help dissipate snow.
   
2. Those students (the sages) stand and spread out in the room. The teacher then has the rest of the classmates each surround a sage, with no two members of the
   same team going to the same sage.
   
   3. The sage explains what they know while the classmates listen, ask
      questions, and take notes.
      
   4. All students then return to their teams. Each in turn, explains what
      they learned. Because each one has gone to a different sage, they
      compare notes.
      
   5. If there is disagreement, they stand up as a team.
      
   6. The disagreements are discussed as a class and resolved. 
      

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