First Turn, Last Turn

Purpose:

Facilitating Dialogue

Additional Purpose(s):

Interacting with Text, Generating and Sharing Ideas

Overview:

This process supports learners in determining important ideas from text within a framework for structured dialogue.

Procedure:

Have learners read a section of text and highlight three or four items that have meaning for them or that stand out to them for some reason.
Form groups of four to six learners.
Identify who will start in each group (e.g., the individual whose back is to the front of the room).
First person in the group shares one of their highlighted points but does not comment on it.
Going clockwise in round robin fashion, each group member comments about the point shared by the first person with no cross talk.
When the sharing gets back to the first person who shared, they get the last word and elaborates on their initial thinking based on the contributions of the group.
The pattern is repeated as each member of the group gets a turn to share one of their highlighted points in the text.

Tips:

Stress that there is no cross talk. When cross talk occurs, it takes the focus off the speaker and the important point that is being shared.

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