Small Fires

Purpose: 

Facilitating Dialogue

Additional Purpose(s):

Solution Finding, Generating and Sharing Ideas

Overview:

The structure of this process supports small group sharing and equal opportunity for voice.

Procedure:

  1. In groups of four, learners place their chairs facing inward to form a square with chairs at north, east, south and west positions.  
  2. Provide a guiding question or prompt as the focus for discussion. 
  3. Sitting knee to knee, the person in the north position begins sharing for a set amount of time.  
  4. Each speaker shares without interruption in a clockwise order.  
  5. After every person is done sharing, group members can engage in cross talk, including questions, answers, and comments.  
  6. Small fires groups can discuss one prompt or a series of prompts in separate rounds.  

Materials:

  • Chairs

Tips:

Name the direction of the person to start (e.g., the person whose back is facing north) so you are able to see each group’s progress with sharing at a glance.

Provide a guideline for how long groups will have to share their thinking about the prompt in their small fire (e.g., 10 min). This time will serve as a guide for individual sharing (e.g. 2 minutes per person and then 2 min for cross-talk).

Source:

https://www.thinkingcollaborative.com/as-resources/

Also referred to as circle talk https://nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/380751/safer-roads-primary-strategies.pdf