Musical Chairs Interview

Posted on by

At the beginning of a unit, this protocol works well with discussion questions that focus on the students’ personal response to a work (regarding characters, pivotal moments, reactions, thoughts about a subject matter or authorial choice, etc.).  At the end of a unit, this protocol can be used to explore and practice open-ended essay style questions that focus on the content or style of the work, but the time suggestions below may need to be adjusted.

Preparation

  • Equal the number of discussion questions to the number of students that will be in each group (ie: 4 students, 4 questions).
  • Make groups that consist of 4-6 students (an even number is preferrable).
  • Assign each group member a different interview question. 
  • Provide a note sheet or direct students to make a note sheet for their assigned question.  They should take notes on their interviewees’ responses.

Process

  1. Give students 2 minutes to write a response to their own question, quietly and independently.
  2. Instruct students to break into pairs (in their assigned group), interviewing each other with their assigned question.  They should be given 2 minutes per question (4 minutes in total for the interview).
  3. Instruct students to change partners within their group and repeat the interview time:  2 min per question; 4 min in total.
  4. Repeat rounds until the students have interviewed each member in their group.
  5. Instruct students to join other students (from different groups) who were assigned their same interview question (ideally, this group consists of 3-4 people).
  6. Instruct students to share the responses they heard, using their notes as a guide.  They can make lists and organize their data as they share. 
  7. Instruct students to synthesize their data in concise points.
  8. Have groups share out their question and synthesized points to the class.
  9. Ask students to reflect in pairs, small group, as a class or in their portfolios:  What did this process make you realize about the work and your relationship to it?  Were there some questions that you found challenging to answer?  Why?  Did the interview reveal any new insights into the work or lines of inquiry to explore

Note for consideration:

The “share out” group at the end of the protocol should be a smaller group (no more than 4 students).  If the group is too large, the synthesis work can be difficult to navigate.  Therefore, in classes larger than 16, you may want to consider adding more students to the initial groupings (in the process stage) and include more questions in the pool.

Credits

Adapted from: “The Adaptive School:  Strategies and Moves for Facilitating Groups”.  Thinking Collaborative, https://www.thinkingcollaborative.com/as-resources

Photo by Federica Campanaro on Unsplash