If you are looking for a fun teaching strategy for your classroom to prompt reflection and discussion and/or to formatively gauge student understanding of a concept, try the strategy called “Commit and Toss.” The strategy is pretty simple.
Provide the students with a prompt to respond to. Preferably, the prompt should be designed to elicit a variety of responses from students. The prompt might ask students to provide pieces of factual information, a solution to a problem, an opinion or personal perspective, a justification for a particular argument, and so on. In order to be efficient in terms of time and promoting diverse discussion, make sure that the prompt does not require an overly long response.
Have the students record their responses anonymously on blank sheets of paper. When all of the students have finished writing, ask the students to crumple the paper into a ball. Then, tell the students to toss the paper ball across the room. If you want to mix up the responses even more, you could have students pick up a paper ball that is close to them and toss it again across the room. The goal is ensure that the students’ responses are anonymous.
At this point, it is time to start the discussion. Select a student to pick up a paper ball that is nearby. Have the student read the response to the large group. Based on the nature of the prompt and the nature of the response, begin a discussion with the large group. You could have the student who read the response start the discussion by providing his or her reaction to what was written. Other students could then be prompted to share their thoughts and build on the conversation. When the time is right, ask a different student to pick up a paper ball and read the response. Repeat the discussion protocol as many times as you like.
There are several advantages to using “Commit and Toss” to promote discussion and sharing in the classroom. For one, it is anonymous. Students do not have to put their names on the responses. In addition, when a student reads what was written, he or she is simply sharing what a peer had written. This provides a safe space for students to share their thoughts and opinions. This is particularly helpful when the topic of conversation is difficult or controversial. In addition, the physical activity can help lighten the mood if necessary. Another advantage of this strategy is that it provides an opportunity for everyone to participate in the discussion in some way, shape, or form. Whether it is writing a response, reading another person’s work, and/or engaging in the conversation, students are asked to engage with the material in the lesson. The strategy also serves as a great formative assessment at the whole-class level. As the instructor, you can gauge where the group is at in terms of understanding based on the quality of the responses and the ensuing discussion. This can help you determine the next steps in the instructional process.
The above description of the “Commit and Toss” strategy is obviously geared toward a face-to-face classroom setting. If you are looking for a way to convert this strategy to an online class, though, here is an idea. Provide the students with a prompt to respond to. Ask them to submit their response to you privately (via email or an assignment dropbox). After reviewing the responses, post (or “toss”) a response (without the student’s name) to a discussion board and solicit the reactions from the rest of the class. Add additional anonymous student responses to the discussion board to keep the discussion going as necessary. An alternative might also be to collect the initial student responses and then redistribute the responses to different students in the class (again without the original writer’s name). Ask the students to share the original responses and their reactions in a discussion board.
Reflection and discussion are important things that help students develop their understanding of a concept. Finding ways to effectively promote high-quality, in-depth discussion can be challenging. By creating a relaxed, safe space for sharing, “Commit and Toss” is one strategy that can help elicit the types of discussions that lead to deep thinking about and understanding of the targeted concepts and ideas.