Engage: Agree/Disagree Walkaround

Here’s a quick activity to get students interacting with each other and talking about big ideas.

How to set it up:

1. Create 9 agree/disagree statements aligned with your current or upcoming topic of study.
2. Create a student paper with a grid 3 x 3. You will add one agree/disagree statement to each box. You will also add a space where students can write the name of a partner and their thoughts on the agree/disagree statement.
3. Students will then move around the room, completing the grid. Instruct students to chat first about the agree/disagree statement, being sure to ask your partner their opinion and offering yours as well. Students should not write down their own opinion until they’ve chatted with their partner–discussing an idea with someone else just might change your mind!
4. You may choose to follow this activity with a short independent writing assignment in which students select one of the agree/disagree statements to write a paragraph response to. This is a great way to get students writing–they’ve already spent some time thinking about the statements and have practiced explaining their thoughts.

Here’s a link to an Agree/Disagree Walkaround I shall use this coming week to launch a study of government: Government: What is it? Why do we need it?

You can use it as is or make a copy and then edit it to fit your needs. Please feel free to get in touch with me if you would like some help adapting this activity to your classroom.