5 Kagan Strategies to Boost Engagement and Build Community (EP20)

Hey, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Elementary Math Chat. I think it is safe to say that the holiday season has officially started, and I wanted to mention in case you missed it that today is the last day of TPT’s sitewide cyber sale, so everything will be 20% off plus an additional 5% if you use the code CYBER23 at checkout. 

So, this is a great time to grab those bundles you’ve had on your wish list. I know I have a few items on my wish list that I’ve been waiting to purchase too. So, good luck everybody, happy shopping, and I hope you find exactly what you need.

Today we are going to discuss a lot of different ways that you can add engagement to your classroom, and that is through using Kagan engagement strategies. I was lucky enough to learn about Kagan pretty early on in my career, and I am a huge fan of them. So, today I am going to share my top five favorite Kagan engagement strategies and how you can use them in your classroom. 

I will also link short YouTube videos in the show notes for a few of them that show them in action. I’ll do my best to explain them, but sometimes it’s easier just to see them in action. 

Now, normally Quiz-Quiz-Trade would be part of this list, but I have talked about Quiz-Quiz-Trade so much already, so I’m not going to be mentioning that one today. I’m going to focus on five others instead. 

The first Kagan strategy I’m sharing is actually the very first one I learned about, and it is called Sage ‘n’ Scribe. Before I go on and tell you about this one, I want to ask you a question.

Have you ever told your class to pair up and practice with a partner and you notice that one person is doing all the work and the other one is totally off task? They might be talking to someone else or drawing on their board. They’re doing everything but engaging in the task. I think we’ve all experienced that right?

Here’s the good news. Sage ‘n’ Scribe will prevent this from happening, and here is how. With Sage ‘n’ Scribe students work with a partner to solve problems together. I typically had mine use dry erase boards and markers, but you can have them use paper-pencil if you want. But instead of them both having these materials, they only have one board and one marker for the two of them.

For each problem, one student is the Sage, and they explain to their partner how to solve the problem. The other person is the Scribe, and they write down what the Sage says. If the Sage makes an error, the person who is scribing will need to coach them and help them finish the problem. So, they really do work together to solve the problems.

When I would do Sage ‘n’ Scribe in my class, I would often walk around and meet with each group and just watch. I loved seeing how helpful students were when their partner was stuck and how they celebrated with each other when they got the correct answer. By the way, I didn’t mention they switch roles after each question. So, for one question, they’re Sage, and then for the next question they’re the Scribe.

And this isn’t just for students. As a teacher, I also used Sage ‘n’ Scribe when I was working with a student who was struggling. By having them explain their thinking, I was able to get a better sense of exactly why they were struggling and where they were struggling within the problem. I even shared this strategy with parents to use at home when their kids were struggling. So, that’s something definitely to keep in mind.

You will need to give them some problems to solve, so you can just use ones from your workbook or you can type them up on your board. I often gave them two sets of questions. One set would be grade-level questions and then one was a little more challenging just for those who wanted a challenge. 

Now there are a lot of skills that work well with Sage ‘n’ Scribe, but be careful. You may not want to have them do this right after they have learned a skill, but it really depends on the skill. Sometimes right away they feel comfortable explaining it to someone else, but then other times they need to wait until they’ve practiced more on their own, and this would be a better review activity.

Personally, I have used Sage ‘n’ Scribe with rounding, adding and subtracting whole numbers and fractions, and I’ve also used it with 1-digit multiplication, and those all worked really well.

The second engagement strategy I’m sharing today is called I Have Who Has. You know, what’s funny is I remember during my very first observation way back in 2003, I used this strategy, and this was way before I had even heard about Kagan. I guess, great minds think alike. But I learned right away I Have Who Has is not a good one for your whole group lesson. The reason it’s not as good for whole group is because as soon as they run out of their cards, their engagement goes way down, and typically, in a whole group setting, they’re only going to have one card. So, from then on, I used this in small groups, and it was a really engaging activity.

Here is how I Have Who Has works. Students have a handful of cards, add let’s just say for this example, that they are doing this with multiplication fact cards. The first person begins by saying, and this is just an example, I have 48, who has seven times four? They all look through their cards, and the person with 28 says, I have 28, who has five times nine? This continues until all cards have been read. I’m sure you can imagine how if they only have one card, this is not going to be an engaging activity for them.

When you play in a small group, they could have between five and seven cards, and they’ll stay engaged throughout the entire activity. So, that’s why I recommend doing this in a small group. If you go on TPT and search, I Have Who Has template, you can find a lot of free editable templates where you can create your own I Have Who Has activity. You can’t just use any task card or any flashcard because it has to fit this format, and you definitely need an answer key so you can keep track of your students.

Probably my favorite set I’ve used is with decimals where they had to identify the decimal shown in the visual model, that was their “I Have”, and then they had a decimal in standard form to read for their “Who has?” So, it sounded like I have four tenths, who has sixty-five hundredths? Because they had to read these decimals out loud, I could tell who was struggling to read them, and I was pretty shocked. I would never have known how many students were struggling to read these out loud unless I had done this activity.

I Have Who Has is a pretty quick activity, so I always gave them an extension activity after they were done. For example, on the decimal one, I had them take their decimal cards that they had just read, and they plotted them on laminated number lines that I had given them, and that was their exit ticket. So, I definitely recommend if you have time to plan an extension activity.

A few skills that work well with I Have Who Has are reading whole numbers or decimals, place value, multiplication or division facts. I’ve also used it with multiplicative comparison phrases, adding and subtracting fractions, and really anything that can be done using mental math. I’ve also used this with science and states and capitals when I used to teach those. I’m honestly not even sure who does states and capitals anymore. I think it’s different for each state. But I will link the set that I have in my TPT store in the show notes just in case you are interested.

The third engagement strategy I’m sharing is called Find Someone Who. I love this strategy because they get to move around the room and interact with each other, and I like that it’s a partner activity, but they work with a lot of different partners. So, for this activity, they first find a partner, and I always had them do hand up, pair up. Then once they’re paired up, they exchange their papers and solve a problem on their partner’s paper. They also write their initials next to the problem, and that way you can tell who solved what questions on their paper. When they’re finished, they switch their papers back and then they check their partner’s work.

If they agree with the answer, they put a check on that space, or I’ve had them also put their initials, so I know who checked it, and then they go looking for someone else who can solve another problem. If they disagree with what their partner wrote, then they have to work together to solve the problem. That’s another thing I really like about this, and then by the end, they should have an entire page that has been completed by their peers.

You will have to reinforce the fact that they need to check their partner’s work. Often, they will put a check by it and just move on without really looking at it. Another thing is you want to tell them not to pick the exact same problem on everyone’s paper to solve. They don’t want to solve number six,12 different times. You want to mix it up and get a good review.

This is also a fun one to play along with them, especially if you use it as an icebreaker. I will put a link in the show notes to one I created that I used the first week of school. It says things like find someone who loves to read or knows how to French braid hair or plays an instrument. It’s a really fun way for them to get to know each other, for you to get to know them, and for them to get to know you.

The fourth engagement strategy I’m sharing is called Numbered Heads Together. I love this strategy because it promotes collaboration and accountability. In this strategy, they work with a team of three to four others to solve a problem, and they each are assigned a number one through four. Once you’ve given them time to collaborate with their group and come up with the solution, you will then pick a number one through four, and the student with that number is responsible for sharing their group’s answer.

If they need support, the others can pop in and help them and that happens from time to time. But ideally, you want the student with a number you call to answer on behalf of the group. Therefore, you really want to encourage them to make sure everyone in their group understands and feels confident sharing their answer.

What this strategy does really well is it holds every person accountable for understanding and explaining their group’s answer, because they never know which number you are going to pick, so they have to be prepared. Another thing I love is that when they do share, they say things like “we” or “our group” and not “I”. So, every answer is a group answer and not an individual answer. It also encourages more students to participate, and not just the same ones who raise their hands all the time.

As far as when you would use this strategy, I think tasks, or instructional tasks, are the best because they are open-ended where each group can take a different approach or use a different strategy, and you’ll see those results when they share with their group came up with. So, that would be my recommendation for Numbered Heads Together.

I will put a link in the show notes to a website that has a lot of different tasks to choose from, and they are also sorted by grade level. So, it’s really easy to find them. It’s from the Virginia Department of Education, and it is a fabulous resource.

My fifth and final engagement strategy is actually two strategies. They are really similar to each other, so I’m just combining them into one, and they are called Rally Robin and Round Robin. Round Robin is done with a group and then Rally Robin is done with a partner.

I’ll start with Rally Robin. This strategy works best with questions that have multiple answers, like naming factors or multiples of a number, or naming prime numbers or composite numbers. You just want something that has a lot of answers to it. For this strategy, they pair up with a partner and answer questions back and forth until you say stop. I mentioned this one back in episode six where I shared ideas for fluency, and it’s a good one for fluency.

So, let’s say you have them named the multiples of four with their Rally Robin partner. One person says four, the other says eight, and they keep going back and forth until you say stop. You can do this with factor pairs as well. So, give them a number like 24 and have them go back and forth and name the factor pairs. So, one person could say 1 x 24, and then the next one says 2 x 12, and then 3 x 8,  and then 4 x 6 until they finish. They can do this verbally, but they can also write these down on a whiteboard. Sometimes it’s easier to do it verbally, but then others it’s easier to write it down.

Another idea for Rally Robin is with fractions greater than or less than one-half. Have them first draw a t-chart with less than one-half on one side and then greater than one-half on the other side. For one round, have them go back and forth and write fractions that are less than one-half in that column, and then in the next round, have them write fractions that are greater than one-half in that column.

After each round, you can call on a few groups to share their answers and then write these on a classroom t-chart on your board. 

You can also pair this with number patterns where you give them a rule and a first term, and then they have to extend the pattern either until you say stop or when they get to something like the 10th number.

All of these examples that I shared you can also do with Round Robin, but the difference is they do this with three to four others. So, instead of going back and forth with their answers, they will go around their table or desk group, and that’s the only difference between Round Robin and Rally Robin.

Now that you have these new ideas, I would love for you to try some of them in your classroom. Maybe pick 1 or 2 to try in the next few weeks, and then as you feel more comfortable with these strategies, you can add a few others in.

Well, we are near the end, which means it is time for today’s teaching tip of the week.

Today’s tip is one for your small group table. Whenever your students need a marker or a pencil for an activity, make sure you have these for them, and just keep a set of markers and pencils that stay at your table. That way when they come to your table, they don’t have to bring anything with them. This will really cut down on transition time because if you have them bring their own, some students might take two or three minutes to find a marker or a pencil, and those minutes can really add up.

Another tip I have for you is to put either decorative tape or masking tape around your markers and pencils, and this will help you and your students know the difference between your supplies and their supplies. If you use masking tape, you might even want to label them teacher just to be sure.

Another thing that helped me was I always used the very fine point tip markers at my table, and my students used the thicker markers. So, that was another way for me to tell which were mine and which were theirs, and those worked really well for writing on task cards, so I recommend using those.

Alright, friends, that is all for today’s episode. Don’t forget to go shop the TPT sale and use the code CYBER23 at checkout. Have a great week, and I will see you next Tuesday!