I call it the “Two Cents Worth” discussion and I really like to use it when I need to encourage everyone to use their voices. The concept is pretty easy: we put our chairs in a circle, a basket in the middle of it and everyone gets two pennies. When they contribute to the discussion, they toss a penny in the basket.
I tell them that we don’t want to get too caught up in the pennies, but to use them as a reminder for how much they’ve talked or listened. They can still contribute if they’ve used their pennies, but we let the ones who haven’t speak first. Of course, these large-group discussions always work best when combined with some other scaffold like journaling at the beginning of class, doing a pair-share, or even interacting with an approved AI chatbot to help them feel confident in their contributions.
As one of my students said today: “So you’re telling us to be ‘fiscally responsible’ with our discussion today?” Exactly!
Enjoy!
