Taking Turns

A cooperative structure in which a small group answers one question in turn. Every question runs the same round: first everyone spends twenty seconds in silence thinking up as many answers as they can, then the turn goes round — always the same way, one short answer per person, "pass" when you have nothing left — and optionally one group then shares with the class the answer that surprised it most. Every question you prepare becomes its own round. In cooperative learning this structure is called RoundRobin, after Spencer Kagan.

One question costs two minutes and twenty seconds with the default times: 20 seconds of thinking time, 1 minute of taking turns, 1 minute of sharing with the class. Add a one-off minute and a half to form the groups and agree the direction — the opening step before the first round. Three questions fit into about ten minutes, six into a quarter of an hour. Whoever prepares the structure sets the time per step, in steps of 15 seconds; a step set to 0 is skipped by the player, so if the groups are already seated, set the opening to 0.

Two to six per group, with four as the default: enough difference in answers, no queue yet. In pairs the turn bounces back and forth, two or three times per person in a minute. From five on, a lap takes so long that the last student forgets their answer — hold answers strictly to one word then, or make two groups. The whole class works in groups at the same time, so thirty students have all spoken within one minute.

A good question has many different short answers, so four students taking turns can each name something different: "name as many … as you can", "give an example of …", "what do you already know about …". No yes/no questions and no questions with one right answer — then the first person is done. Prepare several questions in a row, each on its own line; every line becomes a round. If you are stuck, ask Microsoft Copilot: "Write 5 questions about [topic] for students aged [age] that allow many different short answers, so four students taking turns can each name something different. No yes/no questions and no questions with one right answer. One question per line, no numbering."

Three things carry the structure. One: let the groups sit down and agree the direction — clockwise — before the first question appears; the player gives that its own step. Two: guard the silence in the thinking time and ask for as many answers as they can find, not for one. Three: let the groups go round on their own and do not walk the turn yourself — point at the screen when a group starts talking over each other. Say beforehand that "pass" is an ordinary answer; it keeps the round moving and makes not knowing normal. And when sharing, ask for the answer that surprised, not for "what did you have".

In Taking Turns everyone simply gives an answer in turn — the turn-taking is the whole structure, and the group collects. In Numbered Minds the group first confers on one answer together, and the teacher then calls a random number to explain it — so everyone is accountable for the whole. Take Taking Turns to collect many answers fast; Numbered Minds to make sure everyone understands one. The two also combine: first a lap of Taking Turns, then the joint answer.

Both give everyone the floor in a fixed order. The difference is what a turn is: in Taking Turns one short answer — a word, an example — and the turn moves straight on, often several laps in one minute. In On time every speaker gets their own clock, half a minute or more, to talk about a topic while the rest listen. Taking Turns collects; On time gets students to put things into words.

Yes. Leave the question field empty and choose only the number of rounds: you ask the questions out loud yourself, let a student think one up, or put them on cards on the table. The screen then shows the step, the instruction and the clock, and the group answers the question of that moment. Handy for a question that comes up during the lesson — and for a class that thinks up the questions itself.

Better not, and that is not politeness but how the structure works. Taking Turns shows what a group can retrieve, and that retrieving is the learning; as soon as a grade hangs on it, "pass" becomes a mistake and the group starts whispering answers to each other. Use what you hear as information — which term comes up in no group at all? — and not as assessment. If you want to know what an individual student knows, take a written answer from everyone.

Yes, in breakout rooms of four. Agree the order beforehand — the list of names on screen is the direction — and keep microphones off during the thinking time. One thing changes: online, "pass" is harder to say, because a silence at a distance feels longer. So say emphatically that pass is an ordinary answer, and have each speaker name the next person so the turn does not stall.

Taking Turns is RoundRobin, one of the basic structures of Spencer Kagan's cooperative learning; its pair version is called RallyRobin. The principle behind it — equal participation and individual accountability — is what separates the structure from an ordinary group conversation. The silent thinking time beforehand goes back to Mary Budd Rowe's wait-time research; why retrieving from your own memory sticks so well, we checked against Uncommon Sense Teaching by Barbara Oakley, Beth Rogowsky and Terrence Sejnowski.