Procedure

1. See Historical Mingle as a reference. 

2. Prepare slips of paper or index cards each with their own grammar rule and description. 

   Alternative Formal Assessment: don’t include the description.  

3. Choose a text that exemplifies the grammatical features you will assign to students. 

   The text can be something you’re already reading in class or a new text you find or create (see the Robo-Reads strategy for ideas).

4. Give each student a slip of paper or index card containing their assigned grammar rule and a description. Give students time to review and ask questions. 

5. Read a text together while it is visually displayed so students can refer back to it.

6. In small groups, direct students to introduce themselves as their grammatical feature and discuss how they were used in the text and what influence they had.

7. After 2–3 minutes, ask students to find new conversation partners. Repeat this process as many times as necessary. (Students do not need to "meet" every other person in the room.) Alternative Formative Assessment: Have students film their conversation using a tool like Flip and submit for assessment. 

8. Have students return to their seats. Then, lead a brief discussion over their roles, points of view, and how those points of view influenced the text being studied. Optionally, hand out graphic organizers for the class to record notes during the class discussion.