Card

Chat Stations

Chat Stations provide educators with a quick way to set up and facilitate small group discussion while integrating movement and active engagement. Students move around the room, encounter new discussion topics, and take note of key points from their talk time.

Chat Stations

Summary

In this strategy, students participate in small group discussion through movement and active engagement. Discussion prompts are numbered and posted on pages around the room. Students are numbered off, and they head to the corresponding numbered topic. From there, student groups rotate through the Chat Stations and take note of key points at each station. Afterward, students come together as a class to share their takeaways.

Procedure

Create Chat Station posters by writing one prompt per page.
Number each Chat Station poster and hang them around the room in numerical order.
Number off students to assign them to their first station. Groups of 2–4 students are best.
Have students bring with them a piece of paper, a notebook, or a relevant handout to take notes on after each station.
After giving students 3–5 minutes to chat, have them jot down key points from their discussion.
Have students move as a group to the next numbered station.
As students rotate through the stations, walk around and facilitate discussions, note areas of disagreement or key points, and identify any misconceptions.
Repeat until students have visited all stations.
Bring students together as a class to review the topics and what students discussed in their groups.

Cult of Pedagogy. (2013, October 24). Chat Stations for Class Discussion [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFUL4yP0vqo