Fishbowl Activity

Choose three or four students to discuss a question or summarize part of the text. The rest of the class will listen to the discussion. The instructor will step in to provide guidance, if needed. After the group is finished, you might call on a specific student to see if they agree or disagree with the groups' conclusion or summarization or see if they have anything to add, if something is missing.

Modifications

Teaching Format Modifications

Fishbowl can look a little different depending on the format that you are teaching in. Below are a couple of suggestions on how you could modify this activity accordingly:

Connect

Choose students from different locations and have them leave their microphones on while they talk.

Online

Pre-select the discussants who will be posting to a full class discussion board for the week. Set a word, sentence, or number of pieces of supporting evidence count. Hold other students in the class accountable for reading the discussion by having them submit a quiz or reflection assignment on the material that was shared.