Those Circle Things

Sometimes it’s the simplest ideas that end up being the most useful.

Several years ago I co-presented a workshop with an amazing woman named Ayn Grubb. While I pride myself on getting along with other consultants or trainers or whatever they happen to be called that week, I’m sure it won’t surprise you to learn that there are really only a handful I genuinely admire and for whom I maintain an irrepressible teacher-crush. Ayn is one of that handful. Her style is quite different than mine, but she works a room of educators like Yo-Yo Ma works a bow or a hibachi chef works a seafood combo for eight.

At one point, she went up to the white board at the front of the room and drew the simplest little thing – a circle divided into four quadrants. In each quadrant, she wrote a single word. (I don’t even remember what the topic was; I was too busy having a life-changing experience.) She asked us which one didn’t belong and why, then gave us time to discuss.

I immediately stole the idea and never looked back. I have no idea if she lifted it from somewhere else or came up with it herself. I’m sure it would never occur to her to take credit either way. And, to be fair, the underlying idea does sorta go way back…

I started using variations of what I’ve come to simply think of as “Those Circle Things” in workshops, in class, and sometimes just to annoy friends at parties. They make great bell-ringers, discussion-starters, and I’ve even used them as informal assessments.

They’re also pretty easy to use with Google Slides or Pear Deck or whatever technological platform makes you tingle, and work equally well for synchronous or asynchronous discussion. They’re especially useful when you need ideas for “e-learning” on snow days, or when something else you had planned completely falls apart at the last minute.

Whatever the context, I always begin with something non-threatening and not content-based. Since I’m a sucker for superheroes, here’s one I used for many years:

What do these four things have in common? Which one doesn’t fit, and why?

The first few times I use something like this, whether with students or teachers, we’re establishing norms or procedures or classroom dynamics – whatever you call it in your world. See, we don’t actually CARE about these four characters, at least academically. What we care about is the process and the approach.

At the risk of preaching to the pedagogical choir, I’ll be annoyingly specific about what I mean.

• We’re learning a new skill with non-threatening content (and usually learn new content with familiar skills).
• The first few slides shouldn’t require much in the way of specialized content knowledge in order to participate. Anyone can come up with a few things even if they’re not particularly deep. This should be encouraged.
• As it becomes clear that some of us know more about the topic than others, this should be celebrated. It demonstrates that we all have different backgrounds and bring different insights to the discussion. If I know more about Luke Cage than you do, that’s not because I’m “smart” or you’re “stupid.” One’s depth of knowledge regarding Luke Cage is not actually how we evaluate one’s usefulness or potential as a human being these days (although we’ve all endured worse metrics, I’m sure).
• It’s better to be “wrong” than to be afraid. If someone suggests that three of the characters have superpowers and one (Agent Carter) doesn’t, others might disagree and argue that Green Arrow is really just a guy with money and toys who exercises. As a result of this discussion, however, we may end up exploring how we’re using terms like “super” or “hero” or “abilities” in useful, enlightening ways. If the person who was “wrong” about Green Arrow hadn’t floated his or her idea to begin with, we might never have gotten there, and that would be sad.
• As with many classroom discussions, it’s important to find ways to be inclusive. The most basic is to encourage students or participants to ponder each slide in small groups for a few minutes before we talk about them as a whole. This allows individuals to bounce ideas off of one another, resolve minor errors, and learn from one another before “speaking up” and taking what often feels like a greater risk before the entire group.
• When we’re learning a new skill or procedure, the process is more important than the content. We’re modeling academic courtesy and discussion, learning to take risks with information about which we may be uncertain, and practicing the sort of listening to one another and civil disagreement which is often essential for real learning to occur.

Let’s try another one. Keep in mind we want to discuss ways they’re all the same as well as identify which one doesn’t fit, and why: (And yes, I should update this example before using these again.)

You probably figured out pretty quickly that there’s usually more than one solution to which one doesn’t fit and why. These aren’t multiple choice questions with one objectively “correct” answer. It’s the process of examining each item in comparison with the others that forces us to review what we already know, reinforces the information we use to argue whatever point we choose to make as a result, stretches our understanding of each item a bit, and lays the groundwork for actual analysis and argument should we eventually go there.

It’s a critical thinking thing. It just doesn’t look like it right away because… Twilight.

Once the idea is established, these can be used in endless iterations depending on your needs and goals and the depth of knowledge expected of your students. If you’re using them to introduce a topic, their existing content knowledge may be less important. If you’re using them as an informal assessment, on the other hand…

I’ll leave you with a few of my favorites in recent years. Some are a bit more complex than others based on the classes I had at the time. You’ll notice that sometimes the visuals are related to the text and sometimes they’re not – an inconsistency I should eventually address. I can tell you from experience you’ll want to clarify up front whether you expect students to consider the visuals or just the words in the circle.

Those Circle Things (Intro Ideas) – Google Slides

Those Circle Things (U.S. History) – Google Slides

Those Circle Things (World History) – Google Slides