How are you? Are you nearing the end of school? Here, we’re not at the point where students are counting down the days; however, I know that some of you may have students doing that!

I wanted to share a group work board/mat that I created that has really helped students know their jobs in an activity — particularly the Fan N’ Pick activity. My students love Fan N’ Pick (and wanted my assurance that I’d share the following information with teachers in the blog world: “We really like Fan N’ Pick because it expects us to verbalize our thinking.” (as quoted by a student yesterday). In fact, when I reminded students yesterday that we’d done Fan N’ Pick before and we were going to do it in Math, several students launched into the list of which lesson topics we’d used it on. Wowsers!

Fan N’ Pick is an activity that has students interact with content through the form of questions and answers.  The materials per group?  A set of questions and 4 students.  Each person has a role in the group:

Person 1: Fan cards and state, “Pick a card, any card.”

Person 2: Select a card and read question orally to Person 3.

Person 3: Answers the question.

Person 4: Restates, clarifies, and praises.

Rotate roles by one person (1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 3, 3 becomes 4, and 4 becomes 1)

As I said, my students love this activity — they are engaged, focused on the content, utilizing social skills (and their talking protocols) and it gives them an opportunity to assist others.

The activity has gone smoothly in the past, but there was a tweak that I wanted to make.  I wanted to ensure that everyone in the group knew exactly what their role was…and so, I created a Fan N’ Pick Board for each group:

After each question round, students rotate the board 1 role and begin again…this time, with their new role.  The boards were a hit!  The students knew their roles and would have kept doing Fan N’ Pick through lunch if I had not stopped them!

You can see a Fan N’ Pick in action with my students:

I created a set of blank question cards which I use for the Fan N’ Pick:

Fan N Pick Cards

Interested in trying Fan N’ Pick? Go for it! The students enjoy it, they are practicing content, the engagement is high, and students are working as a team to support one another.

Feel free to download any of the resources I’ve made below, making sure to comment below that you’ve done so! Enjoy!

Fan N’ Pick Board Link

(download pdf under Interaction)

Fan N Pick Blank Cards

Related posts:

1. Send a Problem
2. Let’s Hear it for the Team
3. Problems? Send them away!
4. Passing Notes in Class. Round Robin Style.
5. Who’s Got Your Back?