STEM STRATEGIES THAT WORK

Instructional ideas that incorporate STEM culture in meaningful, effective, and practical ways.

STRATEGY: Fishbowl Discussions

Inspired by: Lauren Goodin Pensacola, FL

Collaboration and communication can be some of the most

difficult STEM skills to teach and assess. The Fishbowl Discussion,
a Socratic method, provides opportunities for students to use
accountable talk to address others while requiring active listening
BIG IDEA and critical thinking. Teachers can use this strategy in any content
area or grade level to assess learning or provide students with an
opportunity for reflection.

Materials: Paper, pencil, accountable talk stems

Time: 10 minutes to introduce assignment, assign roles, and
review rules and expectations. Discussion can last as long as
teacher or moderator desires.
STEPS
1. Divide students into two groups: the fish and the observers.
Typically, students are divided into equal groups but many
teachers prefer to have a smaller group of fish (4 to 5 students)
among a larger group of observers.
2. Explain to students that, during the fishbowl, only the fish are
allowed to speak. The observers must listen silently and
attentively.

Access additional STEM resources at DiscoveryEducation.com/STEM

 3. Have the fish sit in a circle inside a larger circle of the
observers.
4. For lower grades, the teacher can act as a facilitator of the
discussion. For upper grades, the teacher can designate a
student as facilitator or moderator.
5. Provide guiding questions ahead of time, or allow the fish to
initiate a discussion on the selected topic or assignment.
6. While the fish are speaking, they should use accountable talk
sentence starters, or stems, to speak to each other directly and
politely. In my classroom, I have a wall of accountable talk
sentence starters that students use to prompt, question, agree,
and disagree with each other. For example, an accountable
talk stem a student could use when they disagree might be, I
see it differently because.
7. The observers silently listen to the discussion happening in
front of them and take notes on the key ideas and details and
jot down any thoughts or questions they feel should be added
to the discussion.
8. After 10-15 minutes, the moderator ends the fish discussion.
9. Then, the moderator opens the floor to the observers. At this
time, they may use accountable talk to question and address
the fish and other observers. During this portion of the activity,
the fish and observers may speak and interact freely.
10. Time permitting, switch the roles of the groups and allow
the first group of observers to become the fish using a
different, but related, topic.

Fishbowl Discussions teach and reinforce the importance of using

accountable talk in group discussions while also promoting active
listening. These are skills that students will use throughout their
life in the classroom and in any career. This strategy can be
SUM IT UP applied to any content level or grade level and can serve a variety
of purposes.

Access additional STEM resources at DiscoveryEducation.com/STEM 2

 Use this for a morning meeting; to activate prior knowledge;
to assess speaking, listening, or reading comprehension; or
use it as a reflection tool after a group project.
Begin implementing this strategy easily by showing a short
MORE video clip from Discovery Education Streaming and having
CONNECTIONS students discuss the key ideas. You could also use this to
assess student learning from the Discovery Education Science
Techbook!
Use this strategy with the SOS strategy AEIOU to double up
on active listening practice. After taking AEIOU notes,
students share what they wrote in the fishbowl. Its always fun
to hear what made students say, Oh!

* This strategy is based on Socratic methods of teaching, which are used to encourage
inquiry and critical thinking.

Access additional STEM resources at DiscoveryEducation.com/STEM 3