Artifact #2: Hot Seat (EEND676B)

Although there is nothing “techy” about my next artifact, I chose to include it in my blog because it made a strong impact in the classroom. I’m talking about the “Hot Seat” discussion technique. In this activity, one student assumes the role of a character from a novel and the rest of the students ask questions of the “character.” The student in the hot seat must answer the questions like the assumed character would. Because of this “Hot Seat” activity, all kids were actively involved in the classroom discussion and they had a ton of fun pretending to be a character from Harry Potter. Because of this activity, I was able to engage kids in the discussion of a novel in a way I never have before. It was so successful that I plan to use it in my next novel study.

A major challenge of this activity is the amount of prep time. Since I teach instructional students, I prepared a handout that explained the Hot Seat concept as well as introduced the questions in advance. The kids took about a period to answer the Hot Seat questions and another period to get each of my four students on the Hot Seat. Larger classes would need even more time to get through the activity. In fact, larger classes may want to turn this into a group activity. I used the Hot Seat for literary discussion, but I could see a history teacher having kids assume the persona of a historical figure.  A science teacher may have the kids become an inventor.

Because of this Hot Seat activity, I now feel like I need to push myself when it comes to introducing different discussion avenues into the classroom. Time is always such an issue. Where do I find the time? How do I fit this activity in? But I realized that the real question is How do I NOT make the time? If it weren’t for this assignment, I probably never would have found the time to do this activity. And then it’s only the kids who lose.