17 Breakout Groups
Description
Breakout Groups allow you to split a videoconference meeting into several separate sessions. This videoconference feature is the equivalent of splitting students in a face-to-face classroom into small groups. Breakout Groups are useful for splitting a large group into smaller groups that can talk or collaborate.
Teaching Ideas
- Affinity grouping helps students identify similarities between each other, work collaboratively, and defend a position. It has the flexibility of being serious or fun, depending on your prompt. Determine a prompt (e.g., “The best season of the year is…”) and create breakout groups according to the “options” in your prompt (e.g., “spring, summer, fall, winter”). Give students the prompt and have them choose the breakout group that best answers the prompt for them. Inform students they will have 5 minutes to discuss why their choice is the “best” or “most accurate.” Have one student in each breakout group be the recorder – they can share their screen in their group and use a collaborative whiteboard or worksheet to capture their group’s ideas (Coursetune, 2020). Close the breakout groups and ask each group to report out to the whole class and share the recorder’s screens. Consider sharing the number of students in the different breakout groups and having a discussion about the implications of that breakdown.
- Use Breakout Groups for a Think-Pair-Share activity. Ask students an open-ended question. This is most effective if your prompt is specific (e.g., “What did you agree with or disagree with regarding [a particular concept]?” or “Compare and contrast concept A with concept B?”). Give them 3 minutes to individually jot down a few notes to organize their thoughts. Send students to Breakout Groups in groups of 2 or 3 to discuss their responses. Give them 5-7 minutes depending on the complexity of the prompt. Consider visiting some of the breakout rooms to fuel the discussion or bring in different points of view. Close the Breakout Groups and bring the class back together to summarize their discussion and explore further as a class.
- Let your students choose what elements of a subject to discuss by creating topic-specific Breakout Groups and asking students to join the topic that most interests them. Name your breakouts according to the discussion topics. Tell students they will be having 2-4 discussions (consecutively, not synchronously). Each discussion will take place in a different breakout group. Students will get to choose which discussion they join, and after 5-7 minutes, you will close the groups to bring everyone back, then reopen them for students to choose a new discussion. Either allow students to enter/leave groups on their own or as you open the groups, or have students declare their discussion choice and assign them to the corresponding group. After a few rounds of discussion, debrief by discussing each topic as a class. Students who took part in that topic can summarize their