Go Fish Shuffle

After attending an On Course workshop, I was so excited about applying the new active learning strategies to my English courses that I came to think of my tool box as more of a treasure box.  

First, I used “Twenty-One” to teach summarizing and jazzed up the card exchange intervals with music. Next, I had students analyze a sample essay and rubric, creating a “Value Line” of the class’s grading scores for discussion. Finally, I applied “Silent Socratic Questioning” to thesis statements, encouraging students to think critically about their advocacy stances.  

Inspired by the active-learning gems in my toolbox, I created “Go Fish Shuffle” in order for students to analyze and synthesize their persuasive topics more effectively; like all On Course strategies this teaching approach can be applied to any discipline.  

I credit On Course for helping me incorporate the pedagogy of active-learning into all the courses I teach today.

“Go Fish Shuffle” Instructions

(Approx. 30 – 45 min.) Students need three 3 x 5 index cards or sheets of paper.

They are assigned a number rather than a name to make the activity anonymous.

Card 1: Students compose answers to a prompt. (For example, my students were asked to think critically about upcoming advocacy papers and compose the anticipated opposition to their persuasive stances.)

Then card 1 is put aside until the end.

Cards 2 & 3: These cards are used for classmate feedback, so students create a prompt that others will respond to. (My students wrote their thesis on one side of each card and requested its opposition.)  

 Their assigned number is written on the back side of each card.

Then “Go Fish” begins.  

First take up card 2 from each student. Shuffle and spread them out with the number side up. Students then fish a random card from the stack.They return to seats and compose a response to the prompt.  

After responses are composed, I take up the cards and call out the numbers so people can get their original cards back and receive feedback.  

Repeat the process with card 3. At the end, students analyze responses from cards 2 and 3 to card 1.

Students expressed that they felt freer evaluating and sharing ideas since cards were anonymous. As a result, they claimed they got meaningful feedback to their persuasive stances, often ideas they had not anticipated.