About This Lesson
Fishbowl is a strategy for facilitating group discussions. In a Fishbowl discussion, students inside the “fishbowl” actively discuss a topic. Students outside the fishbowl listen carefully to the conversation. They take turns in these roles to practice being both contributors and listeners in a group discussion.
A Fishbowl activity is especially useful when you want to make sure all students participate in a discussion, when you want to help students reflect on what a good discussion looks like, and when you need a structure for discussing controversial or difficult topics. A Fishbowl discussion makes for an excellent pre-writing activity, often unearthing questions or ideas that students can explore more deeply in an independent assignment.
Learn how to run a Fishbowl discussion in your classroom.
