Which strategy involves four consecutive paired discussions with four prompts and color prompts, requiring students to find partners with different colors and exchange colors?

Which strategy involves four consecutive paired discussions with four prompts and color prompts, requiring students to find partners with different colors and exchange colors?

• A. Written Debate
• B. Jigsaw
• C. Starburst
• D. Dynamic Discussion

Answer: (C)

This item tests a cooperative discussion routine that uses color-coded partner rotations to maximize student talk across several rounds. In this approach, students engage in four consecutive paired discussions, each centered on a different prompt. Each student has a color card, and they must find a partner with a different color and swap colors after each round so they can talk with new classmates in the next turn. This setup ensures that over four rounds, everyone interacts with multiple partners, practicing language across varied prompts and hearing different language styles.

The color exchange keeps students moving and prevents sticking with the same partner, which supports greater language exposure and more opportunities to practice speaking, listening, and turn-taking. For English learners, the structure provides predictable routines, clear turn-taking cues, and opportunities to use sentence frames and vocabulary in authentic conversations. This combination of four short discussions, four prompts, and rotating, color-guided partners is characteristic of the Starburst protocol.

Written Debate focuses on writing arguments rather than oral discussion across rotating partners; Jigsaw centers on expert groups teaching others in a fixed structure rather than color-based rotations; Dynamic Discussion is more fluid and less about rotating partners with color prompts.