Pyramid/Snowball Strategy: Heroes & Villains
What is it?
 Allows students to initially think about
their own response to a question
 Then converse with just one other person
 Finally, join together with other pairs to
enable
 a#1 wider discussion (snowballing)
Identifying
Similarities and
Differences
Marzano’s Top
#6 Cooperative
9 Learning
Purpose
1. To generate ideas or solutions and
develop and refine ideas
2. To promote communication,
critical thinking, analysis, and
evaluative skills through
arguments and counter arguments
3. To help students learn new
concepts, correct misconceptions,
and draw conclusions during
group and whole class discussions
4. To help learners refine prior
learning and construct new
learning through discussions
Research
 Researched by Nazhan nullah in
2016
 Studied if "Pyramid Discussion"
can give a significant influence
toward students' writing skills
 The conclusion of this research
Steps tothatHeroes &
showed " Pyramid
Villains significantly
Discussion"
 Develop
influenced a list of the five
students' greatest
writing
skills currently livingSteps
heroes today and
a list of the five worst:villains
currently living today
1. Solo Brainstorming— (5
minutes)  
2. Pair Discussion: Each student
will discuss their answers and
agree on a joint answer — (5
min)
3. Group Discussions: Ask every
two pairs of students (4 students)
to form a group— (7 min)
 Group members discuss
answers to prepare one
joint answer
4. Whole Class Discussion: Ask the
two main groups to merge into
one big group (the class)— (10
min)
 Come up with the final top