One of our district's initiatives this year is student engagement. Think-Pair-Share is a strategy that will engage the students and get them thinking on a higher level. It is designed to provide students with time and structure for thinking about a topic. The students will formulate different ideas and share these ideas with a peer. Instead of the teacher asking a question and calling on a student this strategy involves all the students by having them share with at least one student. This increases the student involvement in the learning. As students discuss their ideas, the teacher can walk around the room and listen to the students' conversations and give appropriate feedback.
In this strategy, the teacher asks a higher-level question, students have time to think individually about the question. Then, they work in pairs to discuss and solve the problem. Next, they share their ideas with the class. This strategy can be use on the spur-of-the-moment or as a planned activity.
To implement this strategy some preplanning needs to take place.
- The teacher must decide on the question/s that target key concepts that the students have been studying.
- Describe the think-pair-share strategy to the students. Give guidelines for discussion. Explain to the students that they think individually about a question or topic, pair with a partner, and share their ideas with the class.
- Have students model the procedures for using this strategy. The teacher should check for understanding of the procedures.
- The students should practice the strategy as the teacher monitors and supports students them.
- Students could also write or diagram their responses.
- Think: the teacher begins by asking a specific higher-level question. Students think about the question for about 1-3 minutes.
- Pair: The students are paired with another student. Pairs may be assigned or the students may pick their partner. Students share their thinking with their partner, discuss ideas, and ask questions about their partner's thoughts on the topic. Two to five minutes is usually the amount of time for the paired discussion.
- Share: After the paired discussing, the discussion is expanded to whole-group. Each pair selects the partner who will share their thoughts with the class. After the class shares the teacher may choose to have them get back in their pairs to see if their thinking changed as a result of the sharing time.
The following website has think-pair-share information. The chart below is a sample activity from the site that could be used with the student pairs.
I hope you will use this strategy! Happy teaching!
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