Think-Pair Share

Think-Pair-Share is a cooperative discussion strategy that allows students to discuss their responses with a peer before before sharing whole class. It also allows each student to have think time and decide on an initial response before sharing with a partner. All learners need time to process new ideas and information. They especially need time to verbally make sense of and articulate their learning with a peer experiencing new learning with them. 

Think-Pair-Share is a simple classroom technique that allows students to engage in structured discussion. There is minimal planning to use this strategy and through observation alone, information about misconceptions and new learning is quickly gathered by the teacher, while the students themselves gain deeper understanding of the material. This strategy was developed in 1981, and has since been through many iterations. The original protocol is as follows: 

Step 1: 

THINK: The teacher presents a question, problem or situation to the students whole group. The students then take a few minutes (not seconds) to think about the prompt. 

Step 2: 

PAIR: Using some sort of partnering strategy, the students pair up and discuss their respective responses. They compare and contrast their responses and come a consensus about the response they would like to share out. 

Step 3: 

SHARE: After the students have had a few minutes to discuss, the teacher will have the students share out to the whole class. 

Iterations on the Basic Protocol: 

Think-Write-Pair-Share

Students think/process a given topic formulating individual ideas, write their thoughts, and then share these ideas with a peer. After, students will share their ideas with the whole class.

Think-Draw-Pair-Share

Students think/process a given topic formulating individual ideas, students then draw and label a diagram illustrating what they know about a topic. They share and discuss their drawing with a partner. Then students alter or redo their drawings to reflect what they now know about the topic. Students again share and discuss their drawings with a partner and explain what changes were made. After, students can share their ideas with the whole class.

Double Think-Pair-Share

Partners do traditional think-pair-share, brainstorming as many ideas as they can in a set amount of time and writing their answers down on a piece of paper.

After allotted time, each pair then finds another pair to share answers with. As first team reads their answers aloud, the second team adds new ideas to their list or puts a check mark next to items they also thought of. Second team then shares answers that were missing from first team’s list.

Mingle-Pair-Share

Students mix around the room silently as music plays in the background. When the music stops, each student finds a partner closest to them (no running across the room to find your best friend!). When all students have found a partner, teacher poses a question and allows for “think time.” One teacher’s go, one partner shares and the other listens. Partners switch roles. 

After both partners have had a chance to speak (teacher will have to monitor this, based on the depth of the question), music starts again, students mingle, when music stops they find a new partner, teacher poses new question, etc.

Sticky-Group-Share

Teacher poses a question, sets a time limit and gives students a moment to think before writing. Each student writes down as many answers as they can think of—one idea per sticky note—and sticks it to the center of the table. The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible and cover the table with sticky notes. At the end of each round, students review one another’s ideas and discuss their learning.

Read-Think-Pair-Share

Reading material is broken down to smaller chunks of reading where natural breaks occur. Students work with a partner. A copy of the reading material is given to each participant. Participants read silently up to the first assigned break point. Partners discuss important points in the passage, areas of connections, questions, etc. When the pair has enough information to share with the whole class, they may proceed to the next section, following the same format until pairs have finished the entire reading. Whole group comes back together and facilitator asks for participants to share out for the first section, then the second section, and so on.

Whip Around

Teacher poses a question to the class, students quickly "whip around" to nearest classmate and quickly gives an answer to the question. Students have to pay attention and listen closely to their classmates’ responses to compare their own thinking. The pair of students then compose an answer to share with the whole group.

https://www.weareteachers.com/5-fun-alternatives-to-think-pair-share/