Pair Share Structures

1. Determine partnerships. Consider partnering English learners who speak the same home language together so they can use all of their language resources to make-meaning of the content.

2. Consider your classroom set-up. How will students position themselves to make eye contact with their partner? 

3. Consider what your signal will be for students to start and stop talking. Some ideas are using a chime or other noisemaker, hand signal, or call and response chant.

4. Teach the students the structure/process.

5. Determine key points in the lesson where students will need to process new information and/or you will need to check for understanding. In other words, chunk the lessons. There should be multiple opportunities for partner talk during all lessons. 

6. Decide which structure you will use. 

   • Think-Pair-Share: Teacher provides a prompt and gives the students some time to gather their thoughts before turning to a partner and sharing.

   • Think-Write-Pair-Share: This is the same as above, but the teacher gives students time to write down their thoughts or take notes before sharing with their partner. 

   • Think-Pair-Share-Consensus: This follows the same structure, but students decide on their agreed upon response, “consensus”, after they each share.

   • Pairs and Squares:  After following the think-pair-share structure, pairs meet with another pair (forming a “square”) to share, clarify, and build on their ideas.  

   • A/B Partners: This can be used with any partner structure. Teachers assign partners letters or names and indicate who should speak first each time students talk.  This eliminates the need for students to decide who goes first, streamlining the interaction.

   • Give One, Get One, Move On (Go, Go, Mo): Give students time to take notes or or gather their thoughts around a prompt. Direct students to stand and find a partner to share. Provide time for pairs to interact, to “give” an idea and “get” an idea, then give a signal, or play music, to indicate that students should find a new partner. Repeat the process until students have met with three or so different partners. 

7. Work with students to set “norms/agreements for interaction”.  Post these in the room. They might include things such as: face your partner, make eye contact, listen when your partner is speaking, use talk moves (i.e., paraphrase, build on others’ ideas, ask clarifying questions, stay on topic).

8. Consider what sentence frames or starters to provide and model to support conversation. 

Beyond A/B Additional Structures 

1. Prep: print sets of questions/problems/flashcards.

2. Pass out one set of cards to each team.

3. Have students shuffle the cards but keep them face down.

4. Let’s say we have teams of 4 and we call the students A, B, C, and D. Here are roles for round 1:

• Student A: Fan out the playing cards (face down!)

• Student B: Pick a card, read the problem, paraphrase

• Student C: Solve the problem/answer the question

• Student D: Help/coach the student who is solving

5. PASS the deck! As the deck rotates, so do all of the roles.

Consider for:

• Multiple choice review questions

• Code segments that need to be described or evaluated

• Vocabulary words & definitions

1. Project a problem/code segment for students to see.

2. Give students some independent think time.

3. Stand Up!

   1. Student ___ goes first

   2. Round Robin: ___ seconds per person

   3. Agree on ONE response/solution to share OR agree on a common thread between all responses

4. Sit down when your team has agreed.

Consider for:

• Open ended questions

• Code segments that need to be debugged or modified

• Summary or reflection after covering material

1. Student 1 makes a statement. 

2. Student 2 paraphrases statement before responding with a statement or question.

3. Student 3 makes a synthesis paraphrase of statements 1 & 2 before responding with another statement or question.

4. Continue as necessary.

Consider for:

• Encouraging active listening

• Teambuilding

• Brainstorming  & refining ideas

• Discussing a photo, video, or short text

• Summarizing

1. Students each write a response on an index card. 

2. Shuffle and stack cards face down in the center of the table.

3. One person draws a card and reads it aloud.

4. In round robin fashion, each person either comments or asks a question about the statement on the card.

5. The next person draws a new card. Repeat as necessary.

Consider for:

• Sharing ideas in a low risk manner

• Receiving feedback and comments from multiple teammates

• Practicing written language

1. Have students line up in two rows or two concentric circles so that they are facing someone across from them.

2. Have students take turns sharing their responses to the prompt with the person in front of them.

3. After students have a chance to share, shift by one position. In concentric circles, rotate one of the circles. In lines, shift one line, having the student from the end of that line move to the other side of that line.

4. Repeat the sharing and movement for about 3-5 rounds. It is okay to provide new prompts or keep the same.

Consider for:

• Encouraging movement

• Learning from or discussing with multiple partners and perspectives

• Teambuilding

• Brainstorming