Kagan Strategies

Introduction

Kagan Strategies exist to encourage student higher order thinking through purposeful grouping and intercommunication. We use a variety of Kagan Strategies in my kindergarten class, but four of the most common are "Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up" (SuHuPu), "Think, Pair, Share" (TPS), "Four Corners", and "Jot Thoughts". All of these strategies help students feel more eager and invested in our learning process, and provide needed educational breaks in whole group instruction by creating partner and group work opportunities. Students also increase their content knowledge by sharing ideas with their peers and making deeper connections through communication.

Think, Pair, Share (TPS)

In a Think, Pair, Share, students are assigned slightly different leveled partners (for example, a medium level student could be paired with a high or a low student, but a high and low student would not be paired together as they would be unlikely to share the cognitive load). A question is then posed to the class. Students are given a certain amount of time, usually about 30 seconds, to think of their answer. After they have an answer, they show the teacher a thumbs up to prove they are ready to share. Then, when close to 90% of the class has their thumb up, students begin sharing with a specified partner beginning first, usually based off of what color row the student is in. All of these procedures work together to encourage students to reflect on their answer, share it with a partner who will understand them, and then take turns listening to their partners' response and reflecting on the differences. This strategy can be used in all subjects to promote deeper understandings through sharing ideas.

Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up (SuHuPu)

This game is a quick way to insert movement into a lesson. It is used in the same context as a Think, Pair, Share - namely, when I have question I wish for all students to reflect on and also have an opportunity to share with their classmates. At the beginning of our SuHuPu, students are asked to think on a question posed to them that could have multiple answers - such as, "What is an example of something people did in the past that we don't do in the present?". Once they have an idea, they stand up, raise their hand, mix around, and then high-five a nearby partner. The partner closer to the classroom door shares their answer first, then they listen as the partner closer to the classroom window shares.

Here is one exchange I overheard in relation to that question, which was part of our social studies lesson on how inventions have changed over time:

Partner A: "We don't churn butter anymore because we buy it at the store."
Partner B: "And we don't ride horses because we've got cars and they can go faster."

Once both partners have shared, they say "thank you" to each other, and raise their hand to high five a new partner. This game allows students multiple at-bats to practice answering the same question, and a chance for students to hear multiple of their classmate's answers to one question. Students develop a deeper understanding of the content because the open ended nature of the question means that their partner's answer is unlikely to be the same as theirs. In this way, they are exposed to a variety of different ideas from their peers.

Four Corners

In Four Corners, which can be modified to two or three corners depending on the number of possible answers, I propose a question with multiple answers. I delineate certain corners of our carpet as representing different answers. My question may be "What sense does the main character use the most in our book?" and each corner of the carpet may represent a different answer such as "sight", "smell", "taste" or "touch. Then when asked to, students move to the corner that best supports their answer. Once there, they are surrounded by other like-minded students and are given a moment to discuss their answers. If they learn something new which makes them change their opinion, they are allowed to move to a different corner after discussing. This strategy allows me as the teacher to see in a very clear way what my students are thinking. I can see what answers they gravitate towards first and then listen in to verbal responses to see if students are able to justify their original choice. If a student's opinion changed after listening to their group's answers, then I can ask them why they moved and how their classmates ideas affected their thinking.

Jot Thoughts

Jot Thoughts is an opportunity for students to record multiple written and drawn responses to a question as quickly as possible. In this example, students were given notecards and asked to draw, since their writing skills are still in progress, as many facts about farm animals as they could remember in two minutes. Then, students shared their answers and their drawings with their table groups, and a few volunteers shared with the whole class.

Here is another example of a Jot Thought and its final product.

Here, students were asked to think about and draw and label a picture of one thing they were thankful for. This student drew a picture of a pie and labelled it with a "p". They told their partner(s) "I am thankful for pie", and then on their finished writing project, they used developmental spelling to try to write "pie".

Using Jot Thoughts allows my students to brainstorm their ideas in a more concrete way. Then, when they are sure of their ideas, they can create a written piece that relates to the idea they brainstormed. This strategy encourages pre-planning, which is useful when students are using these ideas to create a finished product. Jot Thoughts also helps my students apply knowledge in a meaningful way since it helps them remember their ideas and build off of them in future projects.

Conclusion

I employee each of these Kagan Strategies often to encourage students' meaningful conversations, as well as productive group and partner work. These strategies aim to increase student thought, communication, and engagement in a variety of subjects each day. Through Kagan strategies, my students help create a culture of cross-communication while also developing deeper understanding of our content and of each other.

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