Information Age Education

Think-Pair-Share-Write: Make It a Think-Pair-Share-Blog

January 18th, 2007

A great teaching technique for engaging students, supporting language develop and addressing multiple intelligences is doing a Think Pair Share activity.

It’s easy to take something that you already do and transform it into a Think-Pair-Share. Occasionally I do Think-Pair-Share-Write activities and lately we’ve been playing with it as a Think-Pair-Share-Blog. The students love Think-Pair-Share activities and it engages a wide range of learners in the discussion. It doesn’t take any additional time to make. Here’s how to do it.

Think-Pair-Share-Write
1. Show students one question. It can be from a textbook, handout or overhead.
2. Have them think about it quietly, providing adequate “wait time.” (This is often around 7 second, which can feel like eternity sometimes.)
3. Then have them pair up with someone to discuss the idea.
4. Let students share their responses with the class.
5. Students write their responses.
6. Repeat the process with another question.

Think-Pair-Share-Blog
I have one computer in the class.Before class, enter one of the questions on the class blog site. I do the exact same process as above, and have one student enter the response onto the blog.

Choosing who gets to blog:
1. Sometimes I just pick a student. Since they’ve thought about it, discussed it in pairs and heard from the class, the quality of the answer is usually fairly reliable.
2. Several students will “share” with the class and I write down their names and an abbreviated response. The class votes with their fingers on the response they prefer. One finger for the first response, 2 for the second and so on. I usually only have 2-3 students share out.

Check the video I made showing the Think-Pair-Share hand signals that the originator of the Think-Pair-Share method, Dr. Frank Lyman, uses. I actually knew Dr. Lyman when I was a student in high school county student government. He worked at the Howard County Office of Education in Maryland. 20 years later I met him again when he spoke at my master’s program at the University of Maryland at College Park. I didn’t know that he created both “Think-Pair-Share” and “wait time.” How cool is that!

My students love Think-Pair-Share activities. I’m not sure which they like more the activity or the hand signals. I know the hand signals are a big hit with them.

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11 Comments Add your own

1. EduBlog Insights » &hellip | May 1st, 2007 at 6:41 am

[…] I came across this video on YouTube which led me to Rebecca Newburn’s blog Information Age Education. It was of interest to me because I use the Think Pair Share activity a lot in the classroom. She extends the activity with Think Pair Share Write and Think Pair Share Blog. Now that really piqued my interest. See her post here for activities for more information on creating and using them in your classroom. […]
2. Educational Technology an&hellip | May 1st, 2007 at 7:12 am

[…] Think-Pair-Share-Write: Make It a Think-Pair-Share-Blog (Via Anne Davis.) I originally came on this post in my Google Reader subscriptions (in my iGoogle homepage actually). I’m subscribed to Anne Davis’ EduBlog Insights, but her link post doesn’t seem to be around anymore. At any rate, ub the post I’ve linked to Rebecca Newburn gives a little background on the Think-Pair-Share activity, which I use a lot in workshops, and modifies it (or extends it rather) to include the class blog. Very cool. […]
3. Frank Lyman | October 5th, 2007 at 9:43 am

Pleased to see the effective use of TPS. For the latest comprehensive look at this technique see Spencer Kagan’s Smartcard on Think-Pair-Share and the card onThinkTrix. Another variation with writing is Think/write- pair/write or pair-write-share. Written wait time is time consuming but the results are worth it for more complex questions. ThinkTrix is the key to shared metacognition in the classroom. Frank
4. Frank Lyman | October 5th, 2007 at 9:44 am

Pleased to see the effective use of TPS. For the latest comprehensive look at this technique see Spencer Kagan’s Smartcard on Think-Pair-Share and the card onThinkTrix. Another variation with writing is Think/write- pair/write or pair-write-share. Written wait time is time consuming but the results are worth it for more complex questions. ThinkTrix is the key to shared metacognition in the classroom. Frank {How have I already said this? I’ve never seen this site before}.
5. penny stocks | February 20th, 2008 at 6:43 am

hey thanks for sharing good job keep it up
6. college education | February 25th, 2008 at 1:32 am

I came across this video on YouTube which led me to Rebecca Newburn’s blog Information Age Education. It was of interest to me because I use the Think Pair Share activity a lot in the classroom. She extends the activity with Think Pair Share Write and Think Pair Share Blog. Now that really piqued my interest. See her post here for activities for more information on creating and using them in your classroom
7. Student Education Finance | August 5th, 2008 at 5:44 pm

Great site.
I also took a look at that Video and found this site the same way. I will continue to read your information, but I like what I see. Thanks
8. werutzb | October 7th, 2008 at 6:01 pm

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9. BailklobRaiva | January 6th, 2009 at 7:38 pm

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10. mhjkjhlhl dfsgdfg | January 16th, 2009 at 6:03 pm

Thanks
11. Dave Morrocco | August 26th, 2009 at 1:41 pm

It was great to see Frank’s name and to know that he is being acknowledged as the creator of TPS. Unfortunately, I’ve come across explanations of TPS in which Dr. Lyman is not given due credit. I hope Frank gets this and replies since I would love to reconnect.