Think-Pair-Share Teaching Strategy

Students need to talk to each other to help form their opinions and understandings of a topic. Use the Think-Pair-Share teaching strategy to help students understand your subject content.

How Does This Think-Pair-Share Teaching Strategy Work?

Pose a question or topic to students for them to think about individually. You might ask students to jot down a few ideas and responses to the given prompt or just to think about it in their heads.
Have students pair up or join together in very small groups. No more than three in a group.
Students then share their thoughts and ideas with their partner(s). This can be done completely as a verbal discussion or you might have students fill out some sort of sheet with their responses. Don’t give students excessive amounts of time – 2 to 3 minutes is usually more than enough. You can also have students work on a collaborative document like a Google Doc to complete the sharing portion.
Continue the “share” portion of this activity by asking the small groups to share their ideas with the whole class.

How Do I Use This Think-Pair-Share Strategy?

Think-Pair-Share is a great way for students to access and access their prior knowledge on a topic when beginning a unit.
I also like to use Think-Pair-Share when I want to review thoughts and ideas from the previous class period or previous lesson.
Another example of this might be if you are starting a new reading that relates to some previously discussed themes from weeks or months earlier. A quick Think-Pair-Share can be a great way to have students review these ideas.

Why Do I Love This Think-Pair-Share Teaching Strategy?

Think-Pair-Share can be done super quickly.
Students find Think-Pair-Share to be a lot of fun. Especially if you include a time element (i.e. “How many things can you come up within the next 90 seconds?”), students see Think-Pair-Share as a challenge or a contest.