• Think-Pair-Share
    This method allows for individual reflection prior to responding.
  • Teachers pose a question requiring abstract thought.
  • Students think and jot down a response.
  • Paris are formed and they talk about their responses with a partner
  • As a class, they then share responses.
    Think-Pair-Share Overview
    Think-Pair-Share

  • Think- Pair - Square
    Similar to the     Think- Pair- Share structure, Think- Pair - Square asks students, once they have completed their assigned pair task, to join with another pair to compare their conclusions. The instructions to the newly formed "squares" may be to reach a consensus within their groups or to explain their conclusions to the other pair who has joined them.

  • Mix-Freeze-Pair
    Similar to Think-Pair-Share, but students are up and moving about the class. Ask students to MIX and then FREEZE. Ask a question, and have students PAIR with a partner to discuss it. Then call on a few kids to share their ideas with the class.

  • Interview
    Interviews can be used to create and maintain a caring classroom community by helping students to get to know each other; to provide a relatively non-threatening way for partners to share ideas; to show students that they can be learning resources for each other; to engage students in a subject by helping them to see how it connects to their own lives or the lives of others and to help students develop important listening and communication skills.
    3 Step Interview

  • Round robin
    Students in teams take turns orally responding to a question or prompt. You can have questions on slips of paper in the middle of the team, or you can call the question aloud. For example, you could have team members Round robin their predictions for a science experiment before you do the activity.

  • Roundtable
    Students in teams take turns passing a paper around and writing on it or completing another task. This structure can also be used with sorting activities. For example, you could have the names of various organs of the body on slips of paper, and the kids could take turns sorting them into categories according to body system.

  • Rallytable
    This is like Roundtable, but the kids work in pairs instead of in teams of 4. They pass a worksheet back and forth as they write answers or complete a task. Very simple and very effective!

Cooperative Learning
| Key Elements | Social Aspects
| The Jigsaw Method
| Other Instructional Methods
| Assessment and Evaluation | Related Resources


Copyright© 2001 Saskatoon Public School Division
Last Updated: October, 2003