Anticipation

I was speaking to a wise teacher this week about his goals to increase his use of formative assessment in the classroom, specifically by adding more formative assessment tools to his repertoire. What makes this teacher so wise is that he realizes he needs to anticipate what may go wrong with the use of some of these tools, and then take instructional steps to ensure the tools are used as effectively as possible.

For example, let's take a look at a beloved formative assessment tool, the good ol' Think Pair Share. Tried and true, right? But I've encountered lots of teachers who have had frustrating experiences using this deceptively simple check-for-understanding. Let's anticipate what could go wrong. You're asking students to pair up and share their thoughts for a few minutes on a question or topic you've provided, while you circulate the room and then, later, there's a whole class share. But here are some possible pitfalls: Students pair up with someone who may not be the best choice for them to work with. Students talk to their partners about the topic for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, and then run out of things to say. While circulating, you get caught up with 3 to 4 students who need help, so you never really get around to check on everyone. During the whole class share, you call on students to share what their partners' ideas were, only to discover that students don't know or remember what their partner said.

Any of this sound familiar? But what happens when we anticipate that these issues will pop up? What can we do to prevent these pitfalls, and instead ensure that our Think Pair Share will be as effective and as impactful as possible?

We can ensure some accountability to the task by providing a Think Pair Share template handout to students. This handout should require students to, first, individually write down three answers or ideas they have about the question or problem posed. Then, once students have shared these ideas with their partners, the handout should prompt them to check off any of their original ideas that their partner also shared, as well as to write down ideas their partner had that they did not. Finally, there should be a section on the handout that students can use to jot down ideas picked up during the whole class share. The use of a handout like this helps students gather their thoughts before being expected to share them with anyone, hopefully leading to a more effective discourse with their partner. It also encourages them to actively listen to their partner's ideas, as they will need to be recorded. Same goes for the whole class share. Also, if you get caught up working with just a few students when you attempt to circulate, you now have a physical handout that you can collect from everyone in the class if you should see that as necessary for continuing to check for understanding.

Are students not making wise choices when picking a partner? Or maybe you just want to ensure that students work with a variety of different partners rather than the same one each time? Anticipate that you might stumble across these problems, and you can solve them in advance. One solution could be to use clock buddies, ensuring that each student ends up with 12 possibilities for partnership depending on what "time" you call out to the group. There are some fun ways to personalize the concept of clock buddies for your class, too. For example, instead of using the hours of the day to distinguish the 12 different partners, you could use 12 different chemical elements, 12 different book titles, colors, math terms, etc.

If you'd like a copy of a Think Pair Share handout, contact me -- I've got a template I can share with you. Or if you want to further explore how clock buddies might work in your class, let me know -- I'd love to help! The main takeaway here is to anticipate what could potentially go wrong, so you can nip it in the bud. I mean, who doesn't want to avoid the frustration that ensues when something doesn't go as planned during your lesson? Want a second pair of eyes as you lesson plan to help you anticipate problems and plan to avoid them? We can work together on this -- shoot me an email!

On a personal note, this is my second blog post of the new school year. For those of you new readers, I typically post once a week, usually on Fridays. But, there's nothing typical about my life right now, as I am expecting the birth of my first child any day now. I'll be working right up until the end, so you can expect a blog post from me next week (I'll still be a little ahead of my due date then). But don't fully count on it! Everything I plan right now is filed under "tentative."  :)