Think- Pair - Share: lead up to inquiry

I like to introduce think-pair-share early in the year. It's simple for the students to use and they become familiar with the routine very quickly. You need to explain expectations and model appropriate behaviour; however, once the students have the hang of it, the routine helps them to think out loud and communicate with their peers.

Think-pair-share is pretty self-explanatory. The teacher presents a concept or question, each student takes time to think, they discuss their thinking with a partner, and then they share their ideas developed during partner-discussion with a small group, or as a whole class.

I recently used the routine as an introduction to an inquiry-based learning engagement. Throughout Sharing the planet, we have been studying rocks and minerals. As part of the unit, I posed the question: what are the uses for rocks and minerals in our world?

Students were given time to think. They paired up with a partner to discuss their ideas. Then, they shared with a small group and following, the class.

The routine worked great to get the ideas rolling! Each student wrote down one idea and we created a class chart.

The inquiry wasn't done just yet (as the students didn't know for sure if their ideas were accuratley answering the question). The next step was to research on iPads.

After our research, we had some additional class disscusion. The final step was ecouraging each student to bring in a picture showing the use of rocks and minderals in our world. We created a class collage to show what we learned.

What was so great about this project is that students came to their understanding completely on their own. It became a perfect example of the teacher acting as a learning facilitor as opposed to a direct instructor. This turned out to be a great opportunity to use a visible thinking routine to jump-start inquiry!