THINK-INK-PAIR-SHARE

"Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality."
Dalai Lama

OVERVIEW

The Think-Ink-Pair-Share activity is an excellent prior knowledge activity that helps students to focus their thoughts on specific topic. Students are given a question or topic and are asked to first think about what they know, then record their ideas down, pair up with someone to share what they wrote.  The final stage is a large group discussion.

IMPLEMENTING THIS ACTIVITY
  1. Determine what prompt or question you want to give to students.  Be sure that it is carefully worded so as to elicit the desired kinds of responses.
  2. Present this prompt to the class.
  3. Students then briefly think silently about the prompt.
  4. Instruct students write down their thoughts.
  5. Ask them to pair up with another person and share their responses.
  6. Ask students in the small groups to share their responses with the class.  Record the comments.

EXTENSION

After implementing the activity and moving forward with your lesson, ask students to write a brief commentary as to whether or not their answer to the original prompt has changed.

CONTENT AREA APPLICATIONS

Science – Use this technique to assess what students know about the different atmospheric layers.

English –  Use this technique to assess what students know about the elements of a persuasive essay.

History – Use this technique to assess what students know about the events leading up to WWII.

ASSESSING THIS ACTIVITY

As a prior knowledge activity, this organizer serves a tool to gauge what students already know about a topic. It helps also to assess the social climate of the classroom. The information collected from this activity helps you to make appropriate adjustments to your instructional plan.

MANAGING THIS ACTIVITY

Circulate throughout the room to make sure each individual is contributing equally to their pair’s discussion.

REFERENCES

►http://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/framework/strategies/thinkink_t.pdf
►http://www.readingquest.org/strat/tps.html
►http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/CL1/CL/doingcl/thinkps.htm
►Lyman, F. T. (1981). The responsive classroom discussion: The inclusion of all students. In A. Anderson (Ed.), Mainstreaming Digest (pp. 109-113). College Park: University of Maryland Press.