The On-Your-Feet Guide to Partner Talk (On-Your-Feet-Guides)

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For more extended talk, partners match up with another set of partners, forming groups of four and compare their discussion. 2. Doughnut Sharing Please build in preparation time if you split students in pairs/small groups as they will need to get to know each other. Have students sit in a position that enables them to see eye-to-eye, be it in chairs, or on the floor. Additionally, be sure to give an indicator as to which partner should start the discussion by talking first, or allow the students to choose ahead of time. Vocabulary in Context: Worksheets and strategy sheets that can be used to help students determine the meaning of words in context (great for test prep, English Language Learners or Vocabulary Lessons). However you do it, praise children who share. Fostering a healthy outlook on sharing ideas, and being respectful of others’ ideas, will do wonders for your classroom ethos. Examples of praise

Try: “Artem, I saw you were really listening to Anna while she was talking because you were looking at her and asking questions. Great work.” In pairs, discuss 3 new things you have learnt or what you found easy or difficult or something you would like to learn in the future. Why use it The intervention was highly regarded by headteachers, mentors, and teachers who thought that the Dialogic Teaching approach had positive effects on pupil confidence and engagement. The doughnut technique is useful for the generation of ideas, perhaps before an individual brainstorm. It is also useful for recalling information, sharing anecdotes or offering opinions. 3. Talk tokens Providing each member of the group with a few tokens or counters is a useful technique, when establishing the protocols for talk in the classroom, or encouraging fair participation. Each group member is provided with a few tokens. Each time a contribution is made, the student places aside a token. When all tokens have been placed aside, the student is no longer able to contribute to the discussion. Two colour tokens may be given, one to represent talk contributions and the other to represent questions to pose to the group.One pupil might be too dominant in the pair which negates some of the positive effects for the other​.​ You need to monitor your talk partners as they work together. Their conversations should be balanced and constructive. If they aren’t, change them. Before posing the questions to students, make sure that you have strategically paired up students so that they can have thoughtful conversations. In general, typical students should be paired with students who are a bit above-average thinkers, and higher students should be paired with other students who are capable of higher-level thinking. ELL students should be paired with a student with grade-level/average vocabulary. Reading Reflection Journals: Reading Skills practice that can be used with ANY text (3 different levels of worksheets, great for differentiated reading groups).

Use this strategy during your teacher input part of the lesson, or try it at another point ​when ​you think ​it ​would be beneficial. Why is it a good strategy? Thankfully, “talk partners” is ​a fantastically self-explanatory term. It’s when children partner up (though it can be more than just two) and discuss a topic.Organising whole or small group talk interactions may require a management strategy to encourage participation of all students. Establishing the ground rules for talk and focusing on accountable talk are necessary areas to explore and re-visit with students. However, some classroom groupings include students who dominate talk or conversely are reluctant to participate. Both groups could benefit from a management strategy that makes participation explicit. EEF will explore options for testing the approach using amodel that could be made available to alarge number of schools. Be clear with the children that there is no right or wrong answer. This helps to alleviate anxiety and promote discussion. When I started I found it helpful to include the times and questions in my lesson plan, but after a while it should become more instinctive. When planning your lesson, decide which key questions you’re going to ask and when these will be followed up by talk partners. In my experience, three times in a lesson is about right.

Remember, talk partners are there to help children get involved. This means you may need to adapt the strategy for children who use non-verbal communication and/or children with additional support needs. You need to ensure that all children in your class benefit from some part of the process every time. How to use talk partners Think, pair, share is an easy and engaging talk technique. At any stage of the lesson, students may be asked to ‘turn and talk’. The purpose of the technique may vary. At the beginning of a lesson, students may be asked to think, pair, share early connections or predictions. During an inquiry, students may be asked to share ideas, challenges or opinions. While at the end of a unit of work, students might share their reflections. Secondly, how you choose to use the strategy can hinder more than it helps. For instance, you might plan to use the strategy at the wrong time or let the talking go on too long. These were both problems I encountered when I first started using the approach in the classroom. Let’s have a deeper look at talk partners as a teaching tool. What is it? Why should you use it? And most importantly, how should you use it? What are talk partners? Randomly select pairs to share with the rest of their table (you can join a different table each time)

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When the goal is for the rapid sharing of ideas, with multiple people, the doughnut sharing technique is appropriate. This technique involves a large group of students, such as the whole class, forming two circles – an inner circle and an outer circle. Students in the inner and outer circle find partners and face each other. Another benefit is the increase in thinking time. You might fall into the trap of not giving enough time for this. Properly planning to use talk partners ensures more thinking time. This then lead to more articulate answers, which leads to better engagement for all.