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Instructional Strategy

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INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY

Think-Pair-Share

Grade:

K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, UNIV

Type:

Discuss & Collaborate
/ Develop Language (MLL)
< 20

Minutes

When:

Before, during, and after reading

Materials:

None
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Description

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© Alona Horkova—iStock/ Getty Images Plus/Getty Images
The Think-Pair-Share strategy is a collaborative instructional strategy that encourages individual thinking, peer discussion, and whole-class sharing. Students consider a question or topic independently, discuss their ideas with a partner, and share their insights with the larger group. This strategy promotes active participation, enhances communication skills, and helps students articulate their understanding in a supportive environment.
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Procedure

1
Present a question, image, or topic to students and give them time to think about their responses individually. Encourage them to jot down their ideas or make notes.
2
After sufficient thinking time, ask students to pair up with a partner to discuss their thoughts and compare ideas.
3
After pairs have had time to discuss, invite each pair to share their insights with the whole class. This can be done by having pairs volunteer to speak, calling on specific pairs, or using a randomized selection method.
4
Facilitate a class discussion based on the pairs’ contributions, highlighting key points and encouraging further elaboration or clarification as needed.
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Differentiation

Graphic Organizers: Provide graphic organizers for students to record their thoughts during the “think” phase. This helps structure their ideas and makes it easier for them to share during the “pair” and “share” phases.
Role Rotation: Rotate roles within pairs, such as one student being the “questioner” who asks probing questions and the other being the “responder” who elaborates on their initial thoughts. This helps students develop different communication skills and deepens their understanding of the topic.

Multilingual Learning Support

Beginning Proficiency: Support the Think-Pair-Share process by providing visual prompts and sentence frames in both English and students’ home language. During the “Think” phase, offer sentence starters, such as “I observe…” and “This reminds me of…,” in both languages. For the “Pair” phase, provide dialogue frames (e.g., “I think…” / “Can you tell me more about…”). Display conversation supports on desk cards or anchor charts. During the Share phase, allow students to express ideas in their home language first before bridging to English expression.
Intermediate Proficiency: Create structured language supports that bridge social and academic discourse. Provide word banks that pair everyday expressions with academic alternatives (e.g., I agree/I concur, I think/I hypothesize). During partner discussions, offer sentence frames that encourage deeper academic dialogue (e.g., “Based on the evidence…” / “Another perspective is…”). Include visual thinking organizers to help students record and organize their thoughts before sharing.
Advanced Proficiency: Guide students in using sophisticated academic discourse during all three phases. For younger students, introduce discussion terms, like build on, connect to, and elaborate. For older students, incorporate more nuanced academic language, such as counterpoint, synthesize, and validate. Provide students with discussion stems that model complex sentence structures and academic vocabulary use.
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Variations

Think-Pair-Square: After the initial pair discussion, have each pair join with another pair to form a small group of four. This “square” group then discusses their ideas before sharing with the whole class. This variation promotes a broader exchange of ideas and perspectives.
Digital Think-Pair-Share: Use an online platform where students can type their thoughts during the “think” phase and pair up in virtual breakout rooms to discuss. They can share their final insights with the whole class through a digital forum or collaborative document. This variation leverages technology to facilitate collaboration and sharing.
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