Think Pair Share/Post It-Pile It Student Training

THINK PAIR SHARE: This is a teaching/learning strategy. Students will think to themselves about a statement/question given by the teacher/facilitator and then share their thoughts and ideas with a partner. After a few minutes, the teacher/facilitator will ask for pairs to share their responses. POST IT PILE IT: This is a teaching/learning strategy. Put students into small groups of 4-5 and provide each student in the group with a small pack of post-it notes or small pieces of scrap paper. Tell students that you are going to ask a question and students will work independently to record all their ideas/responses on their post-it notes. They will write only one idea per post-it note, but will write as many different ideas as they can. Once students have recorded all their responses, tell the small groups to number themselves from 1 to 4 or 5. Within the small groups, students will share their ideas in the following manner. Person #1 will read one idea off of one of their post-its, and then will post the idea by placing the post-it in the centre of the group (on a desk/table). Anyone else in the group who has that same idea in their own pile of post-it notes then will place their post-it on top of that same idea. Then, person #2 will read a new idea and post it BESIDE the first idea that was posted in the middle. Anyone who has that same idea will place their post-it on top of this new posting, and then it will be person #3’s turn. Students will continue in this manner, going around the group, taking turns and posting on top of ideas, until everyone in the group has shared every idea. Once all the students have all their ideas in the middle, instruct them to review the piles of ideas. Tell them to choose three main ideas a spokesperson will share with the rest of the class.