Hint:
- “Think – pair – share” is a well-known and widely used form of cooperative learning. It consists of the following three steps:
1. to reflect (individually)
2. to discuss the results in pairs or groups of three students
3. to present the joint results to the whole class.Applied to the area of speech education, the procedure helps students to clarify thoughts and to plan individual contributions before the discussion per se, beforing introducing them into the group conversation. - This procedure is closely related to the one referenced in #10. It is presented separately here primarily in view of those classes that are already familiar with “think – pair – share” from other contexts (regular curriculum classes, other subjects). The purpose here is to name and differentiate the three phases particulary clearly.
Procedure:
- The instructor announces the discussion topic (for examples, see #10).
- Phase “think”: individually, the students write down their reflections about the topic on a sheet of paper. Possible lead questions for the students may be written on the board:
- What is the discussion topic? What is the goal?
- What kinds of thoughts and images occur to you with this theme?
- What experiences have you already had with this topic?
- What do you already know about this topic?
- What is important to you about this theme?
- Which questions interest you about this theme?
- Phase “pair”: in pairs or groups of three, the students explain their considerations with the help of their notes.
- They try to clarify and reduce uncertainties with inquiries and explanations. Questions and problems concerning their first language (missing terms, etc.) are addressed.
- Phase “share”: seated in a circle, the students introduce their thoughts, experiences or questions to the discussion group (whole class or entire group level). The instructor (or a student, if possible) moderates the discussion round.
- Possibly a “meta discussion” a) about the individual steps of the process, b) about the quality of the discussion and potential problems. This discussion should certainly include any questions pertaining to the language and difficulties (what could be improved in terms of the conversation competence in the first language, and how?).