THINK, PAIR, SHARE, LISTEN, and RECAP/REPHRASE: Students need to interpret, connect, build and adapt new information they are exposed to and discover on their own. The TPS-Plus learning strategy allows students to actively summarize, predict, elaborate, lean in and attentively listen and rephrase what their partners shared. The time to prepare ideas and discuss ideas in a Mini-Socratic-Seminar format is a powerful learning and instructional practice. Students that are actively engaged in Higher Order Thinking activities that require active listening, paraphrasing/summarizing and the re-communication of ideas using complete articulate sentences makes learning permanent. Students become professional-learners when they practice TPS-Plus, repeated exposure to rigorous concepts by listening actively to their peers or instructors and sharing and re-sharing their ideas with a peer.
1. Group the "THINK, PAIR, SHARE" discussion partners using equity sticks. Students names are on a popsicle stick and you draw 2 sticks and make a cooperative learning pair.
2 Present information using a 2-3 mini-lecture, and frontload a discussion topic with an open-ended question that students are attentively listening to and thinking about during the lecture. Students will use the TPS-Plus topics and questions to discuss and analyze mew information and make connections to prior their knowledge.
3. Give the students 1 minute to “think” about their own learning.
4. Have the students “pair-share”, they take turns talking about their thinking, new information they learned, a summation, or questions for 1-4 minutes. After on partner has taken a turn sharing their partner has to share back with fidelity to practice listening and academic discussion skills.
5. Monitor discussions – clear up misunderstandings and check for understanding using Glass-Bugs-Mud or a thumbs up or thumbs down.
6. Ask the students “share” their responses with their bigger cooperative group.
Extensions: Hints and tweaks…
Rotate partners and groups after each Mini-Lecture. Time students so there are equal chances for participation. Cold call students using equity sticks to have students share with the entire class.
