Get 100% of your partner pairs on-task with one simple technique

You know that feeling: you have planned an amazing partner activity, one that will help the students in each pair to learn from each other, have rigorous discussion, and work towards the goal of synthesizing understandings. It is going to be an amazing learning experience, and your children are going to enjoy the opportunity to "socialize" in the form of academic discussion.

And then reality sets in. As you look around your room, you realize that half of your students are not working. To be specific, one student in each pair is not working. The more academically inclined or motivated student in each partnership has taken control of the activity, and the less inclined are happy to sit back and allow the work to be done for them. It's frustrating, and you're tempted to just end the whole thing and revert back to independent work.

Your first instinct wasn't wrong. There are enormous benefits to partner work. No one knows everything on their own, and all students should have the opportunity to have their ideas be challenged, praised, and validated by their peers. Working in pairs allows students a safe space in which to practice using academic language, voicing unconventional views, and taking ideological risks. 

Of course, that's only if you can get your students to actually work in pairs.

So what do you do when you have a group of students that isn't working well in pairs? Teach them how. To do so, I created the "See-Saw Technique," so named because the students have to "balance each other out." 

Just like a see-saw needs both participants involved, so does great partner work!

So here are the basic directions I gave my kids for how the See-Saw Technique works:

Odd-numbered questions:

Partner A reads the question aloud.

Partner B gets to propose a response first, explaining how and why he/she has chosen that answer.

Partner A either agrees or disagrees with Partner B, explaining his/her reasoning.

Students switch roles for even-numbered questions.

Though deceptively simple, this technique required that all students play all roles at some point in the partner process; all students are getting the opportunity to practice fluency, using academic language, and validating or contradicting a partner's ideas. To further build students' metacognitive processes, they have the opportunity to share with the class at the end if they feel their partner was particularly "heroic" that day, and why. This is a wonderful chance for students who don't often speak out in class to be recognized for their contributions!

Two pf my students engaging in partner discussion

From the first day I implemented this technique in my classroom, I noticed a significant, gratifying difference in how my students worked. I went from approximately 25% of my pairs actually working and discussing together to 100% (I wouldn't believe it either, if I had not seen it in my own classroom). I hope you see the same results in yours! Leave a comment if you've tried my technique, letting me know if it worked, or if you made any changes.

Happy learning!

Cheers,