Teach-Primary-18.3

F EATURE S P EDAGOGY Jack Dabell is Education Advisor at Tapestry, the online learning journal, and a former primary school teacher. He also writes for the Foundation Stage Forum. • Randomly select pairs to share with the rest of their table (you can join a different table each time). • Ask the children to write their key points on a whiteboard to hold up and share with you. However you do it, heavily praise whoever shares. Fostering a healthy attitute to sharing ideas and being respectful of others’ thoughts will do wonders for your classroom ethos. partners, it’s time to plan. The best moment to have the children talk to their partners is after you pose an open-ended question, the purpose of which is to stimulate more conversation and different interpretations. Be clear with the children that there is no right or wrong answer, as this helps to alleviate some anxiety and promote discussion. When I started, I found it helpful to include the times and questions on my lesson plan, but after a while, it became more instinctive. It’s quite common to ask children to use talk partners a few times in a lesson. When planning the lesson, decide which key questions you’re going to ask and when these will be followed up by talk partners. In my experience, three times in a lesson was about right. As for how long each instance takes, you want to keep the balance between maintaining the pace of your lesson and giving enough time for it to be valuable to the children. Ideally, one minute for discussion and then two minutes to share with the class. Another tip: put a timer on your board! Children sharing their ideas is just as important as talking about them with their partner, and there are different ways that you can do this: • Select a few pairs to share their ideas with the whole class. Speaking of praise, make sure it is constructive and meaningful during every step (“well done” and “good listening” are neither). Try, “Artem, I saw you were really listening to Anna while she was talking, because you were looking at her and asking questions. Great work!” Or, “Matias, I love how confidently you just spoke in front of the class. You and your partner worked hard in organising those thoughts.” Talk partners can be one of the easiest and most useful tools you have as a teacher. Just remember to plan when to use it, provide open-ended questions, and change your talk partners often. Involve yourself in the discussions, and praise, praise, praise. TP GROUND RULES DO ● Listen to the other person ● Make sure both people get a chance to say something ● Be respectful of other people’s ideas DON’T ● Look bored when the other person speaks ● Talk about something completely unrelated ● Let your partner do all the work tapestry.info www.teachwire.net | 33