Teach-Primary-18.3

Talk partners is a simple, effective technique – but you’d be surprised how many teachers get it wrong, warns Jack Dabell Y ou’ve probably heard about talk partners already, and may well have used this approach yourself. However, because it’s a tried and tested strategy, you might not have thought any more deeply than ‘this is a good thing to do, I’ll add it to the lesson plan.’ In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at talk partners as a teaching tool. What is it? Thankfully, talk partners has a fantastically self- explanatory title: it’s when children partner up (though it can be more than just two) and discuss a topic. The technique is sometimes called ‘Think, pair, share’ instead, because it’s often a three-stage process: first, the teacher poses a question or talking point; next, the children partner up and talk about it; finally, some children share what they were discussing with the whole class and their teacher. It’s usually very quick and happens multiple times a lesson. Most commonly, teachers specify a time limit for the talking section: 30 seconds to a couple of minutes is typical. The strategy is generally used during the teacher input part of a lesson, but you can set it going at any time you think it would be beneficial. Positives The power of talk partners is that it gets children involved and engaged in their learning. The biggest benefits I found as a teacher were around building confidence: children who were unsure about speaking in class could discuss their ideas with a peer in a less pressured situation, which helped them to articulate their thinking. Even if the less confident child wasn’t the one to share the pair’s idea to the class, they still always got the benefit of being more involved in the discussion. Another, unexpected, outcome was the increase in thinking time; before using talk partners I often fell into the trap of not giving my pupils enough time to think. Properly planning to use talk partners ensured more thinking time, which led to more articulate answers and better engagement for all. The technique also gave me, and the other adults in the room, an amazing opportunity to observe and listen to the children doing something incredibly important: talking. Obstacles There are two main challenges that can arise with talk partners. First, the relationships between the children; partnerships can get stale, and some children won’t like talking to particular classmates. One child might also be too dominant in the pair, which negates some of the positive effects for the other. You’ll need to monitor your talk partners as they work together. The conversations they have need to have a balance and they need to be constructive. If they aren’t, change the pairings. Secondly, how you choose to use the strategy can hinder more than it helps. Two problems I encountered when I first started using the approach were planning to use the strategy at the wrong time and letting the talking go on for too long. And remember, talk partners is there to help the children get involved. This means you may need to adapt the strategy for pupils who use non-verbal communication and/or have additional support needs. You must ensure all children in your class can benefit from some part of the process every time. How to do it It’s very important to introduce talk partners correctly. It’s a common approach, which can give a false sense that it’s already an embedded practice. However, even if your class used talk partners with their previous teachers, you need to introduce, model and reinforce how it will be used in your classroom. The first time you want the class to use talk partners, choose one of your more confident pupils and model it with them. Ask another child (or your TA if you have one), to pose a question to you, then model a short discussion with your volunteer. Focus on being clear, sticking to the point and listening to the other person; all the things you want the class to be doing. After you’ve modelled talk partnering, get the class to work together to develop some talk partner ground rules that you can display in your classroom (see panel). Who goes with whom is arguably the most important thing when it comes to using the talk partners strategy. In my experience, and in that of fellow teachers, you should generate pairings randomly and change them often. I mixed them up every week, and I’d certainly recommend not keeping the same partners for more than two weeks. However, I would also suggest creating your talk partner pairings after school, so you can make any small changes as needed without prying eyes… Once you’ve picked your TAKE TWO “The power of talk partners is that it gets children involved and engaged in their learning” 32 | www.teachwire.net