Using Partner Talk in the Classroom

 

Do you assign partners in your classroom?  Partner talk is one of the most effective strategies you can use in your classroom.  For partner talk to be effective, you must be intentional and plan beforehand.  That includes pairing students by subject, having clear expectations, preparing what you are going to pose to students, how you will assess them, and more.  Partner talk keeps students engaged, holds them accountable for their learning, enhances speaking and listening skills, helps students make connections, and makes them an active participant in their own learning.  In this post, we will discuss some strategies for making the most of partner talk and some fun, engaging tools you can use to assign partners in your classroom.

Creating a Safe Environment

Before you introduce partner talk, you want to create a safe environment in which students feel comfortable enough to share.  This book by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Just Ask!, is a great read aloud to use as you introduce partners.  It discusses the importance of being brave and just being you.  It also shows that it's okay and important to ask others questions when you have them.  This is an important skill you will want students to have when talking with partners.  It also creates an accepting environment for others who might think or feel differently than us, teaching empathy and compassion for others.

Assigning Partners

I have always assigned partners in my classroom.  I am very intentional about who is assigned with who.  You want to take into account academic levels, critical thinking skills, and personalities when pairing students.  I don't pair a student who is very quiet and shy with someone who talks a lot.  I try to find a happy medium.  You also want to do the same when it comes to academic and critical thinking skills. 

I assign different partners for ELA and math, just because the abilities vary in each.  It also gives them another person to talk to and get to know.  All of the partners in this pack are food pairs, which makes it so fun for students!  I switched up partners as needed or about every nine weeks.

Create Expectations for Partner Talk

You should explicitly teach, model, and practice expectations for partner talk.  You can have students make this "partner pact" before practicing talking with a partner.  When you are about to have a partner discussion, you will pose a question or a topic to students.  Allow them to have think time before you have them turn and talk.  They need to be ready to discuss the question.

First, students should turn to look at their partner when it is time to talk.  Tell students which partner you want to speak first, such as the meatballs can talk first.  Have a signal that you give students will it's time to start talking.  I would clap my hands twice and then say, "teach," and they would say back, "okay!"

As students are speaking, monitor their discussions.  You can do some informal observations as they are speaking and listening.  Students should be actively listening to their partners and speaking when it is their turn.

After students are finished, they should wait quietly.  You could also have them do something to signal that they are finished, such as put your hands on your shoulders to let me know you are finished.

I give them a warning that time is about up, and then, I use a signal to get their attention.  I then choose a couple of students to share what they discussed.  

Using Accountable Talk Sentence Frames to Guide Discussions

Students need scaffolding when it comes to discussion.  I liked to use these accountable talk sentence frames to help them first form their thoughts.  I, often times, would give them a specific frame to use when expressing their opinion.  

If you don't have space for all of the posters below, you can print this list of sentence frames.  There are also these mini ones that you can give to students to use during partner talk.

You can hang these accountable talk posters, or you can print these mini frames and put them together with a binder ring.

Make Partner Talk Fun!

These partner necklace tags are a fun way to assign spontaneous partners from time to time!  You might be completing an activity and want students to find a different partner.  Give half the students one food partner and the other half the other.  They can then find a partner with that matching necklace.  

You could also use these when first assigning partners to help them remember which partner they are.  I found the tags HERE.  (This is my affiliate link.)

Table tents are another fun little partner tool!  Put one on each student's desk.  Make sure you have an even number of each, so that students can pair up with someone else.  Students can then go find a partner in the room.  This is a great way to get students moving and to get to know one another!

Partner talk is one of those instructional strategies that can give you so much bang for your buck.  You are building community, increasing speaking and language skills, ensuring everyone is engaged and an active participant, assessing different skills, and students are getting to talk and express their thoughts.  

I put all of these resources and tools for partner talk into a brand new resource for you!  If you would like to snatch it up, you can click HERE or any of the images in this post.  I hope these resources are helpful and can make partner talk fun and engaging in your classroom!