Before They Pair and Share, Give Them Time to Think
Think-Pair-Share, Part 1: Making rigorous thinking accessible to multilingual learners
Shared planning time is never quite long enough. Between pacing, assessments, and everything else on the agenda, it's easy for conversations about multilingual learners to become a quick discussion of what supports we should add.
But what if we asked a slightly different question?
"What are we asking students to think about, and how can we make that thinking accessible to everyone?"
That shifts where the conversation begins. Instead of starting with what students might struggle to do, we start with the learning we want them to accomplish. We must also keep in mind what multilingual learners bring to the conversation, from their ideas to experiences to more than one language to think with.
A Small Shift to a Familiar Strategy
Most teachers know Think-Pair-Share. But sometimes we move pretty quickly from posing a question to asking students to discuss it with a partner.
What if we paid a little more attention to the Think?
Let's say students are reading a short story and will write a paragraph explaining what a character's actions reveal about their motivations, using evidence from the text.
That's a rigorous task. Students need to interpret a character's actions, make an inference, select relevant evidence, and explain their reasoning. We don't want to simplify that thinking. We do want to consider how students will have opportunities to develop and express their ideas before they're expected to put them into writing.
It helps to name the two goals at work here. The content goal is interpreting a character’s actions and supporting that interpretation with evidence. The language goal is explaining that reasoning in writing, in English. The two are connected, but they aren’t interchangeable, and looking at each one separately helps us decide where students need support.
Before students turn to a partner, give them a minute or two to develop their ideas.
Pro tip: Set up a visual timer to keep them on track. |
For some multilingual learners, having to work out what they think and how to say it in English right away might cause them to freeze a bit, so giving them that thinking time really allows them to feel more prepared for the Pair.
And here's the important part: Invite students to think, jot notes, or sketch in whatever language helps them make sense of the text.
For our short story example, we might ask:
"What do the character's actions reveal about what matters to them? What makes you think so?"
Students might jot a few words in English, write an idea in their home language, sketch a connection, or revisit a passage.
Then they turn to a partner to talk through their thinking, consider another interpretation, and practice explaining their reasoning. (We’ll dig into the Pair and Share in our following posts.) Finally, they bring that thinking into their written response.
As students talk, we can listen for how they’re connecting evidence to interpretation and model language that helps them make that connection. That’s the language goal at work.
Notice what hasn't changed: the intellectual demand of the task. Students are still interpreting, using evidence, and explaining their reasoning. But we've created more ways for them to engage in that thinking before asking them to produce a polished response in English.
And for multilingual learners, that's particularly important. Their ability to reason, interpret, and make connections isn't limited to what they can immediately express in English.
One Question for Your Next Planning Meeting
Circling back to our original question, here’s how to make it practical…the next time you’re planning with a colleague, ask that question in the context of your upcoming lesson:
"What are we asking students to think about, and how can we make that thinking accessible to everyone?"
Maybe it's an opportunity to jot ideas in a home language. Maybe it's an extra minute of individual thinking time. Maybe it's a chance to sketch or annotate before discussing.
The lesson stays the lesson, and the only addition is a little time. Sometimes, a small change in how students access a task can make a meaningful difference in who participates and how deeply they engage.
And that's the kind of planning conversation worth having.
Coming Next: The Power of PAIR
We've focused on the Think, but what happens when students turn to a partner? In our next post, we'll look at how intentional pairing can move beyond simply exchanging answers to create opportunities for meaningful language practice.
Keep the Conversation Going
At UpRiver, we believe that rigorous learning and meaningful access go hand in hand. If you found this useful, I’ve got plenty more where that came from! Our free UpRiver Community is an incredible place to swap ideas with fellow ML educators, get access to our Bulletin Board posts, and attend our Workshop of the Month. We’ve also got a Printables Library, which is a mix of curated resources and collated files, ready to download and print whenever you need them.
Comments