Contact Mrs. Russ | ©2005-2011 by Jill S. Russ | Last Revision
April 7, 2012
The teacher asks a question. The students think alone for a specified amount of time. They they form pairs to discuss the question with someone, usually their "elbow partner." During Share time, students are called upon to share the answer with the class as a whole. Students may be held accountable for listening to their partner by asking them to share the answer they heard from their partner.
Students are given a worksheet, but they must put their pencils in a pencil cup in the middle of the table. A student on the team reads the first question and students seek the answer from the textbook or by team discussion. The student to the left of the Reader checks to see that teammates all understand and agree with the answer. When there is agreement, all students write the answer in their own words. For the next question, students put their pencils back in the cup. The Checker becomes the Reader, and the next person to the left becomes the Checker.
Student use a Question Matrix to generate questions about a topic. Students work with a partner. One partner creates a question using one of the question starters from the table. The other partner states the answer. The pair records the question and the answer. Then they reverse roles for the next question.