In Ms. Brown’s classroom, you will see first graders finding their milk and cookie partners. Hmmm…you may wonder what the purpose is behind this move. Ms. Brown has structured talk in place. Her students have been thoughtfully paired with another student to facilitate conversations and empower them to communicate effectively in both social and academic settings. The bonus is the brain break students get while moving to find their partners. With the use of sentence stems, the pairs get right down to the business of communicating and sharing ideas.
When I mentioned changing pairs up a bit, Ms. Brown informed me that she already has a plan in place. She showed me her peanut butter and jelly partner cards too. Kudos to Ms. Brown and her first graders for making structured talk an important part of their learning.
I’m attaching images of the pair cards.