A Special Pair Share

I am taking a class on Tuesdays that asks me to do a lot of reflections about my teaching.  I was thinking this one would be especially interesting to you as parents, so here it is with images attached!

What did you try?

I set the class up in pairs (thoughtfully chosen so that the groups were balanced and each peer brought different talents to the table...) and each friend was able to choose their own image from images I have collected over the years to stimulate discussion and storytelling. Some images are black and white, some are of animals interacting, but most were of people interacting with others or were of a person within a situation, for instance a child wearing a backpack in the foreground, with a bus driving away in the background. Since I have used most of these images before, I knew that they have meaning/connection to children of this age.

The situation was for each student to take a turn at "reading" their photo and then telling a story about it. The emphasis was on the act of speaking to your photo, not whether you were right or wrong in your “analysis”. Each student took a turn to tell the story of their image. Then after each student gave feedback about their friend's story and what they were thinking as they listened (an example is, "I thought you were going to say that she got lost, but then you didn't say that and the story ended differently than I was thinking it would"), then they exchange photos and do the process again.

After the experience we came back together to talk about what it was like to hand over your photo and hear a different story.


What did you hope to accomplish?

The answer is many fold, but initially I was thinking about perspective and fostering that feeling that there isn't a "wrong" answer. This helps to bolster the confidence necessary in attacking any new problem. And reading is a big bag of new problems to attack! And in reading you are often looking at contextual clues within the reading to help you gain more understanding, and I feel this is what these friends were doing with their photo.

I was also hoping they would gain storytelling practice and feel the power of creativity. As well as giving feedback and reflecting on their personal experience as they were listening to a story.


What happened?

Many friends were excited by what new ideas their peer came up with, while others had a hard time hearing that someone had a different story connected to the same image.

The thing I wasn't expecting, but which was interesting, was that the biggest complaint friends had: that their friend's story wasn't long. I hope that this means they liked the activity and that they would like their peers to gain this skill so that they can hear longer stories in the future.


What do you make of it?

Next time it would be different if I ask the children to bring in their own image. This might be more meaningful. We have had this request, but it's not coming from home yet. Some friends were jazzed to go home and bring in more images for us to use!

I would also like to add the element of journaling while your friend speaks. At this age, this is tricky, because they do not have the ability (across the whole class) to multi-task, and also to produce drawings on topic while a friend is speaking. But maybe the change I would make is to have the friends tell their stories and then each one draw quietly for a bit, and maybe even think of a title for their friend's story. This would be a good challenge because many friends' tendencies are still to draw and title their own work, instead of someone else's.

As parents, what do YOU make of this? 

Please share your thoughts and comments!