Meet Mr. Think!

Since the start of the school year, we’ve been working on the protocol of think-pair-share in our classroom. Sometimes getting kindergarteners to stop talking and doing—and even to stop listening, and to just think—is like trying to herd cats! Prompts or cues are always helpful to guide their behavior.

MLC has since developed a set of posters to use in your classroom. These are wonderful reminders of the steps in the think-pair-share protocol. Before the MLC posters were available, our team decided we needed a poster just to remind students to THINK! So, Julie Schondube, my teammate, came up with a version of Mr. Think.

Mr. Think reminds students that the only job they have at that moment is to think and to think deeply. What I love is that students even mimic his behavior of tapping a finger on his chin!

We began with very short THINK episodes: 15 seconds to think about a favorite food or animal. This type of question also helped us practice revoicing what our partner had shared. We lengthened this think time to 30 seconds: How could you prove to me this is 8 (8 dots on a ten frame)? Or as we counted down the days to Halloween: Why was it 8 days yesterday and today it is 7 days until Halloween?

The revoicing practice is ongoing. And of course as partners change, new problems develop that we address and work out. Mr. Think doesn’t just visit at math time; he joins us for discussions with our guidance counselor, during literacy instruction, and even on a wild day when I need help from the kindergartners for suggestions of ways to change their behavior. The 30-60 seconds of silence can be especially helpful on one of these days!

How is think-pair-share going in your classroom? Please share your tips in the comments below or on twitter @mlcmath!

Marion Leonard is a curriculum specialist for MLC.