Organize Partner Work with Whisper Partners Bright Ideas May

Welcome to another Bright Ideas Link Up! 

                                           

This time I'm sharing a favorite routine from my classroom. It's called Whisper Partners. 

The idea is very simple: students are assigned a partner, a task, and a special spot in the classroom to collaborate. For example, we do shared reading using our classroom library.

I use a chart as shown below, with moveable names and locations that will be rotated each time. 
I keep the chart hidden until after I explain the task... 

...then, I slowly reveal the list, and students must look to see who today's partner is, and find a book and their "collaboration spot". They find this exciting every time, and it is completely silent!

Once in their spot together, they complete their task with quiet whispers until time is up.

When it's time to stop, students have two jobs:

1. Put the books back in the correct basket. Every book has a number so students know where it belongs. 

2. Go to the basket with their own student number - all students have a number and are "in charge" of that basket.  Make sure all of the books in that basket have that same number; this keeps our books organized.

Here are my students checking their baskets:

The chart goes away until the next time.

This is also perfect for collaboration on peer editing assignments and brainstorming new ideas. You can control who is partnered with whom, and quickly adjust if students are absent. If students are noisy, remind them that it's "whisper" partners, so they should be whispering the whole time.

Try adding this to your class routines - it's fast, effective, collaborative and QUIET! 

For more ideas, please visit me on Facebook, Pinterest or Teachers Pay Teachers! 

You can see more wonderful ideas by clicking one of the links below!

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