Think-Write-Pair-Share

Kayla Franklin
National University
MAT 671

Think-Write-Pair-Share
Sixth Grade Social Studies:
6.1-1. Locate and describe the major river systems and discuss the physical settings that
Supported permanent settlement and early civilizations.
Objective: Students will use previous lessons and research to decide what is the most
important aspect of rivers that allowed for early settlement. They will evaluate the benefits and
challenges of rivers and discuss their findings and why their reason was the most beneficial.
Think: Students will be given the question What aspect of a river would most benefit an ancient
civilization? The students will then be given 2 minutes to think about what we have discussed
about rivers and how civilizations have been improved by developing around rivers. They should
be recalling information such as irrigation for farming, clean water source, food, and other
benefits.
Write: Once students have had a moment to brainstorm they will write done their ideas and why
they think rivers were beneficial. They will need to say what feature they chose and why they
chose it. Students will have another 2 minutes to write their ideas.
Pair: They will then be paired with 2 other students and the group will have 5 minutes to discuss
their ideas. Each student is expected to share their ideas and discuss why they chose the feature
they did. They will then agree on one students feature and reasoning that they found to be the
best.
Share: Each group will present to the class in a short summary the best idea that they chose and
why. Once each group has a chance to share their ideas, as a class we will further discuss the
developments provided by rivers and then begin to focus on specific ancient cultures. We will
discuss how ancient Egypt benefited from the rivers and what feature benefited them the most.

Reflection:
Students will benefit from the think-write-pair-share thought process because they are
given time to develop their own ideas about what is most beneficial and they will need to defend
their decision. They will need to incorporate lessons of geography and science. They will also
benefit by discussing their reasoning and evaluating other students answers. It will require them
to be critical thinkers and think logistically about ancient civilizations. By sharing with their
entire class it can begin a group discussion and create comparisons between each group. Also if
many groups come to the same or similar conclusions then we can look at the possibility that
feature being the reason the culture was able to develop the way it did. This will help English
language works to be in groups with other students and practice their English in a smaller group.
Also, if their idea is chosen they have shared it once and will hopefully b more comfortable
presenting to the entire class.

Ancient River System

Pros
Students have time to organize their thoughts
Set time for each section
Gives group discussion time
Allows students to discuss be proud of their
ideas if they are chosen to present

Cons
Hard for ELL students to present to entire class
Not able to check for complete understanding
Lacks an ability to fully develop ideas