Think+-+Ink+-+Pair+-+Share

toc =Think - Ink - Pair - Share=

The Think-Ink-Pair-Share activity is an excellent prior knowledge activity that helps students to focus their thoughts on specific topic. Students are given a question or topic and are asked to first think about what they know, then record their ideas down, pair up with someone to share what they wrote. The final stage is a large group discussion.
 * 1) Organize your group of learners into pairs.
 * 2) Present the learners with an issue to discuss (for example, a piece of information, a statement, or a question). The issue could be the same for the whole group, or each pair could be given a different issue.
 * 3) Ask all the learners to think about the issue (think) and write down their ideas and opinions (ink).
 * 4) Then, in their pairs, the learners must discuss what they wrote with their partners. Each learner must say what he or she wrote, and listen to the partner. They can talk about each other’s ideas (pair & share).
 * 5) After sharing their ideas, the learners should go back to what they wrote originally, and, if they want to, they should change it in order to improve it.

Finally, ask the learners to reflect on questions like the following:
 * Did you find that discussing the issue helped you to understand it better?
 * Did you learn anything new about the issue through your discussion of it?
 * After the discussion, did you change what you wrote at first, or leave it the same?
 * If you changed it, in what ways did you change it?
 * Did you find that just talking to yourself about your own ideas and opinions made a difference to your thinking?
 * Did you find that listening to your partner’s ideas and opinions made a difference to your thinking?
 * Did you find that the discussion (both talking and listening, and sharing ideas) made a different to your thinking?
 * If you did not change what you first wrote, was this because your partner agreed with you, or was it because you did not agree with your partner?