Book Study - Chapter 9 - Building Ratio Through Discussion

1. Some of the successes are that students can turn and talk to a partner to have a deeper conversation.  Their partner might point something out they did not think of.  A challenge is that in a group of students, it is hard to monitor the conversations and make sure they are all staying on task.  A way to minimize challenges might be to tell students after the turn and talk I will be calling on several of them to share with the whole class.
2. I want students to be engaged in the topic at hand and I want them to transition back to the whole group lesson quickly.  I would cue with, "Now with your partner, discuss..."  To pull them back, I would say, "Titan Up", which is something we say universally at our school to get everyone's attention.
3. If I were still working with the research websites from the previous week, I would have students turn and talk to tell their partner which website they think is going to have the most accurate information and why.  Turn and talk in this example would increase participation ratio.  I will extend the students thinking after turn and talk by having a group discussion.