Organized Partner Talk

I went to an awesome afternoon of professional development on Wednesday.  I had the honor of observing one of our premier Kindergarten teachers, Steven Hinkle, during shared reading and got to conference with some of his kids.  After our observation, we were able to sit down and reflect on his lesson and he was able to share some of his tools of the trade!  Here is one of his recommendations that really hit home with me and I plan to try it this week:

Steven recommended using a 1 inch cube for the first partner to use when talking because it is the perfect size for a little hand.  He says that he taught his students to pass the cube to make sure that both partners get to talk.  Students can only speak when they are holding in the cube!  Each student starts his/her comments off with "This is what I remember...."  Awesome!

After giving each partner time to talk, he asks 3 questions:

1.  Did you talk?
2.  Did your partner talk?
3.  Did you listen?

The visit to his classroom made me want to teach Kindergarten....almost!