What It Is
This is a fun way to get students out of their seats and interacting with others throughout the classroom. Students create appointments with peers by writing each other’s names in a specific time slot. When the teacher selects a time, students meet up with the person indicated on their appointment schedule.
How It Works
- Provide students with a copy of an Appointment Agenda form with various time slot options.
- Ask them to walk around the room and make appointments with various partners.
- Bother partners should select a time that is open and write each other’s name in the time slot.
- If someone remains without a partner, have that person triple up with an existing pair, or offer to be that student’s appointment.
- Once the agendas are filled in, you can use this as a pairing tool. For example, you can ask students to pull out their Appointment Agenda and find their 2:00 appointment and share their Quick-Writes or reflections to a prompt. To create larger groups, have students join the closest pair to form a group of four.
How to Ensure Higher-Order Thinking
Steps for ensuring higher-order thinking will depend on the activity that you choose to do once partners meet. For example, if you are choosing to pair students for a ranking activity, then refer to the Ranking activity for ideas on how to ensure higher-order thinking.
Source
Himmele P., and Himmele, W. Total Participation Techniques: Making Every Student an Active Learner. ASCD, 2017, pp.79-80.
See Also: WICOR Partners / WICOR Study Buddies Log