Tell-Help-Check

(Study) Tell - Help - Check

Study - Tell - Help - Check is a structure to cause students to review previously learned content.

1. Establish partnerships with Partners A & B.
2. Prompt all students to independently review content (e.g., question, cloze notes).
3. Prompt Partner A to "Tell" their answer to Partner B.
4. Prompt Partner B to "Help" by respectfully agreeing or disagreeing with Partner A (add to, correct, clarify) with reasons and confidence level.
5. Prompt everyone to correct their answers in their written record (i.e., notes).

 Why It's Good!

• engages all students
• provides rehearsal for previously learned content
• structures student discussion which increases on-task behavior

Research Validation

• reported in Archer & Hughes, Explicit Instruction, 2011, p. 141

Yes - No - Why?

This is a basic structure for prompting students to consider a question or statement, develop an idea, and justify it.

1. Prompt all students with a question or statement that can be answered with a "yes" or "no" and explanation.  For review purposes, use a question based on previously learned information.  For preview and to increase engagement, choose a prompt that doesn't have a clear answer.
2. (optional) Provide various perspective and ask students to consider each.  Consider building in partner or small group discussion, whole group brainstorming sessions, quick writes, and others opportunities for students to gather ideas.  
3. Prompt students to consider all of their reasons and determine their best answer.  (Note:  Students are adept at the "subjective" perspective--how they feel--and often, they struggle to go beyond it to develop sound reasoning.  Allow kids to consider the subjective and be sure to acknowledge it.  Then, ask them to build their argument around the other perspectives.)

  

See an example here:  Yes-No-Why.docx

Why It's Good!

• easily differentiated and adapted
• an exercise in critical thinking because students must consider different perspectives, apply what they know, and defend an answer
• effective for previewing new content and practicing and deepening previously learned content

Choral Response

Elicit student responses in unison when answers are short and the same.

Why It's Good!

• refocus students

• quick change of state

• all students responding instead of just a few

• See Archer, A. & Hughes, C.  (20011).  Explicit instruction:  Efficient and effective teaching.  New York:  The Guildford Press.

Clock Partners

Students establish base partners (or appointments) with other students by writing each other's names on the face of a clock.

Why It's Good!

• provides several established partner groupings for quick student interactions
• provides structure for state changes and student movement