How to get 100% engagement during partner share and turn & talk
Students often just wait for the teacher to give answers rather than participating in partner discussions, leaving teachers stuck at around 80% engagement despite trying strategies like popsicle sticks, points, and advance warnings. This lack of complete participation during turn and talk activities is consistently flagged during observations, making it difficult to achieve full accountability across the room.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Giving students a heads up before calling on them
- 2Using popsicle sticks for random selection
- 3Awarding points for answers
- 4Asking students to turn back to their partner if they lack an answer
- 5Walking around the room to listen in on responses
- 6Cold calling students
- 7Using pull sticks with names
- 8Collecting workbook pages or grading completion
- 9Giving extra credit tied to participation
- 10Letting students discuss problems at their tables first
- 11Using individual whiteboards
- 12Giving alternative textbook assignments when nobody volunteers
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My students often just wait for me to give them answers like I could stand there for the entire 90 minutes in math and no one would say anything.”source ↗
“Similar grade restriction here. It’s hard.”source ↗
“My kryptonite seems to be getting 100% engagement during turn & talk/partner share. I can walk around the room and listen in on great responses from 80% of the class but one thing I continue to hear from observations is that I didn’t get 100% engagement.”source ↗
“I feel like I have tried a number of things; including giving a heads up to students I’ll be calling on, popsicle sticks, giving “points“ for answers, or even asking students to turn back to their partner if they don’t have an answer.”source ↗
Where this came up
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