David Thornburg described The Campfire (one-to-many), Watering Hole (many-to-many), and Cave (one-to-one) methods of teaching (Couch & Towne, 2018). These methods align closely with the Think-Pair-Share method most teachers should be aware of by now. One way I have promoted Think-Pair-Share with my students is with the CommonLit website, www.commonit.org.
CommonLit is a large collection of leveled readings with questions to measure student reading comprehension and analysis. It also provides a large suite of tools presenting teacher with performance data. The most useful feature I use in class is highlighting and annotating. Students are able to highlight phrases and add their own notes which are visible on the teacher’s account. In our class the students are given time to read the text and make their own annotations. Then they share their annotations with a partner to ensure comprehension. Finally I will display their annotations on our electronic whiteboard using my teacher account and ask the students to share with the entire class their thoughts.
Moving away from purely “Campfire” teaching is appropriate, but there should always be time for some open-class feedback allowing students to learn from their peers.
Couch J. & Towne, J. (2018). Rewiring education. BenBella Books. https://benbellabooks.com/ https://benbellabooks.com/shop/rewiring-education/
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