Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up

AITSL STANDARDS: 3.3 – Use teaching strategies

Select and use relevant teaching strategies to develop knowledge, skills, problem solving and critical and creative thinking.

The Situation

You want your students to share ideas equally.

You want your students interact with people they do not often speak to.

The Solution

All teachers want their students to interact positively; however, it can be a very tricky to accomplish – especially since classrooms are often a mix bag of culture and difference.

Getting students to interact comes down to routine, positive interaction early in the year. Students need to know that in your classroom, things run a particular way.

A Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up, is a great way to get students interacting quickly. Here are the directions:

1. Students stand up and put their hand up.
2. You can do one of two things: get students to walk around the room and choose a student to pair up with, or play music and students choose the first person they see when the music stops.
3. Teacher will ask question.
4. Provide 10 seconds think time.
5. Students share using either a RallyRobin or Think, Pair, Share

Afterwards, you can have students return to their desks and they can share their ideas to the class.