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Why?

• Snowballs can be a successful way of leading into a larger group discussion.
• The initial stage can help more introverted students participate.
• Students do the vast majority of the intellectual work once you have devised the right set of questions to lead them. This can be satisfying to observe. At the same time, it may make you feel redundant; it’s worth reminding yourself that if they are engaging with the material, then they really are learning more.

When?

• A Snowball could take a large chunk of your class time.
• Be careful not to overuse this method without varying it.

How?

Pyramids, also called snowballs, involve students working solo, then in pairs, then fours (or sixes), and finally as a whole group in a plenary.

A key part of your task as the instructor is to create instructions for each stage and facilitating the plenary portion. You may want to make the questions you pose at each stage build on one another so that you move, for instance, from the concrete to the more abstract, from the simple to the more complex, from small-scale to large-scale, etc.

5 minutes: Working alone might involve reading a case study or other text or starting to solve a problem (Figure 1). It lets students generate some ideas on their own and have material to discuss before pairing up.

Figure 1: Solo

15 minutes: Pairs can risk being exploratory and tentative without being “exposed” to the whole group. The ideas from the solo portion start to grow.

Figure 2: Pairs

30 minutes: Most of the real work happens in the fours or sixes. These groups are a good size for involving everyone and developing a range of views. Students typically feel open to sharing their ideas because they have tested them already in their pairs.

Figure 3: Small groups

10 minutes: In the plenary portion, which involves all the groups, you can pool ideas from each of the groups in turn or can have an open discussion. This works in groups of up to about 24, though they might feel more mechanistic with larger groups.

Figure 4: Whole group

Students want to know a little about what the other groups think, but not too much; and students who volunteer to speak might not say anything too illuminating. On the other hand, they do provide the instructor the opportunity to take the discussion to a higher level and to challenge the students’ ideas.

Source: Gibbs, G. (1995). Discussion with more students. Oxford Centre for Staff Development.

Why?

• The writing portion is especially helpful for more introverted students who need to process ideas internally before they are ready to speak.
• The pairing stage allows testing of views. Studies have found that many misconceptions are corrected at this stage and that students learn better from one another than when hearing a correct or better answer from the instructor.
• Write–pair–share is an excellent back-up activity that you can introduce at virtually any point.
• This activity takes no preparation beyond devising a question.

When?

• At any point in class. For instance, you can use Write–pair–share to review material, to apply a theory or model to a new context or case, and to reassure students that they are on the right track, without putting them on the spot (since that can make the learning environment feel less safe for some).

How?

This activity is often called “Think–pair–share,” and the first stage is more effective if students have chance to write, rather than just thinking, so “Write–pair–share” is the more helpful alternative name.

Pose a question to your group that requires higher-order thinking, such as application, analysis, evaluation, or creation.

1–2 minutes
Write: Give your students a little time to write a response on their own.

3–5 minutes
Pair: Students turn to a partner to share their responses and test out their ideas “privately.” This stage is more effective if you provide a “next step” in the question to push their thinking further.

[5 minutes]
[Square: An optional next stage—similar to the pyramid/snowball activity—is to combine pairs into fours. Again they have chance to test out their ideas in relative safety of a smaller group. This is cheesily referred to as a “Write–pair–square–share.”]

5+ minutes
Share: In this final stage, students share their responses with the entire class. You don’t need to hear from every group, particularly if they have come up with the same kinds of responses.

Instead, elicit alternatives with prompts such as “Did any groups have a different way to address this problem?” This should keep the sharing portion of the activity interesting and worthwhile.

Source: Vaughn, M. (n.d.). Think-Pair-Share. Handout for faculty at Elon University, Elon, NC.