Think, Write & Share

A cooperative structure in groups of usually four, in which everyone has a number. For each question the group goes through three steps: first everyone writes down in silence what they know or can think of (60 seconds), then the turn goes round — number 1 reads out what they have, the others tick what they also had and add what is new, then 2, 3, 4 (90 seconds) — and only then is one number drawn, which tells the class what the group put together (60 seconds). Every question you prepare becomes its own round; prepare none and you only choose the number of rounds, asking them yourself.

One question costs three and a half minutes at the default times: 60 seconds writing alone, 90 seconds merging and 60 seconds for the draw and the telling. Add two minutes once for forming the groups and handing out the numbers, plus half a minute per question to read it out. So three questions are about a quarter of an hour, two fit in ten minutes, and every extra question costs just under four. Whoever prepares the structure sets the time per step themselves, in steps of fifteen seconds; if the groups already sit together, set the first step to 0 and it disappears. The times are a starting point: a class doing this for the first time needs more in the first round.

Questions with more than one good answer. Two kinds both work, and the steps stay the same: "name as many as you can…" produces lists the group merges, and a why-question produces one answer the group sharpens together. What does not work is a question with exactly one answer — once number 1 has said "1789", 2, 3 and 4 have nothing to add. A good test: can the fourth student still contribute something? Out of ideas? Ask Microsoft Copilot: "Write 4 questions about [topic] for students aged [age] that have several good answers, so a group can turn them into a list or one sharpened answer together. Each question should be discussable in a group in about two minutes. One question per line, no numbering." Paste the answer into the question field — every line becomes a round.

From two to six, and four is the default: enough different lists for the merging to be worth something, and four turns fit into ninety seconds. At five or six the merging gets tight — raise that step to two minutes, or have each person name only their new points rather than their whole list. At two it is more an exchange than a merge, and the draw becomes a coin toss. The group size is also the highest number that can be drawn; you set it in the preparation.

Make one or two groups of three or five; the numbers run up to the chosen group size. In a group of three, one student takes two numbers, so somebody stands up at every draw and the turn still goes round four times. In a five, two students share a number and report together. What you want to avoid is a group in which the drawn number is missing: that group then watches for a round, and it is exactly the group you wanted to involve.

In the last step of each round you tap the circle and a number falls, in view of the whole class. That number applies in every group — with six groups, six students are ready. You pick two or three to hear; the rest then add what has not been said. If a group sits with its back to the board, it sees the same number on its own screen through the live link. Without a screen, a die or a shuffled stack of number cards does the same. What matters is that you draw only once the turn has gone round, and that you really draw — always pick number 1 and the structure is empty within two rounds.

They look alike — numbers, a draw at the end — but they deliver different things. In numbered minds the group works towards one answer and every number has to be able to explain it: it is a comprehension check, for questions with one right answer that needs explaining. Here the group builds one shared result out of everyone's contribution, and the drawn number reports what came out: it is a collecting structure, for questions with many good answers. Choose on your question: is there something to merge, take this one; does everyone have to be able to explain the same thing, take numbered minds.

Taking turns is the quick version: everyone gives one answer in turn, with no writing beforehand and no draw, and in five to fifteen minutes there is a lot on the table. The placemat does it on paper and ends in consensus: everyone writes in their own section of one sheet, and the middle is what the group stands behind — you keep a document per group. Think, Write & Share sits in between: writing alone as in the placemat, then the turn as in taking turns, and then the draw neither of them has. Choose on what you want at the end: many answers quickly, one sheet per group, or the certainty that everyone's contribution is in the shared result.

Three things carry it. One: the numbers. Hand them out or have them drawn, and have them written down — the number decides both the order of telling and who gets drawn, so a group that has lost it comes to a stop twice. Two: the silent minute. Walk around and see whether anything reaches the paper; anyone who goes into the merge without a list can only tick. Three: the order during the merge. That is the first thing to erode — if you hear people talking over each other, ask whose turn it is, and that is enough. Finally: draw late, draw for real, and hear two or three groups rather than all of them.

It belongs to cooperative learning and combines two structures described in the literature by Spencer Kagan: Write-Around — everyone writes alone first — and Roundrobin, the turn that goes round the group. The draw at the end adds individual accountability, the same principle Numbered Heads Together rests on. In the Dutch teaching literature, in Ebbens and Ettekoven, these structures sit among the basic forms of cooperative learning. The silent thinking time up front goes back to Mary Budd Rowe's wait time research; why retrieving it yourself first and topping it up afterwards yields more than listening, we checked against Uncommon Sense Teaching by Barbara Oakley, Beth Rogowsky and Terrence Sejnowski.