As they went about the activity, students explained their thinking to each other and built on each other’s ideas. Students may well have gotten the same answers to the questions in the workbook if they had worked independently, but the fact that they are moving through the task together focuses their attention. Students are more engaged with the subject matter making it a better learning experience.

As they work, students talked through supporting evidence, they used vocabulary from the text (for example, acceptable, apprehended). Research suggests that learning new vocabulary successfully requires that the words be actively used. 

In the whole class context, only one student can speak at a time, severely limiting students’ opportunities to practice speaking the words. That opportunity is vastly increased when students talk in pairs or small groups. Students also get practice reading aloud to one another, an important activity in the elementary grades that requires listening ears—conveniently provided by the student’s partner. 

The unit will later require students to choose a position themselves and make and defend an argument for that position, but the short term goal here is to simply establish a shared understanding of what each of the characters believes.