Sage & Scribe Directions

In the traditional classroom, in which teachers instruct students from the front of the classroom and then ask students to complete worksheets or other solo work, students can quickly become disengaged. To keep students involved in classroom instruction, a variety of teaching methods need to be employed to vary the classroom atmosphere. One way for students to interact with each other while learning is the Sage-N-Scribe method in which one student describes a problem to another student, who tries to produce the desired result.

Divide the class into pairs. Designate one student from each pair to be the scribe and the other as the sage, or allow students to choose their first roles.

Provide a problem or task to each sage, which he will explain to his scribe. Instruct the sage to describe the task or problem to the scribe so that the sage can reach the correct solution.

Allow students to discuss the problem and to ask questions for clarification. Sages cannot help scribes write the solutions, and scribes can only write what sages say.

Have the two students in each pair switch positions. Have the scribe become the sage and vice verse for the second task. Repeat the procedure so each student has a chance to fulfill both roles at least once.

Repeat the rotation as time allows. Have students turn in papers in pairs, so you can see the both the desired outcome and the actual results.