Grouping: The Great Confidence Booster (Effective Practice)

The classroom can be a scary place. As a teacher, its my job to make sure my students don't feel that fear. I find that my students biggest fear, is the fear of being wrong. Because I teach classes that are 60% gifted, they all fear the idea of giving the wrong answer in front of their peers. While teaching gifted, I have observed that they strive to achieve the highest grades possible. This usually creates competition amongst themselves to always be right. So when we have open discussions and ask for answers, they are always hesitant to give me their thoughts and opinions. I thought it was perhaps that they needed time to work it out. But when I experimented with  then having them work solo to come up with the answers, I found something odd. As they worked, I went around their work table to aid them and found that they knew the answers all along. I came to realize what they were lacking. Confidence. In front of their peers they were too scared to respond. I realized the best practice would be to have them work in pairs. I discovered that with the aid and reassurance from their peers, they are more likely to engage in discussion and to not over think the question. Now I find that I have made it a daily exercise before discussion is to have them critical think for three minutes alone, and then have them pair up to discuss their answers. This helps break the ice for class and give them just a little confidence boost for the discussion ahead.