What  is  ?
Why  Does  It  work?

The Tea Party strategy is called "Tea Party" because students can pretend they are at a tea party, mingling around with each other, listening and talking, and discussing.  To use this strategy, distribute index cards to each student with a phrase from the text written on it.  Phrases may be repeated.  Ask the students to begin the tea party-- move around the room, listen to other students' phrases, and share their own.  Encourage them to have a discussion about what may be happening.  Allow students to mingle for 8-12 minutes, or until the discussion dies down.  Then, ask students either independently, or in a group, to write "I/We Think" statements.  These statements are the students' prediction of what the text will be about.

Author Kylene Beers, in When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do, writes about the Tea Party Strategy.  "Tea Party offers a chance to consider active participation with the text and gives active adolescents a chance to get up and move around the classroom.  This pre-reading strategy allows students to predict what they think will happen in the text as they make inferences, see casual relationships, compare and contrast, practice sequencing, and draw on their prior experiences" (2003, p. 94).  

Not only does this strategy get students up and moving, but it gets them considering phrases from a text before they've read it.  Students will look forward to this activity, as they enjoy the social interaction, and the motivation to read. 

In order for the activity to be successful, be careful about the phrases and sentences you choose.  Literature-Based Reading Activities, by Ruth Helen Yopp and Hallie Kay Yopp has tips for selecting phrases.  "If sentences are carefully selected, students will form a number of plausible impressions and hypotheses about the text.  If students have revealed too much, the students' responses will converge" (2010, p. 28).

Videos: 

The video below is from Snappy Strategies, wegottaread.com.  This video provides great steps to follow when implementing this strategy, as well as considerations and tips for successful use of the strategy.
In this video, you see a group of teacher learning how to use the strategy.  The instructor explains the strategy, and has the teachers interact as if they were participating.  
How can I use this strategy?
  • This strategy can be used in a English Language Arts classroom, prior to reading a poem, for example.  Choose phrases or sentences from the poem that are intriguing, but don't give away too much information.  Prepare index cards for each students, and have them complete the activity.  After students share their "I/We think" statements, keep them so students can look back after you've read the text.  Compare the prediction to the actual poem.
  • Use this strategy prior to a science lesson, for example, if you are beginning a lesson or unit on the matter, solids, liquids, and gases, take phrases or sentences from your textbook, or other informational text.  Prepare index cards for each student, and have them complete the activity.  After students mingle, have them write a sentence or paragraph stating what they think they will learn in this lesson or unit.  
Resources:
  • This teaching channel video features a high school ELA teacher using the tea party strategy in a modified way-- a "silent" tea party.  She also has questions to consider, and ties the common core standards to her lesson. 
  • Pro Teacher Community has this discussion with real teachers sharing how they use the tea party strategy in their classrooms.
  • Sara Ratelis, a high school science teacher wrote this article about how she uses the tea party strategy with her science curriculum.
Incorporate Writing: 
Writing is tied to this strategy by having the students write "I/We Think" statements, which are the students' prediction about what the text or unit will be about, and what they will learn.  Students will have to make connections from the phrases or sentences they heard during the activity.  Then, they are required to form these ideas into one complete thought, using the phrases and sentences as support of their ideas.  This writing is tied to Common Core Standard ELA-Literacy.W.6.1, which states, "Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence" (English Language Arts (n.d.).
References: 

Beers, K. (2003). When kids can't read, what teachers can do: A guide for teachers, 6-12. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
 
English Language Arts Standards » Writing » Grade 6. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2015, from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/W/6/

ProfDev, J. (2013, February 8). Tea Party Discussion Strategy (JHAT, Jr.). Retrieved May 19, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSv-GIqGOvE
 
 Stimpson, M. (2009, December 1). Tea Party. Retrieved May 19, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=507R7g3dIcA 

 Yopp, R., & Yopp, H. (2010). Literature-based reading activities (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.