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Many classroom discussions are characterized by a great deal of “telling” or “asserting” but fall short on collaborative exploration. There is little emphasis on developing a practice of listening. In fact, there is little emphasis on establishing a reflective approach to the practice of discussion; it is just something that happens. As a result, there are only limited advances in students’ insights about the subject matter, and there are only limited opportunities for students to reap the benefits of many minds working together.
Many classroom discussions are characterized by a great deal of “telling” or “asserting” but fall short on collaborative exploration. There is little emphasis on developing a practice of listening. In fact, there is little emphasis on establishing a reflective approach to the practice of discussion; it is just something that happens. As a result, there are only limited advances in students’ insights about the subject matter, and there are only limited opportunities for students to reap the benefits of many minds working together.
The incorporation of the student-centered discussion process into the classroom has the potential of enhancing the level of student learning about the course content and about the way they and others think about difficult issues.
The incorporation of the student-centered discussion process into the classroom has the potential of enhancing the level of student learning about the course content and about the way they and others think about difficult issues.
Source: Guidebook for Student Centered Classroom Discussions
Thinking Strategies - Consolidate, Communicate, Take Action - Conversation Roundtable.pdfALERT_Collaboration_Winter2015-Letter.pdf
15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging. The strategies are separated into three groups: higher-prep strategies, low-prep strategies and ongoing strategies.
Typical teacher-student discourse resembles a quiz show, with teachers asking a question, the student replying, and the teacher evaluating the student's response. The author of this article suggests that teachers direct their attention to modeling inquiry, emphasizing divergent over convergent questions, organizing students' approach to question-asking and -answering, listening, and providing authentic follow-up questions.
Digital Tools for Online Discussions
Digital Tools for Online Discussions
This online discussion tool allows a teacher to post a topic for discussion (could be student-generated) to a discussion “grid” which is simply an online space for collaborative thought. Students then respond to the topic by recording their thoughts in short video clips. Then, students can watch the videos of their classmates and respond back to them, generating further discussion. Students can share research, ask questions, and have time to think and respond in-depth too each others’ thoughts.
There is a free version and a paid version. Free users at this time get one grid with unlimited students, topics, and responses; in the paid version, teachers can create multiple grids and it allows for threaded discussions with replies-to-replies.
This is a free option if you have an LMS platform such as Google Classroom, Edmodo, or even Seesaw that supports student video upload and threaded discussion.
Have students record their thoughts in response to a prompt by creating a Vocaroo voice comment or by creating a screencast video. Your prompt could be a statement, word, question, startling statistic, text/excerpt, quotation, image, video, infographic, personal story. The mp3 or mp4 file could then be uploaded to your platform of choice where students could watch the videos and respond to each other.
G Suite for Education
G Suite for Education
- Blog: 6 Simple Ways to Use Google Classroom Questions Feature
- Alice Keeler has several templates which you can download for free if you want to:
- Host a “mock” Twitter chat
- Run a classroom discussion using Google Sheets (which can then be posted to Google Classroom)
- Run a classroom discussion using Google Slides
- Alice's blog: Google Classroom: Creating a Discussion Board
Source: https://lindsayannlearning.com/7-free-online-discussion-tools/
Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures
Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures
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