Teach Students What to Say When They Don't Know What to Say 

How does this step work?

First, the teacher must explicitly teach the strategy to students, model the strategy and explain when and why the strategy should be used.

What if a student does not respond?

Smile politely and ask students to, "Please use one of the strategies." Then wait. If they refuse, model the strategy and ask again, letting your tone and body language communicate your expectation.

For additional FAQs check out pages 13-15 in 7 Steps to a Language Rich Interactive Classroom By, John Seidlitz.

Have Students Speak in Complete Sentences 

How does this step work?

Teachers can support students as they learn to respond with complete sentences by providing them with sentence stems. A sentence stem is a short phrase that gives students the beginning of a sentence and helps them structure a response.

Do we expect complete sentences all of the time?

Let's not overdo it. We should expect complete sentences when we ask questions directly during whole-group or small group interactions, but we do not expect students to communicate with complete sentences in every interaction.

A good rule of thumb: Every time a new question or topic is introduced in a discussion, it's good to reiterate the expectation. If you are having an open discussion, relax and allow the free flow of ideas.

Randomize & Rotate When Calling on Students

The goal is to have ALL students involved in the discussion, so ALL students' learning can be assessed. When randomizing the questioning technique looks like this:

• Ask the question

• Pause

• Select a student to respond using a random selection process

In some cases, it's ok to ask students to not raise their hands; this eliminates the temptation to call on those who volunteer. Pausing after the question gives everyone a chance to think, and it creates some "positive tension" as students wonder who will be chose.

Index cards & Popsicle sticks work great, but you can also use apps like Stick Pick, Wheel of Names, & Classroom Screen which allows you to create a class and track the levels of questions asked and the students' success. Talk about formative assessment!

https://wheelofnames.com/

https://pickerwheel.com/tools/random-team-generator/

Use Total Response Signals

3 Elements of an Effective Total Response Signal:

Total - Includes "every" student in the classroom. Total means ALL students.

Response - Every student will make a choice. Students think through what they know to make choices.

Signal - Once students have responded, they will give a response with a visual signal. The signal must be clear enough so that teachers can immediately survey how many students can respond to the question or decision.

4 Basic Types of Response Signals:

Written Response - Students write their responses on paper, sticky notes, cards or white boards and hold them up so they are visible to the teacher.

Ready Response - Students show they have finished a task or are ready to being a new task.

Making Choices - Students show their response to a specific set of choices using a physical signal or object. After reading a question, ask students to show their choice. 

Ranking - Students can show their agreement or disagreement with particular statements. Be sure you ask students to explain their reasoning.

Use Visuals and Vocabulary Strategies to Support Your Objective

Photos, maps, drawings, movie clips, and concrete objects give students access to content in spite of possible barriers such as lack of background on the subject or limited English proficiency.

Visual Tools

Graphic Organizers - These provide a way for students to organize facts, ideas and concepts that help them make sense of the content. You probably make use of these already. Graphic organizers can be used before instruction to provide a scaffold for new material, and they can show much students already know about a topic. During instruction they can be used to help students organize key information. After instruction, graphic organizers help students connect prior knowledge with new information and determine relationships between the two.

Some Graphic Organizers Include: story maps, Venn diagrams, spider maps, T-charts & KWL charts.

Point & Talk

This strategy helps clarify meaning for new concepts. Simply draw or show a visual of the key concept for each lesson. Keep it posted throughout the unit of study and consistently point back to it. (Anchor Charts) Interested in seeing some tremendous anchor charts - Visit Megan Jackson or Kelly Bender's Classrooms rooms.

Developing Vocabulary

A good rule of thumb is to introduce and display at least two new words per lesson. Here are two specific strategies that build academic vocabulary: Scanning=This strategy teaches students essential words for understanding new content minutes before they encounter the words in text. Using this strategy increased student achievement by 33% as compared to students who did not use the strategy.

Have Students Participate in Structured Conversations

Asking students to talk with each other using specific language about a clearly defined topic is called a structured conversation. Structured conversations allow students to share ideas and points-of-view with each other.

A simple strategy that weaves structured conversation into instruction is QSSSA or (Question, Signal, Stem, Share, Assess).

In this strategy, the teachers asks a QUESTION and the students give a response SIGNAL when they are ready to answer. Using a sentence STEM, students are asked to SHARE their response with one or more peers. Lastly, the teachers assesses the quality of the discussion by selecting a few students to share their answers with the whole class.

Have Students Participate in Structured Writing/Reading Activities

Step Seven is about structuring these reading and writing activities so that students gain a deep understanding of content concepts. We create structure by clearly defining our purpose, our plan and the process for each reading or writing activities. 

Structured Reading Activities...

...should be purpose-driven. Teachers should be able to answer the question: Why am I having my students read this?

We derive purpose from the content objectives and the state TEKS for each subject. Therefore, aligning the reading activity with the content objective gives us clear purpose for the assignment. 

Structured Writing Activities

The first step is to determine why students need to write. Specifically, we want to define how the writing task will help students gain understanding of the content objective. If a science objective requires students to explain the differences between the three states of matter, the writing assignment needs to support that goal.

The second step is to ask, "Can my students successfully complete the writing task on their own?"

Lastly, select the structured writing strategy, structure or process that reinforces the content goals.