Discussion Strategies

Basic Structure: Give students a broad question or problem that is likely to result in lots of different ideas, such as “What were the impacts of the Great Depression?” or “What literary works should every person read?” Have students generate responses by writing ideas on post-it notes (one idea per note) and placing them in no particular arrangement on a wall, whiteboard, or chart paper. Once lots of ideas have been generated, have students begin grouping them into similar categories, then label the categories and discuss why the ideas fit within them, how the categories relate to one another, and so on.

Variations: Some teachers have students do much of this exercise—recording their ideas and arranging them into categories—without talking at first. In other variations, participants are asked to re-combine the ideas into new, different categories after the first round of organization occurs. Often, this activity serves as a good pre-writing exercise, after which students will write some kind of analysis or position paper.

The background chatter you hear while trying to have a classroom discussion can be focused and used productively in backchanneling. Backchanneling provides a platform that gives students an opportunity to share thoughts, opinions, and knowledge before a discussion happens or during a discussion. It's like whispering to one another but digitally. "One study suggests that backchannels can increase student questions and unprompted comments, whereas in frontchannels students are more likely to simply respond to teacher questions (Vu & Fadde, 2013). Because turn-taking is not an issue with backchanneling, more ideas and perspectives can be shared (Harry, Gordon, & Schmandt, 2012). Research also suggests that students who participate in digital backchanneling engage more deeply with course content (Elavsky, Mislan, & Elavsky, 2011; Yardi, 2008)." As with all technology, procedures will need to be taught and support given as it is used.  

Anyone in the room could participate in this conversation on their phone, laptop, or tablet, asking questions, offering commentary, and sharing links to related resources without ever interrupting the flow of the presentations. This kind of tool allows for a completely silent discussion, one that doesn’t have to move at a super-fast pace, and it gives students who may be reluctant to speak up or who process their thoughts more slowly a chance to fully contribute. 

Each student has a piece of paper with two columns; one is labeled Give One; the other, Get One. The teacher asks a question. Students generate responses and write them in their Give One column. Students will form pairs with classmates who are not on their team. Each partner Gives One to his/her partner and then Gets One response. Each student records the response he/she received in his/her Get One column. Students continue to form new pairs giving, receiving, and recording responses until the sheets are completed. When all students have finished, or time is up, they return to their teams and compare lists. 

Basic Structure: One student assumes the role of a book character, a significant figure in history, or a concept (such as a tornado, an animal, or the Titanic). Sitting in front of the rest of the class, the student responds to classmates’ questions while staying in character in that role.

Variations: Give more students the opportunity to be in the hot seat while increasing everyone’s participation by having students do hot seat discussions in small groups, where one person per group acts as the “character” and three or four others ask them questions. In another variation, several students could form a panel of different characters, taking questions from the class together and interacting with one another like guests on a TV talk show.

Basic Structure: Students are divided into 4 groups. Three of these groups are assigned to represent specific points of view. Members of the fourth group are designated as “provocateurs,” tasked with making sure the discussion keeps going and stays challenging. One person from each group (the “speaker”) sits in a desk facing speakers from the other groups, so they form a square in the center of the room. Behind each speaker, the remaining group members are seated: two right behind the speaker, then three behind them, and so on, forming a kind of triangle. From above, this would look like a pinwheel. The four speakers introduce and discuss questions they prepared ahead of time (this preparation is done with their groups). After some time passes, new students rotate from the seats behind the speaker into the center seats and continue the conversation.

Basic Structure: Students begin in pairs, responding to a discussion question only with a single partner. After each person has had a chance to share their ideas, the pair joins another pair, creating a group of four. Pairs share their ideas with the pair they just joined. Next, groups of four join together to form groups of eight, and so on, until the whole class is joined up in one large discussion.

Variations: This structure could simply be used to share ideas on a topic, or students could be required to reach a consensus everytime they join up with a new group. 

Basic Structure: A statement that has two possible responses—agree or disagree—is read out loud. Depending on whether they agree or disagree with this statement, students move to one side of the room or the other. From that spot, students take turns defending their positions.

Variations: Often a Philosophical Chairs debate will be based around a text or group of texts students have read ahead of time; students are required to cite textual evidence to support their claims and usually hold the texts in their hands during the discussion. Some teachers set up one hot seat to represent each side, and students must take turns in the seat. In less formal variations (which require less prep), a teacher may simply read provocative statements students are likely to disagree on, and a debate can occur spontaneously without a text to refer to Teachers may also opt to offer a continuum of choices, ranging from “Strongly Agree” on one side of the room, all the way to “Strongly Disagree” on the other, and have students place themselves along that continuum based on the strength of their convictions.

The Spider Web Discussion protocol reinforces verbal communication skills.  Place students in a circle and provide a prompt that will create a discussion. (To use this technique as a formative assessment, students must have received instruction related to the prompt prior to the discussion.) The goal is for all students to participate in the discussion. Review the link above to learn more about how to set up a Spider Web discussion and the role of the teacher during the discussion. The teacher will be using a nonlinguistic graphic organizer and symbols to record who contributes and in what way. 

Talk moves are sentence frames we supply to our students that help them express ideas and interact with one another in respectful, academically appropriate ways. From kindergarten all the way through college, students can benefit from explicit instruction in the skills of summarizing another person’s argument before presenting an alternate view, asking clarifying questions, and expressing agreement or partial agreement with the stance of another participant. Talk moves can be incorporated into any of the other discussion formats listed here.

This protocol has students come up with their own Thoughts, lingering Questions, and Epiphanies from an assigned reading. Teachers who have used this method say it has generated some of the richest conversations they have ever heard from students! 

This strategy is very effective when solving problems with no specific right answers. 

1. Present an issue with two varying opinions or pose several questions for the class to address.

2. Assign students to groups of 3 and label each as interviewer, responder, and recorder.

3. The interviewer asks the responder to answer the teacher's questions; change roles and repeat step 3 so that each student has a chance to be interviewed.

4. Groups share their thoughts with another group or with the entire class.

5. Can extend this by having the class write a summary of the results.

Students sit at tables in small groups. They select a leader and discuss a topic by writing or drawing on a “tablecloth.” When time is up, everyone but the leader switches tables. The leader summarizes what the last group said to the new group. 

What do you AGREE within the text?

What do you want to ARGUE within the text?

What ASSUMPTIONS does the author of the text hold?

What parts of the text do you want to ASPIRE to or ACT upon?