Discussion Strategies

Think - Pair - Share For Solid Thinking and New Ideas

• In the Classroom - You may have used the Think - Pair - Share strategy to have students individually think about their response to a question, pair up with another person to discuss their thinking, and then share back to the whole class.

• Distance Learning Adaptation - Use Zoom to host Think - Pair - Share by quickly creating breakout rooms where students can go to pair up and discuss in a small group. Simply count the number of students in your class, divide that number by two, generate that number of break out rooms, and have Zoom automatically assign students to a breakout room. Teachers can always switch users to another group if the auto grouping does not work for a student or two. Teachers can also give students a countdown so they know the conversation will end soon and they will be brought back to the main meeting.

Talk Moves With Sentence Starters For Better Discussions

• In the Classroom - When a teacher utilizes Talk moves they provide sentence frames to help students hold a more inclusive conversation that guides student to share their in-depth thinking. Our students can benefit from explicit instruction and prompts to remind them to acknowledge another students input by summarizing their ideas before presenting an alternate view, asking clarifying questions, and or building on their ideas. Here is one Discussion Strategy: Build On or Challenge Another Person’s Ideas

• Distance Learning Adaptation - Use Zoom to host Think - Pair - Share by quickly creating breakout rooms where students can go to pair up and discuss in a small group. To create small groups of three of four. simply count the number of students in your class, divide that number by three or four, generate that number of break out rooms, and have Zoom automatically assign students to a breakout room. Teachers can always switch users to another group if the auto grouping does not work for a student or two. Teachers can also give students a countdown so they know the conversation will end soon and they will be brought back to the main meeting.

Fishbowl For Modeling Conversations

• In the Classroom - In a Fishbowl, two or more students will have a conversation, while the remaining students circle around them. The central students have a conversation about a pre-determined topic. This is a greta activity to have students try implementing some of our talk moves (see above). Students on the outside observe, take notes, and share their insights about the conversation (after the conversation is finished). I would suggest that you ask students to keep their comments to begin with so that trust is built.

• Distance Learning Adaptation - In Zoom - The teacher asks all students to change their video layout from Gallery View to Active Speaker View. This will allow all students to see just the speaker, so they can focus on the students in the fishbowl. All over students should mute their microphone. The teacher assigns two or more students to participate in the fishbowl. These students in the fishbowl have their conversation (applying their Talk Moves). Other students observe, take notes, and share their insights about the conversation (after the conversation is finished).

Students make careful observations and thoughtful interpretations with See | Think | Wonder

• In the Classroom -

  • See | Think | Wonder is a thinking routine that asks students to make an observations about an object—it could be an artwork, image, artifact, or topic—and follow up with what they think might be going on or what they think this observations might be. Encourage students to back up their interpretation with reasons. Ask students to think about what this makes them wonder about the object or topic. The routine works well in a group discussion but in some cases you may want to ask students to try the routine individually on paper or in their heads before sharing out as a class.

  • Student responses to the routine can be written down and recorded so that a class chart of observations, interpretations, and wonderings are listed for all to see and return to during the course of study.

• Distance Learning Adaptation -

  • Use a Google Doc to have students do pre-discussion thinking and writing. This will help them organize their ideas and back up their thinking with detailed reasoning

  • Students use Zoom Breakout Rooms to have a small group discussion where they share their ideas. Students should get excited about each others ideas, ask clarifying and probing questions to push for detailed reasoning, and "pirate" or learn ideas from one another to reinforce their own thinking. Students then come back to the main Zoom and share their ideas with the group. Encourage students not sharing to use nonverbal tools (thumbs-up, applause, me-too signal...) to show their excitement.

  • Students use Padlet to visually share their ideas with the class and receive additional feedback to add details to their reasoning.

TQE (Thoughts, lingering Questions, and Epiphanies) Protocol for Rich Details

• In the Classroom - While engaging with the TQE protocol students read an article, observe images, or watch a video and take notes on their Thoughts, lingering Questions, and Epiphanies. They then use these notes as evidence to create a deep and rich discussion.

• Distance Learning Adaptation - Students can read a document and take notes on their Thoughts and Connections, Questions, and Epiphanies. Using Actively Learn students can annotate text with Thoughts and Connections, Questions, and Epiphanies. They can share these annotations with just the teacher or with the class. Use this thinking to have a rich small group conversation using Zoom or Meet.

Gallery Walks to Build On Ideas

• In the Classroom - Some of you may have used Gallery Walks in your classroom. The teacher puts up a poster around the room with an image or writing in the middle. The writing or image could be student generated or teacher chosen. Students then visit the poster, make an observation, and leave a comment(s). These comments can be new ideas or building on another students ideas.

• Distance Learning Adaptation - Students can use Google Drawings in conjunction with Zoom Breakout rooms to host a gallery virtual walk.

  • • In Google Drawings

      • Teachers Create and Share Stations First, start a new drawing. Second, add content (image, writing...) to the middle of the drawing. Third, set the sharing preferences so that everyone with the link can edit the image. Fourth, Use a google slide or doc to label and link to the drawing so that students can easily understand how to rotate.

      • Student Comment (New Ideas and Building On) Fifth, Students visit the a drawing, use the callouts to leave their own new comments or to build off of other's ideas (make sure they label each comment they made with their name.)

    • In Zoom

First, utilize breakout rooms to create small groups of students. Second, at the end of each station ask students to have a brief conversation where they each share one thing they noticed. Third, the host can communicate to students that it is time to switch to the next drawing (station).

Backchannel Chat For Questions and Connections

• In the Classroom - A Backchannel is a digital conversation that takes place at the same time that the live conversation is taking place. Backchannels allow students to ask question, make connections to prior learning, connect new ideas to see the larger picture, and share links to provide additional resources. The beauty of the Backchannel is students can share without interrupting the flow of the presentation. Backchannels also provide a way for students who are reluctant to jump into a live conversation a great way to contribute. Teachers can use this real-time information to adjust their pace, approach, or content they are teaching in real-time.

• Distance Learning Adaptation - Both Zoom and Meet have a chat feature that teachers can utilize as a backchannel. Since this is a new tool, students will need time to adjust, try it out, and succeed and fail while sharing. Teachers should provide clear directions for the kinds of backchannel conversation they expect, gently redirect small indiscretions, but not allow students to use this tool to put down others or their ideas.