Discussions

Welcoming Students With a Smile

• I see many of you welcoming each student as they enter your classroom. You start with an open smile, greet the student by name, give a non-verbal greeting (handshake, high five, or thumbs-up), provide some words of encouragement, and ask how they are doing.

• Try to greet each student as they enter the videoconference. You are modeling the same type of discussion behaviors you want to see and students feel welcomed and valued.

Learn more about Class Greetings with Welcoming Students With a Smile

Provide Clear Participation Guidelines

• It's important to communicate to students that you value the importance of collaborative academic conversations (Why Are They Important?).

• Clearly communicate the purpose of the discussion, what practices will help you and your students accomplish that purpose, and what good participation will look like.

• Better yet, engage them in a conversation to discuss these and have students develop the reasons.

Explore Three Strategies for Better Online Discussions to learn more

Connect The importance of Discussions To Our Greater School Goals

• Students have seen our school wide goals posted around our school and have heard you talk about them. Ours goals are about trying your hardest engaging with the work, knowing you are a valued member of the community, and have greta thinking to add.

• These goals have a direct correlation to our discussion goals so bring them up, remind students of them, and help students see the connection between conversations and these goals.

  • I can Succeed at This

  • This Work Has Meaning For Me.

  • In This School, I Know That I am Loved.

  • My Ability and Confidence Grow with My Effort.

  • I Belong In This Academic Community.

Learn more by digging into Dr. Sevelius's August 29th, 2017 Greeting

Ask An Essential Question To Get Discussions Started

Ask a question that provides a clear purpose for the discussion, is engaging to students, and gets them excited to participate.

• Ask Thought Provoking Questions: We want students to engage with new information in a way that invites students to apply and practice their learning, explore multiple and complex interpretations, and are open to different points of view.

• Ask Either / Or Questions: Have students debate an issue by considering both the pros and the cons. Then, break them into three groups to debate an issue. The first group argues the Pros, the second group argues the Cons, and the Third group listens and looks for common middle ground that they share back after the debate.

• Use readings, videos, and collected data (materials in hand) to stimulate rich conversations that students can pull many details from to support their discussion points

Learn more about Questions That Inspire Higher Level Thinking and Discussions.

Wait For It... Give students time to think

• Our students process information at different speeds. To ensure that we bring all students into the conversation (not just our quickest students) we need to provide ample wait time.

• 10 -15 seconds wait time can allow students to consider their arguments so they are ready to share and their sharing is more considered.

• A little wait time will pay off big when more students get involved in the discussion.

Learn more about the Value of Awkward Silence

Be positive

• Students who feel emotionally safe are much more likely to share their thoughts in class. Try to keep your comments positive to ensure that all students feel safe.

• When students put down others ideas or make fun of others it is important to call behavior out to get it to stop. You can ask questions about how that comment made others feel, have the student rephrase utilizing sentence starters to respectfully agree or disagree, or remind students of responsive classroom or developmental designs strategies.

Learn more about Dialogue Circles and Positive Classroom Culture

Dealing with Off-topic Comments and Misconceptions

It is important that you keep the conversation moving in the right direction. So, when a student says something that is off-topic or just wrong it's important to steer them back in the right direction.

You can quickly turn the conversation around by saying “Can you help me to understand how that is building on our conversation?" or "I hear that you have a misconception and I bet others do as well.... Now that you have new information can you share your thinking?" By addressing off topic comment and misconceptions quickly and tactfully you can get your conversation back on track.

Learn more about Revealing & Dealing with Misconceptions

Bring Highlights Back to the Whole Class

• When the small group discussions are finished bring some of the highlights back to the rest of the class.

• You can do this as the teacher or ask students to share. Students feel proud when their ideas are shared and others get learn from their thinking.

Apply the New Learning

• Students can use the new information that they gleamed from the conversation to apply as details to support their writing or presentations.

Learn more about this at The Role of Conversation in the Classroom – Promoting Student Voice through Instructional Dialogue