Beyond the Hand Raise: 5 Ways to Enhance Class Discussions

Hey, there, welcome back to another episode, I am so glad that you are joining me today. And today we are going to talk about specific strategies that you can do to create meaningful and productive conversation in your class.

Now, I don’t know if you have ever noticed that you might be the one doing the majority of the talking in your class. I know that was me for a long time. Maybe you just finished a read aloud or you did a small group and you realize that your voice was really doing the majority of the talking like you were talking maybe 90% of the time.

Or maybe you’ve noticed that when you ask a question about a text, you will all of the sudden realize that it has been 20 minutes, you are way off track, you don’t even remember where you were in the book. And all of a sudden your classes talking about Taylor Swift or the latest Tik Tok dance because your students went off on a tangent and you weren’t able to bring them back.

Or maybe you have two to three students in your class that are always responding and participating. And you have another two to three students in your class that are never responding and participating in class discussions.

All three of these things are things that I struggled with when I was in the in the classroom. And it’s possible that you can relate to one or all of those scenarios.

And I think getting all of our students to be willing to participate in class discussions is a challenge and also not only getting students to participate, because that’s part of the challenge. But the other part is being able to effectively moderate and keep our class discussions on track and focused.

But having class discussions, you know, really meaningful and productive class discussions is really important and should be a sort of essential part of your literacy block. And they’re important for a variety of reasons. You know, when students are able to answer questions and participate in class discussions, it’s an opportunity for them to process their thinking. It’s also an opportunity for you to monitor your students understanding, it’s a good way to check in and provide clarification if needed.

But also research suggests that if students have the opportunities to discuss texts with their classmates and peers, then it can lead to more positive attitudes regarding reading, you know, it can enhance their motivation, it can enhance their engagement. So overall class discussions are important. And I think they just really contribute to that feeling of having a strong class community.

So even if they’re challenging, and they don’t always go the way we want them to, they are important. And maybe as you’re hearing me sort of just get ready to jump into the content here, you’re recognizing that there is an opportunity in your classroom for you to let more of your students do the talking or for you to give them more time to engage in class discussions.

Now, the good news is, is that there are some really easy things that you can do to increase the effectiveness and also the enjoyment of your class discussions. And today, I’m just going to share with you five really quick and easy things that you can do that are going to just really increase the the effectiveness of how you do your class discussions.

So the first one is to set really clear expectations. And maybe you’re thinking obviously, we did that at the start of the year. But I think sometimes we assume that our students know how to do things, right, like participate in group discussions, or even just how to communicate. But the reality is, communication is a skill. And it’s something that we need to explicitly teach, we need to model it and we need to practice it.

So even if you reviewed discussion, sort of norms at the start of the year, you want to make sure that you are revisiting this and you are explicitly teaching your students all the different communication skills that go into having a discussion.

So anytime when I was in the classroom, we were going to have a class discussion really about anything so whether it was my students coming down to the carpet, we always did our discussions on the carpet. So whether we were getting ready for our morning meeting, or we are getting ready to read aloud and participate in discussion questions, I would always set really clear expectations.

So I would say things like, when we are speaking, we are using a presenting voice, I wanted to make sure that my students understood that they need to speak loud enough, so everybody in the class could hear, I’d also set expectations like our body will face the person or group we are speaking to. You know, having my students realize that if they are sitting in the front row of the carpet, and they’re facing me, the rest of the class is gonna have a hard time hearing them. So they need to stand up and face the group. So that way everybody can hear them.

Letting them know that we are going to use eye contact. So we want to look at the people we are speaking to, that we will speak slowly and clearly so our audience can hear us, helping them really understand that when they’re, you know, participating in a discussion, they need to maybe speak differently than if they were talking with our classmates at lunch.

We would also talk about expectations for listening. So I would set expectations, like when we are listening, we keep our body and hands still, we will turn our body or head to face the person who is speaking. And we will be thinking about ways that we can respond to what they say.

And all of these really helped our class discussions be so much more productive and focused, and you would literally see my students, you know, it’s like when somebody would would start speaking their, their heads and body would turn to that person, and then someone else would, and they would all just, you know, move to face the person speaking. And it was, it eventually became a habit, because I set the clear expectations, and they would practice it. And this is just something that we did every single time that we were discussing.

So setting these expectations really reminds students of the important speaking and listening skills that are important for group discussions. And again, we can assume that when students come to third, fourth and fifth grade, that they have the speaking and listening skills, but they are things that we need to remind our students of, and we need to practice.

So you could take these expectations, you could put them on a poster, you could easily reference them before you begin any discussion. And then of course, they are there for your students to see as well.

So the second thing that you can do is use sentence stems. And maybe this isn’t a new idea to you, but I have some ideas that I want you to consider.

Now I loved using sentence stems really for any sort of class discussion. And they help for a variety of reasons, sentence stems can really help keep students responses on track. And it can kind of prevent tangents from happening. But they also really help students learn to respond in complete sentences. You know, sometimes students can just ramble and go on and on and on.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had this happen, but a student starts talking and it’s almost like they don’t know how to end their thoughts. And they just keep going and and and, and, and, and and and so when you give students a sentence stem, it really helps them focus their response and respond in one or two complete sentences.

But sentence stems also really make it easy for your reluctant or, you know, students who lack confidence to want to participate in the discussion. And they’re also really great if you have ELL students in your class. So sentence stems can be such a good tool.

But a few things that I want you to keep in mind. Like any tool, we need to teach our students how to use sentence stems. So students need to understand what a sentence stem is, how we use it, why we use it, you know, really don’t just give them the sentence stems actually teach them how to use them.

And before you give them to your students as a response option, review with your students, you know, before the discussion, explain, you know, the different sentence stems and the type of response. So it’s like, okay, this sentence stem will let you share your opinion, the sentence stem will maybe let you respond to something another classmate said, so letting them kind of just really understand the purpose of each stem.

And then something that is, you know, really important for us to consider is only giving our students two or three sentence stems at a time. A lot of times, you know, maybe we want to give students seven or eight sentence stems or you’ve got an anchor chart, or a bookmark that has a bunch of sentence stems on it. But when there’s so many options, it can be overwhelming for students to have to pick. So even if you have an anchor chart that has sentence stems displayed, maybe for the purpose of your discussion, you’re just going to highlight to or put a star next to two or three and limit the students choices.

And some really good examples of sentence stems that you could use during a book discussion include, I agree or disagree with, because I wonder why the author, one part I really enjoyed was because, and the part I found most confusing was.

And I love the variety of the sentence ends because it lets students you know, again, if they need a really easy response, it’s so easy for students to say the part that they enjoyed, you know, that’s an easy answer for them to give, you know, students are really inquisitive, they can ask, I wonder why the author, you know, whatever it was, but all of these will help them get started. It really kind of jogs their their thinking, and it just gives them some confidence to participate in the discussion so sentence stems can be great.

Okay, my next suggestion is to introduce a structured turn and talk. And I say structured because I know a lot of teachers do turn and talk, I’ve shared this suggestion many times, I feel like it’s pretty standard in most classrooms. But I’ve also heard a lot of teachers say that when they do a turn and talk, it doesn’t really work. And their students are off task. And they they don’t respond to the questions, or the groups don’t know how to talk to each other, which is why I say it needs to be structured.

So a turn and talk is simply when two students partner up, and they respond to a discussion question. But in order for this to be a productive and meaningful part of your class discussion, you really need to make sure that your students understand the structure of a turn and talk and they, you know, can fully participate in each part of it.

So I always start by partnering up students, and I like to assign partners, rather than letting students just choose because inevitably, if you just say, find a partner to turn and talk, there’s going to be some kids who are going to be shy, they’re going to be reluctant, they’re going to sit at the back and not participate. And then you’re gonna have other students who are trying to rush across the room to be with their friend.

So I would always assign partners, and I would tell my students, this is going to be your turn and talk partner for the next week or the next two weeks. This way before you begin your read aloud, or your morning meeting, you can tell your students, okay, I want you to sit by your turn and talk partner. So that way, you’ll be ready for the discussion. So students already know who they are going to be talking with.

You also want to make sure that students understand the question that they are responding to, I found that this was a really big one, because you could tell your students Okay, turn and talk. But if they missed the question, if they were zoning out, or daydreaming, or were just distracted, they’re not going to know what to say to their partner.

So you could maybe have your questions written on the whiteboard or chart paper, you could have your students restate the question before they begin the discussion. Whatever it is, you just want to make sure that your students know what is the question they are talking about with their partner.

You also want to make sure students know who is going to be talking first and who is listening first. I know when I first started doing turn and talk, I’d have students the whole time they’d be like, No, you go first. No, you go first. No, no, you go first, you know, they would just spend two minutes like bickering about who’s going to start answering the question first.

So whether it is you know, somebody’s always Partner A or if you want to give them something like whoever’s name has the first letter closest to the alphabet, however it is have them decide who is going to go first and have it be something that is a quick decision. So that way, they don’t waste any time doing that.

And so then they also want to make sure that it’s not just who is talking, but there is active listening going on as well. So each partner has a very specific role. There’s active talking and active listening.

So students will also want to understand, you know, what happens after both students have finished answering the question? You know, do they keep discussing? Do they ask another question? Do they turn their bodies and face the teacher? So making sure they understand once both students have finished answering the question, then what?

I also think it can be helpful to talk about students, you know, what happens if Partner A gives a response. And that was the same response that Partner B wanted to share. And this happens sometimes, and sometimes I think, you know, students can have the same response.

And I think other times students who maybe are reluctant to want to share their thoughts or you know, maybe engage in critical thinking, it’s easy for them to say, oh, that’s what I was going to say. And that’s their response. So you want your students to understand what happens if your partner a gives the answer that you want to give.

So then you want your students to understand that they need to say I agree with you because and then give some sort of evidence, you know, to extend their thinking, or saying something about, you know, yes, that was that that was a good point to make. And in addition to another thing I noticed, so they can’t just say, that was what I was gonna say they need to either add to it, extend the answer, give an additional piece of text evidence, share their personal opinion, or reflection, whatever it is, so that way, they have to provide a unique response as well.

So all of these things are so important for your students to understand if they are going to have a productive turn and talk conversation.

But one of the things that I really love about doing a turn to talk is that it gives all students in your class opportunities to practice both speaking and listening at the same time, which are very important skills. So such a good strategy to use.

Okay, the fourth one is something that I’ve mentioned before and I love it. And if you have not tried it yet, this is your nudge to give it a try. And that is to do a fishbowl with your students to model what a strong discussion looks like.

And we know how important it is to model to our students, whether it is modeling behavior, expectations, how to write something, you know how to think through something, whatever it is modeling is important, our students need to see an example of what it is we want them to do.

So you know, if you want your students to do a turn and talk or a small group discussion or you sentence stems, you want to model to them what this looks like. But so often we, as the teacher do the majority of the modeling, and as a result, especially at this time of the year, our students can sort of tune us out, you know, they get tired or bored of us always modeling to them, which is normal.

So an easy way to model but to switch it up is to do a fishbowl. And during the fishbowl, you’re going to have a student or two or five, complete whatever the activity is. So they’re going to be the ones doing the modeling. But while they model, you’re going to narrate to the class what the students are doing. So that way you can point out the important things that you want students to remember.

So for example, if your students are doing a turn and talk, you could have a pair do a fishbowl as a model before you have the rest of the class participate. So your narration might look something like this. Keep in mind the students are doing the turn and talk you’re just pointing out what they’re doing.

“Okay, Micah and Izzy are turn to talk partners. Notice how they turned their bodies to face each other. You’ll see that they agreed that Micah will respond first. And do you see how even though Izzy isn’t the one speaking you can tell that he is engaged in the conversation? Because his body is still and he’s looking at Micah. Okay, notice how Micah answered the question with just one sentence. She doesn’t want to take up too much time, because she wants to make sure her partner has a chance to share. Okay, now that Micah is done sharing is he is giving his response. But Micah is still just as attentive.”

So the students are the ones doing the modeling, you’re just highlighting the important parts, but you’re making it known to the rest of the class, the important steps they need to take or things they need to remember to do. Such a fun and easy way to model.

Okay, my final suggestion is super easy. And that is to just ask open ended questions. Sometimes discussions aren’t working simply because we’re asking the wrong type of questions.

And an open ended question is one that doesn’t necessarily have a right or wrong answer. And usually, it’s a question that can elicit multiple responses. And oftentimes, our students are reluctant to participate in a class discussion, because they don’t feel confident they’re worried about sharing the wrong answer or looking dumb in front of their peers. So to help ease their mind, you want to regularly ask open ended questions, and let your students know that this is an open ended question. There is no right or wrong answer, you know, that can really help students feel comfortable sharing.

So examples of open ended questions could be what is your favorite part about? What did you think about? Do you agree or disagree with and why? And just simply changing up the types of questions that you ask can really have an impact on the quality and productiveness of your discussions.

And then, of course, with everything, so all of these strategies that I shared, you want to make sure that you are practicing, reflecting and adjusting as needed for your specific class.

Okay, so if you are already doing some of these things in your classroom, hopefully, this episode gave you an idea or two for how you can enhance and improve what you’re already doing. And if you have never heard of any of these ideas before, I would encourage you to pick one and implement it this week.

I’ve been hearing a lot about how information does not lead to transformation. But action does. So you can have all of the information in the world. But ultimately, you have to put it into practice in order for it to make a difference. So take some action this week, put one of these strategies in place to really improve the quality of discussions in your class.

And I always love to remind teachers that the end of the year is actually a really great time for you to start new things with your students. It’s going to keep it fresh for your students. And it’s also going to give you a chance to practice something new for the year. So again, like I said, if you’ve never done these things before, now’s a good chance to put them in place.

So to recap, five things that you can do to support productive and meaningful conversations in your classroom are to set clear expectations, use sentence stems, implement a structured turn and talk, use a fishbowl to model and then make sure you’re asking open ended questions.

Now just a little bit of a heads up Be sure to tune in next week, we are going to be taking a break from talking about literacy specific content, but I have a guest that I know you are going to love. My dear friend Sara from The Responsive Counselor is going to be joining me and she’s going to share some really great strategies that are going to help you understand how to support sticky student behaviors. I know you’re not going to want to miss that episode. So I will see you then. And until then have a stellar week.