"Don't listen to a word I say Hey! The screams all sound the same. Hey!": Part 2

This is a continuation of my previous post focusing on classroom discussion on the middle school classroom.

10.  Think-Pair-Share + Anonymous Post-It:  Have students engage in TPS and have each student write a response on a post-it and place them on a whiteboard.  The teacher can select responses to read aloud.  For students that are disinterested for a variety of reasons, they can be encouraged to write their response by talking with until they come up with a statement they can use.

11.  Importance of wait time:  Give a few extra minutes for students who don’t normally share to write their responses.  This also gives you time to check in with those who don’t have a response yet and provide encouragement and prompts for a response. 

 

12.  Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.

13.  Science Formative Assessment:  75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, & Learning by Page Keeley.  I have used this in the past and I need to use it again.  It is a great resource!

14.  Fisbowl:  Go to a group tell them to keep discussing and have the other students quietly observe the group. Videotaping the exchanges can also be a good way to model desired discussion techniques for other students.

15.  Socratic Seminars:  There’s quite a bit of information about this and there are a number of teachers who have shared classroom videos to demonstrate this.

16.  Teach Like a Champion:  I mentioned this earlier, but this book has many different strategies to increase student engagement learning.  It also comes with a DVD and you can watch clips that demonstrate these strategies.

 

17.  Article Jigsaw:  The teacher had students jigsaw sections of the article, and had each table of four read it independently, highlight, and choose key words or phrases to represent main ideas.  These key words and phrases are put into word circles.  Students had to switch seats and discuss their part of the article with the group and explain the main ideas.

18.  Vote With Your Feet:  Students are asked a question and move to a different side of the room depending on their answers (yes/no or multiple choice).  Students have to defend their ideas-Students are allowed to change their vote (move to another group) but have to explain why they are changing their idea.

 

19.  Negotiating Science:  Pass the Question-The teacher asks a question and a student responds.  Instead of the teacher responding, the question is passed to other students for them to agree or disagree and support the position and idea.

20.  Classroom Discussions: Using Math Talk to Help Students Learn:  Talk Moves-build community background knowledge and formulate hypotheses, K-6, K-8

21.  Website: Alternative Classroom Discussion Formats:  I cam across this on twitter the other day.  The authors talk about a strategy that involves expert panels and another fishbowl example.  I haven’t explore this one too much as of yet.

 

Have you tried any of these strategies?  What has worked or not worked for you?  I am interested in your thoughts!