Definitions

Discourse

The language that teachers and students use to communicate with each other in the classroom. Talking or conversation is the medium through which most teaching takes place, so the study of classroom discourse is the study of the process of classroom teaching.

Student Discourse

Students talking on-topic in an academic environment.

Student Agency

Students having an active role in their learning through voice, and often a choice, in the process. When the student has agency, the student is making, creating, doing, sharing, collaborating, and publishing in ways that are meaningful to them.

Why is discourse important?

Traditionally, teachers tend to use a initiate-respond-evaluate model. In this model, the teacher dominates the classroom discussion. Research has found that that this model does not effectively engage students to promote dialogue.

A more effective framework for establishing classroom discourse is the facilitate-listen-engage model. This model places students parallel to the teacher and creates a space for reciprocal exchange of information and ideas between the teacher and students and students and their peers.

When we move from conventional classroom discourse to rich classroom discourse, we should see...

So how do we get kids talking?

Start by modeling

• Set up mock discussions about the content for students to practice.
• Have students practice maintaining eye contact and correct body language.

Provide students with examples

• Sentence stems
• Talk moves
• Accountable talk guidelines

Reflect

• Allow students to personally reflect on how they did in the discussion.
• As a facilitator, keep notes and spotlight areas of the discussion that were doing well and areas that we can improve on as a class.
• Give students individualized feedback to help them grow their skills as a communicator.

Don't forget about Number Talks!

Number Talks is a phenomenon that is spreading across the mathematics education world in which students are asked to solve problems in multiple ways and share their thinking orally. Teaching students to talk about math is a powerful tool in supporting math discourse and understanding. In addition, Number Talks help students see math as more than just memorization of facts and drill and kill worksheets.

Peer feedback

[Adapted from the Adobe Creative Institute's Creative Process Workbook]

Get kids talking to each other by allowing them to provide feedback to their peers on their work.

This can work on:

• Creative projects
• Essays
• Constructed responses

What technology tools can we leverage?

Flipgrid!

Utilize the comment feature in Flipgrid!

As an educator, you are in control of the discussion features. By default, all new Topics have text comments enabled which you can edit at any time.

Flipgrid Educator Innovation Leads have identified a few key ideas for your first discussion with text or video comments.

• Celebrations and support: In addition to watching videos from peers, have your learners share a note of praise on their classmate's videos.
• Peer Feedback: Not specific questions that learners should keep in mind when watching videos from peers and have them comment their structured feedback.
• Extending Ideas: After sharing their video, have students review their work and then comment any ideas that come to mind after submitting the creation.
• Asking questions: Have students reply to a peer with a question for the original author to consider.
• Quote Analysis: Spark exploration by having students create and share an original quote video and ahve peers reply with an analysis of the expression.
• Connections, insights, and inspirations: In addition to creating video comments, encourage students to provide quick text notes- brain sings!- on their peer's videos

Spark Video!