Building Student-Led Academic Conversations

How to implement discussion opportunities that help students solidify their learning and connect with peers. 

---

LAUREN MIDGETTE
Professional Development Coach
​

We’ve all had moments where getting students to talk has not been a problem, but when it comes to academic conversations in the classroom, it can be hard to keep the conversation going. Students might be unsure of where to go next, how to change the topic, or even questioning what discussion is good for. Educators might be asking themselves the same questions! What are the advantages of discussion in the classroom, and how can we encourage students to facilitate their own meaningful conversations?

---

Why discussion? 

​First, let’s talk about the importance of discussion. In their book, Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk That Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understandings, Zwiers and Crawford note that conversations foster all three language learning processes: listening, talking, and negotiating meaning. Not only can these skills be found in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), but they are also skills we use every day in our own conversations, whether they are academic in nature or more casual. Conversation opportunities give students an authentic space to practice new vocabulary, solidify content learning, strengthen argumentation skills, and connect with their peers.

Discussions also need to be connected to some rigorous questions. What makes a rigorous question? Check out the work of my colleagues Jacqui Stolzer and Dr. Laura Rigolosi to explore how one high school is constructing their own definition of rigor, in service of developing high expectations and meaningful work for their students. 

---

What can I do to encourage discussion?

As educators, we can purposefully build these conversation opportunities into our lessons, and even beyond that, we can highlight and model talk moves for our students. Parsing out ways to make a conversation meaningful and creating a guide for students can be a powerful way to ensure they are not only learning content through discussions, but becoming effective communicators as well.

---

Where do I start? 

​Below is an example of how you can start to plan, practice, and implement more student-led discussions in your classroom.

1. Write down the skills you want your students to master. It can be overwhelming to look at the CCSS first, so I encourage you to start by identifying desired skills, and then pair those with standards (if your school requires). For example, if I want my students to be able to build on previous contributions rather than throw out separate ideas just to have their voice heard, I could easily align this with the first Speaking and Listening Standard, which indicates that students will “Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9-10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.”
2. Make strategies visible for your students. Think about conversations that you’ve had and how you demonstrated this skill. For example, how do you demonstrate that your point connects with something said previously? Maybe you say the person’s name and summarize what they said before moving forward. Maybe you pose a question connected to a previous belief. Write these ways down. Model them in the classroom, and call attention to how you specifically use these practices to build the conversation.
3. Provide students with sentence starters. Ready for a discussion? Offer students some assistance to help them apply the discussion skill you've been working on. In our example, these sentence starters might say, “[Name student], I really liked what you said about _________. I want to add on by saying __________.” If you want them to question other ideas, you might give them this sentence starter: “[Name student], I am curious about what you said. I was wondering how it might be different if ______________.” As students get more and more familiar with the skill, they will be able to leave these formulaic sentence starters behind and create their own ways to connect in discussion.

---

After you’ve had time to practice a few different discussion skills, put them together. Consider pairing students with roles; is someone practicing the role of “Devil’s Advocate”? How about moving the conversation forward when there seems to be a lull? The more students practice these roles, the more natural they will become.

Don’t have the time? Teaching is more than a full-time job, so if this seems like something you really want to try but you just don’t have the time to go through all the skills yourself, check out the work done by Uncommon Schools in their Habits of Academic Discussion Guide. You can also check out Keep the Kids Talking, which offers self-paced opportunities to examine questioning & discussion practices and receive feedback from our coaching team. 

Happy discussing!

ENCOURAGE ENGAGEMENT

KEEP THE KIDS TALKING

SPEED DATING-INSPIRED DISCUSSIONS