Please Don't Call On Me

Engaging Conversation Track
I just had a chance to watch this video by   . Her personal story and research are very convincing.  She concludes by calling on teachers to be intentional and supportive when thinking about how to get students to participate in class discussions.  What are your thoughts about Think, Pair, Share, or Parlay Live Round Table, or Yoteach?  Do you have other strategies that will increase student participation but not cause undo stress?  

Top Replies

  • The eternal struggle! Great scientific approach to this Megan! Thank you! Lots of things I'll steal! Only thing I'd add is to give kids Socratic prompts and sentence starters as well as Blooms…

  • Take that, Doug Lemov!  (See his Cold Call strategy) In general, I've had the most luck with small group discussions, either pairs or quads, and really clear instructions on what to do. Matthew Kay's book…

  • Thanks for sharing your thoughts Megan and more importantly your strategies for improving student engagement. I have had some success with Think, Pair, Share and have found using games often brings students…

Parents
  • I've found that giving students an opportunity to jot some thoughts down on paper or Google Document have sometimes helped to bring more students into discussions.  Some students struggle to organize their thoughts right off the top of their heads.  Last year, we used Jamboard and FlipGrid to quite a bit to increase student participation in discussions.  With FlipGrid, students can record their voices, don't even have to share their faces, and can access the app on their cellphones.  #OERscavengerhunt

  •  I have used FlipGrid in the past, but we have a few teachers in the earlier grades who use it for everything - so by the time they get to me they have a bit of "FlipGrid Fatigue". Jamboard on the other hand - I have not used to have discussion. How do you incorporate Jamboard in class discussions? 

  • I've used it for "Silent Conversations" in which students can respond to text or images with a sticky note and then write comments to other students as well.

Reply Children
No Data