OER Conference for Social Studies After Party // 2023

In facilitating discussion in classrooms, I have developed a protocol that I use to try and balance participation in the discourse, and to support my students in staying on topic. I go over this in the first days of the course, and give refreshers as needed throughout the duration of the course.  I don't pretend to be an expert, but this has worked well for me & my students in 3 different school settings now, so hopefully it will be helpful for some of you.

I have posted sentence stems on my whiteboard:

Could you give an example?    What is your evidence for that claim?    Why do you think or support that claim?    Did you mean ______?

Could you please expand on what you just said?    I agree because_______     I disagree because___________     I would like to add on to what ______ said.

These are to help my students form respectful responses to one another, or get the conversation going, and keep the conversation on topic.  They don't have to use the sentence stems, but it gives the ones who feel "stuck" something they can fall back on.

In preparation for larger group or whole class discussions, I distribute playing cards to the students. 

The number of cards each students receives is based on the number of students present, the length of time allowed for the discussion, and the topic being discussed.   

The protocol is that every student must play all the cards they are dealt. 

If they choose to agree/disagree with their card, they must give a reason why, not just state agreement or disagreement. 

In order to speak, students must play their card(s). 

I do not generally distribute additional cards, unless I have additional time, and can distribute additional cards to everyone in the group/class. 

Speaking order is determined by the order the cards are played, not face value of the cards.  If 2 cards are played at once, I generally just ask the students if one will defer and speak second.  I haven't run into issues with this so far, but that may need to be adapted for your specific classroom needs.

Myriah Davis Thanks for sharing; it is intriguing.  Is the discussion over a reading or source assigned in class or as homework?  What exactly are on the cards; are the cards the  same sentence starters that you have up on the white board?  

In the past I have used a "round robin" approach to a discussion on a reading or source.  I have a process to vary who starts in a group of 4, but using the cards sounds like a nice addition to the way I have had small group discussions in the past.

I use the sentence starters to help kids who might be feeling stuck with what to say or how to put their thoughts into words. I use regular playing cards to hand out to the students. The discussion is usually around a previously assigned reading. Sometimes we do writers workshops when they are writing papers, and I use them for giving feedback to the authors, as well. I work at a very small school, so my classes generally only have 6-8 students, but I have found that even in that small a group, there are still some kiddos whose voices get lost over their more confident peers.

I use the sentence starters to help kids who might be feeling stuck with what to say or how to put their thoughts into words. I use regular playing cards to hand out to the students. The discussion is usually around a previously assigned reading. Sometimes we do writers workshops when they are writing papers, and I use them for giving feedback to the authors, as well. I work at a very small school, so my classes generally only have 6-8 students, but I have found that even in that small a group, there are still some kiddos whose voices get lost over their more confident peers.