Strategies for Getting Students Discussing
Recently many people have asked me about how I get students using the language in the classroom. So today I thought I would share a big list of ideas (or strategies) to start a discussion and keep it going. Generally, when we write out lesson plans we put in them “discuss____.” I always ask people what does that mean? How can you be more specific? Do you mean to discuss the video, concept, vocabulary? What I have learned is “we will discuss” means that the teacher will talk and the students might ask a few questions. Most of the time it is the same students answering those questions.
The teacher discussing a topic and students answering a few questions is the discussion format most teachers and students know. They are comfortable with it. So the goal of this post is to give a more comprehensible list of strategies that help encourage discussion and communication in the classroom.
Here are some strategies ranging from prep to no prep for you to consider using in your classroom.
Gallery Walk
Use posters, artwork, stations or QR codes connected to videos and place them around the classroom on the walls. If you can’t put things on your walls create stations by putting desks together. Small groups of students travel from space to space performing some type of task. Tasks can be responding to a prompt, discussing literature using questions you have provided, or talking about a critical thinking question you have posted.
Other variations of this activity that will take less prep time for you is to use student work. Groups of students create an information poster or even an infographic that can be hung around the room. Students then act as a tour guide giving other students a short presentation about their work. research, or findings. Then the group will hold a short Q and A session before moving to the next presentation. I have used an idea similar to a gallery walk called chat stations. You can read about those in this post.
Socratic Seminar
This one is one of my favorite discussion strategies. It lets me see what students have learned, it gives the student an opportunity to share their ideas, and everyone must participate. To hold a Socratic seminar, separate the class into 2 equal groups. Try to make the skill level equal in both groups. Provide a video or written text for students to become knowledgeable about. Prepare discussion questions on the topic you will be talking about. For a better discussion, give the questions to the students a day or two before the seminar so they have plenty of time to prepare.
Most Socratic seminars have an inside and an outside circle. In the ASL classroom, this needs to be set up differently. Set one group up in a semi-circle in the front of the room and the other group as the audience. The first group will answer the first set of questions while the audience group will watch. At the end of the session, the audience must provide commentary, additional comments, or feedback to the panel. This lets you know they are on task and focused. Then switch roles and finish out the questions.
It is important that the teacher not join in. Your role is to introduce the questions, monitor the pace of the discussion, and to let students know when to wrap it up. The seminar is not a place for you to add your opinions, give your thoughts, or to correct students. Grade students by requiring them to make a specific number of comments as a discussion member and as an audience member.
Fishbowl
This activity pairs two students up in the center of the room facing each other. The rest of the students circle around them to watch. Hence the name, fishbowl. However, this does not always work for ASL because you might miss out on the information someone signs. To set this up in the ASL classroom, place two students squared off in the front of the class and the rest of the class in a semi-circle watching.
The two students in the front of the class are given a question or topic, generally based on a specific skill you are working on (grammatical structures, restating, confirming, keeping a conversation going, questioning). Students in the semi-circle can be given a rubric to score with, another type of discussion task, or take notes.
To force student participation, make this more of a relay where any student can be “tagged” in at any time by the teacher or a student (you decide). When using the relay format, require students to use a minimum of X amount of sentences, comments or questions before they can “tag” another student in.
You can add to the discussion by requiring everyone to give opinions or thoughts at the end of the activity.
Philosophical Chairs
The teacher prepares a list of questions that students must agree with or disagree with. The teacher will provide the question to the group of students. After it is read, students move to one side of the room…the agree to side or disagree side. Once students are in position, they must defend their position on the topic.
A good place to use this is for ethical situations in the Deaf community like education of deaf children, interpreting settings or communication situations.
Jigsaw
Jigsaw is a cooperative learning activity. It is used to break down large learning material into smaller, more manageable information. Students are placed into groups and become “experts” on a specific topic. Expert groups are separated into groups with others who are experts on different topics. Together teams provide complete information and a full understanding of the final product.
Step 1: Divide the students into groups of 4 – 6 students. Make groups as diverse as possible by signing level, gender, and ethnicity. Try to keep this as close to 5 as possible. If the numbers don’t add up, have 2 group members read the same article.
Step 2: Appoint one group to be the team leader. You want this person to be the most responsible.
Step 3: Divide the information into 5 – 6 segments.
Step 4: Assign each group member to read one of the segments. Make sure the student only has access to their own article.
Step 5: Give students time to read and take notes/complete the task connected to their topic.
Step 6: Form temporary “expert groups” by having one student from each jigsaw group join other students assigned to the same segment. Give students in these expert groups time to discuss the main points of their segment and to rehearse a presentation they will give to their jigsaw group.
Step 7: Bring students back to their original groups. I call them “Home” groups.
Step 8: Ask each group member to share what they have learned and make a presentation. Encourage group members to ask questions and get clarification.
Step 9: Circulate around the room and make sure groups are on task and providing thorough information. Make any interventions needed. Make sure students stay in the target language. NO ENGLISH.
Step 10: You have the option to give a quiz on the material. This will help students realize these sessions are not just fun and games but important information.
Affinity Mapping
My school uses this a lot at staff meetings and when we are preparing for WASC visits. The idea of this strategy is for the teacher to prepare a broad question or problem that will result in a lot of ideas. You want variation for this strategy to work. Question ideas can be “What were the outcomes of the Milan Conference of 1880?” or “Why should people learn ASL?” Students will generate responses on Post-it notes (one response per note). Then students will place these notes on a wall in no particular order. I like to do this on the whiteboard but it can be on chart paper or the wall. Once a lot of ideas have been generated, students will work together to group them into similar categories. Students will then label the categories and discuss why each card is placed in that category, how they connect to that category, and how they relate to each other.
Concentric Circles
This can also be called speed dating or simply inside/outside circles. The goal of this activity is to circle students up in two circles facing each other. The teacher will give a question like “What is the best way to communicate with a deaf person in a dark movie theater?” The pairs of students will discuss this until the teacher calls time. Then the teacher will move the outside circle as many spots as they wish and pose another question.
A variation on this is to rotate the students and have them summarize what he/she discussed with the last partner. Then the teacher will pose a new question and the duo will discuss. Rotate and continue this until all questions have been asked.
Who are these activities for?
These activities are best used for upper-level students, however, some will work for conversations with lower-level students. You can incorporate things like “Introduce yourself to your partner” or “Tell where you are from” type of questions.
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