text). It may be to synthesize concepts and evaluate arguments across multiple texts. Conversation can serve a variety of different purposes and the teacher needs to consult the curriculum and the Missouri Learning Standards to decide which approach is appropriate for students at their grade level and will meet their instructional goals.
Set and communicate clear expectations—Most likely, the top concern students will have is how their talk will be evaluated. As with writing, creating a rubric to evaluate conversation can be helpful. Students can also use a rubric to evaluate each other if they are in small groups. Short, informal free writes after conversation also provide a way for teachers to evaluate student understanding.
Mix it up—Student talk can happen in pairs, with small groups, and with an entire class. Conversations can take place at the beginning, middle, and/or end of a class period. Cain and Laird (2011) described an approach called “focused microdiscussions” (p. 51). Focused microdiscussions can be very effective with longer, more complex texts. The teacher organizes the text in chunks and students stop reading after every chunk to talk about the information they received. They can also use the conversation to generate questions. The teacher can modify the number and length of text chunks to suit the needs of each student.
Practical Ideas for Integrating Conversation into any Classroom
The following conversation activities can be modified to fit any grade level or content area.
Spider Web
Materials needed: discussion prompts and a ball of yarn
Students sit in a circle. The student starting the conversation wraps the end of the yard around his or her wrist. Once the student has contributed, he or she tosses the yarn to a student across the room. The student wraps the yarn around his or her wrist. This continues until everyone has participated. The result is a spider web. With this activity, teachers can easily see who has and has not participated. With younger students, this activity develops the skill of taking turns when speaking.
Penny for Your Thoughts
Materials needed: discussion prompts and two pennies for each student
Students sit in a square or rectangle with tables in front of them. The two pennies represent the number of times a student can contribute to the conversation. When a student wishes to speak, he or she pushes a penny forward. With this activity, teachers can set the expectation of at least two contributions for those who tend to under participate. Teachers can also set the boundary of only two contributions for those to tend to over participate.
Knowledge Building Ball
Materials needed: inexpensive inflatable balls and whiteboard markers
On the ball, the teacher writes
discussion prompts. Students sit facing each other. Students toss the ball to each other and answer the prompt their left thumb falls on. Big IdeasMaterials needed: sticky notes and pencils
Assign students to small groups of 3-4. Each group receives a ‘big idea’ from a text. Students work together to write down details that support their big idea. For variety, create chat stations by moving students around to respond to other big ideas. This activity can culminate in a report out by each group.
Paper Wad Discussion
Materials needed: notebook paper and pencils
Students sit in a circle. After students complete a text, have them work in pairs to write down some potential discussion questions about the text. Then, ask them to wad up the paper and toss it into the center of the room. Ask one member of each pair to pick up one of the paper
Using Classroom Conversation to Promote Student Literacy
Susan Craig, Ed.D. LPC
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