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Stategies for Debate, Deliberation, & Dialogue

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Stategies for Debate, Deliberation, & Dialogue

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Strategies for Debate Beliberation Dialogue

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Possible groupings:

Color - 4 groups of 6

Symbol - 6 groups of 4

Scientist - 6 groups of 4

Animals - 8 groups of 3

Numbers - 8 groups of 3

Letters - 12 groups of 2 (pairs)

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Cooperative Learning Group and Social Skills

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. What makes the 1-3-6 process successful?

2. Why is it valuable to have students work individually before forming groups?

3. How does working in groups of three prepare students for working in groups of six?

School Details

Alief Early College High School
2811 Hayes Road
Houston TX 77082

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Collaborative Group Work with the 1-3-6 Protocol

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Students in Kevin Sevin's AVID class work individually, in groups of three, and finally in groups of six. By working individually, students have a chance to dive into the assignment before collaborating with others. In groups of three, students hear each others' thoughts and then pair up with another group to form groups of six.

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Description of Strategy

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Template for grades 5-6 and students needing additional support

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Template for grades 7 +

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Great for brainstorming or reviews

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How To Use the Cooperative Learning "Carousel" Strategy - Shelley Gray

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Carousel is a cooperative learning strategy that involves movement, discussion, and reflection. This is similar to one of my favorite activities, the Gallery Walk, but is slightly different. In a Gallery Walk, students typically work on their own, moving around the room to complete a series of tasks.

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A gallery walk activity gets students moving as they explore a range of documents, images, or student work displayed around the classroom.

English & Language Arts

History

Social Studies

Using the strategies from Facing History is almost like an awakening.

- Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif

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A gallery walk activity gets students moving as they explore a range of documents, images, or student work displayed around the classroom.

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September 10, 2013
Using Gallery Walks for Revision and Reflection

One of the Eight Essential Elements of Project Based Learning is Revision and Reflection. This important element enables learners to improve their work through the use of feedback from multiple sources - peers, teacher, and expert.

However, giving and receiving feedback from others can be tricky. It can take time, and the giver might not know how to frame his or her feedback, both in terms of content and tone. The receiver might take critical feedback personally, or be misled by feedback that is off-target in some way.

One way to avoid potential pitfalls and help ensure feedback is "kind, specific, and helpful" (to quote Ron Berger) is to use a protocol. One of our favorite feedback protocols is the Gallery Walk. The basic idea is to post pieces of work on a wall - as in an art gallery - so people can move around and look at it. In BIE's "PBL 101" workshops, teachers use this protocol to give and collect feedback on their initial ideas for a project they're designing. (Note: Gallery Walks are also sometimes used as a teaching tool in non-PBL contexts, to "jigsaw" the sharing of knowledge by students after they've read something or done research, or as a way for students to share ideas and generate discussion on a topic.)

Our version of a Gallery Walk protocol doesn't take much time; it provides a structure for critique; and it levels the playing field, since participants are both givers and receivers of feedback. To prepare for the Gallery Walk, participants create posters with these seven parts:

1. Project Title

2. Grade Level

3. Project Idea (summary of main issue/task/purpose)

4. Driving Question

5. Content (summary of key standards/topics)

6. Major Products (what students will create)

7. Public Audience (who will see & hear presentations or use products)

Below is the slide we use to give directions.

We've found that giving participants a specific focus (Significant Content, Driving Question, In-Depth Inquiry, or Public Audience) and some criteria on which to base their feedback (the Project Design Rubric) helps generate higher-quality feedback. In earlier versions, when we just asked people to "give feedback" many of the comments tended to be superficial ("good DQ!") and some of the seven parts of the poster may not have been addressed.

As you can see in the directions, participants leave feedback on post-it notes, or they may write in a shared, designated area for each work display. The activity is done silently, to allow for quiet reflection time. When writing feedback, we ask people to write comments as an "I like..." statement or an "I wonder..." question. For example:

"I like how well the major products align with the Driving Question."

"I wonder if the Driving Question will seem engaging to students?"

After the Gallery Walk, participants look over the comments on their posters and reflect on the feedback as they plan next steps.

Gallery Walks can also be used during a project with students, starting early in the process of developing products and answers to the Driving Question. They can be used with all types of products - ideas, written drafts, blueprints, prototypes, and design sketches. Work can be placed on desks/tables or taped to the wall. Gallery Walks also can be done digitally, with work posted on online forums for people to leave comments. Peers, parents, subject matter experts, or members of the community can be invited to participate. Involving the community can provide an excellent snapshot of work in progress and enable guests to help learners improve their work. Remember - gallery walks are intended to be formative.

Gallery Walks to Build Community

A Gallery Walk protocol could also be used with adults at school events or in online forums. School leaders could post plans, documents, questions, images or whatever and invite comments, using the same protocol students follow in the classroom during projects. In addition to gathering helpful feedback, the process helps build community and create buy-in by giving people the chance to let their voices be heard - everyone, not just the more vocal ones who might speak at a meeting.

Using a Gallery Walk in public settings also sends a message to parents and the community; the same message we want to send students in PBL: We have a culture here that is open, honest and supportive. We value high-quality work-and to improve it through effective Revision and Reflection, we need each other.

Hangout with BIE: An Introduction to the Gallery Walk

Charity Allen and John Larmer take us through the main components of a Gallery Walk. Learn about how you can use this tool within your school.

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Using Gallery Walks for Revision and Reflection | Blog | Project Based Learning | BIE

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One of the Eight Essential Elements of Project Based Learning is Revision and Reflection. This important element enables learners to improve their work through the use of feedback from multiple sources - peers, teacher, and expert. However, giving and receiving feedback from others can be tricky.

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Graffiti is an excellent strategy to enhance students' thinking skills and promote their writing skills and that is a great way to stimulate students' participation in the classroom. Teachers should provide questions related to same topic and write each questions on the top of a separate sheet of paper. The students need to be divided into based on question numbers. Each group will be given a question sheet and a different color pen and discuss the question then write the answers within the certain time. Then transfer the questions sheet to next group till all the sheets are passed through all the groups. In the final round, the original sheet comes to the group, they need to summarize the ideas and share them in the class.

The Procedure of Graffiti as following:

1.Students divided into groups according to the question numbers.

2.Each cooperative group is given a piece of chart paper and different colored markers. So that teacher can track each individual group's contribution.

3.Each group is given a different question sheet toward same topic.

4.For a short time period (3-5 minutes), every group writes "graffiti" (words, phrase, statement, pictures) on their particular question.

5.After about three to five minutes, the teacher stops the groups and asks each group to pass their graffiti sheets to the next group.

6.The new group with the sheet reads what has already been written or drawn on the sheet and adds additional new information.

7.Continue the process until each group's original sheet has been returned to them.

8.Once a group has their original sheet back, as a group, they read all of the contributing comments, discuss them, summarize them, and prepare a brief presentation to the class as outlined by the teacher.

9.A specific outcome must be set by the teacher for the presentation part of this assignment in order for it to be effective.

References

Graffiti Writings. (n.d) Retrieved from:http:/
/keytoteachingsuccess.blogspot.com/2009/07/graffiti-writing.html

Gaikwad, P. (2011). Advanced instructional strategies [compendium]. Silang, Philippines: Adventist Institute of Advanced Studies.

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Graffiti is an excellent strategy to enhance students' thinking skills and promote their writing skills and that is a great way to stimulate students' participation in the classroom. Teachers should provide questions related to same topic and write each questions on the top of a separate sheet of paper.

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OVERVIEW

The jigsaw classroom is a research-based cooperative learning technique invented and developed in the early 1970s by Elliot Aronson and his students at the University of Texas and the University of California. Since 1971, thousands of classrooms have used jigsaw with great success.

The jigsaw classroom has a four-decade track record of successfully reducing racial conflict and increasing positive educational outcomes such as improved test performance, reduced absenteeism, and greater liking for school.

Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, each piece - each student's part - is essential for the completion and full understanding of the final product.

If each student's part is essential, then each student is essential; and that is precisely what makes this strategy so effective.

JIGSAW IN 10 EASY STEPS

The jigsaw classroom is very simple to use. If you're a teacher, just follow these steps:

STEP SEVEN

Bring the students back into their jigsaw groups.

STEP EIGHT

Ask each student to present her or his segment to the group.

Encourage others in the group to ask questions for clarification.

STEP NINE

Float from group to group, observing the process.

If any group is having trouble (e.g., a member is dominating or disruptive), make an appropriate intervention. Eventually, it's best for the group leader to handle this task. Leaders can be trained by whispering an instruction on how to intervene, until the leader gets the hang of it.

STEP TEN

At the end of the session, give a quiz on the material.

Students quickly come to realize that these sessions are not just fun and games but really count.

ABOUT ELLIOT ARONSON

Elliot Aronson is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of California in Santa Cruz. He has long-standing research interests in social influence and attitude change, cognitive dissonance, research methodology, and interpersonal attraction. Professor Aronson's experiments are aimed both at testing theory and at improving the human condition by influencing people to change dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors.

Professor Aronson received his B.A. from Brandeis University in 1954, his M.A. from Wesleyan University in 1956, and his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1959. He has taught at Harvard University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Texas, and the University of California. In 1999, he won the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, making him the only psychologist to have won APA's highest awards in all three major academic categories: distinguished writing (1973), distinguished teaching (1980), and distinguished research (1999).

MORE ABOUT
ELLIOT ARONSON

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The jigsaw technique is a cooperative learning approach that reduces racial conflict among school children, promotes better learning, improves student motivation, and increases enjoyment of the learning experience.

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1) Teacher writes question or quote on the top of paper. Total 3-5 different questions.
2) Teacher distributed to students who respond to the question and sign name.
3) Teacher collects and redistributes.
4) Student reads new question and student response and then adds their response creating a discussion.
5) The activity is completed silently.

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https://www.learnalberta.ca/content/sssm/html/placematactivity_sm.html

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This support material is incorporated into critical challenges at grade 11, however, it can be adapted for use at all grade levels.

The Placemat Activity strategy provides an opportunity for each student in a group to record individual responses and ideas regarding an issue, topic or question for consideration. The strategy can be used to brainstorm ideas, record researched information or analyze documents. Individual responses are shared with the group. After sharing and discussion, the group records agreed-upon responses in the centre of the placemat.

To use this strategy:

divide the class into groups of four or five

provide each group with one large sheet of paper/placemat and a marker for each group member

instruct each group to divide its sheet of paper/placemat into sections, with an area in the centre and enough separate areas around the outside to match the number of members in the group, as illustrated below

ask groups to record responses of individual students within their allotted space in one of the outside sections

provide time for each student in the group to share his or her recorded responses with the group without discussion or debate from the other students

ask groups to decide, collectively, on the five most important/significant items or responses and record them in the centre of the placemat-it is important that all group members agree on the top five items.

Placemat for a five-member group

Placemat for a four-member group

Possible Extensions

have students or groups rank the top five responses in order of importance

have students or groups create a representation, such as a poster, cartoon or oral presentation, to communicate the top five responses.

Credits

Adapted from Critical Challenges Across the Curriculum series. Permission granted by The Critical Thinking Consortium for use by Alberta teachers.

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This support material is incorporated into critical challenges at grade 11, however, it can be adapted for use at all grade levels. The Placemat Activity strategy provides an opportunity for each student in a group to record individual responses and ideas regarding an issue, topic or question for consideration.

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Small groups of students move from station to station to read, watch, and interpret a variety of resources.

English & Language Arts

History

Social Studies

Using the strategies from Facing History is almost like an awakening.

- Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif

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Stations: Interacting with Multiple Texts

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Small groups of students move from station to station to read, watch, and interpret a variety of resources. English & Language Arts History Social Studies Using the strategies from Facing History is almost like an awakening. - Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif

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Thought starters

1. What systems and expectations does Ms. Williams have in place to help the lab stations run smoothly?

2. How do the everyday objects help students deepen their thinking about energy transformations?

3. What are the benefits of having students explore the lab stations in groups?

School Details

Kipp Truth Academy
1545 South Ewing Avenue
Dallas TX 75216

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Exploring Real World Energy Transformations

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Brittany Williams engages her sixth grade science class in hands-on lab stations. Students work in groups to explore four lab stations where they investigate real world energy transformations. Ms. Williams has structures and expectations in place to ensure the lab stations run smoothly. She assesses student understanding at the end of class with individual exit tickets.

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Students have a written conversation with peers and use silence as a tool to explore a topic in depth.

English & Language Arts

History

Social Studies

Using the strategies from Facing History is almost like an awakening.

- Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif

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Big Paper: Building a Silent Conversation

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Students have a written conversation with peers and use silence as a tool to explore a topic in depth.

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Silent conversation about reading assignment
1) Divide students into groups
2) Each group receives different colored sheet
3) The teacher provides a sentence starter as the prompt for a “quick write.”
4) The first student records a written response and passes the paper to the next student.
5) That student reads the first student’s response and writes either additional information, another point of view, a question, or an example.
6) The second student folds the top of the paper over to cover the first student’s written response and passes the paper to the third student, who reads only the second student’s written response, adds his or her thoughts, and folds over the paper to cover the previous responses.
7) The paper is passed on until everyone has recorded a response.
8) At the end of writing period, one student from each group unfolds the paper and reads the responses to the group to stimulate discussion.

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Another idea in our Skills and Strategies series, the Four-Corners technique can be used by any teacher on any level with any material - it's all in how you craft it.

Below, you'll find a description of the strategy and several suggestions for putting it together with Times content.

Have you tried Four Corners, or something like it? How did it go? Let us know in the comments.

The Four-Corners Strategy

One take on the Four Corners technique, from The Teaching Channel

In Four Corners, students move around the room to show their level of agreement or disagreement with a statement or statements on a particular issue. Each corner is labeled with one of four signs - Strongly Agree; Agree; Disagree; Strongly Disagree. As the teacher reads a series of statements about the issue, students move to one of the four corners to show their point of view.

The strategy ensures that all students participate, and it gets a lesson "on its feet," which can be especially helpful for kinesthetic learners. It can be used as a warm-up - a kind of "anticipation guide" to the ideas they'll be studying - or as a culminating activity. Teachers might also use the strategy at both the beginning and the end of a unit to see how students' opinions change after they learn more.

Another way to organize it? Instead of using the four corners of a classroom, make an imaginary line across the room. Make one end "strongly agree," the opposite end "strongly disagree" and the middle "no opinion." Every other position on the line shows degrees of agreement or disagreement, depending on how closely a student positions him or herself to the two extremes at the ends. (Facing History and Ourselves calls this the "barometer activity" and explains other nuances here.)

If you choose to pose a series of statements to the class, you might start out with sentences that are more general and perhaps less controversial, then get to more specific or more complex statements as you move on.

Give students time to think after you read each one, but ask them to move in silence at first. Discussion is saved for later. The last statement might be the most provocative, or the one that gets most closely to the issue with which you would like for them to wrestle. For example, a series of statements about climate change might begin with a sentence like "Climate is different from weather" and end with something like "Climate change is a hoax."

Once students are in their chosen corners in reaction to the final statement, each group can discuss its point of view, and select a representative who will speak on behalf of the whole group. Then all four corners might take turns stating their cases. If you are doing this after students have read a text, you might ask that each group supply evidence from it to support the students' thoughts.

The teacher might then read the final statement again and see if, as a result of discussion, any students have changed their minds. If so, they should move to a new corner.

To take this activity further, you might have students do the exercise in the role of a character or a historical figure or a member of a different demographic. For instance, in the climate change example, students might be assigned the roles of particular political figures, scientists or other stakeholders who might have nuanced thoughts on the topic.

Below, we show how Four Corners might work with issues covered in The Times.
Four Corners and The Times

Four Corners can be used with content in any subject area and at any level you teach. We at the Learning Network have used it in lesson plans on:

But you don't have to rely on what we have done, of course. Here's how to do it yourself if you're interested in bringing current events and debates into your classroom this way.
How to Create Four Corners Statements From Room for Debate or Student Opinion Pieces
To quickly find Times materials that work well, you might look through our Student Opinion posts, or our 301 Prompts for Argumentative Writing collection. Each question links to a free Times article on that topic, and you can easily adapt our questions into statements or add your own.

Another fruitful source: the Room for Debate forum, in which experts weigh in on different current events topics.

For instance, the question Do We Need to Change the Way We Raise Boys? would almost certainly create impassioned debate in most classrooms. In the Room for Debate post, five people discuss the question, bringing up a wide variety of points about gender and identity, culture, biology and parenting.

A teacher wishing to use this topic could tweak statements from each of the debaters and quickly create a Four Corners activity. A few examples might be:

We are living in confusing times in terms of gender identity.

If someone told me or a boy I knew to "be a man," I would know what they meant.

From rap lyrics to video games, there is a great deal of misogyny in today's popular culture.

Boys face contempt if they like "girlie" things.

The concept of "a real man" is a negative one today.

From here, there are many places to go. After they read the full Room for Debate post, they might write their own pieces; interview others for a survey; or do any of these ideas in our lesson plan, Constructing Arguments: 'Room for Debate' and the Common Core Standards, or in this Reader Idea, Using Room for Debate to Teach Argumentative Writing and Discussion Skills.

Another example? We have noticed on our blog that the Student Opinion questions that consistently elicit the most comments concern students' use of technology and social media and the nuances of their lives online. There are many, many Times articles and Student Opinion questions on this broad topic, but here is an example of how to use a recent one, " Addicted to Distraction," paired with one of our most popular Student Opinion questions, " Does Technology Make Us More Alone? "

Here are just a few examples of statements that might be derived from these two readings:

Technology is getting in the way of our ability to communicate face to face.

Smartphones will continue to intrude more into our private and social spaces as time goes on.

Documenting experiences and putting them on social media takes away from living in the moment.

Technology has shortened people's attention spans.

Reality is often less interesting than what's on the Internet.

Social media can be dangerous.

Teenagers spend too much time on screens.

Have your class do the Four Corners exercise before they read more on the topic since, like the gender example above, they will certainly already have opinions. Afterward, have students sit down and quickly freewrite or journal their reactions to the exercise, and list some of the points that came up about which they had strong reactions.

This might then lead to a formal piece of writing - one which, perhaps, they would like to send in for our annual Student Editorial Contest ( coming in Feb. 2016). Or, like any rich subject, could lead to students developing their own inquiry questions for further research.
Sensitive Topics and the Four Corners Exercise

Though some of the most hotly debated topics on social media might also make for rich Four Corner exercises, because the strategy demands that students publicly take a stand, teachers should be very careful in choosing topics and crafting statements.

As a Times tech columnist, Farhad Manjoo, wrote this week in " The Internet's Loop of Action and Reaction Is Worsening ":

If you've logged on to Twitter and Facebook in the waning weeks of 2015, you've surely noticed that the Internet now seems to be on constant boil. Your social feed has always been loud, shrill, reflexive and ugly, but this year everything has been turned up to 11. The Islamic State's use of the Internet is perhaps only the most dangerous manifestation of what, this year, became an inescapable fact of online life: The extremists of all stripes are ascendant, and just about everywhere you look, much of the Internet is terrible.

Though you may be talking about, say, the 2016 election, gun control, race and policing or any of the other important issues that were in the news in 2015 and that many teachers want to connect to curriculum, there are ways to make sure the exercise promotes, as Mr. Manjoo writes, "nuance, complexity, or flirting with the middle ground" rather than outrage.

For example, if you look at the sample statements we posed for the pieces about gender and technology, above, you will see that none of them are personal. Instead of a statement reading, "I spend too much time on screens," we posed it as, "People spend too much time on screens." Of course, each teacher knows what is appropriate for his or her class, and in some contexts, like an advisory group, personal statements might be the more fertile way to go. It is often easier, however, for students to take a stance that is more about society as a whole than directly about him or herself.

You might also take the statements you will use for Four Corners and hand them out first on paper, asking each student to anonymously rate their reactions to each. Collect the sheets and tally them, then let the class know the results. At the end of the unit, you might then ask students to react to the same statements in a public, Four Corners exercise since by then they will have read and discussed the topic more deeply and may be more comfortable expressing their opinions this way. (Make sure you save the original tally for each statement so you can show them how their opinions have changed - or haven't.)
Related
Our series Drama Strategies to Use With Any Day's Times

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Skills and Strategies | The Four-Corners Exercise to Inspire Writing and Discussion

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Another idea in our Skills and Strategies series, the Four-Corners technique can be used by any teacher on any level with any material - it's all in how you craft it. Below, you'll find a description of the strategy and several suggestions for putting it together with Times content.

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Interactive Lecture - 10:2 (Stacy, 2009)

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Interactive Lecture - 10:2 (Stacy, 2009)

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-Teacher leads for 10 minutes
-Students interact (discuss, answer questions, formative assessments) for two minutes

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Easily adapted for older grades!

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Grades

3 - 5

Lesson Plan Type

Recurring Lesson

Estimated Time

Three 60-minute sessions

Lesson Author

Publisher

Student Objectives Sessions 2 and 3 Extensions Student Assessment/Reflections
STUDENT OBJECTIVES

Students will

Define and understand the meeting of the minds technique

Take on the role of characters in a story and debate their perspectives, clearly and convincingly presenting the characters' viewpoints

Engage in an oral debate in small groups

Use critical thinking skills to create questions relevant to the text

Use the strategy of evaluating to make judgments about characters in a text

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Stage 1: Teacher-directed whole-group instruction (40 minutes)

1.

Explain to students what it means to evaluate their reading. Tell students that evaluating means making a judgment about a story or a character. Give an example. Explain that they will be participating in an activity in which they pretend to be a character in a story, and will respond to questions as that character. Explain how they will be "evaluating"--by taking on the role of the character, they are making judgments about that character, other characters, and events in the story.

Read an original version of The Three Little Pigs aloud to students. Ask students to think about the different points of view of the wolf and pigs as they listen to the story.

Display the Meeting of the Minds Chart for students. Fill in the character columns with "pigs" and "wolf." Ask students to imagine the three little pigs and the wolf having a debate about the incidents in the story. Have students brainstorm questions that an interviewer could ask the characters. Record the questions on the chart.

Choose one question and, in each of the character columns, record how each character might respond to the question. For example:

Do you think you did anything wrong in this situation?

Pigs' response: No, we were just minding our own business in our houses.

Wolf's response: I was just looking for some food. I can't help it if I'm hungry.

2.

Demonstrate the strategy. Ask two to four students to act as the wolf and pigs. (You may choose to have one or three students represent the three pigs.) Explain to students that there also needs to be a moderator to ask the questions, and a summarizer to summarize the debate.

Using the question previously demonstrated, have the student moderator ask the question and have each character respond.

Explain to students that they must "become" the character and answer the question as the character would. There is no script to read from so students should just ad-lib.

After students answer the question, give a brief summary of their answers to demonstrate the role of the summarizer.

3.

Guide students to apply the strategy. Gather students into groups of four. Have students answer another question on the meeting of the minds chart. Each student in the group should have a role (moderator, character, or summarizer). When students finish, ask them to switch roles within their groups and pose another question from the chart.

4.

Practice individually or in small groups. After students have had a chance to practice, bring the whole class back together. Tell students that they are going to hear another version of the same story. Read The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs aloud.

Pass out individual copies of the Meeting of the Minds Chart to each student.

Divide the class into small groups (7–9 students per group) and ask them to simulate another meeting of the minds. Students should begin by brainstorming questions and recording them on their charts. The characters should remain the same (wolf and pigs). Students who do not have a role should act as the audience.

Have students switch roles after each question.

5.

Reflect. Ask students to reflect on the meeting of the minds technique. How did it help them understand the characters? What did they like and dislike about the debates? Did it help them better understand the stories?

Stage 2: Teacher-guided small groups and student-facilitated independent practice (40 minutes)

Before beginning Stage 2, students must be divided into three instructional-level groups. Students with similar instructional needs should be grouped together. This does not necessarily mean that students in each group are on the same reading level. Instead, they may have similar needs for comprehension instruction (e.g., students who have trouble making inferences or students who need extra practice making connections between texts).

Students are working in three different areas during this stage:

Teacher-guided small-group instruction

Student-facilitated comprehension centers

Student-facilitated comprehension routines

Classroom management is at the discretion of each individual teacher. You may want to assign students to small groups and set up a rotation schedule, or you may want to allow groups of students to choose their own activities. Regardless, each group of students needs to visit the three areas at least once in the three-session lesson.
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1.

Teacher-guided small group instruction. Choose one group to begin with you as follows:

Review the meeting of the minds strategy using the example of the three little pigs story from Stage 1.

Guide students in reading an instructional level text, preferably with conflicting characters. You may choose to use another version of the Three Little Pigs or a new version of a common fairy tale. Some suggested books are available at Folk and Fairy Tales, Tongue-in-Cheek Versions.

Have students simulate a meeting of the minds debate.

Have students reflect on using the meeting of the minds technique and how it can help them to evaluate what they read.

2.

Student-facilitated comprehension centers. Students may be assigned to centers or choose activities on their own.

Drama center. Have students read and perform a Readers Theater for The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. (A script is available at Readers Theater Script for The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs.) When finished reading, ask students to evaluate each of the characters in the skit and write down their judgment to share with the group. What did they think of the wolf? The pigs? What would they have done if they were in the same situation?

Writing center. Have students write a review of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. Remind them that they should use the evaluating strategy to make judgments about the story. Have students read their reviews to a partner and discuss.

Genre center. Have students read and explore other popular fairy tales. If possible, have varying versions of popular fairy tales available for students to browse (for example, different versions of Cinderella or Jack and the Beanstalk). A list of varying versions is available at the Folk and Fairy Tales, Tongue-in-Cheek Versions website. Have students reflect in their journals about the different versions of a fairy tale and give reasons why they like one particular version better.

Internet center. Using the interactive Venn diagram, have students compare two versions of the Three Little Pigs. Afterwards, have students write evaluative statements describing the major differences between the two versions.

3.

Student-facilitated comprehension routines. Working in small groups, students engage in three different literacy strategies. Students should already be familiar with each of the strategies and have practiced them over time. For more information, review the Summary Sheet or refer to the text Guided Comprehension: A Teaching Model for Grades 3-8 by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen.

Sessions 2 and 3
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For Sessions 2 and 3, pick up where you left off the previous session. The suggested time for each session is 60 minutes, however, since the group only had 20 minutes in small groups during Session 1, you may want to meet with them for another 20 minutes and then switch groups for the last 40 minutes. The rotation should continue until all three groups have visited all three areas. In Session 3, students will spend 40 minutes in small groups, leaving 20 minutes for whole-group reflection and discussion (see Stage 3).

Stage 3: Whole-group reflection (20 minutes)

1.

Talk to students about the evaluating comprehension strategy that they have been learning. Ask them to tell why and how meeting of the minds helps them to better understand the characters and the stories they are reading.

2.

Give students time to share the activities they completed in the student-facilitated comprehension centers.

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EXTENSIONS
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To extend the activities in this lesson, have students explore the following websites:

Guided Comprehension: Knowing How Words Work Using Semantic Feature Analysis

Guided Comprehension: Making Connections Using a Double-Entry Journal

Guided Comprehension: Monitoring Using the INSERT Technique

Guided Comprehension: Previewing Using an Anticipation Guide

Guided Comprehension: Self-Questioning Using the Question-Answer Relationship

Guided Comprehension: Summarizing Using the QuIP Strategy

Guided Comprehension: Visualizing Using the Sketch-to-Stretch Strategy

STUDENT ASSESSMENT/REFLECTIONS

Use the Meeting of the Minds Rubric to evaluate students' participation and understanding of the meeting of the minds technique and the evaluating strategy. This rubric can be used during the whole-class debate in Stage 1 or during small-group work in Stage 2.

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Guided Comprehension: Evaluating Using the Meeting of the Minds Technique - ReadWriteThink

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Grades 3 - 5 Lesson Plan Type Recurring Lesson Estimated Time Three 60-minute sessions Lesson Author Publisher Student Objectives Sessions 2 and 3 Extensions Student Assessment/Reflections Students will Define and understand the meeting of the minds technique Take on the role of characters in a story and debate their perspectives, clearly and convincingly presenting the characters' viewpoints Engage in an oral debate in small groups Use critical thinking skills to create questions relevant to the text Use the strategy of evaluating to make judgments about characters in a text back to top Stage 1: Teacher-directed whole-group instruction (40 minutes) 1.

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Description

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Pass The Picture: Pass the Picture is a comprehension activity where students work in small groups to answer a series of pre-determined questions about an image that is passed around to their teammates, one-by-one. While seated in a circle, each group is presented with a picture with questions attached to the back.

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How often have you used brainstorming to solve a problem? Chances are, you've used it at least once, even if you didn't realize it.

For decades, people have used brainstorming to generate ideas, and to come up with creative solutions to problems. However, you need to use brainstorming correctly for it to be fully effective.

In this article, we'll look at what brainstorming is, why it's useful, and how to get the best from it.

Click here to view a transcript of this video.

What Is Brainstorming?

Madison Avenue advertising executive Alex Osborn developed the original approach and published it in his 1953 book, "Applied Imagination." [1]

Since then, researchers have made many improvements to his original technique. The approach described here takes this research into account, so it's subtly different from Osborn's approach. [2]

Brainstorming combines a relaxed, informal approach to problem solving with lateral thinking. It encourages people to come up with thoughts and ideas that can, at first, seem a bit crazy. Some of these ideas can be crafted into original, creative solutions to a problem, while others can spark even more ideas. This helps to get people unstuck by "jolting" them out of their normal ways of thinking.

Therefore, during brainstorming sessions, people should avoid criticizing or rewarding ideas. You're trying to open up possibilities and break down incorrect assumptions about the problem's limits. Judgment and analysis at this stage stunts idea generation and limit creativity.

Evaluate ideas at the end of the session - this is the time to explore solutions further, using conventional approaches.

Why Use Brainstorming?

Conventional group problem solving can often be undermined by unhelpful group behavior. And while it's important to start with a structured, analytical process when solving problems, this can lead a group to develop limited and unimaginative ideas.

By contrast, brainstorming provides a free and open environment that encourages everyone to participate. Quirky ideas are welcomed and built upon, and all participants are encouraged to contribute fully, helping them develop a rich array of creative solutions.

When used during problem solving, brainstorming brings team members' diverse experience into play. It increases the richness of ideas explored, which means that you can often find better solutions to the problems that you face.

It can also help you get buy-in from team members for the solution chosen - after all, they're likely to be more committed to an approach if they were involved in developing it. What's more, because brainstorming is fun, it helps team members bond, as they solve problems in a positive, rewarding environment.

While brainstorming can be effective, it's important to approach it with an open mind and a spirit of non-judgment. If you don't do this, people "clam up," the number and quality of ideas plummets, and morale can suffer.

How to Use the Tool

You often get the best results by combining individual and group brainstorming, which we explain below, and by managing the process according to the "rules" below. By doing this, you can get people to focus on the issue without interruption, you maximize the number of ideas that you can generate, and you get that great feeling of team bonding that comes with a well-run brainstorming session!

To run a group brainstorming session effectively, follow these steps.

Step 1: Prepare the Group

How much information or preparation does your team need in order to brainstorm solutions to your problem? Remember that prep is important, but too much can limit - or even destroy - the freewheeling nature of a brainstorming session.

First, choose an appropriate and comfortable meeting space. This can be in the office, or virtual. Consider what would work best for your team. Make sure you have the right resources beforehand; you can use virtual brainstorming tools like Miro or LucidSpark, and you'll need pens and Post-Its for an in-person session.

Now consider who will attend the meeting. A brainstorming session full of like-minded people won't generate as many creative ideas as a diverse group, so try to include people from a wide range of disciplines, and include people who have a variety of different thinking styles.

When everyone is gathered, appoint one person to record the ideas that come from the session. This person shouldn't necessarily be the team manager - it's hard to record and contribute at the same time. Post notes where everyone can see them, such as on flip charts or whiteboards; or use a computer with a data projector.

If people aren't used to working together, consider using an appropriate warm-up exercise, or an icebreaker.

Step 2: Present the Problem

Clearly define the problem that you want to solve, and lay out any criteria that you must meet. Make it clear that that the meeting's objective is to generate as many ideas as possible.

Give people plenty of quiet time at the start of the session to generate as many of their own ideas as they can. Then, ask them to share or present their ideas, while giving everyone a fair opportunity to contribute.

Step 3: Guide the Discussion

Once everyone has shared their ideas, start a group discussion to develop other people's ideas, and use them to create new ideas. Building on others' ideas is one of the most valuable aspects of group brainstorming.

Encourage everyone to contribute and to develop ideas, including the quietest people, and discourage anyone from criticizing ideas.

As the group facilitator, you should share ideas if you have them, but spend your time and energy supporting your team and guiding the discussion. Stick to one conversation at a time, and refocus the group if people become sidetracked.

Although you're guiding the discussion, remember to let everyone have fun while brainstorming. Welcome creativity, and encourage your team to come up with as many ideas as possible, regardless of whether they're practical or impractical. Use thought experiments such as Provocation or Random Input to generate some unexpected ideas.

Don't follow one train of thought for too long. Make sure that you generate a good number of different ideas, and explore individual ideas in detail. If a team member needs to "tune out" to explore an idea alone, allow them the freedom to do this.

Also, if the brainstorming session is lengthy, take plenty of breaks so that people can continue to concentrate.

Individual Brainstorming

While group brainstorming is often more effective at generating ideas than normal group problem solving, several studies have shown that individual brainstorming produces more - and often better - ideas than group brainstorming. [3]

This can occur because groups aren't always strict in following the rules of brainstorming, and bad behaviors creep in. Mostly, though, this happens because people pay so much attention to other people that they don't generate ideas of their own - or they forget these ideas while they wait for their turn to speak. This is called "blocking."

When you brainstorm on your own, you don't have to worry about other people's egos or opinions, and you can be freer and more creative. For example, you might find that an idea you'd hesitate to bring up in a group develops into something special when you explore it on your own.

However, you may not develop ideas as fully when you're on your own, because you don't have the wider experience of other group members to draw on.

Tip:

To get the most out of your individual brainstorming session, choose a comfortable place to sit and think. Minimize distractions so that you can focus on the problem at hand, and consider using Mind Maps to arrange and develop ideas.

Individual brainstorming is most effective when you need to solve a simple problem, generate a list of ideas, or focus on a broad issue. Group brainstorming is often more effective for solving complex problems.

Group Brainstorming

Here, you can take advantage of the full experience and creativity of all team members. When one member gets stuck with an idea, another member's creativity and experience can take the idea to the next stage. You can develop ideas in greater depth with group brainstorming than you can with individual brainstorming.

Another advantage of group brainstorming is that it helps everyone feel that they've contributed to the solution, and it reminds people that others have creative ideas to offer. It's also fun, so it can be great for team building!

Group brainstorming can be risky for individuals. Unusual suggestions may appear to lack value at first sight - this is where you need to chair sessions tightly, so that the group doesn't crush these ideas and stifle creativity.

Where possible, participants should come from a wide range of disciplines. This cross-section of experience can make the session more creative. However, don't make the group too big: as with other types of teamwork, groups of five to seven people are usually most effective.

Other Brainstorming Techniques

If you're not getting enough good quality ideas, try using the approaches below to increase the number of ideas that you generate:

These techniques help you in specific situations:

The Next Step - Taking Action

After your individual or group brainstorming session, you'll have a lot of ideas. Although it might seem hard to sort through these ideas to find the best ones, analyzing these ideas is an important next step, and you can use several tools to do this.

Use Affinity Diagrams to organize ideas and find common themes.

Decision Matrix Analysis and Paired Comparison Analysis will help you choose between different options. You can also use the Six Thinking Hats technique to look at ideas from different perspectives; and the Modified Borda Count and Multi-Voting can help you choose between options as a team, particularly where the differences between options are quite subjective.

Key Points

When managed well, brainstorming can help you generate radical solutions to problems. It can also encourage people to commit to solutions, because they have provided input and played a role in developing them.

The best approach combines individual and group brainstorming. During the process, there should be no criticism of ideas, and creativity should be encouraged.

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Brainstorming: Generating Many Radical, Creative Ideas

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How often have you used brainstorming to solve a problem? Chances are, you've used it at least once, even if you didn't realize it. For decades, people have used brainstorming to generate ideas, and to come up with creative solutions to problems. However, you need to use brainstorming correctly for it to be fully effective.

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Clustering, Webbing, Mapping - TeacherTube

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Communicating Learning Goals as Part of Learning

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Communicating Learning Goals as Part of Learning

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. Why is it important to make learning objectives explicit?

2. How do students participate in SWBAT?

3. Objectives are specific and measurable, while learning goals may be more broad. How could you use both in your practice?

School Details

Think College Now School
2825 International Boulevard
Oakland CA 94601

Data Provided By:

Teachers

English Language Arts Math Social Studies / 5 / Teacher

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Madeline begins by introducing the SWBAT strategy. SWBAT stands for "Students will be able to." The learning objectives in Madeline's class always start with "SWBAT." Madeline explains how she writes the objectives on the board and how students repeat back the objectives in a rhythmic way.

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Concept mapping and mind mapping are used in the classroom in any number of ways. This page will provide the rationale for their use, links to samples and a list of tools to use to create them. If...

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Pinwheel Discussions: Texts in Conversation

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What a fun way to get high school students to discuss literature. The Pinwheel Discussions lesson plan puts students in roles that will force them to be engaged and effectively discuss the readings.

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This discussion strategy helps students practice being both active speakers and active listeners in a group conversation.

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Save the Last World for Me builds active reading, speaking and listening skills. Giving students a task to complete while reading engages them with the text, and the structured format draws all students into the discussion. Students with stronger comprehension model their process for others, and all students benefit from hearing alternative viewpoints and different interpretations of the text.

1. Select a central text for students to read independently.

2. Provide each student with a set of index cards. (The number will vary depending on grade level, student ability, length of reading and time constraints. Consider beginning with one index card while students get comfortable with the process.)

3. Instruct students to read and choose sentences from the text that they think are important. Students should choose quotes that pertain to: the text's central idea; how individuals, ideas or events develop over the course of the text; the author's style or point of view; and important words and phrases that impact the meaning or tone of the piece. Regardless of the topic, the quote should illicit meaningful discussion.

4. Have students write their chosen quote on one side of an index card and their reason for choosing it on the other. When possible, their reasoning should reference the text and reflect consideration of its message.

5. Model this process with a familiar passage from a previously read text. In addition to modeling, consider checking students' quotes or having them share their quotes with a partner before writing the explanation for their choice on the back of the index card. This allows students the opportunity to re-think and revise their quotes as necessary.

6. If they've chosen more than one quote, have students order their cards from most important to least.

7. Put students in small groups to share their cards. Group size may vary.

8. Have the first student begin by reading one of her sentences to the group. One at a time, group members should briefly respond to the quote, referring to the text and its ideas when possible. Students should have the central text in front of them so they can easily point to specific passages to support their claims and ideas. The presenting student gets the "last word" by turning her card over and explaining why she chose that part of the text.

9. Monitor the ongoing discussion as students read their selections, listen to their group's responses and explain about their own reasons for choosing a particular selection. Repeat the process until all students have read through all their cards.

English language learners

This strategy is appropriate for intermediate English language learners (level three or above). Pre-writing tasks support and build students' confidence about expressing their thoughts and ideas. Encourage English language learners to draw from their diverse backgrounds when selecting sentences and to make connections to their own lives and experiences.

Connection to anti-bias education

The strategy creates the structured conditions necessary for equitable classroom discussion. Students who are typically reluctant to speak up and those who tend to dominate discussions get to practice appropriate speaking and listening habits. Students share their own thoughts in a low-stress situation, building confidence to speak in larger groups. You may also direct students to read and choose quotes with a particular theme in mind (Step 3).

Sample Save the Last Word for Me cards:

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Save the Last World for Me builds active reading, speaking and listening skills. Giving students a task to complete while reading engages them with the text, and the structured format draws all students into the discussion. Students with stronger comprehension model their process for others, and all students benefit from hearing alternative viewpoints and different interpretations of the text.

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Students have a written conversation with peers and use silence as a tool to explore a topic in depth.

English & Language Arts

History

Social Studies

Using the strategies from Facing History is almost like an awakening.

- Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif

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Big Paper: Building a Silent Conversation

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Students have a written conversation with peers and use silence as a tool to explore a topic in depth.

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ELA.RL.9-10.1

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

RL: Reading Standards for Literature 6-12

9-10: 9th & 10th Grades

1:
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

Thought starters

1. How do the quotes and questionnaire help students prepare for a challenging text?

2. What evidence must students provide to support their questionnaire answers?

3. How does Ms. Fulco ensure students understand the 'big ideas' during the whole class discussion?

School Details

Staples High School
70 North Ave
Westport CT 06880

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Silent Tea Party: Pre-Reading for Challenging Texts

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Here is a pre-reading strategy to use to prepare students for reading challenging books. Silent Tea Party gets students to interact and start understanding the big idea of the book. Listen to Ms. Fulco as she explains how to use this pre-reading strategy in the classroom.

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Fish Bowl, Triad, Simultaneous

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Listen to my interview with Marisa Thompson (transcript):
Sponsored by Peergrade and 3Doodler

Check out information about Marisa Thompson's Ultimate TQE Course at the bottom of this page!

So much of the learning we do comes from texts: articles, textbooks, novels, and all kinds of online publications. Sometimes, those texts come in less traditional forms; in fact, our use of the word "text" has broadened over time to include things like films, images, and even diagrams. Regardless of what form they come in, texts make up the bulk of how our students experience learning.

But too often, when we assign texts to students, we find that they don't experience them with much depth. One reason for that may be that we don't set them up to do that. In many text-based classes (English, history, science), the learning cycle often consists of (1) consuming a section of the text, (2) answering teacher-created questions about the text, (3) taking a test after several sections have been completed.

For years, high school English teacher Marisa Thompson followed this same programming, and got typical results: Some students did the required work, but never seemed particularly invested in the books themselves. Others completed the questions unevenly, sometimes not answering them all, other times copying work from their peers. And when students didn't do the work, they got calls home and office referrals.

As this pattern repeated itself year after year, Thompson became more frustrated: The texts themselves were wonderful, but students weren't experiencing them the way they were meant to be experienced. Instead, they had shallow interactions with them, doing whatever surface work had to be done to get a grade.

Finally, she started experimenting with a different approach, and the way she teaches texts now is completely different from the way she used to. Her current approach, which she calls TQE, is similar to Socratic Seminar, where students lead a discussion on a given text, but with a few twists. Since implementing this new approach, Thompson has seen her students reading much more than they used to, and with much more depth than ever before. They are having college-level conversations about books in class, and for the first time, they seem excited about the books they're reading.

On top of that, Thompson's prepping and grading work for these class sessions is down to almost nothing.

What I love about this method, and why I'm sharing it here, is that I think it could be applied in a lot of different areas, not just with the study of novels. In any class where students need to read a text in order to learn, something along these lines could be implemented, and I think you'll find that the learning in your classroom gets much richer as a result. So as you read about TQE, think about how you might be able to apply it in your content area.

The Problem

As an English teacher, Thompson found that her students were experiencing books in a very shallow, grade-focused way.

"(I would) send students home, maybe get them started on Chapter 1, and then, Hey guys, go home and read Chapter 2. Come on back and we'll talk about it, and here's your list of questions; you're going to have a reading quiz. I realized I wasn't really assessing their reading with homework and quizzes. I was assessing whether or not they did their homework questions."

This method not only diminished the value of the books students were reading, it also led to other problems. "It made reading seem like a hassle," Thomspon says. "I started getting a bunch of cheating. One year I had 10 kids copy off each other. It turned this amazing story-this beautiful novel that everybody should read and enjoy and love-into a discipline problem."

Early Changes

Knowing something had to change, Thompson decided to try grading students only on whether their participation in class indicated that they had read the book.

"I said, 'Look. We're going to read this book, and we're just going to read it and talk about it. You're not going to have study questions. You're not going to have any reading quizzes. But I'm going to know if you read or not. I'm going to know.'"

These early discussions were similar to Socratic Seminar, where students came with questions and Thompson mostly observed. When a student participated in a way that demonstrated that he or she had read the book, their names would be crossed off of a chart. "And that was it," Thompson says. "The standard says, Be able to read and analyze at grade level. And if they're doing that, I mean, yeah, cross their name off. Move on."

For students who scored low on the discussion or who weren't initially comfortable with active participation, Thompson offered alternative means of assessment. "I said, hey, if I'm wrong with your score, then we need to come up with some sort of alternative: They were used to taking annotations, taking notes on their thoughts while they read-you can show me those. You can sit down and have a conversation just one-on-one, or you can take a test. So if you got an eight out of 10, and you're like, 'No, I want the 10 out of 10,' I have a multiple-choice test on the book."

Most of the time, Thompson's initial score on the discussion turned out to be accurate. "I did have a lot of students who had a B for their assessment, and they're like, No, I want the A. Great. And they took the test and then it was cute, because they were like Yeah, I didn't really read all of it. So my assessment was, on average, about 3 or 4 percent higher than what they were normally getting on their tests."

Right away, Thompson started to see changes in how her students were reading. "I had students who started reading more than they were assigned, and they were finishing the book early," she says. Some were even reading ahead.

Over time, Thompson refined her approach, adding small-group time before the large-group discussions, offering scaffolding to help students develop better questions, and structuring student contributions so that the richest questions got the most discussion time.

These changes have so elevated the level of discourse that Thompson sometimes feels like she's teaching college class. "And that's exactly what I tell them: 'What we just did, that was a collegiate literature course. That was amazing. You could walk into a college course and have this discussion.' And you can see that they're enjoying it."

The TQE Method

Here is the approach Thompson uses now, step by step:

1. Students Complete Assigned Reading at Home

Usually, this will be a segment of a longer text, like a few chapters in a novel. Students who show up having not completed the reading are invited to finish up in the hall during small group discussion (step 2) to catch up. They are welcome to return to class for the discussion when they finish.

2. Small Group Discussions (15 minutes)

When they arrive in class, students get into small groups, where they have 15 minutes to share thoughts, lingering questions, and epiphanies (TQEs) they have about the reading. Early in the year, Thompson provides stems to help students generate these (see below), encouraging them to move from the more simplistic ideas on the left to the more complex ones on the right.

3. TQEs on the Board

By the time the 15 minutes is up, each group needs to choose their top 2 TQEs from the group and write them on the board. Although these are meant to serve as the basis for the group discussion, they are not necessarily used as is.

"If they put something on there that is not at the quality or as thought-provoking as we need it to be for the class to discuss, we'll edit it together, the 40 of us," Thompson explains. "So it becomes a writing lesson."

Thompson also insists that when discussing a text, students use the author's name. When discussing Of Mice and Men, for example, she started by having students repeat the name "Steinbeck" five times. "I love Lenny and George. I love Lenny," she told them. "but he's totally fictional. So when you start asking questions like, 'Why did George do that?' George doesn't exist."

Instead, she has students practice asking questions like, "Why did hat theme is Steinbeck have George do that?" "W Steinbeck trying to convey to the rest of us by having his character do that?"

"It's not about the character," she explains. "It's not about the character's motivation, it's the author's purpose in providing that motivation for the character."

4. Class Discussion of TQEs

Thompson then moderates a whole-class discussion of the reading, using the TQEs that have been written on the board. This takes about 40 minutes of class time-she teaches on a block schedule, so there's plenty of time to dig in. When the class is actively studying a novel, they will have these conversations in every class meeting.

As for grading, Thompson simply records when students participate, and that's it. "I have a chart with their little pictures," she explains, "and I cross them off as I go. So I'm not necessarily grading them every single day. My student Sally might have participated a ton one day, and skipped the next day. But my standard-based grading says she is reading and analyzing at at least grade level. I don't need to score each of my 40 kids every single day."

"And the amount of planning is nil," Thompson adds. " I'm not creating, I'm not copying, I'm not collecting, I don't need to waste my time. My prep is reading before bed every night."

What Student-Centered Learning Looks Like

"We have all these really great aphorisms, these quotes about, 'Students should own their learning,' and 'Empower students,'" Thompson observes. "And it's like, well that's great, but how in the heck do we do that?"

Since starting the TQE process, Thompson has seen true student-centered learning in action: Students are in charge of the content of the discussions, and the ability to participate fully has become its own motivator for completing the homework.

"The peer pressure of Everyone's discussing this book- that becomes cool. To have an idea, to have an opinion. So the student comes in, and all of a sudden it's, "Wait, I read that part, and I think this," you know? And you want to talk about empowering a student? You just turned that student into a part of the classroom community." ♦

If you are a fan of the TQE method and you want to take it further, check out Marisa's Ultimate TQE Course. This course will revolutionize your reading and writing instruction and assessment through student-led inquiry, intentional teacher guidance, feedback that is immediately useful to students while eliminating the need for at-home grading, even for essays, and a personable approach to teaching and learning that leaves everyone in the room energized and engaged.

Cult of Pedagogy receives a portion of the Ultimate TQE Course sales that come through the link on this page.

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Deeper Class Discussions with the TQE Method

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Want your students to have rich, complex conversations about the texts they read? This method leads to the kinds of classroom discussions you thought only happened in college.

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Developed by Claudia Khourey-Bowers, Kent State University What is Structured Academic Controversy? A Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) is a type of cooperative learning strategy in which small teams of ...

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https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think-pair-share

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Think-pair-share is a collaborative learning strategy where students work together to solve a problem or answer a question about an assigned reading. This strategy requires students to (1) think individually about a topic or answer to a question; and (2) share ideas with classmates. Discussing with…

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Often PBL