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Hello!

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Hello everyone! Below is my thinking, I would love to receive some feedback!

Reflection:
A balance between all activities is essential. Students need extempore practice as well as practice with time assigned formal prepared presentation. Listening skills are as important as students need to develop an ear for listening in order to have a  meaningful conversation in the second part of the test.

As noted previously, Students have 15 minutes time to prepare and take notes  for the first part of  the speaking test. After the extended period of  independent talk time, students then move into a discussion. This requires listening skills and the expertise to build on a discussion. This thinking on the feet and the finesse with conversation requires teachers to have activities like Socratic seminars, think pair share, paired verbal fluency etc. Note-taking is another aspect that becomes essential. How skillfully can students brainstorm and articulate their speech, like their speech with transitions and express their ideas in a given amount of time requires short practices every other day. The idea is to get students into a habit of expressing their thoughts using a variety of stimulus for a variety of purposes.

Having students understand what a good conversation looks like, feels like and sounds like is essential. Mentor speech examples help clarify doubts and allows for productive academic discussions rather than that of disjointed “eye-wash” pseudo interaction.  Something as simple as an informal turn and talk can have far reaching implications for students when practiced purposefully.

Informal chat:
Why I love these: Low risk, high on idea collection, brainstorming, builds interaction, clarifies doubts, allows for the teacher to listen in, helps the introverts to share, more opportunities to talk.
----Turn and talk
--------See think wonder
-----------Table talk
-------------Elbow partner
--------------Talk to your neighbor

Somethings to consider:
Who talks first?
Did both partners talk?
Was there equal talk time?
Listening skills Check-in: Share your partner’s ideas
Challenge zone: In case your partner does not share enough, have some sentence stems to gently push your partner to think.
BIG TIP!
Fun way to form partners at the beginning of the year: seasons game, clock partners, find some one who (allows for different partners, flexible grouping and frees the teacher off from organizing different groupings every time.)

Discussion group formats: There are some rules here, the conversations are longer, more focused compared to the informal chats. Depending on the curricular need or the learning goal students may be put into:
--Pairs
--Small groups
--Whole group

More ideas
--Partner share ---- inverse group share
--Think - pair- share
--Inside outside circle
--Quiz quiz trade
--Running dictations
--Numbered heads together
--See- think –wonder- connect
--Oral language stations

Again, this is low risk, high on engagement, but purposefully organized with a set of rules of expectations. I particularly enjoy these as it allows students to interact in a variety of ways and collaborate with their peers and develop the interactive skills, required of them as culturally responsive global citizens.

Discussion systems: This is organized, planned and needs a definite set of rules.
--Socratic seminars----various styles
--Spider webs
--Harkness
Other activities:
--Fish bowl
--Paired timed verbal fluency
--Final / last word
--Jigsaw discussions
--One stray
--Words that standout ------emotions those words evoke----new understandings (organizer)
--Padlet
--Literature circles

Formal debate: This is organized, planned and needs a definite set of rules.

------presentations
-------speeches
------debates
Other activities:
-----pechakucha
------podcasts

Questions from the house allows students to remain focused and build a listening ear to interact and build conversation.

App’s like socratic helps teachers to check and map student talk time.

Stimulus to interaction: This provides incentive to trigger their background thinking and then formulate their thinking verbally. Note-taking is another aspect that becomes essential. How skillfully can students brainstorm and articulate their speech, like their speech with transitions and express their ideas.
---Student presentation + questions + discussion
-----Video + listening comprehension + discussion
Other activities
------picture + Listening comprehension + discussion
-----Graffiti + Listening comprehension + discussion
------Jigsaw reading + Listening + questions
------Jigsaw reading + presenters stay + students move through stations + questions

Role plays: Definitely requires students to plan and prepare their oral sample of language. There are rules but the flexibility levels differ depending on the role play type.

-----Role play situation (flexible)
-----Role play roles (students need to be someone else)

Prepared interactions: High on rules and protocols. Requires a lot of preparation.
--Panel discussion
--Panel of experts

More ideas:
--Interviews
--Reader’s theater
--Short drama/skits

Other ideas:

Just like Jereon, I absolutely endorse Kagan’s cooperative learning structures, gets students moving and engaged.

Here are the other conversation organizers that I use often in class:
--Zwiers conversation organizers found here and listed under.

CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATION SKILLS

Constructive Conversation Skills Poster (PDF)
This tool shows four important conversation skills, their icons, and sentence starters to help students engage in purposeful and extended interactions.

Conversation Observation & Analysis Tool

This assessment tool helps users to observe conversations and take notes on what teachers are doing and can do, what students are doing and can do, and next steps.

Math Constructive Conversation Skills Poster (PDF)
This tool helps students build four key conversation skills for working together on math ideas and problems.

Argument Balance Scale Visual Organizer - 2D (3D version)
This visual helps students to evaluate and weigh the evidence for and against two different positions.

Math Paired Conversation Protocol (PDF)
This tool guides pairs through an effective conversation to collaboratively solve complex math problems.

Argumentation Activities
This set of activities helps students practice their abilities to build and challenge ideas using evidence-based reasoning.

Criteria Bar Graph
This visual helps students to visually show and explain how well evidence meets certain criteria for an issue.

Causes & Effects Visual Organizer (PDF)
This visual helps students to engage in cause and effect thinking and assign values to their ideas.

Silent Support Cards

Silent Support Cards for Math

SPEAKING & LISTENING SKILLS

Stronger & Clearer Each Time Overview
This overview describes how to help students build language and content as they talk with successive partners

Opinion Formation Cards (TV) (Cell phones)

This activity provides students with an opportunity to build language as they talk with successive partners to strengthen their opinions on an issue.

Think-Pair-Share Tips
This set of tips helps both teacher and students to maximize the value of pair-shares.

Communicativeness Design and Observation Tool
This tool helps teachers to use three features of communicativeness to improve language development activities across disciplines.​

INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES

A-B Form - Store (Turkish)

Animal Adaptations (4 cards) activity

Italian Artist Cards (4 cards)

A-B Information Gap Cards: This activity requires students to take a side of an issue and use new vocabulary and syntax to argue and negotiate with a partner.

COMPREHENDING TEXTS

Wide-Angle Reading Frame
This visual helps students to create a mental framework before and during reading in order to keep the purpose(s) of the text in mind.

Comprehension Target
This visual helps students to evaluate the usefulness of thoughts that emerge during reading and listening.

Anticipation Guides
Helps students to predict and justify their predictions for reading.

Figure out the Figuratives
This visual helps students to see the connections between the figurative expression and what it is describing. figure

Literature Theme Organizer
This visual helps students to see ways in which to generate and support multiple themes from different types of texts.

Narrative Structure Map
This visual helps students to organize events in a typical narrative.

ABC Inference Table
This visual helps students to make inferences while reading.

Cause-Effect Diagram
This visual helps students to infer causes and effects in history, science, and literature-based texts.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT OF LANGUAGE & THINKING

Math Reasoning and Argumentation Analysis Tool

Conversation Observation & Analysis Tool

Oral Output Observation Tool

Reading Comprehension Observation Tool

Academic Language Dimensions and Features Chart

Visual tool for identifying language demands to create language objectives

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Module 4: Teaching Oral Interaction

Learning Engagement 1

Below are the descriptions of the different strategies for practicing verbal communication given in the Module 4 lesson content. In the boxed text that follows is my analysis of each interactive oral activity. I have included my comments and variations on the activities and highlighted certain classifications accordingly:

·      Purple is the format or type of activity.

·      Green is my assessment of where it falls on the preparedness vs. spontaneity/rule-light vs. rule-heavy scale.

·      Blue is the frequency of the activity.

·      Yellow is the benefit of this activity.

I was thinking that for our group Padlet, we could do something similar to this. We could make subheadings in indented bullet points for 1) how controlled versus how free an activity is; 2) how often this activity should be conducted; and 3) the benefits and disadvantages of each activity.

We also need to make two additional activities. One activity I suggest is a socializing activity. It is similar to informal chat but more structured and more like a game. Please see the end of this document. I am not great with Padlet and other design tools, so I might need your help with this. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Lavinia

Informal chat

Natural everyday conversation, person-to-person, but there are still rules, conventions, formulas, aren’t there?

As mentioned in the video, an informal chat is both spontaneous and rule light—not constricted by rules. I use informal chat in my literature classes nearly every day during the introduction to a new topic or when I want students to share their opinions and their own experiences related to something that happens in the novel. For example, recently in my class, we read about the main characters’ getting revenge on a bully. I split my students into groups of four and asked them to talk about whether or not they thought this was right or wrong and to give their own reasons. Sometimes I ask more open ended questions like, “What was your first day of school like?” “Describe your relationship with your family,” or “What is the best gift you’ve ever been given?” The subject matter is clearly confined, but I allow the students to speak freely about the topics and say whatever they want to say with little correction. I think this is something that should be used, at least in small part, on a daily basis. Students need to practice authentic oral communication in the target language and to become comfortable doing so.

Discussion, group formats

The smaller the group, the more opportunity for each student to speak; the larger the group, the wider the range of ideas and views expressed.

·      Pairs—Maximum opportunity to speak and less stressful for weaker students

·      Small groups—Lots of opportunity to speak and the chance to organize roles (for example, note-taker, reporter)

·      Whole-class groups—Most possibility of lively exchanges, most danger of weaker students being excluded

Obviously, pair discussion provides more chances for everyone to share his or her opinion, and as the description says, it is “less stressful for weaker students,” meaning low-level students won’t need to compete to keep up with a group. I rarely use this because I typically want my students to hear a variety of viewpoints, and sometimes, if I’m asking a more difficult question, having more students in the group increases the likelihood that students can help each other out and get to the answers on their own. As seventh graders, my students are also not mature enough to handle one-on-one discussions with the opposite gender, so I keep discussion groups balanced (which also minimizes distractions and helps students monitor themselves). That being said, I would like to use this more often in the future, perhaps two or three times per week, and think this would be beneficial with high school students, especially when discussing personal or more sensitive topics that students might make students shy about talking openly. I did this when I allowed my students to evaluate each other’s writing, and I let them choose their own partner.

I use small groups and whole-class groups together very frequently. I typically present a question to the class and then break the students up into small groups to discuss the question first. This usually ensures that all the students get the chance to speak and to hear more opinions from the class. I also like small groups because this gives students a chance to check their answers and “rehearse” before being cold-called to share answers with the entire class (afterwards I will cold-call). Whole group class discussion is good because everyone gets to be part of the same conversation, and I can elicit ideas from the whole class and write them on the board. It’s good for class note-taking. During CELTA training, I was taught to never have whole class discussions without first having students discuss in pairs; I do this with small groups. The drawback, as mentioned, is that the weaker and shyer students get lost. One variation I have made to the whole-class discussion group, is that I take a quick pole on an issue. I ask students to raise their hands if they agree or disagree. This gets all the students involved even if they don’t all get the chance to speak. I can also call on students who raised their hands to express an opinion.

Discussion, systems

A number of organized procedures for class discussion are available, the idea being that students are trained in procedures which encourage active, methodical interaction. Click on the following links for fuller explanations.

·      Spiderwebs—IB recommended: http://spiderwebdiscussion.com/

·      Socratic seminars—http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/socratic-seminars-30600.html

·      Harkness—https://stevensonschoolorg.finalsite.com/uploaded/1_STEVENSON_SCHOOL/LOWER/documents/2017-2018/Howweteach_CC.pdf

Because of my students’ age, large class size, and my own unfamiliarity with the discussion systems, I have yet to utilize them in my classroom; however, I am looking forward to doing this with my Language B students. I could see myself doing this as often as once a week or as infrequently as twice per month. I loved the YouTube video describing the Spiderweb format in which the conversation is completely student-centered. The benefit of this dynamic is that students take ownership of their own learning. When students discover things for themselves, it gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment, and they truly learn. Students’ leading the discussion ensures that they internalize the content. As much as I can, I try to utilize different aspects of the Socratic Method in my classroom for this reason. Instead of spoon-feeding students the answers, I guide them or give them the tools and the steps to finding the answers on their own. It seems that this format has a good balance of being prepared and yet includes a small amount of spontaneity. This is procedural and methodical in the sense that students must adhere to speaking guidelines; however, most of these seem to be in the middle of the rules dimension, as students discuss freely with almost no moderation from the teacher.

Formal debate

Inherently limited in stimulating spontaneous interaction (that’s the point of formal rules) but should emphasize the value of careful preparation, in speeches, replies, and possibly “questions from the house”.

As mentioned in the video, formal debate is both prepared and rule-heavy; however, there are certain aspects of a debate that are spontaneous as debaters respond to each other. Students try to anticipate everything that the other side will say, but in many debates, rebuttals are created on the spot. The formal aspect of a debate means that students must adhere to certain standards and use appropriate language, as they will be judged for doing so. I feel like this activity is appropriate almost whenever controversial issues are raised. The benefit of a debate is that is also teaches the art of argumentation and critical thinking. I usually only conduct one formal debate once per year in my literature class, but I like to have informal debates once or twice per semester. In the Language B course, I would recommend having at least one formal debate per semester.

Stimulus-to-interaction

Absolutely basic teaching procedure, put something in front of the students and get them to talk about it. But how can we promote focused, methodical discussion?

·      Student presentation + questions + discussion—Ask the rest of the class to prepare questions while they listen; this will focus attention on what the presenter has actually said, and warm up for the full discussion.

·      Video + listening comprehension + discussion—The comprehension questions should guide the students to key elements of the video, thus focusing attention for the discussion phase.

Student presentationsas a stimulus for discussion is prepared and rule-intensive on the part of the presenter, but the discussions that follow might be spontaneous and lighter on the rules. An advantage of questions and discussions following a student presentation is that keeps the audience engaged and gives them additional purpose for listening. Students should always have at least one presentation per semester. Much of that depends on the class size and the design of the course. The discussion procedure is virtually the same following a video presentation, except that students are not able to ask their own questions. The emphasis is on a different type of listening skill, such as listening for gist or for purpose and practicing listening for specific information. This is beneficial for sharpening listening skills in a non-interactive environment that students may encounter in the future, such as listening to the news. I play videos with listening comprehension questions and discussion about once per month, sometimes more or less frequently depending on the unit.

Role-played interactions

Role plays can encourage lively interaction because students don’t have to “be themselves” and may thus be less self-conscious.

·      Role-play situations—Students act as themselves in an imagined role-play situation.

·      Role-play roles—Students act in roles as imagined persons in an imagined role-play situation.

Role-playing is also a useful tool for teaching oral interaction. In the past, I have had students write their own scripts resolving a particular conflict, chosen at random. The students were required to use specific expressions we studied. This was both prepared and somewhat rule-heavy. This is beneficial because it can teach students idiomatic expressions and useful sentence patterns. I think acting is also an engaging activity that draws student interest and helps them remember the information better than straight repetition and memorization. Depending on how scripted a role-play is, a role-play can also be spontaneous and rule-light, for example in improvisation. Improvised interactions are not that different from informal chat in its benefits; the difference might be that students can practice phrases and vocabulary that they wouldn’t ordinarily use during an English class, such as the dramatic language of a romantic quarrel or a violent conflict. As mentioned in the description, role-playing can make students less self-conscious because the student has less responsibility for anything they say that might normally make them uncomfortable. (Anything “crazy” they say can be blamed on the character they’re playing.) I do scripted role-plays once per year. For a Language B class, I would recommend the same if it is highly coordinated or as frequent as once per month if the role-plays are informal.

Prepared interactions

Arguably, many interactions will work better if there has been time to think through ideas beforehand and to organize the language required.

·      Panel discussion—A variety of role plays: a group of students are allotted stances on a particular issue (for example, pro, con, undecided, devil’s advocate and so on). The rest of the class observe, assess effective interaction, perhaps vote for a winner.

·      Panel of experts—In preparation for a whole-class discussion, selected students are asked to research background information (for example, for a discussion of abortion rights they could look at legal aspects, moral aspects, medical aspects). As the whole-class discussion proceeds, the “experts” are called in to inform the discussion, as required. A classic “information gap” procedure.

I love the idea of assigning panelist roles to students, as I have never done this before. The expert panelist format is similar to a jigsaw design, which emphasizes that each role is an important part of the whole. The benefit of this is that students immediately see how their contribution is beneficial to the entire group. This is prepared but a little bit lighter on the rules than a formal debate or prepared speech; students might not necessarily have to follow a structure and can speak more freely, depending upon the design. I am excited about doing this activity with my Language B students and will probably only do this once per year, as I want to balance instruction with a variety of strategies. Perhaps as I become more familiar with this I will do it more frequently if it is a success with my students.

Other ideas for oral activities:

Some activities I have done in the past are more similar to games than structured oral practice.

1.     Short interview/survey. One idea is to give each student a checklist. Students go around the room and interact with different students to fulfill at the items on their checklist. Items on the list might include descriptions such as “Find someone who plays the piano” or “Find someone who has a doctor in his/her family.” The drawback of this activity is that it can turn into students asking yes/no questions and not truly interacting.

2.     Speed-dating/conversation rotation. Students play musical chairs in a speed-dating style seating arrangement and ask each other basic questions, such as “Where were you born?” This activity is very good for an introductory class when students are getting to know each other.

3.     Guess who? In this game, students are given paper headbands with the name of a famous person written on the headband. Students go around the room and ask each other questions about themselves to guess the identity of the character on their headband. This activity can also be conducted by placing name stickers on students’ backs.

In actuality, these three games are all variations of the same format. A student has several short conversations with several others. I would call it the “Meet-and-Greet,” because the premise is all the same: Students want to interact with as many other students as possible and gather information. This is similar to informal chat in spontaneity, but it limits the direct of the conversation. I would use this when students want to gather information about the whole class. This could also be used to practice certain sentence structures, which would make it more rule-heavy. Ale and Richard, what do you think of this format? Would you like to include it? Maybe you can come up with a better name? I’d love to hear your suggestions! ~Lavinia

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C lick here to see the creative padlet that Alejandra has shared with you.

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Posted from Richard's response in the Module:

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Posted from Richard's response in the Module:

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Hi All,

After going through the range of interactive activities and watching screencast my analysis of all mentioned activities and benefits of using of each activity would be :

First of all, I really like the idea of categorizing each type of activity into 4 section which actually makes more sense and helps teachers understand how these activities can beneficial. I really like the concept of pure light, prepared and spontaneous.

1. Informal Chats

Casual language is used a lot around those you know well.  It is a carefree way of speaking and one in which those who know you can easily understand or relate to.  There are many slang expressions used in everyday conversations and these phrases change over time.  With the explosion of the technological era leading to more frequent conversations, more and more slang words are added each day to the English language.  It is also appropriate to use casual language when writing blogs, tweets, and advertisements.  You may use casual language when you want to get to know someone on a more personal level or you want the person to feel at ease.It is really difficult to say whether there should be any rules or formulas to be applied, well I would say it all depends when and who are we having casual or informal chats with. I'd say there are certain ways we can tell the difference between the language is used, for example, identifying formality of language , one can see how a person speaks to you; if he/she chooses to use more casual English, then it is appropriate for you to do so in return as far casual chat is concern for example, take a simple greeting. In a more formal greeting it is appropriate for you to say, “How do you do?” and “Nice to meet you” and to address the people you are meeting with the correct title of Mr./Mrs./Ms., Dr., Rev., etc.  With those you know well, you probably say “Hi”, “Hey, What’s up?” or “How’s it going?” When you are eating, it is important to remember your manners, especially during a business luncheon or meeting. You should politely ask for items to be passed to you like, “Could you please pass the coffee?”  If you are eating with friends, you can be more relaxed with your manners and eating habits. “Hey, pass the coffee.”  But, you would never say, “I’m starving” or, “I got a bad case of the munchies” in a formal situation, but with friends, these are common phrases when you are hungry.  You also would never say, “I don’t like (the food item’s) taste” in a formal setting, but with your friends, it is acceptable to tell the awful truth about how bad the food tastes. Let’s pretend you are at a dinner party and you need to leave for an urgent phone call.  If you were eating with your future mother-in-law, you might say, “Would you please excuse me for a moment?” or “Excuse me”.   However, with friends, you might say, “One sec” or “I’ll be back.” So, you leave the table and answer your phone call; if it’s your customer or boss, you could begin with, “Good Evening, how are you doing tonight?” But if it were your close friend you might say, “What’s good for you, my brother from another mother!” Casual Language gives the audience a sense of closeness and genuineness shows your personality makes others feel comfortable saves time.

Here are the examples of word choice when one is formal or informal or using casual Language or chat

Cuz – Because Chill/chillin’- Relax/relaxing Gonna – Going to Sick – Great; amazing Lame – Not good; worthless Shoot me an email – Send me an email Kickback – Move slowly; rest; relax Fam – Family Hold on – Wait Gotta – Have to/need to I’m outta here – I need to leave now Guy/guys – You all; all of you; you Besties – Best friends Sucks – Terrible or awful Bring it on – I’m ready for it My bad – (Admitting guilt over something) Yea/Yeah – Yes Nah/Naw – No I dunno – I don’t know

Activities :

casual Interview with two friends

survey

ice breaking activity in class

Discussion, group formats

Discussion can be an effective way for students to engage with core concepts, apply them and to enhance their problem-solving skills. It’s good for promoting teamwork, for eliciting higher-order thinking, and is especially applicable when a subject is complex and/or open-ended. Communication skills develop as students express themselves, state their ideas in a clear manner, and listen to the views of others. Students can generate their own ideas, contributing explicitly to their own and others’ learning. A discussion will draw out multiple explanations, enabling students to ask questions they may not have asked if they were working individually, deepening their understanding.

There are types of Discussions such as:

Socratic Seminar

Fishbowl

Jigsaw

Think-Pair-Share

Overall, whole-class discussions can encourage students to learn from one another and to articulate course content in their own words. While generally not conducive to covering large amounts of content, the interactive dynamic of discussion can help students learn and motivate them to complete homework and to prepare for class. Leading discussions in which students contribute meaningfully requires a great deal of instructor forethought and creativity

Discussion, systems

I would say in this particular aspect of discussion I think it is is a thoughtful consideration of relationships involved in the topic or the problem under study. These relations are to be analyzed, compared, evaluated and conclusions are drawn.

It can be divided into further groups mainly there are two types

(i) Spontaneous discussion, and (ii) Planned discussion

(i) Sportaneous Discussion

Spiderweb

Spider webs are a great tool for group work and team building activities. Spider webs are easy to create and can be set up as a permanent feature for class settings; temporary and put up when needed or created with each learner group as part of a team building and skills development programme.

Socratic seminars

A Socratic Seminar is a student-led discussion where part of the class is in an inner circle speaking, and the other part of the class is in an outer circle observing. What I usually do in my classroom of 30 students, I put students in groups of 3, with one speaker and two “wing people” observing. These jobs rotate at a set time during the discussion My role as the facilitator is to silently watch the discussion from outside both circles. I make notes on who participates, who refers to the text and/or classroom activities as evidence, and I silently redirect students who get distracted. I also give instructions when we rotate jobs. During the discussions — as much as I want to — I don’t chime in!

Harkness Method

Different teachers have different approaches, and many will change their techniques based on the chemistry of their particular class. For the most part, how I run my Harkness classes is probably as most teachers do but I could be different or perhaps same.With the nightly reading is assigned, I try to include specific and overarching questions on which the students should focus as they read; they are told to make margin notes about these specified topics and questions, and sometimes to write prepared notes on separate paper.  When they come to class, I’ll appoint some or all of the following roles to students: moderator, participant, observer, and note-taker. Occasionally I will notify students the day before that they will moderate the following day’s Harkness. I tend to do this if I know the topic will be difficult, and thus I want the moderator to be very well prepared.The role of the moderator is the most crucial. The moderator and I must stress this often, is not the de facto teacher. Rather, their job is to introduce topics, organize the flow of the conversation, ask participants to specify and/or provide textual references, and generally set an intellectually engaged and stimulating tone; I let the moderator decide if they want participants to raise hands, or to just speak as they wish. The participant is the student (For a good sense of the expectations of participants, see the next section in this packet on evaluating Harkness students.) The observer’s role is to silently monitor the discussion. They may take notes on what works well, and what does not.  They might also draw a Harkness discussion diagram: they draw a circle, put down the names of each person around the circle such that the drawing mirrors the arrangement of the people at the table, and then draw lines to and from each person as they speak.  In the end, this diagram offers a powerful visual reflection of how the conversation flowed. If one area is dark with lines, while others are blank, it becomes clear that the discussion was unbalanced. The note-takers job is to take notes from the discussion about information and ideas that might be useful for a future test or essay preparation; the notes are written in the communal class journal.I will start class by clarifying any issues or questions left over from my last time with the class, and then I’ll announce the moderator and the focus questions for the day’s discussion. I try to pose questions and ideas that are broad enough to allow fluidity of discourse, but not so broad that students don’t know what their focus should be. For very difficult readings, I will, however, often narrow my questions, being very specific so students don’t feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of the piece or topic. Ultimately, I’m still very much in the development stage of learning this art form of setting up Harkness discussions.During the discussion, I intentionally sit removed from the circle. This is symbolic as well as practical: symbolically, it demonstrates that the students and their ideas are central. Practically, it weans students off of their tendencies to look and speak to me; even with sitting outside the circle, I still notice some students always looking at me when they speak.  I do not remain completely silent during the discussions.  Sometimes I offer an opinion, but often when I speak it will be to clarify or pose a question, assert an opinion different from the group’s consensus, or provide the class with some necessary piece of historical background on the topic. I generally end the discussion five to ten minutes before the class time finishes. The rest of our time together is spent evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the conversation—this makes explicit the lessons about academic discussion dynamics—and making plans for how to improve future discussions. I might also use this time to summarize what I heard or to offer feedback and clarification on the content of the conversation.

Formal Debates

Debates are an important way to share ideas and to critically analyze information. Debates challenge speakers to carefully research out both sides of a topic or question and come up with solid evidence to support their chosen side, while at the same time anticipating problems and providing solutions. A formal debate usually involves three groups: one supporting a resolution (affirmative team), one opposing the resolution (opposing team), and those who are judging the quality of the evidence and arguments and the performance in the debate.

Students' Presentation

A presentation is a means of communication that can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team.A presentation can also be used as a broad term that encompasses other ‘speaking engagements’ such as making a speech at a wedding or getting a point across in a video conference.

Video + listening comprehension + discussion

Videos are one of the best ways to boost listening comprehension in a classroom setting. For example, Students love visual stimulation. Watching videos makes a class more interesting and will really stimulate students’ imaginations.Real-life scenes can be vivid for the classroom to have the opportunity to discuss real-life issues and scenarios. But with video, students will find themselves listening to scenes they could actually face in their own lives—making it really valuable and meaningful practice.

Role-played interactions

Incorporating role-play into the classroom adds variety, a change of pace and opportunities for a lot of language production and also a lot of fun! It can be an integral part of the class and not a 'one-off' event. If the teacher believes that the activity will work and the necessary support is provided, it can be very successful. However, if the teacher isn't convinced about the validity of using role-play the activity "will fall flat on its face just as you expected it to" (Gillian Porter Ladousse 1987).Role-play is any speaking activity when you either put yourself in somebody else's shoes or when you stay in your own shoes but put yourself into an imaginary situation!
Imaginary people - The joy of role-playing is that students can 'become' anyone they like for a short time! The President, the Queen, a millionaire, a pop star …….. the choice is endless! Students can also take on the opinions of someone else. 'For and Against' debates can be used and the class can be split into those who are expressing views in favor and those who are against the theme.
Imaginary situations - a Functional language for a multitude of scenarios can be activated and practiced through role-playing. 'At the restaurant', 'Checking in at the airport', 'Looking for lost property' are all possible role-plays.

Prepared interactions

I think prepared interaction is as equally important as any other activities mentioned above because these sort of activities are really meaningful, and ensures student development and advancement through the unit.They should enable students to engage with and develop their skills, knowledge, and understandings in different ways. Meaningful activities engage students in active, constructive, intentional, authentic, and cooperative ways.

Panel discussion

A panel discussion is a specific format used in a meeting, conference or convention.  It is an alive or virtual discussion about a specific topic amongst a selected group of panelists who share differing perspectives in front of a large audience. For example

1. Form of a story: In an environmental studies class, students tell the story of how a water molecule travels from ocean to land and back again to the ocean.

2. Form of a letter: Your students are part of a scientific group organizing an expedition to space and must write a letter to Congressmen on the importance of funding such an expedition, by highlighting how data could be used to benefit humanity.

3. Form of a problem statement: This could be used as a term paper for which students are asked to provide a description of the problem, alternative explanations of its causes and a plan of action.

4. Form of political position paper: This brings evidence from various disciplines, such as social, economic and scientific research findings.

5. Form of speech: Students may take the role or support or opposing climate and environmentalist concerns over oil drilling in Alberta.

6. Form of research findings report: Students time-travel to Late Permian, explore and report findings on animal extinction during this Earth’s most severe known extinction era.

Panel of experts

A set of presentations, one after another.  The panel format allows for a brief introduction and then discussion among the panelists and audience.

waiting for the feedback and looking forward to seeing some other great thoughts and concepts.

Richard

(Edited by Sally Joyce - original submission Tuesday, 3 April 2018, 02:19 AM)

(Edited by Sally Joyce - original submission Saturday, 7 April 2018, 12:45 AM)

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I like how you have organized your ideas using the language in the script, "Rule heavy-light/ heavy prepared/ spontaneous."

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I like how you have kept it simple and direct. Thank you for your post. You can now add to your group discussion or here one or two additional activities.
Best,
Sally

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This is how I would classify the actitvies presented:
1.Rule-light - spontaneous: (stimulus to interaction using students presentations +questions+ discussion) and (Discussion group, pair, small and whole class).
2. Rule light - prepared
(Role played interactons)
3. Rule heavy -prepared
(Prepared interactions:panel discussion and panel of experts) and (formal debates).
4. Rule heavy -spontaneous (Discussion system: spider webs, socratice seminars, harness)
Maritza

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Feel free to use this Padlet for your group discussion.  Once one member pf your group creates a response, others in your group may respond or double click anywhere on the Padlet to create a new response.  Activities, images, can be posted here as well.
Padlet allows you to be spontaneous with your posts as well.