What is your favorite discourse activity to use with students and why? What wonderings do you have about the purpose of student discourse? by Graham, Nina (DCPS)

theurbanteacher — 2025-01-16 17:56:03 UTC

My favorite discourse activity is WODB! Students are asked which one doesn’t belong and explain their reasoning. The beauty of this activity is that there are multiple correct answers, depending on the reasoning students use! There is something for everyone. I am sometimes left wondering about the role I play in facilitating discourse without dominating it.

2025-01-17 15:30:56 UTC

My favorite and most telling discourse activity in a Math Classroom was an error or peer analysis. It normalized making mistakes and emphasized being able to correct them.

2025-01-17 15:30:59 UTC

Having students grade designs that I do. They like to come together to some how tell me what is wrong with it lol

2025-01-17 15:31:03 UTC

I find gallery walks are great for generating discourse with specific prompts. It also has the added benefit of getting students out of their seats and moving around

2025-01-17 15:31:09 UTC

Chalk Talk! A lot of quieter students' voices get left out in oral discussions and a chalk talk allows students to see each other's thoughts and voice their own without so much pressure. And then there's a written record of the discussion afterward which is helpful to look back at/hang up in the room!

2025-01-17 15:31:24 UTC

stations & gallery walks :)

2025-01-17 15:31:25 UTC

I know the Do Now is supposed to take a few mins but I do love it as an opportunity for discourse at the start of class!! If students understood past content, it allows us to start on a great note of ok we know what's going on, or if it was an area for reteaching/reviewing, it allows me to do so before introducing new content! The Do Now is definitely a consistent opportunity for discourse in my room :-)

2025-01-17 15:31:30 UTC

I often give a set of cards to the table (steps of mitosis, steps of photosynthesis, etc.) and ask students to work together to put them in order

2025-01-17 15:31:39 UTC

My favorite is "What Did You Notice? What Did You Wonder?" It opens to variety of responses from students, and it draws to sometimes agree or disagree with what they notice or wonder. (Dialel)

2025-01-17 15:31:46 UTC

My favorite is doing experiments with one another. Student led experiments are a great way for students to teach each other, learn, and have fun!

2025-01-17 15:31:54 UTC

Two favorites are Capture the Flag where they work together on a worksheet and correct answers steal answers from their peers.

I also like Which One Doesn't Belong - which usually leads students to find multiple answers because "Ms Mitchell wants to trick us"

2025-01-17 15:31:55 UTC

Error Analysis - explain how the error was produced and what mathematical confusion happened. Choosing "best error"

Dictation: it's a barrier activity that can be used in different parts of the content, but let's just say it's happening in Unit 0 and students are learning the basic English words for math symbols. One student reads and dictates a math expression, the other one writes it down. Then, they compare and make sure they pronounced correctly, understood etc

2025-01-17 15:32:02 UTC

I love fishbowl discussions and socratic seminars because they are completely student led, and forces a more professional environment to raise academic expectations (especially since you have to prepare for them). On a more informal level, I like jigsaw research activities as a pre-reading exercise.

2025-01-17 15:32:07 UTC

I normally use a See/Think/Wonder activity to open up a new unit in IA Social Studies. So I can see what students know (or don't know) about a specific topic.

2025-01-17 15:32:11 UTC

Socratic Seminar would be my favorite. Students engaging with the same stimulus (article, video etc) when they begin to talk and see how similar their thinking is, always a great way to get to the heart of the discussion

2025-01-17 15:32:20 UTC

I like to have students go to the whiteboard and solve error analysis problems in teams and collaborate with their team mates to solve.

2025-01-17 15:32:23 UTC

Think-write-share because it allows students time to process their thoughts and write it down before sharing. Ensures that all students get processing time. it allows you as the teacher to hear multiple voices as you circle the room.

2025-01-17 15:32:29 UTC

I make students get up and move about the room based on their answer to a question(alive vs not alive?)

2025-01-17 15:32:40 UTC

Peer feedback or talking chips, because they give you more freedom to talk and let students to express their thoughts without being so structured.

2025-01-17 15:32:44 UTC

I love gallery walks, folder stations, padlet. I do a turn/talk or think-pair-share everyday! I'm not sure if plickers is an example of discourse but I love using that resource.

2025-01-17 15:32:47 UTC

completing a what do you notice activity with the students to identify the types of things that the students are gravitating to. Then helping the expand on that.

2025-01-17 15:32:48 UTC

Socratic Seminar is my favorite as a more structured activity to build toward higher level thinking questions.

4-Corners for more informal to get a quick idea about how students feel about our topic, and it is easy way to get them to share their thoughts

2025-01-17 15:32:50 UTC

I'll sometimes get something deliberately and dramatically wrong. It's fun when the students get to correct me

2025-01-17 15:32:53 UTC

The agree and disagree activity and think-pair-share (structured activity for ML) You can here amazing/interesting conversations specially when prompts are real life situations.

Refuerzo

2025-01-17 15:32:54 UTC

think-pair-share

2025-01-17 15:33:05 UTC

My favorite is when I give them a difficult question and ask one group to create a thesis about a solution of the problem and the rest to critize that solution: see what is ok and what no. It creates incredible out comes.

2025-01-17 15:33:11 UTC

I really like "one has to go" do nows particularly with food. It's a small task but kids really get into it and don't realize they're making a claim and giving reasoning.

2025-01-17 15:33:13 UTC

Having students observe each other's dance work and provide feedback to help increase the vision...They do a great job on telling each other what to do..lol

2025-01-17 15:33:20 UTC

I'm a fan of giving sentence stems like I agree because... What I'm hearing is... or using prompts like "what do you think about .... to steer conversations in the right path.

2025-01-17 15:34:06 UTC

using circles to share with each other eliminates a lot of barriers when desks are spaced out.

2025-01-17 15:34:20 UTC

Wondering: How to successfully implement a "turn & talk" when the kids would much rather tell me or the class and not engage in partners. don't know if this is related to being middle school age at all. i also think it feels inauthentic or even forced sometimes versus just having a classwide open discussion

2025-01-17 15:35:06 UTC

I like to have students go to the board to work and collaborate. I also like to compile student answers to written/explanation type problems (no names included!) and let them discuss/grade the responses from their peers.