Welcome to Part 3 of my improving student discussion mini-series: Increasing Quality. If you’re at a point where your students are having discussions and everyone is talking, but the level of the conversation is really low-level. That is, maybe they’re not building off of each other’s ideas. Perhaps they’re repeating the same ideas that someone else said just so that… Read More
Last week I started my Improving Student Discussion Series with Part 1: Measuring Discussion. This was in response to all of the great feedback I received from my post on 7 strategies for getting quiet students to talk in discussions and 3 ways to get your students talking. This week I’m continuing with Part 2 – Increasing Student Talk. Increasing… Read More
Over the next few weeks I am going to be writing a series of blog posts on improving student discussion. This is in response to all of the great feedback I received from my post on 7 strategies for getting quiet students to talk in discussions and 3 ways to get your students talking. I’ll be covering: Measuring Discussion Quick… Read More
Wait, you want your students talking in your classroom? Isn’t it a struggle enough to get that overly talkative kid to STOP talking? Let’s be honest, that kid that won’t stop talking is never going to completely stop talking, and you shouldn’t want them to. Student talk in the classroom is incredibly important for vocabulary development, building classroom community, writing,… Read More
The new school year is upon us and I’m here with my recommendations for teaching character education. I’m kind of obsessed with picture books, and I’m convinced there’s at least one picture book for every situation. These books are great for teaching character so your students can grow up to be respectful and responsible human beings. Before I get into… Read More
Do you find that you, not your students, are the one doing all of the talking during your interactive read alouds? It’s a read aloud, teachers are supposed to do the talking right? Kind of. When I was a new teacher, I did almost all of the talking during a read aloud other than the odd question to prompt hand… Read More
