Classroom Discussions: Strategies & More

Hello and welcome to Teachings in Education.

I am your narrator, Frank Avella.

In this video, I'll be covering everything you

ever needed to know about having classroom discussion.

Let's begin with the question of why educators

should use classroom discussions in their practice.

Classroom discussions are a student-centered activity.

With discussions,

students are participating,

asking questions,

and answering questions.

Students will develop their oral language skills and abilities.

Oral language actually lays the foundation for reading and writing skills as well.

If done correctly,

class discussions are a form of critical thinking.

Centered discussions around the evaluation and analysis

of an issue of a complex problem.

Teachers can have amazing debates and arguments.

With discussions,

teachers easily inject and provide meaningful feedback

to an entire class of students.

And let's not forget that most students enjoy

classroom discussions because they are quite engaged.

It also gives children a voice.

On to the next section, which covers how

educators can design effective questions for classroom discussions.

First off,

when designing questions,

you wanna incorporate higher order thinking skill.

Educators should make use of Bloom's taxonomy and Webb's Depth of Knowledge.

Questions must be both challenging and answerable by the student.

The terms and wording of the discussion

questions should be analyzed and examined carefully.

Too often questions are biased.

For classroom discussions,

open discussions are warranted.

Closed discussions are answered in a simple yes or no fashion,

whereas open discussions are a bit more complex.

Encourage students to elaborate on initial questions.

Therefore,

have elaboration questions ready to follow up.

The next section is the how-to of classroom discussions.

So,

the first thing you wanna do as a teacher

is to set goals for your classroom discussion.

Think what do you want students to learn?

What specific concepts should they have mastery and understanding of.

Teachers need to establish protocols for behavior

and classroom etiquette for the discussions.

This is necessary so that all students get to participate.

Next is to incorporate the discussion activities into your lesson planning.

Look at the question on a macro level

and think how it fits into the curriculum

at first teachers need to lead the discussions,

then as time goes on,

allow students to carry out the discussion themselves.

And lastly,

stay committed to having classroom discussions in a typical classroom activity.

There are times that discussions can go off the rail.

Right

now,

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Please check the description link for resources as well.

Now,

we'll take a look at some specific

strategies and examples of classroom discussion activities.

One well known strategy is concentric circles,

known

to most educators.

Questions are posed to students in circles,

and there are many variations to do this.

Fishbowl discussions involve a few students in the middle of the room

having a discussion while others watch and take notes from the outside,

like watching fish. Gallery walks I have always enjoyed,

as well as most students.

Students walk the room and view posters as small groups,

then they discuss what they see.

The last example is the roundtable discussion format,

and this method

it's more simply a bouncing off of ideas to each other.

Next up we'll look at some

guidelines for implementation of classroom discussions.

So, before you pose any discussion questions,

be sure your students have the prior and

prerequisite knowledge needed to answer the question.

Remember,

discussions are high order thinking.

The discussion should be structured from beginning to end,

beginning with opposing question,

and it should end with formative assessments

of students' understanding of the topic.

Speaking of topics,

introduce questions with many different perspectives.

You wanna have diversity of thought and opinion,

thus getting many students involved.

Teachers should create and foster a warm atmosphere during the discussion.

Teachers must intervene at any and all disrespectful and hurtful comment.

Some teachers are moving to online discussions.

Many colleges and universities have classes

meet online where discussions are graded.

Teachers should prepare students for this.

The next section up is teacher tips.

Just a few pointers for teachers.

First off,

after asking a question,

give the students some time to digest and think

about how they want to respond to the question.

Don't rush.

I suggest that teachers intervene when discussions get off topic,

and trust me,

students will take it off topic.

This may sound obvious,

but teachers must pay attention during the discussion.

Don't go to your desk and finish your lesson plan.

At the end of the discussion,

always summarize what was discussed and learned.

You

may have to make some corrections.

Nonetheless,

summarize near the end.

During the discussion,

the teacher may need to step in and clarify certain things that were said.

Sometimes students have a hard time expressing their ideas.

And lastly,

during these discussions you hear some great ideas

and student interests will become apparent.

Try and incorporate these ideas into your classroom.

Now,

on to the last section of the video,

which is technology.

There are a number of different platforms that

teachers can use to hold online discussions.

A recent trend is using Twitter,

however,

most educators use Google products such as Google Classroom,

Hangouts,

Chats,

and more.

Next,

teachers must familiarize students with the chosen platform.

Students need to be shown and taught how to use the platform.

Other important ways to prepare students for the platform use

include setting behavioral expectations for online communication.

As students begin to have regular online discussions,

teachers must closely monitor the behavior

and specifically what was written.

You need to keep a close eye.

Lastly,

assigned grades for these discussions.

More and more colleges and universities are using this method

as both an activity and an assessment.

So again,

right now,

I wanna say thank you for your time.

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