how do you engage students in a discussion

How to Engage Students in Discussion

• Create a classroom environment that EVERY student is comfortable in. This is without a doubt the most important tip of all four. You HAVE to create this environment or students will not speak up and share their thoughts and questions. ...
• Create a list of questions IN ADVANCE to ask students. ...
• Incorporate phenomena! ...
• Practice makes perfect. ...

Full Answer

What are some powerful discussion strategies to engage students?

12 Powerful Discussion Strategies to Engage Students. 1 1. Silent Discussions. Silent discussion strategies have been gaining momentum in the physical classroom, but they are also convenient for online ... 2 2. Color-Coded Conversations. 3 3. Human Bar Graphs. 4 4. Collaborative Note Catchers. 5 5. Virtual Questions. More items

How do you get students engaged in meaningful conversations?

One way that Christina, The Daring English Teacher, loves to get students engaged in meaningful classroom conversations is through fishbowl discussions. She holds fishbowl discussions every semester to provide students with an opportunity to discuss what they’ve learned during the semester.

How do you engage students in the classroom?

GIVE OWNERSHIP If we really want to engage students in learning, we need to give them ownership: voice and choice. Involve them in making decisions about what happens in the classroom and about their learning. Ask for their feedback about lessons and units.

What are some 3 classroom discussion strategies you can use?

3 classroom discussion strategies you can use 1 Socratic seminar In a nutshell: Socratic Seminars allow students to develop inquiry skills in the context of collegial discussions. ... 2 Pop-up debates In a nutshell: Pop-up debates are informal debates that focus on both a soft skill as well as a content topic. ... 3 Speed dating

Why is it important to involve students in discussion?

Involving your students in discussion is a time-honored method to keep attention levels up and manage a classroom effectively.

How to get students interested in a lesson?

Students love experimenting with devices such as tablets, phones and computers. Technology and videos, when used in the classroom sparingly , is an effective way to get students interested in the lesson.

What can be incorporated into a lesson?

Academic puzzles, science toys (such as terrariums, specimen rocks and microscopes) and mind-challenging games can be incorporated in lessons. You can also create competitive games in a class where students try to outshine each other in groups or as individuals.

How can students help improve the learning environment?

No matter how young they may be, students have ideas that might help improve the learning environment. You can do this without handing over control, such as to give them options to choose from or create an activity that requires decision making.

How to boost mood in a class?

Find something each time to turn the lesson into a bit of a problem solving quest. Using mysteries and investigation can really boost the mood of the class.

What to do when you choose to use technology?

If you choose to use technology, try to really connect the technology to learning rather than allowing it to be a distraction from subject.

Why is interactivity important in school?

Interactivity is vital for struggling students and can be used to engage advanced students as well.

How many students are in a panel discussion?

A panel discussion is made up of three roles: a moderator who asks questions (a student or the teacher), panelists (four to five students), and the audience (the rest of the class).

How to help students think out loud?

Furthermore, Staci finds it valuable to provide and practice using different kinds of sentence frames that will help students “think out loud.” When students share their thinking with others, respectfully of course, it can push the entire conversation forward in meaningful ways. Leave these frames up in a digital or in-person setting for students to reference throughout the discussion. Sometimes a little preparation and support can go a long way!

How to set up a fishbowl discussion?

To set up a fishbowl discussion, she places two tables facing each other in the center of the classroom and then rearranges all of the other tables in a big circle around the two tables. Essentially, she creates a fishbowl.

How does the daring English teacher tie the discussion back to classroom content?

To tie the discussion back to classroom content, The Daring English Teacher makes sure that the students not only answer the question, but they must also provide examples or evidence. This way, students can build off of one another with multiple examples to answer one question.

How many students are in a fishbowl?

Students then volunteer to go into the center of the fishbowl to answer the discussion questions. It is good to have four students enter the fishbowl at a time so that they can discuss each question and engage in a back-and-forth conversation as they answer the question.

What is an essential question?

Essential Questions are questions that guide units of study and illicit genuine curiosity and further inquiry from students (check out this blog post for a head start or her course to learn more!).

Is silent discussion good for online discussion?

Silent discussion strategies have been gaining momentum in the physical classroom, but they are also convenient for online discussions.

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Create a classroom environment that EVERY student is comfortable in

This is without a doubt the most important tip of all four. You HAVE to create this environment or students will not speak up and share their thoughts and questions.

Create a list of questions IN ADVANCE to ask students

This will NOT be necessary over time as you get more and more comfortable implementing discussions with your students, but I HIGHLY recommend doing this if you are just starting out. I jot down questions in the notes section of the slides of my PowerPoint, or you can even use a post-it note and keep it at the front of the room.⁣

Incorporate phenomena!

New Oxford dictionary defines a phenomenon as, “A fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause or explanation is in question.” I have a blog post on how NGSS defines it you can check out too.

Practice makes perfect. Just get started!

I know this sounds simple, and it is. But like most things, the more you do it, the more natural it will be for you AND for your students! It will become part of the culture of your class. But it won’t happen overnight! It takes time!⁣

How to engage students in a lesson?

And, thinking is critical for engagement! Try incorporating brain dumps, or stop and jots, as a way for students to write down what they remember as you move from one topic to another or between parts of the lesson. This type of activity is also helpful with removing “dead time” in the classroom, which diminishes engagement.

How to get students engaged in learning?

Students are more engaged in learning when lessons are relevant to real-world application. Tie literature to essential questions that help students understand life. Choose books in which they can see themselves or their culture present. Try passion projects or genius hours.

Why is chunking important in lessons?

We can do this by breaking down course content and skills into smaller chunks that are more easy for students to digest as well as chunking the class period strategically to increase mastery of content.

How does movement affect students?

Whether we are having students participate in a gallery walk, using manipulatives to understand language, or sorting information to categorize it, when students are standing and moving around, they are more likely to be engaged. Learning stations are one of my favorite ways to incorporate movement because students get to practice many skills related to the learning objectives…all from different learning perspectives.

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Why is color important in learning?

Color brightens moods, lessons, and learning. There’s something about color that intrigues us and helps us to remember what we learn. Students can color-code elements of a paragaraph when writing. Color can also help students understand book diet and book fit.

What to write before writing an argumentative essay?

Writing? Hold a debate before writing an argumentative essay. Analyze aspects of pop culture before writing a literary analysis piece. For informative writing, pique students’ interest by having them select a topic based off of questions they have about a fiction text (ex. – Why did Henry VIII have six wives? or What technology has already been invented that is similar to what is described in the book? ).

How to engage students in discussion?

In this engaging discussion strategy, students form an inner or outer circle. They stand across from one classmate that is in the opposite circle. The teacher asks a question relating to anything discussion-worthy from the content and allows time for the two students to discuss. One minute is usually plenty of time. Then students rotate, the teacher asks another question, and the discussion continues with a new partner.

What skills do students need to participate in a pop up debate?

Teachers need to explicitly teach, model, and share expectations prior to the pop-up debate.

Why is it called a pop up debate?

It is called a pop-up debate because the students stand at their desk while they are speaking.

Why is speaking and listening important?

As we know, speaking and listening skills are important in both the professional and personal arena of life. We want our students to have the ability to articulate thought, analyze, and discuss. We want them to know how to disagree and come to a consensus. We also want students to know how to clearly communicate. The question becomes: How do we get there?

Can students speak in a debate?

Once a student has spoken the prescribed amount of times, they are not allowed to speak in the debate any further. This gives the pop-up debate an element of strategy and pre-planning, often from your most competitive and confident speakers. The goal for students is to avoid siloing.

Is a Socratic seminar a debate?

Socratic Seminars are not debates. Instead, they require students to work toward understanding, together. The texts are intended to be used during the discussion. In fact, quoting the text can be a requirement.

When a student provides the correct answer to a posed question, it is easy to simply respond with “Yes?

When a student provides the correct answer to a posed question, it is easy to simply respond with “Yes!” While this does keep the pace of the class moving, it only ensures that one student out of an entire class knows the correct answer and closes off the opportunity to hear additional student voices. Instead, we as teachers can respond with “What do we think about that?” in response to a given answer. This generates an open-ended question, which allows multiple students to weigh in on the given answer: agreeing, disagreeing, providing additional evidence, etc.

Why do middle school math students talk through problems?

As middle and high school math students talk through problems, they build camaraderie and gain greater conceptual understanding.

How does distance learning help students?

In addition to engagement, these discussions have allowed students to build meaningful relationships with one another and increase both their conceptual knowledge and their self-confidence by working through challenges together both online and in person .

How to manage a large group discussion?

For instance, one commonly used technique to manage large group discussion is to divide the group into smaller teams. Each team can then work on different topics and present their findings so that the teams can share and learn from each other. A variation of this could be to have one team discuss, while the other team observes the interaction amongst the students who are discussing. This could be then reversed if time permits. The benefit of the variation is that we can help students to not only engage in a discussion and focus on content, but we can also help them to reflect on their discussion pattern and learn how to participate effectively in a group discussion. Getting students to study discussion would be an eye-opening experience and it could be more effective than telling students what an effective discussion should be like.

Why is the instructor important in the discussion process?

The instructor plays a crucial part in aiding the discussion process because he or she must engage the students in conversation and manage the flow of the discussion. For instance, the instructor needs to encourage the silent students, harness the contributions from the overzealous students to catalyze discussion, and utilize opinions to challenge ideas.

What is the challenge of being an instructor?

Instructors face a Herculean challenge in managing discussion – whether the discussion is face-to-face or online. To be an effective instructor, it is important to learn how to facilitate discussion, and keep the dialogue flowing without veering off topic.