Class Discussions

Discussions is a powerful way to develop academic language, thinking and social skills. Students enjoy class discussions because they learn from hearing other people's opinions, comment and connect what is being said to what they learned in class, draw conclusions about the subject matter. They are actively involved into conversations and learn to show their interest through taking notes, eye contact, smiling, nodding, and body language. Students pose questions, summarize and explain their own ideas and points of view.

Things I Wonder About

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Skills of asking good questions and finding answers to the problems that were not solved before are essential to succeed in life and make the life of others better.

To support student inquisitiveness and to practice research skills application, Mr. Ratner and Ms. Bee have announced an award for ... asking good questions.

To participate in the "Things I Wonder About" award, Middle School students are invited to create a Google doc and title it "Things I Wonder About" to collect questions and things they wonder about. The document should be shared with Ms. Bee (mbrodsky@wbais.net). Read for more details.

Inquiry-based discussions based on daily news

To start a tradition of inquiry-based discussions in class teachers can use informational texts and daily news.
Newsela is one of the sites where current events are organized by topics and grade levels. Wonderopolis is another great site that teacher can use to start the class discussions on science.

Topics in focus provoke students for asking new questions, and inquiries is a key for discussions that ignite discoveries.

Discussions are used as a tool for assessment when students display how well they know the subject. Another approach to discussions is to use them as a prompt to a research practice. Students find answers while sifting through sources of information thus practicing essential skills of identifying reliable sources, evaluation of web sites, providing credits to creators of multimedia and citing sources of information.

There are various techniques of how teachers organize discussions in class. One of them is a "fishbowl" strategy when one group participates in the discussion while another is watching and taking notes. Afterwards, groups change their roles.  Facing History and Ourselves illustrates this activity in details.

TodaysMeet is an effective tool when teachers want to involve every student in the discussion.

TodaysMeet is a tool that provides every student with an opportunity to express his or her ideas and opinion while others discuss the question out loud.

The teacher divides the class into two groups. One group is sitting in the middle of the classroom and discuss a current event or another informational text while the rest of the class ask questions or post their comments through TodaysMeet projected on the board. Then, the groups switch.

After reading an informational text or an article on a current event, teacher poses a question or a problem or creates a scenario that students try to solve as a group.

The discussion is evolving around the main topic. Students add their ideas and questions to the site.

Inquiry-based discussions is a great way to develop multiple skills students need to become global citizens.