Authentic Learning Strategy:
Lead Guided Discussions
NOTE: This strategy is part of the self-paced Spark Collaboration Course
Guided discussions are group conversations that use a structured protocol and usually a variety of sentence stems to support learners with the conversation. These build collaboration skills that can be used in larger group projects.
Bright Spots
Gain inspiration from authentic examples of this strategy shared by teachers who have used them with their learners.
Creating your own Bright Spots? Let’s get them out into the world! Share yours here.
Sentence Stems
Students at Chico Country Day School use these sentence stems and conversation cards to discuss math with partners.
Active Listening
Source: Stepahanie Howell on Twitter
Use sentence stems to support students with active listening skills that are critical for successful collaboration.
Conversation Clubhouse
Source: Stepahanie Howell on Twitter
Use sentence stems to support students with active listening skills that are critical for successful collaboration.
Collaborative Discussions
Collaborative discussions, such as the ones that take place in all subject areas at the College Preparatory School, allow students to learn from each other and practice important collaboration skills such as active listening, responding to others’ points of view and building on others’ ideas and depending on the structure of the discussion it may help learners negotiate to come to a shared decision.
Socratic seminars are a structure for doing just that.
Scaffolding With Socratic Circles
Facilitated Discussions
Source: Jason Coleman on Twitter
Resources
Inspired? Use the resources below to bring this learner-centered strategy to your learning community.
📖TQE (Thoughts-Questions-Epiphanies) group discussion protocol
📖 📺Provide sentence stems to support learners paraphrasing what they heard and asking probing questions during discussion and leverage a fishbowl discussion to model collaborative discussion
📖 📺 Socratic seminars or paideia seminars
Are you wanting to implement collaborative discussion in math class? Check out the 📖 “scribe protocol” or 📺 math partners.
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Want more?
If you found this helpful, try this related strategy:
Learn More in this Learner-Centered Course:
Do you already do this, earn a micro-credential:
