• Enhance classroom discourse through effective questioning with PLC support

• Engage students to work with teachers to improve classroom discourse

• Return to your Discourse Primer- finish discussing Ideas 1, 2, 6, and 3.

• Agree on 1 or 2 strategies per table to share with the whole group.

To be proficient in science, students must•know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world

•generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations

•understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge; and

•participate productively in scientific practices and discourse

The Role of TalkChildren need time to talk, verbally or in writing, yet when time gets short, talk is what is pushed out of the curriculum first. But, for many of us, it is talk that leads to understanding and helps us process what we are learning.

Patricia Bloehm

Correspondence Journals

Characteristics of Effective Whole Group Discussions

•The students are seated in a circle facing one another.•There is a set of explicit norms and expectations, posted in view of all.•There is a natural flow to the conversation with a good deal of student to student interaction.•Many students participate: the conversation is not dominated by a single student or by the teacher.•The conversation is focused: students linger on a particular idea and make connections to one another’s ideas.

•The arrangement of the physical space can affect the quality of discussions.

•The circle fosters an intimacy and accountability to the group that cannot be achieved when students are spread throughout the classroom.

•When teachers join the circle, it becomes easier for them to facilitate rather than dominate the discussion.

Classroom Conversation Maps

Classroom Conversation Maps

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• Individually commit to strategies for Individually commit to strategies for enhancing discourse in your own classroom enhancing discourse in your own classroom next fall and share with PLC on Friday.next fall and share with PLC on Friday.

• How will your PLC support you as you embed How will your PLC support you as you embed these ideas of discourse into your classroom these ideas of discourse into your classroom practice?practice?

• Individually commit to strategies for Individually commit to strategies for enhancing discourse in your own classroom enhancing discourse in your own classroom next fall and share with PLC on Friday.next fall and share with PLC on Friday.

• How will your PLC support you as you embed How will your PLC support you as you embed these ideas of discourse into your classroom these ideas of discourse into your classroom practice?practice?

• Questions can be used to find out what students know (so you know what you have to do to help them) or to help them think• Ask more questions to help learners think

Engineering Effective Discussions, Questions, and

Learning Tasks that Elicit Evidence of Learning

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Teachers spend 35-50% of teaching time posing questions, or about 100 questions per hour. Teachers ask 300-400 questions per day, the majority of which are low-level cognitive questions (60% recall, 20% procedural) versus open-ended, inquiry questions (research cited in Hattie, 2009)

Engineering Effective Discussions, Questions, and

Learning Tasks that Elicit Evidence of Learning

• Involve students more in asking their own questions• Refrain from being the arbiter of right and wrong• Give learners a brief time to think and/ or talk with a

peer before inviting responses. Give 3-5 seconds. • Most teachers give 1 second or less (Wiliam)

• If a student says “I don’t know”, say you’ll go back to them after 2 more people; if they say they still don’t know, ask them to state their favorite response from the others and tell why

Engineering Effective Discussions, Questions, and

Learning Tasks that Elicit Evidence of Learning

Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.

Josef Albers

Note examples of effective discourse strategies during the content immersion and consider how to implement them in your own classroom in the fall.Practice your discourse moves on your table mates as you proceed through the content immersion.

Learning Progressions

Options•Have a peer provide feedback on

your existing learning progressions

•Construct a new learning progression with colleagues

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•Commit to improving formative assessment feedback to move student learning forward

Our Messages to Students

• How do you currently provide feedback that moves your students forward?

Providing Feedback That Moves The Learner

Forward

•http://prezi.com/1xg7lkg83gyw/assessment-for-learning-five-key-elements-theory-and-practice/

As you read the article consider:•How can you improve the feedback you give students?•Discuss strategies with your table mates.

• Feedback should provide information to the learner regarding where they are, where they are going, and how to close the gap

Providing Feedback That Moves The Learner

Forward

Quality Feedback Dylan Wiliam

•Address some measurable attribute;•Provide information to the student about where they

are currently and where they want to eventually be.

•Provide student with guidelines for how to get there.

Feedback is formative only if the information fed back is actually used in closing the gap.

Dylan WiliamWashington Educational Research Association workshop June 2009

Feedback should:

• During your content sessions, think about how you can provide feedback to your colleagues that might push their thinking forward.

Providing Feedback That Moves The Learner

Forward