Academic Discourse
Promoting strong academic discourse in your classroom will better prepare your students for college and careers. The strategies below help students engage in academic discourse. Partner and group sharing are especially strong ways to promote academic discourse. Student's should be taught to speak in private and public voices when working with partners or sharing out to the class. Student's understanding of material generally increases when they engage in academic discourse.
My "Fav Five"
Think Pair Share
Ms. Haviland demonstrated this technique. She described it as, "This strategy involves students getting time to think about an answer, share the answer with a partner and hear other possibilities, and then being able to share it to the whole class. It gives each student a way to be able to have an answer and be able to share if called on." I think Think Pair Share is great because pairs makes it difficult for someone to not participate and the collaborative aspect allows students to share ideas and learn from one another.
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ed_171-_think-pair-share.docx | |
File Size: | 11 kb |
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Jigsaw
Ms. Stout demonstrated this technique. She described it as, "This worksheet allows students to work together while learning about new vocabulary in any area. Then the students are able to share their knowledge with their peers. This foster community as well as a love of learning and discovery." I think Jigsaw works great because it allows students to work together and become "experts on different topics." The idea of having and "expert" who shares with their group engages all students, even those who might not wish to participate.
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jigsaw.doc | |
File Size: | 22 kb |
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Numbered Heads Together
I demonstrated this activity. I think it is a great technique because it keeps all students accountable for learning, but it decreases some of the stress because students are able to collaborate with a group to form an answer. It also allows students to speak out to the class using their academic voices.
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numbered_heads_together_strategy.docx | |
File Size: | 128 kb |
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Academic Exchange of Ideas
Dr. Wilson demonstrated this technique for the class. She described it as, "This is a structured activity which guides students to think, write, discuss, and report using academic language. You can modify the activity to suit the needs of your discussion. Be sure to model each step before asking students to do it independently." The concept of academic language is a wonderful thing. Teaching students how to speak within a professional realm is something that needs to be done more often, and then holding those students to a professional or academic speech will enable them to be more successful communicators in the work force and college.
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academic_idea_exchange.docx | |
File Size: | 92 kb |
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Concept Sorts
Mr. Eaton demonstrated this technique. He described it as "This is an activity where students can engage with their own understanding of words, sentences, or phrases by organizing them into categories." I think this activity could be great when working with primary sources in a history class. It could help student break down different parts of the source. It could also work for secondary sources. As students read they can break down different parts of the article, such as, evidence, point of view, thesis, etc.
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concept_sort_ke.pdf | |
File Size: | 77 kb |
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