Students. Love. To. Talk. Whether it’s to each other, to themselves, or to a classroom visitor, young people are heavily invested in knowing more about the world and people around them. Sometimes to the chagrin of educators, these quests for knowledge can happen at inopportune times in instruction. How, then, can we leverage this propensity for conversation as part of our lessons? Our three-step model for designing student interactions, Varied Levels of Interaction, can help.

Level One: Student-to-Self Interactions

Before we can ask students to engage in academic talk, we need to grant them time and space to determine what ideas they will bring to the conversation.

In this level of interaction, we do three things:

1. Present students with an open-ended prompt (yes/no questions don’t invite a lot of conversation –but “I agree/disagree because…..” does)

2. Allow students time and space to develop their own thinking in response to the prompt. This could take the form of:

• Think Time
• Write First time (on a notebook, whiteboard, PearDeck response, etc)

3. Inform students of how they’ll be held accountable for this individual thinking. This can happen in a variety of ways:

• Being asked to submit their Write First
• Being asked to display their thinking
• Tracking participation during small-group conversations

This first level is all about students taking time to prepare something to bring to the table. In the next level, they’ll share what they’ve made.

Level Two: Student-to-Student Interactions

Here is where the first round of academic talk takes place – in small groups of 2-4 students. Students are asked to share their thinking in response to the prompt; this also gives them a structured opportunity to hear and gather the thinking of others to supplement and/or confirm their own thinking.

Key considerations at this level include:

• Determine group composition

  • How many will be placed in each group?
    • Pairs?
    • Triads?
    • Quads?
  • How will we determine who is in which small group?
    • Based on geography in the classroom?
    • Mixed-ability groups?
    • Random sort?

• Determine conversation structure

  • Who will speak first?
  • Who will speak next?
  • For how long? (total and per person)

• Communicate expectations to students

  • What will your “script” sound like for giving directions at this level?
  • How will expectations be made visible for students to refer to throughout the conversations?
  • Will any supports be given to facilitate group conversations such as sentence stems or a list of required academic vocabulary?

• Monitor student conversations

  • What steps will be taken to ensure students are on task?
  • How will students receive feedback on the substance of their conversations or redirection of misconceptions?

At this level, we provide students a structure for a rich conversation about the topic at hand. After sharing and testing their thinking with each other, they’ll be asked to share their thinking with a broader audience.

Level Three: Student-to-Class Interactions

This third level is what gives the other two levels their “reason to live.” At this level, students are expected to share some aspect of their small-group conversation with the class. Knowing that they can be held publicly accountable for their work and thinking often prompts them to be more engaged in the first two steps.

Here are some considerations for this level:

• Determine how groups will share their thinking with others

  • Will groups be asked to…
    • Do a simple oral sharing? Who will be responsible?
    • Create a poster?
    • Create a written summary? (individual or as a group)
    • Create a non-linguistic representation?

• Determine how the audience will interact with what is shared

  • Will the audience be expected to…
    • Record notes from each other group?
    • Explain which groups they agreed/disagreed with (and why?)
    • Revise their original response after listening to the thinking of others?

• Communicate expectations to students

  • What will your “script” sound like for giving directions at this level?
  • How will expectations be made visible for students to refer to throughout the conversations?
  • Will any supports be given to facilitate group processing and communicating such as a list of required academic vocabulary or writing structure?

• Monitor the share-out

  • What steps will be taken to ensure students are on task?
  • How will students receive feedback on the substance of their product?

As groups share their thinking with the class, it allows both the teacher and the audience the opportunity to explore how others came to their conclusions. This provides an excellent vehicle for formative assessment and can indicate where adjustments might be needed in the remainder of the lesson.

Encouraging meaningful academic conversations is much more than simply asking students to turn-and-talk. Instead, when we present students with a thoughtful design for the activity, we can ensure that they remain actively engaged—both with the learning, and with their peers.