Good teachers know how important it is to give students regular opportunities to collaborate with each other. Small group discussions can be a fantastic way to challenge students to think critically, while giving them social support to work through their ideas in a circle of peers, instead of in front of the class as a whole. However, the first time I tried a small group discussion in class, I quickly realized most of my students were more interested in talking about the latest video game or weekend plans than their assigned discussion topic. Some teachers are wary of small group discussions for precisely that reason.
So how do you give students the opportunity to share their ideas with each other, while ensuring they are actually discussing the topic at hand? If a fail-safe way exists, I haven’t found it yet. However, I have found a number of strategies that help to keep students on-task.
So how do you give students the opportunity to share their ideas with each other, while ensuring they are actually discussing the topic at hand? If a fail-safe way exists, I haven’t found it yet. However, I have found a number of strategies that help to keep students on-task.
As a note, all of these strategies rely on teacher proximity to truly be effective. If you ask students to talk in small groups, but stay at the front of the room, I can pretty much guarantee you that your students will talk about anything but the topic at hand, regardless of any other accountability measures. It is vital for teachers to move around the classroom and occasionally sit in on each group. Teacher proximity is the probably the most important accountability method for small group discussion (and most in-class activities). It is the foundation for these other strategies.
Randomizers
During classroom observations, I have seen teachers use a number of methods for randomizing which students they call on in class. In my own classroom, I preferred craft sticks. A bag of them is inexpensive, and it did not take my TA long to print the name of each student on a stick with a permanent marker. Afterwards, I had a tool I would rely on all year long. Randomizers like craft sticks are a great way to choose students to debrief with the class after a think-pair-share or small group discussion. Depending on the complexity of the question, I would give students anywhere from one to five minutes to confer with each other, then draw on a student to share their thoughts with the whole class. Knowing they might get called on made most students more likely to stay focused on the subject at hand.
I had a craft stick revelation when my instructional coach pointed out that, if I held them the right way, my students could not read which name I drew. Since I primarily used craft sticks to ensure I was randomly calling on students, not inadvertently favoring some or ignoring others, I rarely “cheated” this way. But during accountability checks, it sometimes paid to intentionally call on students who seemed distracted, with or without the craft stick ruse. It sent a message to the rest of the class that they needed to stay on task.
I had a craft stick revelation when my instructional coach pointed out that, if I held them the right way, my students could not read which name I drew. Since I primarily used craft sticks to ensure I was randomly calling on students, not inadvertently favoring some or ignoring others, I rarely “cheated” this way. But during accountability checks, it sometimes paid to intentionally call on students who seemed distracted, with or without the craft stick ruse. It sent a message to the rest of the class that they needed to stay on task.
Scribes
It is common for group projects to have an assigned note taker. The same principle works for small group discussions – ask a question, and have one member of the group take notes on their conversation. I used scribes a lot, especially when I needed to gauge the class’s collective understanding of a topic. Discussion notes make great formative assessments.
I found that the trick with using scribes is to make sure that each student takes notes at some point during the period. If there is only one assigned scribe, that poor student is likely to end up doing most of the work, while the other group members sit around and chat about whatever was on TV the night before. Typically, I divided my students into groups of four, and had one student in each group take out a piece of paper. That student then divided the paper into quadrants, labeling each with the name of a group member. Once every group was ready, I would ask a question, and give the students five minutes to discuss, while one student in the group took notes, writing in their assigned quadrant. After five minutes, we would stop, each group would share out to the class, and then the initial scribe would hand the paper off to another student. After twenty minutes, every student in the class would have had a chance to take notes, but I would only have a handful of papers to look over.
This method works best when combined with randomizers, as described above. At the beginning of every discussion, I would remind students that, no matter who their group’s scribe was, anyone could get chosen to report back to the class, so they all needed to be contributing and paying attention. Two degrees of accountability, combined with teacher proximity, seemed to work fairly well to keep my students engaged in the discussion.
I found that the trick with using scribes is to make sure that each student takes notes at some point during the period. If there is only one assigned scribe, that poor student is likely to end up doing most of the work, while the other group members sit around and chat about whatever was on TV the night before. Typically, I divided my students into groups of four, and had one student in each group take out a piece of paper. That student then divided the paper into quadrants, labeling each with the name of a group member. Once every group was ready, I would ask a question, and give the students five minutes to discuss, while one student in the group took notes, writing in their assigned quadrant. After five minutes, we would stop, each group would share out to the class, and then the initial scribe would hand the paper off to another student. After twenty minutes, every student in the class would have had a chance to take notes, but I would only have a handful of papers to look over.
This method works best when combined with randomizers, as described above. At the beginning of every discussion, I would remind students that, no matter who their group’s scribe was, anyone could get chosen to report back to the class, so they all needed to be contributing and paying attention. Two degrees of accountability, combined with teacher proximity, seemed to work fairly well to keep my students engaged in the discussion.
Silent Discussions
In this “discussion,” students are collaborating, but they are doing it on paper. I have seen teachers use a number of techniques for silent discussion. Some teachers place large sheets of butcher paper on the floor, or tape them to the wall, with a question or topic written on the middle. Branching out from the central topic or question, students map out their ideas, adding their own thoughts or questions. From there, students can respond to each other’s thoughts in addition to the central question. Sometimes, teachers using this method assign different colored markers to every student in the group to make sure everyone is participating.
In my own classroom, I would have small groups of students sit in circles and have each student to take out a piece of paper. Then I would tell them to think of a discussion question and write it on top of the paper. I used Costa’s Levels of Inquiry a lot with my students to make sure they were asking open-ended questions that relied on higher-order thinking skills. At the beginning of the year, when they were still learning this process, I provided question stems to scaffold the activity.
Once everybody had a discussion question, each student passed his or her paper to the person on the right. That student would then have three minutes to formulate an answer to the original question. After three minutes, students signed their names below their replies and passed their papers again. This time, students had a choice of replying to the original question, or to the initial response.
The first time students do this activity (or any discussion), I found it was helpful to have a few sentence prompts on the board to help students respond to each other’s arguments constructively. For example:
Small group discussions require some work to be effective, but in my own experience, they are great ways to build student collaboration and critical thinking.
In my own classroom, I would have small groups of students sit in circles and have each student to take out a piece of paper. Then I would tell them to think of a discussion question and write it on top of the paper. I used Costa’s Levels of Inquiry a lot with my students to make sure they were asking open-ended questions that relied on higher-order thinking skills. At the beginning of the year, when they were still learning this process, I provided question stems to scaffold the activity.
Once everybody had a discussion question, each student passed his or her paper to the person on the right. That student would then have three minutes to formulate an answer to the original question. After three minutes, students signed their names below their replies and passed their papers again. This time, students had a choice of replying to the original question, or to the initial response.
The first time students do this activity (or any discussion), I found it was helpful to have a few sentence prompts on the board to help students respond to each other’s arguments constructively. For example:
- I agree/disagree with _____ because _____.
- _____ made a good point when s/he said ______. However, _____.
- To add to what ___ said, ____.
- To look at this from another perspective, _____.
- Which question was hardest to answer, and why?
- Which question generated the most discussion? Why do you think that is?
- Which response used the most detail from the text?
- Which response best connected the question to the real world?
- Which response made you think the most?
Small group discussions require some work to be effective, but in my own experience, they are great ways to build student collaboration and critical thinking.
Do you want to build lessons that incorporate more student discussion?
Mindy Jones, B.A., Research Associate
Mindy Jones has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a Residency Teaching Certificate from Western Washington University, with extensive coursework in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. She taught English for four years at Wapato High School, where she first received training in the STAR Protocol. As a high-school teacher, Mindy experienced first-hand the benefits of Powerful Teaching and Learning (PTL) in the classroom. Student learning and engagement increased dramatically when she began incorporating elements of PTL into her classroom planning and instruction. She joined the BERC Group in 2012 and is excited to contribute to the research that can have such a beneficial impact on student learning.
