The Power in Discourse
Most students enjoy chit chatting and talking throughout the day. The educator's job is taking that chit chat and turning it into meaningful conversations. When students are able to have responsibility for the discussion, their thinking will grow and challenge each other students thinking. Fisher and Frey state that classroom discussion allows for the co-construction of knowledge. By allowing students to own the discussion, it elevates their thinking of reading deeply from a private on conversation to a public conversation.
It is also important to remember that not all student conversation is meaningful so it is the educator's job to help prompt and teach students on how to have a conversation. At Prairie and Hadfield, educators have been instructing students on how to use different conversational moves in language workshop and literature discussion groups to help students have meaningful conversations.
During professional development at Prairie, educators were able to watch Kim Ferguson facilitate language workshop. By watching this video, the entire staff engaged in conversations about how to develop conversational moves and expectations for each grade level.
Below is a video of Kim Ferguson’s 3rd-grade class having a discussion about the book Miss Mack and how the character has changed over time. Watch for how the students are using conversational moves and building off one another’s thoughts.
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