Professional Development to Practice
ASSESSING CLASSROOM DISCUSSION
(ACADEMIC DISCOURSE)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The contents of this presentation were developed under a grant from the US
Department of Education, #H323A120018. However, these contents do not
necessarily represent the policy of the US Department of Education, and you
should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
Professional Development to Practice
Conversations…
 complement
a wide variety of
assessments.
 assess and teach at the same time.
Professional Development to Practice
Gathering Assessment Data
 Rubrics
 Observation
records (anecdotal)
 Checklists
 Journals
 Questionnaires
 Charts
 Audio
or video recordings
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Challenges of Assessing
Conversation
 Unpredictable,
moving targets
 Subjective
 Maintaining
high validity
 Can last hours, days, months, etc.
Professional Development to Practice
What Gets Assessed During
Discussion (Discourse)?
 Knowledge
and skills
 Thinking skills (H.O.T.S)
 Academic language
 Communication skills and behaviors
J. Zwiers and M. Crawford, 2011. Academic Conversations: Classroom talk that fosters critical
thinking and content understandings.
Professional Development to Practice
Video Clip: Walker Middle School
Socratic Seminar
 Each
on
participant select, observe and take notes
 Setting
the Stage & management
 Knowledge and skills (of content)
 Thinking skills (H.O.T.S./Bloom’s)
 Academic Language (domain specific)
 Communication skills and behaviors (nonverbal)
 Share
observations at your table
 Group share
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Walker Middle School
http://youtu.be/6pGVR6ZF_2M
Professional Development to Practice

Assessing the Quality of
Discussion (Discourse)
Preparation



Focus, Purpose, and Engagement


Students own the discourse (monitor self and others in staying on task)
Interaction



Come to the table with ideas, connections, resources, etc.
Completed required reading, viewing, listening, journal entry, etc.
Collaboration; active listening; respect; trust; and taking turns
Participate; take interest in what others have to say; seek clarification;
and disagree courteously
Level of Thinking


Breadth (multidimensional—exploring more than one aspect)
Depth (superficial—when new information is added; ideas challenged;
clarification is sought)
Dixie Lee Spiegel, 2005. Classroom Discussion: Strategies for
engaging all students, building higher-level thinking skills, and
strengthening reading and writing across the curriculum.
Professional Development to Practice
Questioning in a Socratic Seminar
(Elementary)
 Each
participant select, observe and take
notes on
 Setting
the Stage & management
 Preparation
 Focus, Purpose, and Engagement
 Interaction
 Level of Thinking
 Share
observations at your table
 Group share
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Questioning in a Socratic Seminar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVjL6xWzWiQ
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Purposeful Student Talk
Students, also, need to
know what is expected!
Adapted from D. Fisher et al (2008). Content Area Conversations
Professional Development to Practice
Summer
Learning Partners
Consider this question:
 How might you teach and
share the expectations of
classroom discussion /
discourse with students?
Have a standing conversation
with your designated partner
Professional Development to Practice
FEEDBACK DURING
CLASSROOM ACADEMIC
DISCOURSE
The contents of this presentation were developed under a grant from the US
Department of Education, #H323A120018. However, these contents do not
necessarily represent the policy of the US Department of Education, and you
should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
Professional Development to Practice
“The most powerful single modification
that enhances achievement is feedback.
The simplest prescription for improving
education must be ‘dollops’ of
feedback.”
Hattie (1992)
So, how can you provide feedback as you listen
to students talk and construct meaning?
Professional Development to Practice
Purposeful Student Talk
Leads to Independent Task
Adapted from D. Fisher et al (2008). Content Area Conversations
Professional Development to Practice
Dimensions of Feedback
 Helping
students with the clarity of their
messages
“So, what might be some specific ideas that are
similar about…?”
 Clarifying
what students should keep doing
and/or what they should change
“You supported your opinion with specific details
from the text and examples from your own life.”
Adapted from J. Zwiers and M. Crawford, 2011.
Academic Conversations: Classroom talk that fosters
critical thinking and content understandings.
Professional Development to Practice
Feedback
Effective
Judgmental
 Paraphrase, then
“I like the way you asked
 Ask Reflective Question(s)
probing questions.”
“You asked several probing  Evaluative
questions. In what ways did
“Very good; their actions
that help you to understand
were greedy.”
both positions?”

Descriptive
Ineffective

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Video Clip
Watch again to capture a feedback
opportunity…
Professional Development to Practice
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES FOR
CLASSROOM DISCUSSION
The contents of this presentation were developed under a grant from the US
Department of Education, #H323A120018. However, these contents do not
necessarily represent the policy of the US Department of Education, and you
should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
Professional Development to Practice
Purposeful Student Talk
Leads to Independent Task
Adapted from D. Fisher et al (2008). Content Area Conversations
Professional Development to Practice
Conversation is a basis for critical
thinking. It is the thread that ties
together cognitive strategies and
provides students with the practice
that becomes the foundation for
reading, writing, and thinking.
ANN KETCH (2005)
Conversation: The Comprehension Connection
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Jigsaw for Learning
 Number
off around the room 1 through 7
 Read your corresponding numbered
strategy
 Form like-numbered groups, dialogue and
clarify your understanding of the strategy
 Regroup and teach each other
 Discuss
the implications of using these for
classroom discussion / academic discourse
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Scaffold to Build Rich Discourse
Vocabulary
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Purposeful Student Talk
Leads to Independent Task
Adapted from D. Fisher et al (2008). Content Area Conversations
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Language - Experience “Anchor”
Strategy: Picture Word Inductive Model (P.W.I.M.)
Select and share an “anchor” stimulus.
 Brainstorm words, ideas, questions, etc. prompted
by the anchor
 Record all of the brainstormed ideas and display
the list in the classroom.
 Students used the brainstormed list as a resource
for making predications and generating questions
concerning the upcoming learning content.
 Predictions, and questions are revisited throughout
the unit or lesson to amend, modify, and/or clarify
understandings.

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Strategy: Concept Sort
Purpose: Establish a mindset for the
upcoming discourse activity by
 Introducing students to the concepts /
vocabulary that will be explored
 Providing an opportunity for students to
interact with the content



Activating prior knowledge
Clarifying understanding
Identifying areas of misunderstandings and/or
knowledge deficits
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Then Concepts/Vocabulary
Then,
decide on the concepts
/vocabulary that are essential to
learner comprehension/understanding
of the BIG IDEA.
Learning Outcome:
Students will use vocabulary and concept clues from
the story, as well as what they already know, to
make predictions and inferences.
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P.W.I.M. Activity
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First comes the BIG IDEA of
Essential Question:
How can making predictions when we read help us
better understand informational content?
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Concept Sort
 Using
a set of concept cards, sort the cards
into 2-3 categories
 Construct several sentences using at least
one word from each of two categories in
each sentence
 Group share
Professional Development to Practice
Spring
Learning Partners
Consider this question:
 What additional ways can
you use to create this
prerequisite scaffold for
classroom discussion &
discourse?
Have a standing conversation
with your designated partner
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A non-example
http://youtu.be/ErPMbMMROAs
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A Strategy to Support Discourse:
Socratic Seminar
Professional Development to Practice
Purposeful Student Talk
Leads to Independent Task
Adapted from D. Fisher et al (2008). Content Area Conversations
Professional Development to Practice
A Strategy to Support Discourse:
Socratic Seminar
 “The [Socratic] seminar is designed to enable
students to explore a text, a problem, an
experience; it is not a more conversational
form of teacher-led instruction. Rather, it is the
students’ opportunity to ask and consider
questions and explore each others’ answers. In
short, it becomes the skills that are
traditionally reserved for the teacher.”
Grant Wiggins
Professional Development to Practice
Toward Higher Level Thinking and Deeper
Understanding for ALL Students
“We're asking our students to read very difficult texts
and then throwing equally demanding writing tasks
at them. Many of our students would struggle to
succeed without talking about the text in a seminar.
[Typically] we ask for a paragraph, and we're lucky
to get a sentence. We ask for an essay, and we get
half a page. But if they've participated in a seminar
and discussed the text at length, then we can jumpstart the writing process by having them write about
what they heard and said in seminar.”
Melissa Hedt,
Asheville Middle School Literacy Coach
Asheville, North Carolina.
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Introducing the Socratic Seminar
Vancouver Public Schools
http://youtu.be/tio7c0begRY
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Where Are We Going?
Socratic Seminar
This is a short video
about the Socratic
Seminar in a
Freshman English
classroom. The
teacher, Bill Wesley,
articulates the
methods and benefits
of this approach.
The video was
produced by Bill Allan
for Lyons Township
High School.
http://youtu.be/RBjZ-4MK1WE
Professional Development to Practice
Where Are We Going?
http://youtu.be/RBjZ-4MK1WE
Professional Development to Practice
Socratic Seminar
In a Socratic Seminar, participants seek deeper
understanding of complex ideas through rigorously
thoughtful dialogue, rather than by memorizing bits
of information.
Essential Elements:
The
Participants
The Leader
The Text
The Question
Professional Development to Practice
The Participants & Leader
 Use
an inner and outer circle. If you
have a large class, you may have two
circles going simultaneously.
 Each inner circle participant is assigned an
outer circle partner. That person is to observe
his/her partner throughout the entire
discussion.
 In the inner circle, there is a discussion leader.
 In
the inner circle, there is a hot seat.
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The TEXT
 Authentic
texts that invite authentic inquiry
 Use a piece of text that is controversial or
can inspire discussion from multiple points
of view.
 A seminar text can be drawn from readings
in literature, history, science, math, health,
and philosophy or from works of art or
music.
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The QUESTIONS
 An
 It
opening question has no right answer
reflects a genuine curiosity on the part of
seminar participants.
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Three Levels of Questioning
Alignment with the Missouri Learning Standards
 Category
 Key
One – What does the text say?
Ideas and Details - Standards 1-3
 Category
 Craft
Two – How does the text say it??
and Structure - Standards 4-6
 Category
3 - What does the text mean? What is
its value? How does the text connect to other
texts?
 Integration
of Knowledge and Ideas - Standards 7-9
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Text-Dependent Questions
Questions should be
text dependent
allowing students to
support their answers
by citing evidence
from the text.
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Ground Rules
pp.
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Table Talk
 Given
this strategy and ground rules, what
would be easy for your students to do?
 What might take more explicit clarification
and modeling?
pp.
Professional Development to Practice
Purposeful Student Talk
Leads to Independent Task
Adapted from D. Fisher et al (2008). Content Area Conversations
Professional Development to Practice
Journal
 Given
today’s time with your colleagues
on Classroom Discussion (Discourse),
silently journal about the commitment you
make (e.g. when, where, how) in using
this effective practice in your classroom.
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Learning Partners Interview
Winter
 Take
your journal and
locate your Learning
Partner
 Read your journal aloud
to your partner
 Partner interview
 Switch roles
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Procedure for (Summatively)
Assessing Conversations
 Ensure
the rubric is understood by students
 Select topics that are new, usable, interesting,
important, and challenging
 Allow students to practice and self-assess
(formative assessment)!
 Observe the discourse, taking notes on rubric
 Have students orally synthesize their
conversation, then in written form
Professional Development to Practice
Scoring Academic Conversations

Use codes:
T=talk/think
 F=focus/build
 S=support w/examples
 P=paraphrase and synthesize
 C=communication/nonverbal behaviors


And scales:
1=below standard/expectation
 2=approaching
 3=at or above

pp.
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Self-Assessing the Quality of
Discussion (Discourse)
 Preparation
 Focus,
Purpose, and Engagement
 Interaction
 Level
of Thinking
pp.
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Organize and Integrate
With a partner, make a three-column chart
with each column labeled as:
WHAT
WHY
HOW
Craft a new
Describe the
definition of the importance of
practice of
using this
Classroom
practice in the
Discussion /
classroom
Academic Discourse
List several
strategies that
you can commit
and plan to use
in the future
Next steps…
Next Steps…
Continue own learning
 Put into practice
Coaching
 Self/peer assess
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Practice Profile
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Implementation Fidelity
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Next Steps: Action=Results
Next Steps: Actions = Results
Content Focus
Collaborative Data Teams
Effective Teaching/Learning Practices
School: _________________________
Common Formative Assessment
Data-based Decision-making
Date Next Steps Form Written:_______________________________
Teams (e.g. grade level or content): _________________________________________________________________________________
Action Planned
What?
Responsible
Person(s)
Who?
Timeline
When?
Resources/Support Needed
Results
So What?
What steps will you take to start implementing?