Ask students to respond to their peers’ comments and questions, along with other procedures, to facilitate classroom discussions that move forward as a result of meaningful student engagement.

  • Implement classroom discussion procedures you might find in a Social Studies classroom, such as wait time, asking for justification, rebuttals, etc.
  • Model good discussion questions in class to teach students how to contribute to class discussions and move them forward.
  • Invite students during class discussions to contribute their own questions by providing them with starter questions.
    • Some example sentence starters for questions:
      • How does X relate to Y?
      • Who might have a different opinion about X? What would their opinion be?
  • Ask students to agree or disagree with arguments made by their peers to motivate them to listen to each other and engage in critical thinking.

More about this tip

External Source

Interview with Bradley Beth