Improving High School Classroom Discourse

There’s an old adage passed around in education circles that states, “Those who do the talking do the learning.” This turns out to be only partially true. In 2023, research showed that, despite high levels of student discourse, the maximum amount of high-quality discussions in classrooms around the world equated to two minutes per day. As such, the more appropriate adage is “Those who do the high-quality discussion do the learning.”

Yielding twice as much academic growth as the average strategy, high-quality discussions provide a substantial amount of benefit to student learning. This is especially true at the deep level of learning. To develop this level of growth, students need to engage in discussions on a routine basis throughout the school year.

Deep learning may be best defined as the relationship between two or more ideas. This is a type of learning where students analyze, synthesize, and evaluate core content. For instance, students may be comparing the different states of matter (solids, liquids, and gases) or comparing and contrasting the allegiances during the American Revolution (patriots and loyalists).

This isn’t to say that teachers are not modeling deep learning when they explain ideas to students via direct instruction. The challenge is that for students to learn at the deep level, they must transfer the teacher’s understanding through other means, which are most powerfully accomplished through strategies that involve student discourse. As author and educator Jay McTighe shares, “You can’t explicitly teach deep learning.”

If you find that students are struggling with engaging in this type of discourse in your classroom, consider the following approaches.

Strategies to Encourage Classroom Discussion

Starters

1. Use choral and echo reading. Here, students either state text-based material together with the teacher or repeat what a teacher or a peer stated in class. This strategy helps students develop familiarity with academic language and builds the habit of hearing student voices in the classroom.

2. Require full sentences. As students answer questions in class, task them with using complete sentences. Often students write the way they talk. If you reinforce the idea that we will talk the way we see quality writing and reading, then students will begin developing the habit of making complete responses in full sentences.

3. Require full sentences with academic vocabulary. Over time, task students with using academic vocabulary in their responses.

4. Ask students to summarize yesterday’s lesson in one to three sentences. When students enter the room at the beginning of the day, consider having them write a few sentences summarizing yesterday’s lesson. Next, have them state their summary to a peer and begin with a connective, such as on the whole..., in conclusion..., or in summary….

5. Have students write a question, exclamation, or sentence from a picture. Provide students with a picture or a series of pictures, and ask them to share a sentence, question, or exclamation with a peer. Next, have the peer share a sentence that either springs from the first sentence or is a completely new idea.

As students grow in their practice of engaging in dialogue, teachers may consider using the following practices.

Tasks for Digging Deeper

1. Three interval. Give students two ideas to compare, and ask them to build three increasingly complex sentences with a peer. The first sentence is a complete sentence, followed by a complete sentence with academic vocabulary. Finally, students create a sentence by including coordinating conjunctions (e.g., but, so, yet), subordinating conjunctions (e.g., although, while, if, and since) and appositives (e.g., George Washington, the leader of the revolutionary army, was the first president of the United States).

2. Two-box induction. Provide students with two boxes, and ask them to compare what is similar and different in each box. Slowly reveal the ideas, and ask them to come up with why a set of ideas is in each box. For instance, one box may have all living things, and the other box has nonliving things. The students should compare each example (e.g., rock and flower) and eventually state a summary comparing the two (e.g., one box illustrates abiotic factors, while the other box illustrates biotic factors).

3. Frayer Model. Use a graphic organizer to help boost students’ vocabulary, and then provide them with four different questions that require complex sentences to answer.

4. Notice, wonder, create. Asking students to share what they notice and wonder about from a prompt with missing information can be a powerful way to get them to expand their discussion. In an earlier blog, I shared numberless word problems and slow reveal graphs as ways to engage in this practice.

To create endurance for students to engage in multiple sentences across multiple ideas, consider the following points.

Extending Deep Conversations

1. Five interval. Building off the three intervals, students construct two additional sentences that include one sentence with either comparing (e.g., On the other hand…) or contrasting connectives (e.g., In addition to…) and finally a summary sentence.

2. Text-to-text, text-to-self, text-to-world. This is a discussion protocol that enables students to compare and contrast different books, experiences in their lives, and the wider world. It’s a great way to extend conversations and lean on student opinion. This can move students to learning more about claim, evidence, and reasoning and lead to other protocols such as Socratic seminars and Four A’s.

3. Final word. During this discussion protocol, students respond to a quote within a text. This protocol is a powerful way to develop critical thinking and listening skills.

Deeper learning is doable for students when teachers find short and sharp practices that promote complex discussions in daily routines and practices. Using a range of practices that meet the diverse needs of students, teachers can ensure that all students have access and opportunities to develop deep learning.