543: Twitter Chat #21stedchat

I participated in the #21stedchat today.  The topic today was about questioning strategies and making discussions engaging.  There were a lot of great resources provided and many great statements to think about.  Here are the questions that we discussed and some of the great responses.

Q1a. How do you use discussion questions effectively in your classroom? How do you know it is effective?

• Allow students to share with a partner or small group before they share with the class
• Cooperative learning groups
• Students get tokens to "spend" when they want to talk so everyone can have their own time
• Set the parameters for the discussion so everyone feels they can be heard
• Variety of questions to keep the students engaged
• Need to give time for the actual discussion to develop

Q1b. WHO does the questioning you or your students?

• I model my thinking and questions, and then the students come up with questions
• Both should actively question to guide learning
• Best discussions are when the students lead the questions
• Ask questions that foster student questions

Q2. What strategies do you use to improve classroom discussion? Any books/resources that have helped you?

• Table texting, love reading their thoughts https://t.co/G5QUq6jnuA
• Collaboration strategies from Fischer and Frey:https://t.co/1tFkmkKIv1
• Book Questioning for Classroom Discussion: Purposeful Speaking, Engaged Listening, Deep Thinking https://t.co/GOLtlRaeM4
• https://t.co/TsUyv4odER , Building Better Conversations
• Classroom Disscusion Strategies

Q3. Why are classroom or group discussions important in a classroom? Is this something you grade or assess in your room?

• Yes, because communication is one of the 4C's, so it should be assessed, 
• It's important to feed off of each others thoughts and have positive feedback and debates.
• Listen in, but don't score it
• Students learn more from each other than they do from the teacher. This gives the teacher a chance to assess understanding
• Discussions allow students to share thoughts and practice social skills. Teacher as facilitator, using to guide future instruction
• They learn to work together and communicate well
• I use it to help guide my teaching, if they don't understand then I need to reevaluate a delivery

Q4a. How do you make sure ALL Ss participates in a discussion? Do discussions need to be whole group or can they be small group?

• Teach students the rules of discourse where they have to share and speak in small groups-preferably groups of 3
• Small group, partners, large group, triads, all combinations are important & necessary
• Prefer small groups. Give each a role or a goal or even a symbol & all have to be in pot by end showing all contributed

Q4b. How do you move discussions beyond the classroom?

• Twitter and Edmodo
• Google Classroom, Docs, and Slides
• Current events
• LMS Canvas; I have students respond to questions with articles linked; they reply to classmates; love it; especially the shy ones 
• Padlet is fun to use to share thoughts and ideas

Q5. What is a take-away that you had from tonight’s #21stedchat?

• Table texting and recapthat!
• There are so many tools to use to help my students communicate and collaborate with each other! 
• Communication is key!
• We all question, I model my thoughts aloud and they also question each other. Everyone is involved
• So important to be diligent that EVERYONE participates in discussions! Questioning strategies & tech work hand in hand!