English Language Arts: Leading a discussion – TeachingWorks Resource Library

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Units
Individual Activities

Introducing literary discussion
Using norms and routines to enable student-led literary discussions

Novices are introduced to leading a group discussion in the context of teaching young adult literature. Activities are designed to build skill in the practice along with content knowledge for teaching literature. While particular focus is given to launching and orchestrating, novices will plan, rehearse, and ultimately enact a full literary discussion.

This unit invites novices to "reverse engineer" a student-led discussion of To Kill a Mockingbird and criminal justice statistics. They analyze and practice the “invisible” work of teaching that supports students to independently facilitate and engage in rich and purposeful literary discussions, with particular attention to English learners. Novice teachers plan, rehearse, revise and enact a discussion-enabling mini-lesson.

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Adapted from:
McDonald, Kazemi, and Kavanagh, 2013; Lampert et al., 2013;
Teacher Education by Design

Introduce

Beginning in the familiar territory of literary discussion, these activities help novices unpack the practice of leading discussion using a Reading for Teaching framework (Alston and Barker, 2014) along with video and transcript analysis.

Prepare

Novices prepare to lead discussion with students by co-planning and rehearsing a text-based discussion with guidance and coaching from the teacher educator.

Enact

Novice teachers will lead the discussion they planned in an authentic classroom context, filming the discussion for later analysis.

Analyze

Individually and then in groups, novices analyze their video using the decomposition. The cycle concludes by identifying next steps for developing skill in the practice.

Activity 1

Discussion of “How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium”

Activity 1

Novices engage in and then unpack a literary discussion, noticing the facilitation techniques used by the teacher educator to support equitable engagement.

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Activity 2

Analyzing video of group discussion

Activity 2

Novices use the decomposition to identify features and techniques of leading a discussion in video of three teachers, identifying strong facilitation techniques that ensure equitable access for all students.

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Activity 3

Analyzing transcript of discussion launches

Activity 3

Novices analyze two transcripts of discussion launches, identifying techniques the teachers use and the effects on students.

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Activity 4

Co-planning a text-based discussion

Activity 4

Scaffolded co-planning raises questions and problems of practice related to the practice of leading a group discussion, allowing teacher educators to provide targeted coaching and guidance.

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Activity 5

Rehearsal of orchestrating a text-based discussion

Activity 5

This rehearsal of orchestrating offers practice and expert coaching in particularly difficult, improvisational elements of leading a group discussion.

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Activity 6

Field task: Leading a text-based discussion with students

Activity 6

Novice teachers will lead the discussion they planned in an authentic classroom context, filming the discussion for later analysis.

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Activity 7a

Individual reflection and annotation of field task video

Activity 7a

Novices view their videos, using an observation and annotation tool to identify and evaluate techniques they used to lead the discussion.

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Activity 7b

Group analysis and debrief

Activity 7b

In groups, novices watch clips of one another’s videos, surfacing discoveries and dilemmas related to the practice of Leading a group discussion and then planning next steps for further development.

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Unit Overview

Introduction, learning goals, and unit summary

Unit Overview

The overview offers background and rationale as well as learning goals and a condensed outline of the unit. Also included are content-related reference materials for teacher educators.

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Day 1

Considering the power of literary discussion norms

Day 1

Novice teachers analyze a student-led discussion for the ways that literary discourse norms enable it. They also consider the relationship between norms, power, and access to learning.

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Day 2

Using routines to teach and practice norms

Day 2

Novice teachers see and practice the work of implementing routines to support students' facility with literary discussion norms.

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Day 3

Supporting students to orchestrate their own discussion

Day 3

Novice teachers workshop their mini-lessons and analyze the work of orchestrating discussion in the context of student-led discussions, with particular attention to the way orchestration can advance or undermine equity.

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Day 4

Seeing the work of the teacher in student-led discussion

Day 4

Novice teachers practice delivering their enabling mini-lessons and revisit the original discussion to see the impact of the teacher's "invisible" work on the student-led discussion.

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Activity

Enabling Discussion with Language Learners in the Elementary Classroom

Activity

This activity engages novice teachers in analyzing, comparing, and contrasting two transcripts of an end-of-book conversation in a second grade classroom.

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Activity

Planning for discussion: What kinds of topics and prompts are discussion-worthy?

Activity

In this activity, novice teachers plan for discussions by identifying the features of a "discussion-worthy" question and assessing novice teachers' plans for enabling discussion about a book.

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Activity

Launching a discussion: Communicating academic goals and civic values

Activity

In this activity, novice teachers look at three sample launches of a discussion in a simulated elementary classroom. They evaluate the transcripts first with a lens toward the elements of a launch enumerated in the decomposition of Leading a group discussion, and then with an eye toward the ways in which the teachers name the norms and routines of discussion.

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Activity

Transcript Analysis of the work of orchestrating: Practicing democracy through discussion

Activity

Novice teachers use transcripts to recognize, analyze, and evaluate the complex work of orchestrating during a discussion—that is, how teachers elicit multiple responses; probe students’ thinking; orient students to the contributions of peers; and make strategic contributions to advance the goals of the discussion.

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Activity

Using regular classroom routines to enable discussion

Activity

Here we provide a short video (less than 4 minutes) that allows novice teachers to see how one fourth-grade teacher uses a do-now, along with morning meeting, to prepare children for a discussion later in the day about a read-aloud book. The teacher creatively makes use of these regular classroom routines and structures to enable text-based discussion.

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Activity

Video analysis: Orchestrating group discussion

Activity

Viewing a clip from a fourth-grade discussion about the meaning of freedom, novices practice noticing and naming specific orchestrating moves that enrich discussion and ensure equitable participation.

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Activity

Using video to practice concluding a discussion

Activity

This activity engages novices in viewing a video of a group discussion and then developing a conclusion to the discussion. It is designed to be used during a single class session, and could be followed by a peer run-through and/or rehearsal in which novices actually practice delivering the conclusion that they have developed.

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Activity

Inviting and encouraging all students to participate

Activity

This short activity invites novices to consider ten routines for "calling on" students other than using raised hands. Novices analyze the options, considering affordances, constraints, and equity implications of each one. The activity is best paired with an opportunity to practice orchestrating discussion.

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