PRODUCTIVE DISCOURSE IN S-T-E-M CLASSROOMS AN AMBITIOUS TEACHING & LEARNING GOAL

WHY FOCUS ON PRODUCTIVE CLASSROOM TALK? Productive talk is a way of reasoning and sense-making Talk makes students’ thinking (not just answers) visible Students benefit from hearing the ideas of their peers A “culture of talk” lets teachers know who is not talking Talk helps to apprentice a learner into the discipline

Science / Engineering Practices (NGSS) 6.Construct explanations / design solutions 7.Engage in argument from evidence 8.Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information PRODUCTIVE CLASSROOM TALK SUPPORTS AMBITIOUS LEARNING GOALS Mathematical Practices (CCSS-M) 3.Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. Career Ready Practices (CCTC) 4.Communicate clearly, effectively, and with reason. ELA Practices (CCSS-E) 4.Comprehend as well as critique 5.Value evidence.

FOUR GOALS FOR CLASSROOM TALK: 1. Elicit students’ initial understandings, beliefs, hypotheses in relation to the concept / skill. 2. Help students make sense of data / information. recognize patterns, critique information, explain or evaluate what they are doing. 3. Help students connect the activity they are doing with bigger ideas / disciplinary knowledge (e.g, scientific concepts, mathematical principles). 4. Press students for evidence-based explanations and engaging in reasoning and argumentation.

OVERVIEW & PROCESS FOR EXPLORATION 4 GROUPS -- COUNT OFF BY 4 1. Make sense of main ideas from Discourse Primer (use summary sheet) Individually / With number group 2. Each group analyzes one discourse tool 3. Prepare a 3 minute overview of your team’s tool for sharing with your grade level team. 4. Practice using the tool as a framework for analyzing classroom discourse (video) 5. Get into grade-level teams and share briefly the gist of each tool. Discuss which you might want to work on (individually or collectively) this year as you implement STEM design challenges

MAKE SENSE OF MAIN IDEAS FROM DISCOURSE PRIMER Individually read the summary sheet and think about: (5 min) What sense do you make of their “Theory of Action”: a) overall and b) in terms of the content you teach? Of the 8 ideas or strategies for supporting classroom talk, which do you think would be most productive for you to work on? Why? Collectively: (15-20 minutes) 1. Talk about how you might use / adapt / create your own theory of action in terms of supporting your students in STEM. 2. Share your individual ideas about the 8 ideas for supporting classroom talk. Look for common interests. Share your reasons for valuing one strategy over another. Explore the idea of collectively focusing on a specific strategy as a Learning Inquiry Team.

MAKING SENSE OF THE 4 DISCOURSE TOOLS (~20 min) As a group, analyze one discourse tool. 1s: Tool 1 – Eliciting Students’ hypotheses3s: Tool 2 – Making Sense of Material Activity 2s: Tool 1.5 – Working on Students’ Ideas4s: Tool 3 – Pressing for Evidence-Based Explanations Consider & Discuss in terms of the content in and conversational purpose for your group’s discourse tool: To what extent do you already use these practices in your classroom? How satisfied are you with the nature of students’ talk in this area? What would you like to improve on in relation to these practices? If time: What questions might you use in the next 2 days (or have you used this week) as students work(ed) on their design challenge?

SUMMARIZE THE PURPOSE & CONTENT OF YOUR GROUP’S TOOL Prepare an approximately 3 minute overview of the tool you analyzed to share with members of your grade level team.

PRACTICE AN ANALYSIS OF CLASSROOM TALK What do you notice about how the teacher supports her 6 th grade students’ talk and sense-making about forces and motion? What do you notice about students’ sense-making as they talk?

GRADE LEVEL TEAM SHARING & PLANNING In grade level teams, share the overviews of each discourse too. Explore ideas about how your LIT can use one or more tools to support enhancing classroom talk this year. Prepare to share an element of your team’s plan, questions, or feedback on these discourse tools.

ADDRESSING CLASSROOM CONCERNS 1. Establishing norms: What if 1 student dominates? How can I get everyone to participate? What about my painfully shy student? What about my ELL student? 2. Keeping goals in mind: What if they go off on a tangent? Establish what kind of conversation your are having: eliciting information, connecting activities to ideas, pressing for evidence in explanation

STRUCTURING DISCOURSE 3. DOK questions 4. Go Meta! (thinking about our thinking) 5. Wait Time 6. Talk Moves Avoiding I-R-E patterns (initiation- response – evaluation) 7. Use of academic language 8. Peer Talk

FUNNELING DOWN TO TOOL 4 Pressing for Evidence-Based Explanations…does this ring any bells? C-E-R-R frameworks, SEP #7 & 8, not to mention your CCSS connections Provide Sentence Starters and Connectors as bookmarks for science notebooks We claim that… We know this because… For example….In addition… This shows that… Using sentence starters both in discourse and as writing! Or as pre-writing, or as group-writing!!! (See an example)

SENTENCE STARTERS FOR NORMS