Discussion. Theoretically it’s the bread and butter of the English classroom, but sometimes it feels like all crusts and crumbs. Keep reading to learn more discussion types.
How can you get students excited to talk about voice and theme, metaphor and symbolism, when they have a million other things going on?
How do you inspire them to dive in together to the ways that literature illuminates life and life speaks back to the page, when they’re already nervous about speaking up in class and afraid they’ll look bad in front of their friends?
If a good discussion types feels like a distant dream to you on rough days, and a tantalizing almost-there vision on good days, the new discussion series is here to help. We’re starting today with five types of discussion that can work for you, and in the coming episodes, we’ll be going much deeper.
Student-Led Discussion Types: Harkness and Socratic Seminar
Let’s call Socratic Seminar and Harkness cousins, and there’s plenty more similar methods in which students take the lead and teachers try to gently pull the strings from behind the curtain to help.
In these forms, the ultimate goal is to find students asking and answering open-ended questions and taking charge of the pacing. Both forms seek to engage students in big conversations, and to give much of the power over to them. It’s about setting up a system, then guiding students in practicing it and gently helping them keep improving over the arc of the year.
Harkness has a more specific structure, often involving a large oval table (though I’ve never actually had one in 25 classes’ and 4 different classrooms’ worth of Harkness) and an observer who charts the discussion. We’ll be going deep on Harkness in the next few episodes, as it’s my personal favorite discussion method and one I’ve repeatedly seen reap amazing results.
Small Group Discussion Types: Book Clubs
Another discussion option I really value is taking the small group path, specifically with book clubs.
The first time I tried small group discussion in this vein I opted for the literature circles pedagogy (which I wouldn’t choose again at this point). I had two books I just couldn’t choose between in my curriculum. I wanted to read The Sun Also Rises and The Great Gatsby with my juniors, and there wasn’t time! So I came in one morning and pitched them both. “Read Gatsby!” I said, “You’ll be taken on a romantic adventure through the roaring 20s.” “Read The Sun Also Rises,” I said. “You’ll wander through the streets and parties of Pamplona with travelers and bullfighters, guided by Hemingway’s gorgeous words.” I made recruitment posters for each book. In each of my classes, about half the students chose each text. If one group was a bit too large, I would try to persuade one or two students of the benefits of the other book. I created groups and handed out the books. I told the students they’d have opportunities each day to meet in their groups and discuss the reading, and that they’d be doing a multigenre presentation at the end of the unit to share their novel with the other half of the class. Then I gave them time to create a reading schedule and choose roles.
A lot of that experiment was positive, but the formal roles of literature circles were too constricting for us, and created a system of busywork that I don’t think older kids need to have good conversations. My concept of book clubs has evolved significantly, and now I think you can give your older students freedom to pursue mini-projects or hold conversations in their groups based on some kind of prompt or focus that you establish before letting them go.
For example, maybe you want them to discuss characterization in their different books. You might start them with a mini-lesson on characterization, then give them an open mind prompt and invite each group member to choose a different character to work on, then let them talk independently about how characters are being set up and evolving, with their insight springing from the work they’ve just done and the reading they’ve finished. Each group will have its own experience, but you’ve given them some structure for success.
Fishbowl Discussion
Harkness and Book Clubs / Literature Circles are, clearly, pretty major commitments. This next form of discussion can easily be introduced and tried for one day. It’s called a Fishbowl Discussion. For a fishbowl discussion, you arrange the classroom so that a group of students can sit in an inner circle and a group of students can sit around them in a wider circle. Students in the outer circle are not allowed to participate in the discussion, but are invited to take notes and write down questions and ideas.
Then, after five or ten minutes, you ask the circles to switch.
What I like about this strategy is that every student will have a chance to be part of a smaller, more intimate discussion and hopefully express their opinion. At the same time, every student will have an opportunity to listen carefully to their peers, taking notes and learning from others. Students who have been stuck outside the discussion are often eager to express their opinions by the time they finally get to participate.
What I don’t like is the waiting around. You’ve got to take careful steps to make sure the outer circle feels invested in listening, and that’s not always easy. Give the outer circle a specific task that leads into their time in the inner circle, so people keep their head in the game.
I think of fishbowl discussions as a fun way to change things up, kind of a discussion gimmick, rather than a consistent strategy. I wouldn’t hold one every Monday, for example, like I might with a Harkness discussion or a book club. I’d be more likely to float one every couple of months for variety and to accomplish some kind of specific discussion goal.
Hexagonal Thinking Discussions
Hexagonal thinking is a really unique way to get kids consideration connections they might never otherwise make, and discussing them with more enthusiasm than they might ever have thought possible.
When you give kids a series of ideas on hexagons, and ask them to connect the cards into a web with clear reasons for each connection, you get them thinking critically, debating, and giving evidence. Each card could connect to six others, or just to one or two. Every person in every group will have a different concept of how things could connect. There will be no right answer.
Awesome.
(By the way, I’ve created a free toolkit to help you get started with this, which you can grab here).
Here’s an example of directions you can give to your students for this discussion activity:
“Once you have your set of hexagons, it’s time for your group to begin making connections between them. Your conversations now will be about showing how and why you think the different ideas and options connect. Everyone will see things differently, and that’s OK. Just keep talking until you find the connections that stick. Use the text to give evidence to each other for why you think your connections are strong ones.
Each hexagon can connect to up to six others. Arrange and rearrange until you feel you have the strongest hexagon web in place that you can. Then begin explaining your connections with connection arrows, writing in why you have created intersections between key hexagons.
Everyone in the group will contribute differently. You need to have people listening and moving pieces to create the web, people cutting out and filling in connection arrows, people debating, people asking questions. That’s OK.
By the end of your discussion, you should have an interconnected web of concepts along with at least eight clearly explained connections. Please put your final product in a place that’s easy for others to see so we can do a gallery walk at the end.”
Don’t be surprised to see the conversation heat up and your students get seriously engaged in a hexagonal thinking discussion! With no right answer to achieve, it’s all about sharing and explaining their opinions, and the critical thinking flows.
When the discussions in the groups are done and the webs are complete, you can let students do a gallery walk before reporting back either with a group speaker sharing a strong connection the group made or maybe everyone writing something individually.
Silent Discussions
Silent discussions are a handy go-to option for helping every student participate in a discussion. They can help break up discussion ruts, show your classroom community how much quieter students really do have to contribute, or let everyone think carefully about a topic before diving into a big oral discussion or related writing prompt.
There are three easy ways to do a silent discussion, so let me quickly explain each one.
The Silent Discussion Notebook Pass
This one’s the classic option – the way I started with my discussion types – and it couldn’t be easier. Just have students flip to a new page in their notebooks and write a question about the reading at the top. Then invite them to pass the notebook to the right. Give the next student time to read and respond, then ask them to pass it again. And again. And again.
As the notebook travels the room, each student will have time to process and respond to many questions, as well as read responses from others.
Silent Discussion on your Walls
This is a fun option if you’ve got access to a lot of whiteboards, post-its, or big butcher paper. Simply post questions up on your walls all over the room, then invite students to go around and join the conversation around each. That could look like adding their ideas to a whiteboard, putting their post-it up under a question, or finding space on a giant piece of paper with everyone else.
Let them know they can respond directly to the question, or to someone else’s response. They should place their answer accordingly, or add some arrows or other type of connector to show what thread they are adding to.
Silent Discussions on Google Slides
During the pandemic, I discovered how easy silent discussions for discussion types are to run on Google slides (grab a free set here). All you need is a set of slides with your questions and places for kids to add in their responses. Then give them some time to flip from slide to slide, reading questions and responses and responding to both.
No matter which option you choose, I love silent discussions as a way to help kids realize that everyone has something to contribute, even if they aren’t feeling ready to dive confidently into a vocal discussion. This can lead to new respect between peers and more interest from everyone in trying to respectfully (more on your role with this coming later in the discussion series!) draw out the contributions of quieter students.
Wrap Up
Ok, my friend. Deep dives are coming! In the next episodes of this series, we’ll be talking about what to do when students are scared to speak up, how to cope with discussion dominators, ways to deal with the grading question, and much more!
