Tuesday morning.
First block.
Kids I've had all year.
Kids who have had each other all year.
How's class discussion #183 going to go?
My classes are quite comfortable with each other, for better (they generally like each other) or for worse (they have fallen into patterns of behavior that make a class conversation predictable). Joe will speak first. Kelsey will argue with whatever Joe says. Carlo will jump to Joe's defense. Nate and Brooke will sit quietly and watch the chaos unfold.
Or the ping pong will commence. Mike will throw out an idea. Jiyuan will use the phrase, "To add on to that..." and then make a comment that really has no relationship to whatever Mike has just said. Add a third student. Repeat.
I wanted to manage two different discussion challenges; I wanted to shoot for more equitable participation in class discussion, and I wanted to build my students' awareness of different discussion moves that they could use to build an idea.
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| http://jeffzwiers.org/tools |
I've had this poster from Jeff Zwiers in my classroom in various forms over the last few years. I love how it asks us to think about building ideas. Together. But I've had limited success with getting this in front of students in a way that has really supported their conversations. Until Tuesday morning. Because February in northern Indiana breeds a special kind of desperation for creativity.
Discussion Poker
The plan for the day was to discuss a chapter from our central text that we had read the night before. They had a reading guide that they had completed and could use that to fuel the discussion, but they also all had notes in the margins of the texts from their own reading.
I dealt three cards to each student. Face down. They were intrigued. Even excited. Some of them immediately turned the cards over. Others followed directions and left them alone. Sophomores.
I told the class that we'd be having a conversation, but that the cards in front of them determined the kinds of mental moves that they'd be allowed to make during the discussion. The types of comments/mental moves:
A-4 -- ask a question to create or clarify.
5-9 -- make a statement using the text to create or fortify the conversation
10-K -- negotiate or present a counter-argument.
Students turned all three cards face up in front of them.
As a student made a comment, they flipped the appropriate card over. The only other ask I made of them was that they seek balance in the participation in the room, so no student should turn over three cards before every student in the room had turned over at least one.
And they were off.
The Reflection (Where the real wrestling happens...)
I told my students that I have been teaching for 20+ years, and this was the first time I was trying this activity, so I needed their feedback on our trying something new together. They were full of ideas. Here's what they said I should consider:
- Deal one of each mental-move family to each student, so that every student is required to make all three of those thinking moves in a discussion.
- Allow students to trade cards with their neighbors. Some students had a comment they wanted to make, but they didn't have the right card to make that type of comment.
- Figure out a way to make it into a poker game. (This was as far as this thinking went--they didn't have anything more to offer beyond their enthusiasm).
I loved the balance that it brought to the discussion. And I loved seeing the students (like their foreheads were scrunched up in thought) trying to think through how to appropriately add to the conversation using their cards rather than sharing the first thought that came to their minds.
I loved the energy it brought to a Tuesday morning class. Full disclosure, though, that energy didn't translate to my second block. There was some funk in the room, and students didn't fully embrace the approach. Even in that block, though, the deck of cards helped remedy some of the funk. Students who were primed to butt heads coming into the conversation because of some carryover from their previous class together had that behavior neutralized by the deck of cards--they had to choose their moves wisely.
This one will make a reappearance in my classroom at some point with some modifications. I'll update as I work to improve on it.
Wrestle on, friends.
