Discussion Methods

Readings paired with higher-order discussion questions

Socratic

Thoughts, Questions, & Epiphanies

Student reflection after an assigned reading to generate poweful conversations

Small groups with assigned points of view + provacateures

Pinwheel

Discussion

Students choose a position and collaborate on ways to defend their viewpoint

Agree/ Disagree

Starting with pairs, and expanding to larger groups and higher order questions

Snowball

+ nfo

Broad questions or problems answered through collaborative brainstorming and catigorization

Affinity Mapping

Strategies

Click each box to explore the discussion strategies and find the right format for your lesson. Some provide more prep than others. Asyncrohouse learners can benefit from the use of video discussions in padlet or flipgrid.

Snowball

Basic Structure

• Students begin in pairs, responding to a discussion question with a single partner.
• After each person has had a chance to share their ideas, the pair joins another pair, creating a group of four.
• Pairs share their ideas with the pair they just joined.
• Or additional questions can be asked
• Next, groups of four join together to form groups of eight, and so on, until the whole class is joined up in one large discussion.

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Pinwheel

Basic Structure:

Students are divided into 4 groups.

• Three of these groups are assigned to represent specific points of view.
• Members of the fourth group are designated as “provocateurs,” tasked with making sure the discussion keeps going and stays challenging.
• One person from each group acts as the "speaker". This position can be rotated with each question.

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Socratic

Basic Structure:

Students prepare by reading a text or group of texts and writing some higher-order discussion questions about the text. open-ended question is posed by the teacher or student discussion leader. From there, students continue the conversation, prompting one another to support their claims with textual evidence.

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The TQE Method

Thoughts, Questions, & Epiphanies

Step 1: Students Complete Assigned Reading (ideally before class) Step 2: Small group discussion. Step 3: Each group identifies and posts their top 2 TQEs Step 4: Class discussion of TQEs

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Agree/ Disagree

A statement that has two possible responses—agree or disagree—is read out loud. Depending on whether they agree or disagree with this statement, students choose a breakout room or a side of a collaborative workspace. From that spot, students take turns defending their positions and posting supportive information.

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Affinity Mapping

Basic Structure:

• Give students a broad question or problem that is likely to result in lots of different ideas, such as “What impacts could species extinction have?"
• Students generate responses by writing ideas on post-it notesand placing them in no particular arrangement on a wall or whiteboard
• Students then group responses into similar categories, and discuss why the ideas fit within them, how the categories relate to one another, and so on.

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