Lesson Seeds and Resources for Norms/Teaching Routines
The suggestions below are not complete lessons. They are lesson seeds/resources that are designed to introduce students to the norms and procedures of having an open ended collaborative conversation. This document is interactive. If additional resources are needed, please click on the hyperlinks for additional background information, lesson seed strategies, and/or resources.
Learning Goal / CCRS / Lesson Seed
Active
Listening
Activity 1 / Students will identify the norms needed to be an active listener in order to participate in a discussion and analyze information. / SL.1.a
Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles /
  • Lead a discussion about norms and why they are important with students.
  • Create a T-Chart with examples of good manners and poor manners
  • Discuss the purpose of active listening (if we do not listen, we will not know how to respond appropriately)
  • Active listening means responding/reacting and thinking about what you hear
  • Create a T-Chart in order to list what active listening looks like/sounds like. This will help students define what an active listener is doing with their body and how they sound. (See Signs of Active Listening Resource)
  • Have students define. (Active listening means reacting to what someone has said)
  • Students could practice active listening behaviors through a class discussion, literature circle, etc.

Active
Participation
Activity 2 / Students will identify the norms needed to be an active listener in order to participate in a discussion and analyze information. / SL.1.a
Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles. /
  • Review the term norms and why they are important.
  • Review what it means to be actively listening.
  • Students are now ready for the next step: active participation.
  • Have students identify what it means to participate in something.(sports, club, etc)
  • Create a T-Chart in order to list what active participation looks like/sounds like.
  • Elicit ideas from students and guide them to realize we can participate without saying a word. Then discuss non-verbal communication. Guide students to realize that our facial expressions and reactions are a form of communication and participation.
  • Continue eliciting from students and adding the ideas to the chart for “Looks Like” and “Sounds Like”.
  • At this time, students should have significant practice with active listening and participation. Conversation circles should range from 10-20 minutes. As they become more proficient with this skill, the times may increase slightly depending on grade level.
Additional Resources
2 Cents Discussion Strategy; 12 Ways to Increase Student Participation;
The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies
Dynamic Participation
Activity 3 / Students will identify the types of participation in order to participate dynamically in a discussion and analyze information. / SL.1.b
Build on others' talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others.
SL.1.c
Ask for clarification and further explanation as needed about the topics and texts under discussion. /
  • Review with students active listening and participation.
  • Explain that there are different ways we can participate in a conversation.
  • Introduce the first participation icon of ideas/opinions.
  • Review with students how readers form ideas. Remind them an idea can also be their opinion. It is their thinking, and they may be asked to justify it during discussions. Also discuss that we don’t always have to agree with everyone’s ideas/opinions.
  • Next, introduce the question icon. Review why we ask questions (clarification, digging for more information, wondering, etc.).
  • Finally, introduce the piggyback icon. Explain to students this type of participation really livens up a conversation, but it requires expert active listening because we will be adding to or expanding on someone else’s idea.
  • Model a piggyback comment for students so they get a sense of what is a piggyback comment and what is not.
  • Piggybacking has to directly connect with the previous comment and must build on the thinking with a new idea or clarification.
  • Explain to students that during the next discussion their goal is to use the different types of participation during the discussion.
  • Determine a topic for discussion.
(The teacher’s job in the group is to facilitate the discussion. This will include guiding students to dig deeper by asking relevant questions, prompting students to piggyback on good ideas, and steering the discussion back on course if it goes off topic. It is critical however that the facilitator does not do the critical thinking for the group. If needed, the teacher could provide the students with a smaller copies of the participation icons, so students can actively track the ways in which they are participating in the conversation.)
Disagreeing Constructively
Activity 4
(At this point students should be used to meeting and participating in regular collaborative conversation groups. Proper norms should be emphasized in every discussion in order to allow students to feel secure expressing their thinking without criticism.) / Students will identify the etiquette to disagree constructively in order to participate in a discussion and analyze information. / SL.1.b
Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and carry out assigned roles. /
  • Remind students that we do not always need to agree with one another’s ideas/opinions. Display the common cliché “Let’s just agree to disagree”. Discuss what this means with students.
  • Explain that our different experiences and backgrounds will lead each of us to interpret an author’s work in a variety of ways. This is why our inferences may lead us to different ideas and opinions.
  • Guide students in the etiquette of politely disagreeing by sharing polite sentence starters they could use when disagreeing with a classmate.
  • Also share with students some of the impolite ways of disagreeing such as: you’re wrong, where did you get that idea, that’s a stupid idea, etc.
  • Although we want the students to become excited about their ideas and opinions, we will continue to enforce proper norms, including keeping voices low.
  • Remind students that they do not have to change their thinking, but they should consider the multiple points of view that are shared during a discussion. The goal is that we all respect each other’s thinking and feel safe to share in group.
  • Allow students to engage in a collaborative conversation in order to practice disagreeing constructively.

Using the
Text
Activity 5 / Students will utilize relevant text evidence in order to participate in a discussion and analyze information. / SL.2.2 Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media. /
  • Remind students that every time they meet in their conversation groups they are asked to bring their book, article, etc. with them. Elicit from students why they are asked to bring these materials. Students should already have the idea that they use the text as a reference to support their thinking.
  • Further remind students that when they are responding to text they are required to justify their thinking with relevant text evidence. We will do the same in conversation circles.
  • Model for students using a short piece of text that has already been read in class and a set of text dependent questions. Explain to students that when you are sharing an idea or adding onto an idea you will use parts of the text that helped form your ideas and opinions.
  • This might also be an opportunity to model for students how to skim and scan through a text to locate a portion to be used for support.
  • Engage students in a collaborative conversation about a text that was recently read in class.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Text-Evidence Sentence Starters
Analyzing Texts: “Text Talk Time” Video