Sentence stems for book discussion in the classroom

The junior great book program is our reading curriculum for grades k5. Why are academic discussions so important for ell students. With time, the foundations of oracy skills discussion guidelines, discussion roles, and choosing the level of participation in structured talk tasks build up a students confidence around speaking. Using sentence stems in the classroom some students may have difficulty responding during discussions or when completing written assignments. Read each phrase from the discussion sorting sentence strips and have students decide whether the phrase is describing a disastrous or a great discussion. Science sentence stems for ells you can have some standard sentence stems that are used for many classroom activities, as well as sentence stems for particular activities. Im looking forward to trying out the fishbowl approach as well as the backchannel discussion next week. During meaningful conversations, students are forced to be accountable for their positions, to listen, to analyze opposing perspectives, and to. Using evidence in discussion strengthens students comprehension and confidence.

As in journal response prompts to respond to text, the stems below are created to help students better understand what theyre reading. I love to use sentence stems as conversation starters and also for writing sentences paragraphs. I see sentence screens as a valuable tool for my classroom to increase ell students ability to improve communication skills and get more out of discussions. Practical strategies to improve academic discussions in mixed ability secondary content area classrooms kevin feldman, ed. I use them in my classroom following the habits of discussion.

Among them are socrative discussions, accountable talks, debate, and literature circles. Classroom conversation starters and accountable talk. The sentence starters for class discussion should be given to students to help them have academic discussions about the topics they are learning. A list of 1012 sentence stems on topics that interest your students. I give students time to write their ideas into academic sentences. Introducing the talk moves i presented the talk moves over four days.

Using the resource strips gives students time to make sense of math, learn how their peers made sense of the math, and build their communication skills. Classroom discussion sentence stems by shaw in the. Better yet, have students rehearse a few choice sentence stems and relevant vocabulary before they engage in academic discussion. Last, give students opportunities to practice the rules of conversation in pairs and small groups. Classroom book clubs, book club books, reading anchor charts kindergarten. Student b in us less than 1 year student a in us since before kindergarten final copy starting point. Practical strategies to improve academic discussions in. If accountable talk is already a staple in your classroom, this ones pretty obvious. During meaningful conversations, students are forced to.

To ease your students into talking, start them off with sentence stems a few words to help them start their sentence. I love sentence stems for many reasons, not the least of which is their ability to function as cognitive training wheels for developing minds. This classroom discussion pack will help create a classroom culture that encourages discussion. Sentence frames provide students with a mental model for constructing sentences using newly acquired vocabulary, content and concepts. Revoice the teacher repeats part or all of a students utterance and asks the. It holds student accountable to the classroom community. Sentence stems are a learning scaffold that can help students respond orally and through writing using complete sentences. It is wonderful to see their faces as they read the book. What productive talk looks like in the elementary grades. Sentence stems provide scaffolding to help students get started in speaking or writing without the added pressure of thinking about how to correctly formulate a response. Discussion sentence frames build on an idea another example is id like to add something. Write the phrases great discussion and disastrous discussion on the board or a pocket chart. Build on an idea agreedisagree another example is agree.

See more by the time students are in ninth grade, they are expected to write an expository essay in which they are to include appropriate facts, definitions, and concrete. Meaningful conversation can make learning more personal, immediate, and emotional. Goal sentence stem express an opinion i think that ask for clarification can you repeat or explain what you mean by. Sentence stems a sentence stem is the beginning of a sentence. Sentence framessentence starters providing students with the. Classgroup discussion sentence starters use these to help you contribute to discussion. Sentence stems provide scaffolding to help students get started in speaking or writing without the added pressure of thinking about how to correctly formulate a. Talk that supports improvement of ability to communicate their thinking.

Sentence stems provide scaffolding to help students get started in speaking or. Signs that these students are thinking critically as they read are beginning to emerge. I taught my fifthgrade students talk moves sentence stems and key phrases that help students speak, actively listen, and build on each others ideas. Overall, the gradual release of responsibility, anchor charts, and explicit modeling of behaviors and sentence stems enhanced student discourse in the classroom. Because the focus is on critical thinking and critical. This activity either comes from a book called keep talking or one called grammar practice activities.

As we have stated throughout this book, english language learners need lots of. Classroom discussions accountable talk sentence stems. Stem questions to promote the 8 mathematical practices. They are great for book talk, small group reading, classroom talk, literacy center conversations, accountable talk, and comprehension building. Challenging questions that demand evidence for claims accountability to rigorous thinking j. However, sentence frames can be used with english learners at higher levels of english proficiency to teach specific language structures or to teach mortar wordstier ii words.

Resisting the urge to say just anything that comes to mind. Before i begin the discussion, i give students about a minute or two to brainstorm ideas for their responses. I have some free downloads to get you started with stem and growth mindset in your classroom. A collection of sentence starters for responding to literature. These sentence stems are great for a classroom discussion. I like create a bulletin board for reference near our class meeting area and give my students a smaller version to keep in their math notebooks for partner work. Feb, 2014 classroom discussions accountable talk sentence stems for students to lead the discussion. Using sentence screens elimate incorrect speech usage, because the student is getting positive support to use words correctly. In classroom discussions, students work with multiple ideas and have to balance new ideas with their original conclusions. Through bloomsaligned question stems, you will see growth in students independence, critical thinking, and engagement with the content. With these resources students will learn to agree, disagree, challenge, and prompt others with respect. Supporting mathematics discourse with sentence starters. Question stems to stir discussion early this school year.

Today, i am writing specifically about studentled conversations in book clubs. This way your students can hear what an authentic, backandforth discussion using the stems would sound like. The problems inherent in this type of approach are multiple. The big list of class discussion strategies cult of pedagogy. Using sentence stems accountability to accurate knowledge f. Teachers can help students overcome this difficulty by using sentence stems. Lets first identify some characteristics of studentled conversations with book clubs. Using sentence frames can relieve the linguistic load, allowing students to. It allows all children to share their thinking with one another, it helps children develop their oral language skills and the pragmatics, or social conventions, of discourse. Discussion sentence starters commonlit support center. If you have any useful conversation stems, let us know in the comments so we can update the list.

A few other useful lists for discussion starters science penguin teachthought and specifically for socratic seminars. These sentence starters and prompts were an important part of. English language learners may indeed understand the discussion in a classroom, but they may have difficulty finding the language they need to express the depth and complexity of their thinking. On one of my visits to support a teacher, i visited someone thanks, katty f. Sentence framesstarters help students understand what they should be analyzing within a text in order to complete a writing or discussion activity, and should be used as a scaffold with the aim of having students build toward the ability to analyze and write about content without the use of the frames. Plus, you will be a part of a great classroom discussion. See following pages the last page has inten onally been le blank in order to create your own sentence stems. Teachers in every classroom can use sentence frames to scaffold instruction, jump start student writing and formatively assess learning.

Studentled conversations in book clubs inspire me asap. First, you can try a growth mindset flip book which can be used with any version of the little red riding hood. Other students may take a book off of a shelf, flip through the pages, and have a difficult time simply retelling what they just read. Scaffolds to support english language learners in writing. This is not a unique idea that i thought up although i wish i had. Discussion strategies and accountable talk in the classroom. Putting it together with step up to writing stems or frames can be easily integrated into our current step up to writing program. Classroom discussions accountable talk sentence stems for. For a more structured approach, give students time to prepare their responses. Classroom discussions are a perfect place to develop students ability to use textual evidence.

When students feel comfortable, add 2 stems for building. Provide this list of sentence stems for students to use in accountable discussions. Tell students that you have some phrases that you need help sorting. Last week, i wrote about accountability with book clubs, which you can read more about here. Classroom discussions accountable talk sentence stems for students to lead the discussion. Using sentence frames can relieve the linguistic load, allowing students. I would say that you made a good point when you said yes, but its also true that i see what youre saying. Talk that supports the development of student reasoning. Create sentence stem cards for students to practice their discussion skills.

Using sentence stems to effectively improve speaking and wri. Use these sentence starters to support students while writing, participating in group discussions, and preparing for presentations. With really good stuff math talk sentence stems, you can foster productive math discussions in your classroom. Take time to describe the sentence starters and the use of each type.

Click here to learn more about how we use interactive readaloud stories as a springboard for classroom discussions. However, it is important to note that daily reflection of ones practice aided the teachers in the implementation of accountable talk across content areas. Instruct students in the use of sentence starters or frames to help facilitate sharing their thinking. What a great list of classroom discussion strategies. I let them brainstorm as many ideas as they can in the allotted time. Others may say, the character in this book is just like the character in the book i was reading yesterday. Turn and talk, in which children are partnered up to take turns listening and speaking with one another, is a common classroom practice with many benefits. First, in a classroom where we want students to talkto practice and apply their developing knowledge of englishonly one student has an opportunity to talk, and, as we see in this example, that talk does not require the use of even one complete sentence, let alone extended discourse. Her students who could be a rambunctious group during the day, were able to have conversations that were fruitful, sincere and classroom appropriate. Looking for a way to encourage student voice in your classroom. This technique gives students the opportunity to respond in the form of a complete sentence to effectively communicate.