- Houston Independent School District
- Effective Practices
- I-2 Check for Understanding
- Structured Peer Conversation
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Effective Practices
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I-2 Check for Understanding
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I-8 Student Engagement
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Description
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A Structured Peer Conversation is a process for grouping students in order to allow for academic conversation, social interaction, and peer thinking. In a structured peer conversation, the teacher leads the group through a set of prescribed steps or protocols. The process is guided by criteria for speaking and listening and includes a focused question, time limits, and a description of how the academic conversation will be shared with others in the class. Structured peer conversations are essential in developing the skills and culture necessary for collaborative work. They increase learning and build trust by accomplishing respectful and substantive tasks as the students work together.
- Determine the learning objective and desired outcome for the conversation.
- Decide on the best group structure (partners, small groups, or whole groups) that will most effectively and efficiently support students to reach the desired outcome.
- Present a sample question or sentence stem for students to practice.
- Model exemplar responses using the prompt.
- Model how to clarify, paraphrase, and acknowledge different viewpoints.
- So you’re saying that…
- Let me see if I understand you correctly…
- I agree with you because…
- I see where you’re coming from but I do not agree that…
- Model how students can revise their thinking based on new learning.
- After listening to you, I now see it differently…
- After hearing what you have to say, I now think…
- Establish time limits.
- Ask groups to practice the process. Monitor to see if the groups are ready for the next step.
- When students feel comfortable with the process, present the focused question or sentence stem that is aligned to the objective to guide academic conversations.
- Monitor group conversations, conduct verbal check-ups, and redirect groups back to the question/stem as needed.
- Have groups report their ideas to other groups or to the whole class.
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Alerts
To prevent groups from veering away from the topic, set instructional and behavioral expectations, model, practice, and monitor engagement by circulating around the class during the activity.
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Quick Tips
Establish small group expectations to help students work effectively, maximize classroom time, and master the learning goals the teacher has set.
Try keeping groups small (approximately 2-5 students) and minimize behavioral problems.
Consider using this process for peer revision of writing assignments. Provide questions that students can ask one another about their compositions.
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Other Strategies
Let’s Talk
When thinking about ELL students, Let’s Talk provides teachers clear guidelines to facilitate a structured academic conversation that enables students to monitor and build understanding. The steps in this process include:
- Teach students procedures for the conversation
- Plan questions and sentence stems
- Guide students to speak in complete sentences that start with the stem and uses the academic language
- Guide students to clarify, paraphrase, and acknowledge different points of view
- Teach students how to signal when they are ready to respond
- Monitor group conversations
- Have student pairs report their ideas to other pairs or the whole class
Think-Pair-Share
Anytime throughout instruction, the teacher can pose a question or problem and invite students to think about it for a minute. Then the teacher will ask the students to pair up with a partner. They are given another minute to share their ideas with each other. The teacher calls on volunteer pairs to share with the whole group.
Round Robin
When grouping, divide students into small groups of 4 to 6 people. Appoint one person as the recorder. Pose an open-ended question and allow wait time. Have members of the team share responses one at a time. The conversation may flow in a clockwise manner. The student next to the recorder begins and each student in the group shares out a response until time is called. The recorder scribes the responses of each group member to share out or recall later in the lesson.
Jigsaw
Arrange students in groups of 3 to 5 (this is a student’s “home” group). Each group member of the “home” group is assigned a unique concept or learning material. Students meet with members from other groups who are assigned the same concept/learning material (referred to as the “expert” group) and are charged with internalizing as much as they can about their given concept/learning material. After mastering the material, the experts return to the “home” group and teach the material to their group members.
Community Circle
Students gather in a circle to have a structured, student-centered discussion with each other and the teacher. This practice builds a sense of community, develops problem-solving skills, strengthens bonds between student and teacher, and provides an opportunity for students to practice their listening, speaking, and interpersonal skills.