Standard 1: Speaking and Listening

Students will speak and listen effectively in a variety of situations including, but not limited to, responses to reading and writing.

12.1.R.3 Students will engage in collaborative discussions about appropriate topics and texts, expressing their own ideas by contributing to, building on, and questioning the ideas of others in pairs, diverse groups, and whole class settings.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will continue to participate in a variety of discussions within different group settings.
• Students will continue to expand on the ideas of others during discussions. 

• Teachers use various grouping strategies to ensure students engage in conversations with diverse groups.
• Teachers encourage student to student talk during discussions.
• Teachers remind students to reference other students’ comments before adding to the previous idea.
• Teachers propel conversations by posing and responding to questions of their students.
• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback.

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights

ELA OAS Glossary pg. 3

Socratic Seminar Teacher Guide

Socratic Seminar Video Resource

Mount Holyoke guideline for evaluating students speaking in the classroom

• At this level, students should go beyond merely expressing their own ideas clearly.  

• They should focus on contributing meaningful discussion points that are meant to expand and build the conversation while also offering high-level questioning techniques that are open-ended to propel the discussion forward.

• Students should address disagreements by asking questions, providing other perspectives or evidence in order to seek common understanding.

• Collaborative discussions provide opportunities for speakers and listeners to use dialogue and interaction to raise issues, explore ideas, make claims, discover differences, and find ways to explore all aspects of English Language Arts.

• Collaborative discussions may be in the form of a Socratic seminar (additional video resource), debate, blog, or may combine students in small or large discourse communities.

• Collaborative discussions work best when students are prepared for the discussion.  It is helpful to have a list of meaningful questions and comments related to the topic and/or text to further the discussion in the case of a lull.

• Discussion occurs organically within other lessons. It can be taught intentionally as the focus of a lesson but is also effectively taught within the lessons of other standards.

• Providing opportunities to practice the delivery of presentations and allowing time for feedback from teachers or peers equips students with confidence prior to actual presentation time. 

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.