How To Get Students Talking

 By Ruhina Cockar

How do I get my students to talk?! This may sound like a strange question when so often we’re thinking about how to positively encourage students to stop talking and focus on their work! Talking and discussion offer invaluable learning opportunities for teaching the curriculum as well as for the development of the “global citizens” we aspire for our students to be. Let’s say, for example, you want to have a whole-class discussion on a topic like “Bullying or banter? What is and what isn’t acceptable” or you want students to discuss one-to-one with each other about domestic abuse and its effects on the family unit- can these topics be explored effectively if students don’t talk? In general, students are more likely to discuss and participate freely if they feel comfortable in their environment and trust that their contributions are valued- so how could you achieve this? Fail to prepare, prepare to fail holds true when facilitating a discussion: having an idea of what the journey of the discussion will be from start to finish, and the questions you might ask to ensure the discussion stays on track will maintain the flow and ensures there is an objective to it; free-flowing discussion with no purpose or direction leads to off-task behaviour and erodes trust. Establishing the ground rules before the discussion takes place will help build trust: it might be helpful to refer back to your Partnership Agreement (or to create one if you haven’t got one established in your classroom) and remind students of what everyone has agreed to in terms of how to speak to and how to treat one another. Clearly communicating the purpose of the discussion, whether you will do hands-down questioning or not, whether this is a pose, pause, pounce, bounce type of discussion will also work towards creating a comfortable environment for students to be open: they understand theirs and their peers’ boundaries. If you choose not to use hands down questioning, an alternative approach would be to use a token system: Distribute three tokens to each student at the beginning of the discussion. Each time a student speaks, a token is given to the teacher. The goal is for students to spend all their tokens by the end of the discussion. This system can be really useful in limiting students who dominate the discussion and encouraging quiet students to contribute. A technique for ensuring quality discussions take place is one built on thinking time. Posing the question for discussion and asking students to work in pairs or as a group to write down their initial thoughts, answers or ideas will help ensure the class discussion is meaningful and productive as students have had a chance to think about the issue beforehand. Learning things about your students, asking them about their interests, acknowledging their answers through writing the comments on the board and/or making connections between their comments and the discussion at large will start to help students feel comfortable and valued. Examples of comments that acknowledge a student:

• That’s an excellent point Lara.
• I like that you’ve given the other point of view Ahmed - it shows balance and many of us would not have considered that perspective.
• Aya it was brave of you to share such a personal experience - thank you.
• I think you may have misunderstood the question Borislav but I appreciate your contribution and willingness to speak.
• As Samiya said earlier…

A further question to consider about seating arrangements: could everyone sit in a circle? Around a table? Would you like the person speaking to stand and make their point? Seeing each other facilitates listening, and acknowledging each other.

With a nod to life skills and careers we know communication and working collaboratively is an essential skill, whether this is in a group work setting or in a discussion setting - it’s imperative students feel confident in their ability to articulate their thoughts and ideas so they are heard.

I hope this post goes some way to helping you teach our students this and please share any ideas, suggestions and experiences you may have in the comments below