The Secret to Great Classroom Discussion
Habits of Discussion
Great discussions in class require 3 things:
A worth question
Great student habits
The possible exemplars for that question
Too often, we see school leaders spending all their time working with teachers to make sure there's a worthy question. That's fun! We love it, too.
But discussions crash and burn in classrooms most of the time because there's nowhere near enough time spent on habits. If you want good discourse in your school, we'd make sure teachers are equipped to build student habits around these core 4 habits:
Speaking in a volume the entire class can hear with complete sentences.
Everyone paying attention to the speaker through eye contact or active note-taking while listening.
Re-voicing what was previously said in order to build the discussion thread.
Agreeing or disagreeing respectfully, clearly, and about a specific point from the previous response.
It's why we spend so much time in the leader PD helping school leaders think through how to build those skills for teachers so they can build those skills for students.
Because if you want strong discussion in class, you need strong habits.
A Simply Great Resource
Here's what you'll get with our Ready by Summer Toolkit:
22 fully built readiness deliverables
22 templates and criteria for success for each deliverable
Fully scripted leadership-team meeting agendas to lead your school leadership team through readiness
Fully scripted PD, including the actual slides, to lead your school staff through readiness
A comprehensive checklist for monitoring your progress to know you're ready to launch the school year successfully
Scripted leader coaching meetings to ensure you keep your team on track
Click here to join the waitlist!
What's Most Important Right Now?
Executing a Start to the New Year
Clear Expectations
Ensure that every time a teacher launches students to independent work time, there are clear expectations for volume, focus, and effort.
Provide Feedback
Within the first 30 seconds of launching kids to work, teachers should ensure that 100% of students are meeting effort expectations, then dig into accuracy and work quality.
Clear Criteria for Success
Teachers should post a clear criteria for success that not only describes top quality work outputs, but can be used for students as a resource if they are stuck.
Celebrate Students
Teachers fill the room with positivity about student effort and about student work quality. Set class-wide goals and challenges for motivation: "I wonder if 100% of us will get to all 4 problem today!"
How Can We Work Together?
Leader Curriculum: Our ready-to-use leadership curriculum saves leaders hundreds of planning hours while boosting retention and achievement through 50+ scripted PDs, practice clinics, and coaching tools.
Curriculum Implementation: We partner with schools nationwide to bring math and ELA materials to life, helping teams deliver instruction that drives measurable achievement gains.
1-on-1 Coaching: From superintendents to APs, we coach leaders at every level to run great schools, grow great teachers, and deliver great results for kids.
Keynote Speaking: We’ve inspired and equipped leaders at conferences and PD days with practical, immediately actionable insights that spark motivation and results.
Cohorts: Our customized leadership cohorts rapidly build skills through a blend of live PD, coaching, site visits, and robust resources that create lasting impact.
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