Hey friend,

If you teach English, you’ve probably run into this issue before:

You’re hosting a student-led discussion to evaluate students on a novel or concept that you’re studying in class…

And you have that one student who is just so good at winging it.

They didn’t read the text.
They didn’t pay attention in class.

But they’re intelligent, and they know how to hold themselves in a discussion – and they’re trying to get their grade!

So they dominate the conversation without saying anything of academic value.

We know that this approach isn’t going to cut it in your classroom, and it really impedes that other student who has a lot to say, but is too shy to speak up.

The solution isn’t to jump in and manage the conversation. It’s to do this instead:

1. Provide students with sentence stems that show them how to incorporate higher-level thinking. Rank these in order on a scale. This shows them that opinions are fine and welcome, but they’ll score higher if they contribute more insightful comments.
2. Include conversation management in your grading scale. Students get points for redirecting the conversation and prompting their peers to speak.
3. Use a spreadsheet to track discussions. I have an automated one that will do all the grading for you (check it out here). Students get immediate feedback after a conversation to know why they scored the way that they did, and how they can score higher next time.
   I’ve tried almost every classroom discussion strategy, and I’ve found that this approach is the one that really lands well with students.

📖 I have a blog post that dives into this strategy in more detail. Click here to see how you can use it in your classroom.