Teaching Without Tech - A Silent Discussion

This week I was excited to try the Big Paper - Building a Silent Discussion (Links to an external site.) strategy.  I am teaching a 3rd/4th-grade math class this year.  The class is made up of all 3rd graders that are learning 3rd and 4th-grade math curriculum.  The group enjoys a good discussion, so I thought this was the perfect strategy for them.

I used this strategy to get students engaged in a silent conversation about critiquing sample constructed math responses.  I prepared by making copies of 4 different sample constructed responses and glued each onto a large-ish sheet of butcher paper.  To begin the activity, I clearly explained the rules.  Each table group used one color marker.  In total silence, they read the response and spent several minutes writing feedback or asking questions.  Then we rotated to the next table where they repeated the process with a new sample.  This time they read the sample, read the responses already left by the previous group and added their responses as well.  This happened again and again until every group had visited all 4 samples.  

                           

Then, it was time to talk.  Students discussed which sample they thought was the strongest and which was the weakest and why.  They asked questions, critiqued the samples and provided evidence to justify their critique.  I was amazed at how well the strategy worked.  Check out these images (Links to an external site.)of the students at work during Big Paper. 

                      

Prep was fairly quick.  The strategy worked very well for the learning objective.  Students were highly engaged and focused.  I would definitely use this strategy again.  I envision it would work just as well with a small group - students would just do it as individuals or maybe use one sample that everyone provides feedback for at the same time.  I didn't encounter any stumbling blocks using this discussion strategy.  When I asked the kids about the activity, they liked looking at samples and evaluating them.  They L O V E D that I let them write with markers (that seemed to be the highlight of the strategy for them).  They DID NOT like that they had to be SILENT during the entire activity until the end when we had our reflective discussion.  But, to be honest, I L O V E D that part (that was the highlight of the strategy for me). I enjoyed seeing them be contemplative before actually speaking.  Once we did have the oral discussion, their comments were so much more on topic and detailed compared to usual.  This one is a keeper.  After experiencing success with this strategy, I look forward to trying out some of the other strategies from Jennifer Gonzalez's Cult of Pedagogy website and podcast as well.