Student-Moderator Discussion Prompts in Action!

In my excitement about finding a means to make my scripted literacy program a little more student-led, I hastily threw together yesterday's blog post.  I shared some prompts for a student-moderator to use when leading a whole class discussion.  But I didn't share how I planned to use them.  Oops!  So sorry....and here goes:

 Prior to today, I emphasized making eye contact with classmates, using text based evidence, using accountable talk stems, responding directly to claims made by classmates and not taking differing opinions as a personal attack (this is still an ongoing lesson!).  Our conversations have been meaty and really interesting!

Today, I handed over responsibility for leading this discussion to a student.  Before the whole class discussion, the rest of the class prepares in small groups.  The students answer an opinion based question and defend their idea with details from the text.  While the class prepared, my student-moderator read the prompts and we briefly discussed ways to keep the conversation moving.  When she was ready, she jumped in a took over the discussion.

Of course, I handed off this responsibility to my most capable student, but I anticipate other students being successful and over time being able to ditch the prompts and lead the conversation independently.

If you want to grab a set of prompts, click HERE to download them. You can edit the portion that says EDIT to remind your student how to grab the attention of their classmates.  You will need PowerPoint to edit the file.

Enjoy!