Are you wondering how to facilitate discussion in a way that makes your students want to talk to each other? I’ve got just the way! This activity will help your students feel safe enough to talk, feel like there is room for them to be say their piece, and be actually activated into doing it!
It can be a struggle to get students speaking the target language and to really be on task in that language as well. Feeling insecure about their language skills is a problem for a lot of my students. But even for my older students, who are proficient in English, it’s hard to start doing the task they were assigned to do. Teenagers, right? I always try to come up with fun ways to prompt them into talking and getting out of their comfort zone, but I have to be creative sometimes.
How to facilitate discussion in the classroom
So am I getting students to talk this week? First of all, by giving them topics to discuss that have to do with the material we’re covering in class. This can range from holidays that are coming up, or the seasons, to political subjects or novel study. I make the task of discussing meaningful in itself; they need to learn from the discussion. I give them a clear task: this is how much time you have, and this should be the result. Finally, I let them talk in small groups and not in a whole class situation.
Activities to facilitate discussion
One of my favorite activities to facilitate discussion is the statement carousel. How this works is I hang up sheets with statements on them all over the walls of my classroom. The text on them needs to be big enough for me to read it back to them at the end. Then I get students to get up and stand next to one of the statements, physically. They may not stay in their seats. They must split evenly over the available statements, which means they’ll be in small groups. It creates an intimate and safe situation for them to discuss their point of view on different matters.
I then tell students they must discuss the statement or question(s) on the sheet they’re standing next to for a minute or 2. When they hear me call, or hear an alarm go off, they must move to the next statement in a clockwise direction and start discussing it. Students have to move around in their small groups to go past all the statements. This way I know they’ve all spent enough time pondering the statement or question, they have each had enough time to give their opinion, and they have all been able to listen to their peers discuss the matters.
When to have small group discussions
Small group discussions can be done at different points during a lesson. It works really well as an introductory activity to introduce a topic you’ll be teaching, or one you want to activate prior knowledge on. You can also end a lesson with a small group discussion, to review what students have learned, or to wrap up a topic. In the middle of a lesson can work to, but you must be very clear on what happens when. You classroom routine needs to be strong because you don’t want students to become rowdy during or after the discussion process.
How to get students talking
How to get students talking in class? Well, you have to ask the right questions. Questions must be open, not closed. Questions or statements should also have more than one possible answer, so that students will have something to talk about. For example, don’t ask: ‘Who is the main character of this or that novel?’, but ask: ‘How would you describe the main character of this or that novel?’ Statements that are bound to have different sides are great.
Topics for discussions that I have used before include:
- Introductions: ask questions about hobbies, friends, family, pets, home, sports, food, school.
- Novel study questions: ask questions about genre, setting, character, theme, symbols, and plot.
- Political topics: ask questions about climate change, economics, health, immigration issues, the military, and education.
- Grammar topics: ask questions in various tenses, like the past simple and continuous, present simple and continuous, perfect tense, future tense, and passive.
- Seasonal topics: ask questions that are related to a certain season or holiday, such as foods, traditions, celebrations, weather, clothing to wear, etc.
Wanna try this some time? You can sign up to get my Free Sheets for Novel Discussion here! Download them, hang them up on the wall, and you’re good to go!
Or check out the other discussion products I have up in my store here. I’ve come up with discussion questions for all the seasons and some holidays, grammar topics, and some general ones about(younger) student life. They may come in very handy for your lessons! I know they work really well for mine!
Check out this article on speed dating in the classroom, another way to do small group discussion!
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