2013
Constructive Classroom
Conversation
Stanford University
What is Constructive Conversation?
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Consists of verbalized
expression of participants’
thinking.
Using academic language to
build and argue ideas with
others
Focused listening and nonverbals
Purposeful
Authentic
Strong teacher prompt
4 Conversation Skills
Create - Clarify - Fortify - Negotiate
Constructive
Conversation Skills
Poster
Create
Prompt starters:
What is your idea?
How can we combine these ideas?
What do we need to do?
What are other points of view?
What do you think about…?
Why…How…I wonder…
Response starters:
One idea could be …
My hypothesis is…
That reminds me of…
I noticed the pattern of…
I think it depends on…
Goal: Students
independently build up
ideas (knowledge,
agreement, solution)
using these skills.
Clarify
Negotiate
Prompt starters:
What is your opinion?
Where do you disagree?
How might we take the best
from both ideas?
How can we decide which is
the more ___ idea?
How does evidence for your
argument compare to mine?
How doe the two ideas similar
and different?
Which has the strongest
evidence?
Response starters:
I see it a different way,
On the other hand, …
A point of disagreement that I
have is…
Even though it seems that …,
That is a valid point, but…
I think the negatives
of… outweigh the
positives of …
BUILD IDEA
Prompt starters:
Can you give an example
from the text?
Where does it say that?
What are examples from
other texts?
What is a real world
example?
Are there any cases of that
in real life?
Can you give an example
from your life?
What is the strongest
support for…?
Fortify
Prompt starters:
Can you elaborate on the…?
What does that mean?
What do you mean by....?
Can you clarify the part
about…?
Say more about…
Why.. How…What…When…
How is that important?
How does it support your point
that…
I understand the part about…,
but I want to know…
Can you be more specific?
Is what I just said clear?
Does that make sense?
Do you know what I mean?
What do you think?
I’m not sure if I was clear.
Response starters:
For example,
In the text it
said that…
Remember in the other story we
read that…
An example from my life is
One case that illustrates this
is…
Strong supporting evidence is
Response starters:
I think it means…
In other words,
More specifically, it is …
because…
An analogy might be…
It is important because…
Let me see if I heard you
right…
To paraphrase what you
just said, you…
In other words, you are
saying that…
What I understood was…
It sounds like you think
that…
It all boils down to…
A different way to say it..
© Zwiers, O’Hara, & Pritchard (2014)
Common Core Standards in diverse classrooms:
Essential practices for developing academic
language and disciplinary literacy.
Stenhouse Publishers | ALDNetwork.org
What Needs to be Taught?
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Everything!
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Turn-taking, non-verbals
(eye contact, nodding, hand
gestures), respectful
responses
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Interactive modeling and
practice, practice, practice
Art and Design by Christopher Moore
Specials 2013
Conversation Structures & Scaffolds
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Time (conversation, each
turn)
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Turns (tokens, support
cards, building)
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Partners (pairings, 2nd or 3rd
conv. w/o notes)
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Visuals & Writing (Venn,
chart, scale, journal)
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Sentence Frames (given the
evidence of…)*
What is High Quality Conversation?
Dimension 1:
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Turns build on previous turns to build up
ideas
Dimension 2:
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Turns focus on lesson objectives
Analyzing & Teaching Into Student Conversations
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Step 1: Video record a student conversation.
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Step 2: Transcribe a section (about 8 turns or 30 sec)
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Step 3: Analyze, code, or score
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Step 4: Re-write the conversation with what you wish
you had heard.
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Step 5: Map out how to get there & teach into it!
TRANSCRIPTION
Student A: You know what, you see those white things?
Student B: Yeah
Student A: I saw one of those and look here’s another one white. Look here’s some black marks and
look here are some black again. I think that’s sweat.
Student B: There’s black
Student A: That white means they are excited.
Student B: Yeah, Yeah, on one of the pages it said Shaggy had an idea I think it’s on this page. (Points to the
text evidence.) Yeah Shaggy had an idea.
Student A: Yeah, Shaggy had it there, he had an idea and then he popped out those white things. Then
Scooby had those white things to on another page. Then on this page it had all kinds of
black things, here and there, and there.
Student B: Those might be like shakes, like movement.
Student A: So that could be like movement when you are moving your hands.
Student B: (Shakes hand in front of Student A) Look!
Student A: I see black.
Student A: You know what, you see those white things?
Student B: Yeah
Student A: I saw one of those and look here’s another one white. I wonder what that means?
Maybe the white means they are excited.
Student B: On one of the pages it said Shaggy had an idea I think it’s on this page.
Student B: Points to the text evidence, Yeah Shaggy had an idea, I think that is what the white things
are showing an idea.
Student A: Yeah, Shaggy had it there, he had an idea and then he popped out those white things.
Then Scooby had those white things to on another page, so he had an idea. Then on
this page it had all kinds of black things, here and there, and there.
Student B:Those might be like shakes, like movement.
Student A: So that could be like movement when you are moving your hands.
Student B: So white marks mean an idea and black marks mean movement.
Student A: We should see if that is in another book.
Student B: Yeah
Prompt: Guess My Rock game
Student A: Gimme some clues now.
STUDENT B: It’s a little bit of white.
Student A: It’s not enough information because most of them are white. Is
it big or small?
STUDENT B: It’s a little big and small.
Student A: This one
STUDENT B: No.
Student A: You gotta give me more information.
STUDENT B: It has holes.
Student A: This one?
STUDENT B: Yes.
“A powerful feature of conversations is the choice that students
have for how they choose to shape and build ideas in a discipline.
Such choices provide ownership (not just access) and agency,
which help them develop their academic identities. Usually,
students come to think and communicate in far greater ways than
they ever expected. They explore ideas and use language that go
well beyond the prompts and the sentence frames. They become
so engaged in an idea that they forget that they are learning.”
–Jeff Zwiers, Susan O’Hara, & Robert Pritchard