Middle School Conversation Analysis Model
Context: During this 8th grade history lesson students read an original article about the Boston Massacre and were
asked to analyze it for personal bias or misrepresentation.
Objective: Students will identify and support notions of bias in primary source documents
Conversation Prompt: Why did the author write this?
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Student A: Why did the author write this?
Student B: To tell us about the Boston Massacre. But I saw that only seven people were killed.
That isn’t a massacre.
Student A: What do you mean?
Student B: Well, a massacre means lots of people die.
Student A: Maybe the people who wrote it wanted to make it sound really bad.
Student B: Yeah. I think they wanted to get people all mad, to fight. Maybe to start the Revolution.
Student A: Why?
Student B: Not all people wanted to fight to be separate. They were okay with England over them. But
some wanted to separate.
Student A: Yeah. So calling it a massacre made the British look evil. I would’ve wanted to fight back too.
Student B: So that’s bias, right? It’s lying a little, I think.
Student A: Yeah. I wonder how many bias there are in history.
Dimension 1: Turns build on previous turns to build up an idea.
Formative assessment level
Strong Evidence
Rationale
Most (nearly all) of the turns in this example build on previous turns to develop an understanding of what bias, why it
might be present in historical documents, and what effects it could have on others. Additionally, while it obviously takes
some time for the two students to “sort out” their understanding (which is the point of conversation!), their ideas are
coherent, connected, and relatively complete.
Dimension 2: Turns focus on the knowledge or skills of the lesson’s objectives
Formative assessment level
Strong Evidence
Rationale
Additionally, nearly all the turns in this conversation sample focus on lesson’s learning objective, which was to identify
bias in primary documents and support this identification with evidence. (We assume this “support” should come from
the text as well as from students’ experiences and ideas.) In this conversation sample, the students provide lots of the
latter type of support, which leads them to a deeper understanding of bias and its effects. And while the students don’t
specifically cite evidence from the text, they do mention what they had read in the course of their attempts to understand
bias.
DIMENSION 1: Turns build on previous turns to build up an idea
Strong Evidence
Half or more of the turns build on previous turns to effectively build up a clear and complete idea
Inconsistent Evidence
Half or more of the turns build on previous turns to adequately build up an idea, which may
be incomplete or lack clarity
Attempting Interaction Few turns build on previous turns to build up an idea
No Evidence
Turns are not used to build up an idea
DIMENSION 2: Turns focus on the knowledge or skills of the lesson’s objectives
Strong Evidence
Half or more of the turns effectively focus on the lesson’s objectives and show depth or
fostering of the intended learning
2015 | Hakuta, Zwiers, Rutherford-Quach | Constructive Classroom Conversations MOOC
Inconsistent Evidence
Attempting Interaction
No Evidence
Half or more of the turns sufficiently focus on the lesson’s objectives, but this focus may
be superficial or lack clarity
Few turns focus on the lesson’s objectives
Turns do not focus on the lesson’s objectives
2015 | Hakuta, Zwiers, Rutherford-Quach | Constructive Classroom Conversations MOOC