Mod 9 Discussion: Oral Language Support in My Classroom

The key principles for academic discussion listed in the article are the following: Provide a focus question: How do you gain respect from your peers? What is meant by "prepare for the worst"?; Pre-teach the vocabulary; and Frame the question so that all students understand it, and can respond to it.

These could be effectively paired with the "snowball" strategy as a way to prepare students for working in group sizes that increase and require every student to bring something to the discussion.