Mod 9 Discussion: Oral Language Support in My Classroom

There were two principles of academic discussion that stood out for me. The first was the use of open-ended questions.  I particularly like this approach for a number of reasons: a) it encourages to participate by elaborating on their answers; b) it fosters critical thinking by forcing students to form their own opinions and then defend them; c) it allows for students to be exposed to different viewpoints as they listen to the opinions of their classmates; and d) it forces students to utilize deeper understanding as students have to move beyond simple recall and analyze the information.

Sentence Starters for an open-ended question: this approach would move beyond a simple "yes" or "no" response when students would be posed with such questions as, "What do you think about this...?" or "Why do you think this happened...?"

A Sentence Frame for an open-ended question:this approach would force students to express fundamental ideas that move beyond just surface language to explore concepts not necessarily dependent on language such as "if _____, then ____", which is an exploration of the concept of consequences.

Another principle which struck me was the concept of focus questions. I like this approach because it encourages critical analysis on the part of the students.

Sentence Starters for focus questions would force the students to think deeper about the topic when posed with such questions as, "How do you  feel about..." or "Can you describe...".

A Sentence Frame for a focus questions would promote deep thinking on the part of the students with questions such as, "How does ____ affect ____ in the text?"