Harnessing the Power of Meaningful Student Conversation
Our society has experienced a lot since mid-March, and I can’t help but wonder how our learners are coping or how they have been affected. From the global pandemic to the Black Lives Matter movement and political tensions, my hope is that learners are being supported through it all in a healthy manner; these are topics are monumental and learning is essential to make sense of it all. The truth is, many of our learners are being exposed to current events or happenings that they don’t fully understand. In fact, they may even be developing misunderstandings that lead to more confusion or internal struggles. To comprehend it, they typically look to the adults in their lives.
As I scroll social media, I can see opposing viewpoints on many topics. Some people engage in healthy dialogue while others enter heated debates. Many of the conversations are relatively civil, but on occasion, I stumble upon people behaving blatantly rude, hurtful, and even hateful to others. Some of the absolute worst comments are on the threads of news channels. I often avoid peaking at the comment thread, but doing so is insightful. It helps me formulate understanding of why it’s essential to help children learn how to engage in meaningful conversations about topics they’re passionate about with the hopes that they interact in a positive manner.
Scrolling social media has caused me to reflect upon adult behavior, the possible impacts on children and how we as educators can support our learners. As both an educator and parent, I’m deeply aware of how our children are watching and listening to us. Make no mistake, even our littlest learners are tuned into our body language, word choices, tones, and how we speak about others or how we discuss current events. Children and teens overhear conversations and interpret what it is they are hearing to make sense of it all. Inadvertently, we are teaching our children how to handle controversy or engage with others. As educators and parents, what are our hopes and dreams for our children’s future–– their world? How would we envision them interacting with others on social media or in person. How do we want them to treat others; friends or strangers?
Fostering Meaningful Communication in the Classroom
Each school year I work diligently with students to foster effective communication skills. We utilize accountable talk structures (anchor chart sample image below) and we practice a few of the structures prior to scaffolding additional protocols. Students became so efficient at using them that the skills transferred from classroom discussions, to conversations in places such as recess and the cafeteria. As their teacher, I utilized them as well; children learn what is modeled.
Throughout each year, I also leveraged the power of active listening and validated my learners as they expressed their opinions and thinking. Although this requires time to foster, it is always worth the benefit of having a classroom of learners who understand how to engage in meaningful conversations; agreeing or disagreeing in a respectful manner with their peers.
Once I knew my learners grasped accountable talk and how to engage in respectful conversation with one another, we would step it up and begin to engage in socratic seminars where students would first listen, read, or watch something and then discuss simple topics such as ie. the main idea, theme, what caused a character to change, etc. Students utilized reliable evidence (text, research, or notes they took from watching a video) to support their thinking. What they often found fascinating was that often, there was more than one correct answer. You see, there can be more than one theme to a passage depending on the text evidence students use to support their thoughts. There can also be more than one way to work through various problems, too. This simple practice helped learners to step beyond their comfort zone and trust their own ideas.
Eventually we shifted into facilitating socratic seminars following the reading or watching/listening about a topic that might spark minor controversy or encourage learners to formulate an opinion. You can also explore The Big List of Discussion Strategies shared by Jennifer Gonzalez to learn more on how to get students to engage in meaningful conversations. In our classroom, started with basic prompts such as: Should schools eliminate homework?
Prior to conversing, students would also read at least two opposing viewpoints. They then engaged in visible thinking strategies such as See, Think, Wonder to dig deeper into their own thoughts and develop connections as the strategy promotes deeper engagement and independence in thinking. Then, students developed their own opinion and engaged with one another. Contrary to what many may anticipate, a handful of students believed that some level of homework was helpful, based on what they read in combination with their own experiences. It was fascinating to hear students explain their thinking and back it up with supporting evidence.
We also incorporated the Habits of Mind by Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick. We interwove them into our learning throughout the year. When it came to engaging in discussion, we reviewed what it meant to listen with empathy and understanding:
Listening with Understanding and Empathy: Pay attention to and do not dismiss another
person’s thoughts, feeling and ideas; Seek to put myself in the other person’s shoes; Tell others
when I can relate to what they are expressing; Hold thoughts at a distance in order to respect
another person’s point of view and feelings
Engaging in meaningful conversation requires one to also listen, not simply formulate their own opinions with evidence. Our learners benefit from being listeners who grasp how to validate and demonstrate empathy for others and their varying perspectives. The goal of conversations is less about swaying the thinking of others and more about seeking understanding about another individual and appreciating varying perspectives. Considering that I worked with elementary students, this required constant modeling, scaffolding, practicing, reflection, and providing resources to refer to.
Meaningful Conversations Lead to Confidence and a Better Understanding of Others
I observed students transform from being shy (some learners weren’t sure if their ideas would be valued by their peers) to confident, yet respectful. Similarly I watched children who had the tendency to dominate conversations and seek to lead the way, (they possessed confidence and leadership, but needed to learn the art of including the voice of others) pause to check in with their peers and then genuinely listen to their responses. Of course, it wasn’t always perfect and I wouldn’t have expected it to be flawless. However, we always embraced the opportunity to pause, reflect, model or problem solve, and learn from one another. Together, we grew from each experience.
As we begin looking at what school may look like in the fall, there are certain things we need to reflect upon to best identify the needs of our learners. As much as we know the importance of understanding potential learning gaps, it’s critical that we foster social emotional learning, with the focus being on the whole-child and ensuring equity and access for all. Additionally, we need to ensure that we incorporate the basics of how to engage in effective conversations where individuals can agree with one another and explain why, or respectfully disagree using information in connection to the topic. It’s critical that our learners grasp how to appropriately express themselves and feel confident and safe doing so, by providing experiences that support learners to develop these skill sets. Every voice matters; but it matters how we share our voice and that we balance by listening with empathy and understanding. We want all of our students to respect one another and feel respected in return, while also embracing their inner confidence to stand up for what they believe in and, as my friend Rosa Isaiah says, “start conversations that matter.”
At home, in our communities, or on social media, our children are picking up on how to converse and interact with others. Even the littlest learners are watching and listening, when we may think they’re not. So, upon the return to school (remote or in-person) I feel confident that these are skills we need to continue focusing on with our children. We can incorporate meaningful conversation skills into social emotional learning and within any other content to deepen understanding.
My hope is that throughout this time, we can all engage in reflection and weed through what matters most. Although content and curriculum have importance, alone, they only help our learners so much. By placing and emphasis on SEL, the whole child, equity and access, and how to engage in crucial conversations to deepen learning, we support the growth of every learner to be their best; empowering them to be future leaders and innovators who are equipped with resilience, grit, the ability to engage in critical thinking and listen with empathy and understanding to create a healthier world.
