Making Classroom Discussions Work

Boost learning and democratic engagement in elementary, middle, and high school social studies classrooms.

For the past 2 decades, the field of social studies education has seen an increase in research on the use of discussions as an essential instructional technique. This book examines the importance of using quality dialogue as a tool to help students understand complex issues in social studies.

This edited volume provides a collection of well-known, evidence-based discussion techniques, as well as classroom examples showing the methods in use. While using discussion as an instructional method is widely considered a best practice of civic learning, actual high-quality discussions are rare and notoriously difficult to facilitate.

Making Classroom Discussions Work is designed to guide teacher educators and classroom teachers in facilitating equitable and productive discussions that will boost learning and democratic engagement.

Book Features:

• Emphasizes the rationale for using discussion in social studies teaching.
• Collects strategies that have been proposed in disparate journal articles and books in one convenient volume.
• Presents research-based challenges and supports for conducting and assessing discussions in the social studies.
• Includes methods and tips to help teachers make discussions more equitable in their classrooms.

Jane C. Lo is an assistant professor of teacher education at Michigan State University.

“This methods volume makes discussion less intimidating and overwhelming, as it highlights many concrete ways to conduct quality discussion in K–12 Social Studies classrooms. All the examples are grounded in theories and research, and rooted in practice. This book will benefit pre-service and classroom teachers who are new to discussion. It can also help experienced practitioners hone and diversify their discussion techniques for equity and justice.”

—Teachers College Record

“Theoretically, empirically, and practically, Making Classroom Discussions Work: Methods for Quality Dialogue in the Social Studies is a powerful and important book. I commend Professor Lo for bringing together such a rich collection of chapters written by some of our field’s best thinkers. If you care about the importance of high-quality discussions in social studies and also want to become a better discussion teacher, I strongly encourage you to read this book.”
—From the Foreword by Diana E. Hess, dean, Karen A. Falk Distinguished Chair in Education, University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education

“High-quality discussions are a gift—deepening understanding both of the content at hand and of high-quality discussion itself. This book details strategies for promoting discussions that are equitable and effective. By blending practical and scholarly insights, the authors in this volume respond to an urgent need. Looking at our society, we can see every day the profound costs of neglecting this priority.”
—Joseph Kahne, Dutton Presidential Chair for Education Policy and Politics, University of California, Riverside

“Lo has assembled an amazing array of scholars who review foundational work on discussion, provide in-depth classroom examples and lessons illustrating specific discussion techniques, and then broach less-traveled terrain in discussion research and practice with an emphasis on the inclusion of all students. Even educators who closely follow discussion research and pedagogy will find fresh perspectives in this book. This book is a must-read for preservice and practicing teachers, teacher educators, and researchers.”
—Patricia G. Avery, professor emeritus, University of Minnesota

Contents

Foreword  Diana E. Hess  vii

Acknowledgments  xi

Introduction  Jane C. Lo  1

Part I: Engaging in Classroom Discussions

1.  Guiding Principles for Using Classroom Discussion  11
Bruce E. Larson

2.  Preparing Teachers for Current and Controversial Issue Discussion  27
Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, Mary Ellen Daneels, and Noorya Hayat

3.  Supporting Civic Discussions With Younger Students  44
Terence A. Beck

Part II: Unpacking Well-Known Discussion Techniques in the Social Studies

4.  Socratic Seminar: Learning With and From Each Other While Interpreting Complex Text  63
Jada Kohlmeier

5.  Structured Academic Controversy: What It Can Be  73
Walter C. Parker

6.  Structure Matters: Comparing Deliberation and Debate  90
Paula McAvoy and Arine Lowery

7.  Document-Based Discussions in History: Orienting Students to the Discipline  106
Abby Reisman

8.  Embedding Discussion Throughout Inquiry  124
María del Mar Estrada Rebull, Chauncey Monte-Sano, Amanda Jennings, and Jeff Kabat

Part III: Expanding Toward More Equitable Discussions

9.  Talking Politics Online: Educating for Online Civic and Political Dialogue  143
Erica Hodgin

10.  The Structures We Live In: Discussing Racialization of Neighborhoods to Transform the Null Curriculum  161
Jacob S. Bennett, H. Richard Milner IV, and Bryant O. Best

11.  Get Out of Your Own Way: Sharing Power to Engage Students of Color in Authentic Conversations of Social Inequity  176
Dane Stickney, Elizabeth Milligan Cordova, and Carlos P. Hipolito-Delgado

12.  Supporting Youth to Engage in Authentic Civic Dialogue in Our “Actually Existing” Democracy  192
Nicole Mirra and Antero Garcia

Concluding Thoughts  209
Jane C. Lo

Appendix A: Pledge of Allegiance Mini Unit  215

Appendix B: Ticket to Pledge Seminar  217

Appendix C: Pledge Discussion Guide  219

Appendix D: The Pledge of Allegiance Supreme Court Cases  223

Appendix E: You Be the Judge: Frazier v. Winn  225

About the Editor and Contributors  229

Index  235