The document discusses strategies for engaging students in classroom discussions. It recommends assigning students learning buddies or talking partners to discuss lessons and ideas throughout the day. Guidelines for discussions are co-constructed by students. It also suggests using student-created success criteria and rubrics for assessments after exposing students to exemplar work and having them identify key qualities through questioning. Students then self-assess and peer-assess their work by highlighting rubrics.

1. Richelle McDonald

13. Engage students in
discussions - Use
Learning Buddies/Talking
Partners/Elbow partners!
Every week the students
have a new Talking
Buddy. They discuss
their learning and ideas
with their buddy
throughout the day in all
curriculum areas.
There are co-
constructed guidelines.

23. Woohoo…
One session a week
where I get to inquire
about something I
want to know!

24. Use Models first!
Ask questions of the content.
Students can then create the
Success Criteria.
Students highlight where they
are at throughout the process.

25. A co-constructed target
rubric for impromptu
speeches.
Targets were VERY
familiar to students…
Students viewed
examples of excellent
speeches (Martin Luther
King, Steve Jobs etc) and
questioned what made
great speech. They then
co-constructed their
success criteria on a
target rubric. They self
assessed and peer
assessed by highlighting
the rubric following their
speech to the class.