Discussion Stems

Last week I posted on "the basics" for incorporating turn and talk.  Hopefully you have tried it out or at least reflected on how much you provide talk time in your classes.  Tori Mazur, ESL teacher at NAMS, brought up some great points on the benefits of talk time for English Language Learners.  In her comment, Tori noted how providing talk time:

• helps ELLs "rehearse", which is especially good before writing down ideas.
• provides social safety for students who feel more confident sharing with one than a large group.
• allows for peers to "coach" one another.

Many students will not be successful with turn and talk without instruction and guidance from you.  Sentence frames and question stems are a great way to help students begin to use academic language during class discussions.  I have collected some great sentence starters and/or question stems for different content areas. 

>>General Sentence Starters<<

>>Math Talk Stems<<

>>Social Studies Sentence Frames<<

>>Rich Questioning in Science<<

You want these to be in students' hands, not yours!  Post on the wall, tape to students desks, or provide copies for your students so they can regularly use these.  Good luck!