Establish norms and expectations for respectful and productive conversations.

Strategies for asking higher-order questions that promote critical thinking and deeper understanding.

Methods for getting students moving and managing small group and whole-class discussions.

Model active listening and encouraging students to build on each other’s ideas.

Provide sentence starters, discussion prompts, and other scaffolding tools to help students articulate their thoughts.

Design activities that require student interaction and dialogue, such as think-pair-share, jigsaw, and debate.

Ideas to encourage students to reflect on their participation and set goals for improving their discourse skills.