Meaningful Conversation Stems
Meaningful Conversation Stems
Model and create a space for students to practice having meaningful conversations in the classroom.
Conversation stems create space for open-ended discussions so students are able to keep their peers accountable, demonstrate active listening skills, and have meaningful conversations.
Nonverbal hand signals are gestures that allow students to participate in classroom conversation in a respectful, orderly, and engaged manner. This does two things: it allows teachers to gauge each student's thought process and reteach skills when they notice more than 50% of students agree with the wrong answer.
Then, when conversation stems come along, they tie everything together. Conversation stems create space for open-ended discussions so students can keep their peers accountable, demonstrate active listening, and have meaningful conversations.
Nonverbal hand signals with conversation stems were the biggest game-changer in my classroom during my time as an elementary school teacher.
I’m sure you have experienced this at least once: you ask your class a question, and all you get is dead silence.
Instead of insisting that students speak up when they feel uncomfortable, nonverbal hand signals give teachers a way to empower students to lead rigorous conversations comfortably.
STEP ONE: Introduce the "agree" and "disagree" hand signals (these are the easiest to grasp). Put a fun question on the board like "I think cats are better than dogs," then have students agree or disagree with the statement using hand signals. Next, have students share using sentence stems: "I disagree with Ms. Wei because my cat does not like to cuddle like a dog does and instead scratches me."
STEP TWO: After your students master the step above and no longer need prompts, continue the conversation with "add on." Practice the hand signal and the sentence stem. I would like to mention that when I first started this, my students were only choosing one sentence stem for each category. Challenge your students to try a variety of sentence stems once they are comfortable!
STEP THREE: When your class is comfortable with "agree." "disagree" and "add on" add the last three categories: clarify, prompt, and explain. I didn't introduce these last categories until I was sure my students could carry the conversation. Take your time to introduce each category individually. Of course, use your teacher intuition, and don't be afraid to go back to practicing if your students need it!
Want to get started utilizing these techniques in your classroom? Well, you're in luck!
Friendzy created beautiful resources so you can start using hand signals and conversation stems in the classroom. We have desk tags, bookmarks, and posters! My students always kept a book in the left corner of the desks, which is a great home for the bookmarks. They also had the conversation stems glued in their student journals for reference.
To Download this resource, click the links in the download section; just scroll up and glance to the right of this text! You can review the video's slideshow here.
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