In Class Discussion: 5 Ways to Encourage Critical Thinking in High School English

Using in class discussion is a perfect way to foster critical thinking in high school English classes. Whether it is the Socratic Method, the Harkness Method or one of these other discussion styles, classroom discussion is a must for discussion of literature and more.

In Class Discussion: Use class discussions to foster critical thinking in High School Classes, especially High School English Classes. 5 discussion strategies to use in the classroom.

5 In Class Discussion Styles for High School English

Socratic Method in Teaching Literature

Socrates believed their should be dialogue between teacher and students. Students are encouraged to prepare a text. Then the teacher or facilitator asks questions to generate discussion.

When to use: This method of classroom discussion can be used after non-fiction, poetry, short stories, chapters or full length texts.

For more, check out this post from NCTE.

In Class Discussion: Use class discussions to foster critical thinking in High School Classes, especially High School English Classes. 5 strategies for discussion of literature and more.

Harkness Method of Discussion:

In the Harkness Methods, students prepare both the text and the questions. The teacher actually sits out of the discussion and lets the students conversation flow based on their questions and responses. I like to give the student stems based on the upper levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy to encourage them to ask and respond to questions that do not have just one right answer.

How it works: Students prepare both a text and questions before the day of the seminar. Then they are encouraged to sit in a circle and have a dialogue which is student driven. The teacher can participate to make corrections or keep the discussion moving, but the idea is for students to lead and generate their own conversation about the text.

When to use: This method of classroom discussion can be used after non-fiction, poetry, short stories, chapters or full length texts.

For more, check out this post from Edutopia.

Discussion Circles

In a discussion circle, the discussion of literature moves around the circle from person to person. Often students are permitted to pass, but I usually require students to participate in the first round.

How to Use: To make this accessible to all students, I provide the students with 2-4 questions before we begin and they prepare their answer. Additionally, the first round is always a reader response question that anyone can answer. For more on reader response, check out this post.

This is great for when you want to make sure that every voice is heard.

Silent Full Class Discussion

Students begins by participating in writing before any vocal conversations begin.

How it Works: Begin by posting questions on posters around the room.

Give every student 6-10 sticky notes (number of question + 2-3–so if there are 4 questions they would get 6 or 7 stickies, some questions they will need more than one response). They number and put their initials on the sticky note if you want to give them completion credit.

Students walk around and answer the questions on the stickies. It should be quiet/silent during this portion of the class period.

In groups, they can organize the ideas. Most people in our class think…The main take away…

This is great for getting students up and moving around and working in groups to think critically.

When to Use: This would be great for poetry annotations, close reading, essential questions to start a unit, argument topics, brainstorming

I used this with the start of a food memoir unit in AP® Language. I posted the unit questions, a few quotes about meals and then gave them a sticky per poster plus 2. It worked great. You could have heard a pin drop while they were considering their initial answers to the poster prompts. The discussions they they had in small groups and then shared with the class were interesting, well supported and a great way to dive into the thinking around this new unit.

One Word Discussions

These are great as a companion to The One Word Project. It gets students thinking about the power of words through both their denotations and connotations. Additionally, students must become laser focused on their thoughts.

How it works: Either on an index card or on a digital platform like Jamboard or Goggle Slides, student write one word to describe X. I have used this with full length texts like Hamlet.

Students write one word to describe Hamlet, Ophelia, Laertes, etc. If you are using a digital platform, students will write the word on a sticky or in a text box on the slide. If you are using index cards, students will write on the card and then keep them a secret or they can use paper sticky notes and add them to a poster much like they do on the digital platforms.

How to use the one word discussion: if students write on an index card, you could do something similar to the Discussion Circle. Students would all show their index card at the same time, then can look around the room, see what others have written and then proceed to have student share out their observations. You can do something similar if they are adding stickies to a poster or slide.

Another way to use it would be to assign each group a character where they would sort much like they would in the silent full class discussion.

When to Use: This is perfect for talking about characterization, tone, theme or setting.

In Class Discussions: Use class discussions to foster critical thinking in High School Classes, especially High School English Classes. 5 discussion strategies in the classroom for discussion of literature and more.

How to Assess In Class Discussion

I have used a variety of methods to assess in class discussions over the years. I used to literally just keep track of how many times a student spoke in a Socratic or Harkness Seminar. A student who only participated by listening earned a C for the day. Students then had an opportunity to follow up with a Post Seminar Reflection.

I am currently using objectives based rubrics to score the circle-style in class discussion. I choose 2-3 AP Essential Skills + 1 Speaking and Listening Objectives (based on Common Core since the College Board doesn’t have speaking and listening skills included in the AP English courses). These criteria standards are based on the questions that students will answer in each round. For each of these skills, I use a 5 point rubric where a 5 is sophisticated and exceeding the standards and a 1 is standards not met. If a student chooses to pass, they get a 1. In the grade book a 1 signals that a student was present and didn’t demonstrate the skill.

This method gives a lot more information when I go to look at the grades later. I have a better sense of what the student understood about the text rather than whether they like to talk or not. In my old method of scoring a good BS-er could score well despite not being truly prepared.

Classroom Discussions: Use class discussions to foster critical thinking in High School Classes, especially High School English Classes. 5 discussion strategies in the classroom for discussion of literature and more.

Using In Class Discussion

I would love to know how you facilitate in class discussions in your classroom and if you have been avoiding them because you think they are a lot of pressure, give one of these new ones a try!