Research has proven that interacting with other people about what we are learning deepens the understanding of everyone involved. Therefore, you should periodically give students opportunities to engage in conversations about their targeted terms.

• The goal of this step is to encourage students to help each other identify and clear up misconceptions and confusions.
  
• Remember, to encourage students to make additions or revisions to their notebook entries after the discussions.
• The activities in this step can be unstructured or structured activities.  
  

Suggestions for activities:

• Think-Pair-Share (Marzano & Pickering, 2005)
  
•  THINK:  Allow think time for learners to review their own descriptions and images of the terms.
• PAIR:  Put learners in pairs to discuss their descriptions, images, and any new info related to the terms.
• SHARE:  Provide opportunity for groups to share aloud and discuss conceptions and misconceptions.
• Shoulder Partner 

• Have students turn to their shoulder partner, the person sitting next to them, and share a thought or idea related to the target terms.

• Talking Chips

• Students are put into small groups and each student has a set number of chips (poker chips, candy, pieces or paper, etc.). When a student shares information with the group, they throw in a chip. When the chips are all gone, they may not add anymore comments until everyone in the group has used their chips.

• ABC Graffiti

• Four Corners - Vocab discussion activity

• Give-One, Get-One Activity (Marzano, 2010)

• Put students in pairs. The student pairs will examine their partner's vocabulary notebooks to identify information they have in common, identify information they have that is different, and identify questions they share.

• Pairs of students will be encouraged to come up with a question they have about the meaning of a term.

• The questions should be posed to the entire class. The teacher would respond inviting answers and comments from the class.

• Students should make additions or revisions to their vocabulary notebooks.
  

Tech Tips!! You can use the random group generator in SMART Notebook to group students for the discussion activities. You can also use the timer in the SMART Notebook gallery to manage the time during the conversations.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this wiki page and share your other ideas related to this step.