The document provides descriptions and outcomes of various discussion techniques that can be used to start lessons with talk. Some key techniques described include think-pair-share, which allows students to think individually and then discuss in pairs before sharing with the class, and jigsawing, where students are assigned aspects of a topic to research and then return to their groups to teach their expertise. Starting lessons with talk engages students, allows settling time, and taps into higher-order thinking from the beginning of class.

1. Something to think about:
When did you last use talk to start a
lesson?
What ideas/techniques/activities have you
used? (Please note some of these down.)

2. • Share your ideas with someone.
• Join up with another pair and compare
ideas.

3. • Advantages for starting lessons with talk:
– allows for a settling time when class are arriving (can
accommodate late-comers);
– doesn’t require very many resources;
– allows for rehearsal, before things are committed to paper;
– encourages those who are quieter to begin to take part;
– it can help provide a timely recap and shape the rest of the
lesson;
– it forces independence and focus;
– helps to prevent the beginning of the lesson being ‘dead
time’;
– begins to tap into higher order thinking very early on in the
lesson.

4. Active Listening
Description:
Students should be taught and encouraged to
listen carefully and effectively.
• Look at the person speaking
• Give them your full attention
• Do not interrupt
• Nod (or smile) to show you understand
• Ask questions (when it is OK to do so) if you
do not understand. This will show you have
been thinking about what you hear.
Outcomes:
By encouraging students to assume the traits
of good listeners, we can help them develop
essential skills.

5. Individual Thinking Time
Description:
Students are allowed to think through an
issue in silence and without interruption.
Outcomes:
BY providing students with thinking time,
they are encouraged to explore issues in more
depth than might be usual.
This can be the first part of think-pair-share.

6. Think-pair-share
Description:
Students are provided with the opportunity to
think about an issue without information.
Students should share their idea with their
“talk partner”.
Ideas are shared with the whole class.
Outcomes:
By providing students with thinking time, they
are encouraged to explore issues in more
depth than might be usual.
All students are provided with opportunity to
share their ideas.

7. Talk Partners
Description:
Within the class, each student has a partner
with whom they feel comfortable and with
whom they share ideas, opinions and
planning.
Outcomes:
Some students find it a daunting prospect to
speak in front of a whole class, even to
answer brief questions. Working regularly
with a set partner helps students grow in
confidence at expressing themselves. This
can lead on to “snowballing” – which
encourages students to explain their ideas to
a larger group – or to “think-pair-share” –
which encourages students to explain their
ideas to the whole class. This should become
less daunting because students have had the
opportunity to think about their answers and
to rehearse them.

8. Thought Showers
Description:
A quick collection of ideas from all members
of the group. With the minimum amount of
structure, students are invited to call out
words or ideas relating to the topic. All
suggestions are recorded, preferably on a
board or flipchart, without any initial
judgment. Subsequently, ideas can be
grouped, ordered or evaluated - without
attributing them to any specific individual.
Outcomes:
This is a good way to generate a wide range
of responses and to encourage creative
thinking. All too often, anticipating that their
suggestion might be ridiculed, students curtail
their responses. The relative anonymity of
this approach encourages all students to
contribute. It is also a useful first stage when
seeking to construct a concept map (or
mindmap).

9. Listening Triangle
Description:
Students work together in groups of three.
•The SPEAKER explains the topic (or
expresses their opinion on an issue) as
directed by the teacher.
•The QUESTIONER listens carefully and asks
for clarification or further detail.
•The NOTE-TAKER observes this process and
provides feedback to both "speaker" and
"questioner".
•A "numbered heads" approach can be used
to allocate roles - and these roles can be
rotated (either now or subsequently).
Outcomes:
This activity helps to develop speaking and
listening skills and raises students' awareness
of what constitutes both a clear explanation
and active listening.

10. Information Gap
Description:
Students work in pairs.
Each student is provided with half of the
information required to complete a task or to
achieve a learning objective.
Having been provided with opportunity to
study their "half", students meet together to
share what they have learned.
This can also work in triads (or even groups of
four).
Outcomes:
Research shows that students are better able
to learn, understand and recall information if
they have discussed it or taught it to others.
This activity provides opportunity to do
precisely that.

11. Yes and No Questions
Description:
There are various ways of employing this
strategy.
•Working in small groups, each student
composes a question relating to the topic,
bearing in mind that their fellow group
members can only answer "yes" or "no".
•Working in pairs, students compose
questions (relating to a specified topic) to
pose to the rest of the class.
•Working in small groups, students compose
questions to be posed to the teacher.
Outcomes:
This activity provides students with the
opportunity to practice asking questions. It
also encourages them to clarify their thinking
and to refine their vocabulary and language
skills.

12. Envoying
Description:
Having discussed their own ideas or completed
their own piece of research, each group sends an
"envoy" to share their ideas or information with
another group. The envoy may be
•chosen by the group
•pre-selected and notified by the teacher
•selected by the teacher but only notified
immediately before being sent.
To ensure fairness, the teacher may choose to
use a "numbered heads" approach for selecting
the envoy.
Outcomes:
Before sending their envoy, each group must
ensure that s/he is well prepared. NB: It is the
responsibility of the group to prepare the
envoy. If the group is not aware who the envoy
will be, the onus is on them to ensure that every
member fully understands what is to be shared.

13. Snowballing
Description:
Students talk in pairs, either to develop initial
ideas or to share what they already know
about a topic. These pairs double up and pool
their ideas in the new group of four. Fours
double up to eights and pool ideas. Etc.
Outcomes:
This is a useful activity for finding out what
students already know about a topic, acting
as a means of revising that knowledge.

14. Scan & Check
Description:
Each student has an information sheet which
they scan quickly. Students then pair up and
share what they have each learned. Findings
are then reported back to the whole class.
Outcomes:
This activity helps to develop students'
reading skills, encouraging them to read in a
purposeful way. Recounting what they have
just read helps to reinforce that
information. Working in pairs means that each
student is prompted by their partner as they
seek to recall what they have read.

15. Jigsawing
Description:
Students start off in “home groups”. Using a
“numbered heads” approach, each student in
the home group is given an aspect of a topic
to research. Students (from each of the home
groups) working on the same aspect come
together to research their common question.
They become the “expert group” for that
particular aspect of the topic. Students now
return to their home groups to share their
findings and to complete the jigsaw.
Outcomes:
This activity encourages collaborative learning
and stresses the importance of working
together. The home groups depend for their
success on each member bringing back as
much as they can from the expert groups.

16. Mini-presentation
Description:
Groups work together to collect and present
information. This activity could follow on from
a “jigsawing” activity. Alternatively, the
group may decide which task or topic to
allocate to each member. The group must also
decide how best to present their information.
The teacher may wish to stipulate that every
member of the group plays some part in the
presentation (even if it is only pointing to the
parts of a diagram or holding up relevant
artifacts).
Outcomes:
This activity helps to develop speaking and
presentation skills. It also helps to develop
students' organisation skills. By valuing each
student's work and contribution, it can help
to build self-esteem.

17. Role Play
Description:
Working together in small groups, each
student within the group is allocated a role
(relating to the particular issue under
discussion). As discussion progresses, each
student represents the point of view of the
role they represent. This can also be
conducted as a whole class activity with roles
being allocated to groups of students, who
are allowed to prepare their case beforehand.
Outcomes:
This activity encourages students to express
empathy with different points of view and can
act as a preparation for making an argument
or developing a piece of persuasive
writing. The activity can also be used when
planning for story-writing.

18. Hot Seat
Description:
After suitable preparation (which may entail
individual research or small group coaching),
one student volunteers or is selected to take the
hot seat, either as a “character” or as an
“expert”. The rest of the class poses questions
to the hot seat. This can also be conducted as an
activity within a number of small groups,
perhaps allocating each student within the
group a different character (from a story or
play).
Outcomes:
Although there is only one student in the hot
seat, the whole class is engaged in the learning
(consolidation) process as they devise suitable
questions to pose. This is a useful strategy for
encouraging students to consider the emotions
and feelings of a character in a story, play or
historical event.

19. Rainbow Groups
Description:
Students start in "home groups". Groups
discuss a topic. Students are numbered (or
allocated colours) and re-group by number (or
colour). These new groups should have a
representative from every group, if
possible. All students take a turn at reporting
back what their group discussed and any
decisions they may have arrived at.
Outcomes:
This activity is beneficial because it
encourages every child to listen (to their
home group) and to talk (to their
number/colour group).