Circle of Knowledge

• Develops effective oral communication

• Requires students to speak & listen, building on each others’ ideas.

• Builds collaborative and interpersonal skills

(Dewing, Silver, & Perini, 2012)

What percentage of the time would you guess the average teacher spends talking in the classroom?

Apply It

Take a story you are reading next week in your class and start planning a higher level question to use to facilitate discussion.

K-1: Your Harcourt story probably won’t lend itself to this, try it with a read aloud

Other teachers: Plan a higher level question to use in your content area

Q-SPACE

Circle of Knowledge

in Math

Research shows that increasing wait time to 3-5 seconds benefits students in the following ways:

• Length and correctness of student responses increase.
• The number of "I don't know" and no answer responses decreases.
• The number of volunteered, appropriate answers by larger numbers of students greatly increases.
• The scores of students on academic achievement tests tend to increase.

We would like to begin this activity by having you solve a problem in your head. The reason for this is that we want you to begin to think about how understanding numbers helps children do mathematics.

Mentally solve 28+29 and be ready to explain how you got your answer.

• Question: Pose a question that requires thinking.

• Silence & Wait Time: at least 3-5 seconds to process and extend responses

• Probe: Help students articulate thinking by asking them to elaborate.

• Accept: Accept every response, affirmation and/or correction signal the end of thinking

• Clarify: Have students restate their own and others’ ideas.

• Elaborate: Help students draw conclusions and make generalizations.

(Dewing, Silver, & Perini, 2012)

Count by ones, using fingers

30+30=60; 30-29=1; 30-28=2; 1+2=3; 60-3=57

8+9=17; 20+20=40; 40+17=57

4x10=40; 40+9=49; 49+1=50; 50+7=57

25+25=50; 4+3=7; 50+7= 57

20+20=40; 40+10=50; 8-1=7; 50+7=57

29+10=39; 39+10=49; 49+8=57

Positive changes in teacher behaviors also occur when increasing wait time:

• Their questioning strategies tend to be more varied and flexible.
• They decrease the quantity and increase the quality and variety of their questions.
• They ask additional questions that require more complex information processing and higher-level thinking on the part of students.

(Stahl, 1994)

“If all my students do their math problems the same way, I have denied mathematics to some children.” -Nora Ramirez, ASU

Probing Questions

• “Tell me more about that.”
• “What do you mean when you say…”
• “What else…”
• “How do you know…”
• “Why is it important to…”
• “What does that remind you of?”
• “In other words…”

(Prosser & Effkin, Bayless School District)

Effective Discussion Report Card

Discuss with your table how you feel about using this report card for reading and or math to have your students evaluate themselves?

What is a Circle of Knowledge?

A strategic framework for planning and conducting discussions that foster student participation and critical thinking

80%

This averages out to be 24 seconds/hour/student in a class of 30 students

Common Core Driven

Observe the teacher, write down each question she poses, and take note of teacher talk time vs. student talk time.

http://www.greatbooks.org/programs-for-all-ages/pd/what-is-shared-inquiry/

Think a minute and discuss with your table:

What stood out to you in the way this teacher ran the discussion?

What are your thoughts about using a similar model in your own classroom?

Circle of Knowledge

How to ask good questions and get good answers.