Anderson County School District

Conversation Towers

In this strategy, partners build on one another's ideas using Lego blocks. Each student should have their own color and add a block to the tower each time they add an idea to the conversation. Use the Collaborative Conversations: Building on Other's Ideas sheet to provide students with sentence stems for their academic conversations, as well as a quick self-assessment for students for reflection. (FYI, this is a really fun academic speaking scaffold for all kiddos!)

• Click Here to grab Collaborative Conversations: Building on Other's Ideas sheet

QSSSA Conversation Strategy

QSSSA is a method for structuring conversations that can be used in any grade level or content area. Any teacher can use QSSSA to engage students in academic conversations. The time frame is flexible based on the needs of your discussion. Some discussions last 5 minutes while others are meatier and require an extended talk time. QSSSA is easy to implement with little prep work needed, yet the benefits for students rock!

• Click Here – QSSSA: More than Turn & Talk

Speaking Practice Resources

Flipgrid is a POWERFUL tool for building speaking proficiency with your students! Here are some great resources to use for Flipgrid speaking tasks:

• Click Here for TEDDY Strategy & Rubric (must have viewing permissions to access)