INQUIRY PROJECT: DISCUSSION PROMPT

CARDS TO DEEPEN COLLABORATIVE

DISCUSSIONS IN SCIENCE

Sarah Miller

INTRODUCTION
Area of concern:
Student participation during whole group discussions in science. Many students are either
struggle with active listening, building off the ideas of others, responding to each other, and
truly holding a collaborative discussion.
For students to make meaning of science, they need to be able to carry on a collaborative
discussion successfully. The NRCs Framework for K-12 Science education states that science is
a fundamentally social enterprise, and scientific knowledge advances through collaboration
and in the context of a social system with well-developed norms (2012)

My Inquiry Research Question:

How will integrating discussion prompt cards improve the quality of wholeclass discussion in science talks as well as the variety of participants?

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The context:
Third grade classroom
I was concerned that students were:
Not engaging in collaborative discussion
Responding to me, not each other
Not providing evidence for statements unless probed by me
Not all participating
Knowing that collaborative discussion is vital to understanding scientific concepts, I wanted to
find a way to address this issue and help students begin to engage in discussions, as well as
vary who was participating.

PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH
Science is a fundamentally social enterprise, and scientific knowledge advances
through collaboration in the context of a social system with well-developed norms
(NRC, 2012)

My students need to be able to discuss the science they are doing to make sense of
what they see and observe. I wanted to find a way to support and scaffold their
conversation so that we could build collaborative discussions that were meaningful for
the students.
Expanding and clarifying reasoning are important characteristics of science
discussions (National Science Foundation, 2011)
Students should be able to provide evidence for their thoughts and be pressed to
further their thinking. A collaborative discussion builds on a students thinking and
presses it further to build overall understanding.

PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH
Tools for Ambitious Science Teaching claims that sentence starters can help students
who dont know how to publicly disagree and... feel uncomfortable agreeing with
others in class (2013)
I wanted to see the quieter students in my classroom become active participants in
our science discussions as well. I thought sentence starters might give them the chance
to formulate their thoughts and share their thinking. This, along with discussion with my
field instructor, gave me the idea of implementing discussion prompt cards.

STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION:
DISCUSSION PROMPT CARDS
To Share Your Ideas:
I think
I feel that
I believebecause
The way I see it
From my point of view
My perspective is
In my opinion
I know that, so
My position is

To Agree With Someones Ideas:

Yes, I think so too because
I agree with him/her because
Im of the same view because
Thats how I feel too, because
Thats exactly what I think
That makes sense to me because
I fully support his/her point because
I totally agree with him/her, because
Ill say yes to that because

To Disagree With Someones Ideas:

I dont agree because

I disagree because
I dont think so, because
Yes, but have you thought about
Yes, but what about
Okay, but what if
I see, but on the other hand
I see things differently, because

STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION
I created discussion prompt cards with sentence starters in three different colors which
each had different purposes
Agree, Disagree, Share New Ideas

I planned to gradually introduce each card through

short mini-lessons integrated into whole lessons
Students raise the card if they had an idea
to add to the discussion
When using the cards, students had to begin their
statement with one of the sentence starters
I collected data by recording my science lessons
I tallied who participated
I noted examples of speech with and without the cards

FINDINGS AND RESULTS

Overall participation during science lessons increased on average
from 52% to 74% of students

Additionally, the number of turns taken by

students in each lesson nearly doubled when
using discussion prompt cards
1.39 average turns per student (Lesson 1)
No discussion prompt cards used
1.03 average turns per student (Lesson 2)
No discussion prompt cards used
2.57 average turns per student (Lesson 3)
Discussion prompt cards used
2.13 average turns per student (Lesson 4)
Discussion prompt cards used

EXAMPLES OF STUDENT PARTICIPATION BEFORE

IMPLEMENTING DISCUSSION CARDS
Talk Turns - Lesson 1
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Talk Turns - Lesson 2

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617181920212223

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617181920212223

EXAMPLES OF STUDENT PARTICIPATION AFTER

IMPLEMENTING DISCUSSION CARDS
Talk Turns - Lesson 4

Talk Turns - Lesson 3

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617181920212223

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617181920212223

FINDINGS AND RESULTS

Quotes from students without cards

The
quality of
student
discussion
improved
as well:

Quotes from students with cards

It might be made of different things

I believe soil is a mixture because its made of all kinds

of stuff in it, like woodchips and grass

If you bang a rock on the cement ground, some will

break and some will not

I think the samples were different because of what was

in there, the materials

Some rocks are smooth, and some are hard

I agree, because in the soil everything sank, except

part kind of floated a little bit.

If you look at it close, you can see that it has all the
materials. Like different shapes of the particles

I think its not the same because the soil that we have is
dry and some soil is wet and some soil has different
types of minerals, rocks, and some of them have
different types of things in them. Its not made of just
the same things

Theyre made of minerals

From my point of view, I disagree with, um, that there

was a wing in theirs because it didnt look like a wing to
me

If you look at it close, you can see that is has all the
materials. Like different shapes of the particles.

I think soil is a mixture because theres a lot of things

mixed up.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

My conclusion: The strategy of using discussion prompt cards was successful!
Having a support for students to look at as they formulate responses can improve not
only who participates, but how they participate.
More students participated with the use of these cards, and they used more evidence to support their
ideas when using the cards. They also were more attentive to what others said because they knew they
would have to agree or disagree with the student speaking. This meant discussion built and was more
collaborative.

The tangible reminder of a card for participation can help students remember that
they should be thinking of something to say.

Bonus: The cards can also be used as a visual for understanding (i.e. if you understand,
show green, if not, show red), a visual answer (i.e. if you think the answer is ____, hold
up green; if you think the answer is ______, hold up blue; etc.).

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Thoughts for continuing use of discussion prompt cards:
This suggests that I should continue to use discussion prompt cards in my classroom.
As I continue practicing this type of language with students, I would hope to gradually
see the need for the cards as a support and scaffold decrease as students internalize
the language they use.
I have integrated use of the discussion prompt cards into social studies and math so
far and will be integrating them into literacy as well. These could be useful across all
subject matter areas!
I also expect to see (and have observed) a transfer from science discussion to other
subject matter areas as students internalize the language of collaborative discussion.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
University of Washington. Tools for Ambitious Science Teaching. Tools: Scaffolding for
writing & talking science. (2013). National Science Foundation.
http://ambitiousscienceteaching.org/tools-scaffolding/
National Research Council. A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices,
Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas. (2012). Washington, DC: The National
Academies Press. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13165&page=R1
TERC. The Inquiry Project. Video Introduction to the Talk Science Pathway. (2011).
National Science Foundation.
http://inquiryproject.terc.edu/prof_dev/pathway/pathway4.cfm