A BLUEPRINT FOR IMPLEMENTING SMALL-GROUP COLLABORATIVE DISCUSSIONS

The adoption of the Common Core in many states across the country means we need to explore instructional approaches that promote student language use in order to meet many of the complex linguistic standards that comprise the Common Core. In this Teaching Tip, we provide a blueprint for a 4-week collaborative discussion mini-unit that a second grade teacher used in one of her small reading groups. We found that collaborative discussions can be implemented with relative ease and efficiency, and work with both bilingual and monolingual speakers alike. However, not all texts work for such discussions, and the teacher's role in facilitating participation is a necessary dimension of effective small group discussions. © 2015 International Literacy Association.