Speaking and Listening Goals

Having to teach and assess speaking and listening goals (like SL.2.1 and SL.2.3) was hard for me this year. Was I supposed to listen while my students talked to their friends, grade their retelling abilities, or listen while they were arguing disagreeing with each other?

While my class has always been one that collaborates from day one, I still wanted to have a teaching moment about speaking and listening goals. I wanted a teaching tool.  I wanted to have something tangible I could assess too.

I had to teach my kiddos that your speaking voice can change the outcome of what happens.  People are willing to help you if your tone is a nice one.  If you are rude and tell people what to do, well, your friends may not want to do so much for you. 

I still have one friend who has a hard time with his tone, and finding his manners.  I ask him to find his manners in his backpack if he wants to talk to me :) 

While listening to the kids, I realized that they are always talking about their friends.  When you ask them about their weekend, they talk about their friends, so... this came to life!

I have a created a product with discussion cards about friendship. You can find it HERE. 

Let me show you how we did this in our classroom.

We started by making a big circle in the middle of our classroom.  I posted a question about being a nice friend. 

We then had a small group of brave girls who wanted to share what a great discussion looked like.  The rest of us paid close attention to everything they did. 

I gave the kids a small piece of paper (included in my product) where they recorded what they saw. 

After we reviewed what a great conversation looks and sounds like, we divided the class by tables (4 kids per group). They received a friendship card and discuss it agreeing, and respectfully disagreeing while sharing their thoughts.

We tried a few cards and then the kids went back to their now mini circles, to discuss once again,

and record their final thoughts. They used a checklist to check off what they observed during their small group discussions.

While they recorded their final conclusions I snapped a picture of this glorious moment.  Do you see them working together??!!!  A dream come true :) 

Is this something you think you can use?  I am choosing two friends to get this tomorrow.  Help me by pinnning it and leaving your pin and e-mail address.  

Happy discussion time!