Empowering Student Voice

Planning Introductory

Civil Discourse Lessons

BETTY NORDENGREN

Why Teach Civil Discourse?

• Oracy is the basis of literacy.
• Communication skills empower students.
• Post-COVID-19 pandemic students lack relational skills.
• Students need direct civil discourse instruction.
• We can help decrease polarization.

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Easily Fits into Curriculum

There are so many ways to integrate civil discourse into our classrooms:

• Integrated oracy and literacy
• Social studies and history
• Project-based learning, tech, and science
• Social emotional learning and advisory

What Does It Look Like?

• Using sentence frames:

I can prove this because ________.

Your voice needs to be heard, too, ________.

I hear you say ________, and I think ________.

I disagree because ________.

I like the way you said that because ________.

• Creating class norms . . . together!
• Using an emoji Likert scale
• Creating room for cooperative seating in your classroom

Encourage Full Participation

Continuously teach the skills students need to fully engage in civil discourse:

• Develop class norms
• Use sentence frames
• Integrate social emotional learning skills
• Encourage active listening
• Assess performance
• Use multiple strategies

Get Students Talking

• When students talk with one another, they learn from each other.
• Use sticky notes to get feedback on questions like, “What does peace mean to you?”
• Some of the best discussions happen among collaborating classes across the �United States and the world.
• Your next civil discourse lesson might connect your students to classrooms around the globe!