Engaging Kindergarten  �Students in Discussion 

Alexis Brock- Kindergarten Teacher

About myself:

Alexis Brock- Kindergarten Teacher

• 1st Grade- 4 years
• 2nd Grade-1 year
• 3rd Grade- 2 years
• Kindergarten- 6 years
• I love spending time with my family, visiting new places, doing new things, and we absolutely live for going to the lake on the weekends. 

2

  The � Problem

Kindergarten students struggle to have successful discussion. 

3

During my observation of my kindergarten students, I noticed that students do not understand proper ways to have a discussion in the classroom.  Some of these issues include... not participating at all, not staying on topic, and being disrespectful to other students' thoughts and ideas. 

​

Kindergarteners are expected to meet common core speaking and listening standards.  In order to meet these standards my class must take part in rich and structured conversations. There are so many learning benefits when students are engaged and can defend their positions, and be able to ask and answer questions. 

​

​

​

​

Why?

Teacher Opinion

​

I believe this problem exists because this is the first year a lot of these students have ever been in a school setting. Students in kindergarten have never been given the opportunity to have discussion before this year. Kindergarteners are learning proper ways to communicate with their peers and are learning to deal with everyday emotion proper procedures and expectations. Discussion is a much more difficult concept.   

4

The Solution 

Speak-Up Stems

​

The idea I plan to test is speak up stems. By implementing this tool in my classroom, I believe they will learn to successfully engage in classroom conversations. 

​

​

​

​

​

​

5

What are Speak Up Stems��

​

​

​

​

\

​

Possible Speak up Stems

• In my opinion...
• I believe that... because...

Speak up Stem that keeps the discussion going

• I agree with you because...
• I disagree with you because
• That seems similar to
• Have you considered the possibility that...

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Speak Up Stems gives students the opportunity to respond in the form of complete sentences to communicate effectively. It provides them with a sentence starter and helps them correctly formulate a response while defending their positions.  It allows students to respond and agree or disagree to their peers thoughts and ideas in a respectful manner.  

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

How Will We Know?

1. Monitor and record my reading group during small group center time. I will record students participation, ability to stay on topic, and student ability to agree and disagree with each other respectfully. I will use a fictional story including story elements. I will ask a simple question and ask them to discuss. I will also give a student interest survey to see how the students feel about discussion
2. Monitor the same group after practicing using speak up stems for 4 weeks. I will record students participation, ability to stay on topic, and student ability to agree and disagree with each other respectfully. I will also give the student interest survey again.
3. I will Compare results.

7

Hypothesis

If it's true that speak-up stems promote active participation and engagement during classroom conversations. I predict that our discussions will be more successful.  Meaning they will stay on topic be able to form an opinion and respond to their peers in a respectful thoughtful manner.  There is also a long term expectation with this tool. By engaging in these various topics students will yield more learning increasing students achievement. My students will have more developed communication skills. and develop critical speaking and listening skills.

THE RESULTS��

​

​

I decided to ask a question after reading the book “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” instead of giving them free reign to discuss the book. The question I asked was, “Do you think the wolf’s character in the book, “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” was a villain or a hero? I let them discuss with no rules or speak up stems. Student 4K literally never said a word during the discussion he just sat and stared in space. Although Student 1B and 2E were discussing amongst themselves. When I got close to them I realized quickly they were talking about whether or not angels eat in heaven. They were arguing about it. No student stayed on topic. The ones talking about the question once they heard the discussion student 1B and 2E were talking about they ended up talking about zombies. It truly was a total disaster. ..

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Student Participation Log

Without Speak up Stems

​

THE RESULTS��

For a few weeks we practiced Speak up Stems. I introduced a few very slowly. The first time discussing speak up stems I asked a question and used the following speak up stems.

​

I think______________because….

I agree/disagree with ________________because…

​

We discussed the ways to respectively and appropriately agree or disagree with each other.

​

I could tell such a difference in the participation and engagement of every student. Every student was participating.

​

As the weeks went by I slowly introduced a few more. I made a few cue cards so they could discuss. One cue card had a house for setting, a card with people for characters, etc. When I felt like they had really mastered discussion I recorded them once again. The following are the results:

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Student Participation Log

With Speak up Stems

​

Student Interests Surveys Before/After

11

Student Interest Survey

BEFORE Speak up Stems

Do you like speaking up in class ?

​

Student Interest Survey

After

Do you like speaking up in class ?

​

Additional Studies

In the future I will be using speak up stems with different subjects. Changes will have to be made with various types of genres we are discussing. We have only used speak-up stems with discussions with fiction books in reading. I will have to research some good speak-up stems with various subjects. Speak-up stems for math and science would look much different than the speak-up stems I used in reading.

12

Final Thoughts

I anticipated that this would be challenging simply because discussion and speak-up stems have never been introduced to these kindergarten students in prior years, I was hopeful we would have good results. It actually surprised me that this worked as well as it did.

​

I have learned that Speak-up stems will promote active participation and engagement during classroom conversations, even in kindergarten. According to observation, my class has developed communication skills and are now engaged in various topics we have discussed. According to my student interest survey 100% of students now say they enjoy speaking in class.

13

Thank You!

If you have any questions

Please contact me at:

alexis.brock@leslie.kyschools.us

14