What norms make good discussion?

I keep pinching myself to remind myself that creating a community of inquiry in 2nd grade is not going to be as easy as it seems to have been for us this summer in the Institute!

So, I've been keeping a little side journal where I am trying to analylize the soft skills I would need to teach in order to make each activity work.

Here's a few ideas that I started jotting down for how to have a good, respectful discussion.


* establish a respectful and safe connection between participants for being honest
* give them structured chances get to know each other by telling their individual stories.

* one person talks at a time.
* raise your hand quietly AFTER a person finishes talking
* teacher says the order of 3-4 people that will speak next
* speaker says, "I want to go off of what ____ said, ..." or "What ___ said made me think about..."
* teacher reinforces the respectful and thoughtful comment behaviors of the speakers and the 'audience' in between comments.

I am trying to listen to phrasing that softens the tone, making offenses less likely. (This is the ESL teacher in me!) If anyone else notices these details it would be great to hear them!

Christina