Habits of Discussion

Talking is like playing on the harp; there is as much in laying the hands on the strings to stop their vibration as in twanging them to bring out their music.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

At the parent coffee on Tuesday morning, I spoke about the Habits of Discussion that we are teaching our students.  What are Habits of Discussion you may ask?  Well, last spring I went to a workshop in New Jersey to learn more about a particular reading program being used by some successful charter schools on the east coast.  In this workshop I was introduced to the Habits of Discussion.  Habits of Discussion are the things we want to teach our students so they can both learn to have intelligent conversations and learn to listen in order to be able to contribute to a discussion or conversation.  We are teaching these Habits of Discussion in all grades at this point.  Ideally, you start them in Kindergarten and 1^st grade and they build as the students progress through the grades.  Below are the first four Habits of Discussion and how students would demonstrate them in the classroom.  These are things you can practice at home, as well.

Core Habit of Discussion	Ideal Student Actions
Listen and Talk only in turn	·         Track the speaker ·         Hands down when someone is speaking ·         Not interrupting
Speak Audibly	·         Students speak loudly and clearly
Speak in Complete Sentences	·         Restate the question in the response ·         No incomplete sentences
Interact Peer-to-Peer: direct answers to the group	·         Looking at every group member when giving an answer, not just the teacher

If you are picking up your child from school early, please make sure you leave enough time for packing up their belongings once they are called to the office.  We do not call students to the office until parents actually arrive for pick up, as we want them to miss as little instructional time as possible.  Also, please remember the left carpool lane changes to a pick up lane each day at 2:45. 

Since we had school on Monday, our teachers made great connections with Presidents’ Day.  Kindergarten students talked about President Washington and Lincoln and made some images of them to hang in the hallway.  Second grade analyzed the similarities and differences between Washington and Lincoln and created Venn Diagrams to show those.

Tuesday was the 100^th day of school.  This is a day of much excitement in grades K-2.  In math classes in these grades students keep track of the number of days in school as a counting and patterns exercise.  Different classes did interesting things to acknowledge the 100^th day of school, as you can see from the pictures below.  From 100 thoughts of kindness in 1^st grade to the 2^nd grade things they want to do before they turn 100 years old, the hallways have hundreds of great things to see.

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Baier