In my last blog post, I mentioned that my AP Lit students’ first discussion on a short story revealed the need for more processing time and introspection. I have a lot of verbal processors who resist think-pair-share style lessons. I’d heard about silent discussion techniques but had never tried them.

There are lots of different ways to do a silent discussion, but ultimately they require time to process and collaboration—all done silently. I saw several versions that required a lot of planning on the front end, so I picked one that could be thrown together fairly quickly. This way I can replicate it easily for other lessons and my sophomore classes.

All this is saying that this is the way to do my silent discussion lesson, but not every silent discussion lesson.

What you’ll need

• A text (I chose Clint Smith’s “the drone”)
• Questions for students to answer (I chose AP Lit enduring understanding questions, found in the AP Lit CED, in the form of task cards)
• Lined paper
• A writing utensil

A note on the questions

At least three times a month, I use my AP Lit task cards, based on the AP Lit enduring understanding questions from the CED. Because I already had these printed and laminated, I didn’t need to prepare anything. If you don’t have these, you can print the questions from the CED or type them up yourself, but this will take longer. To buy the reasonably-priced task cards, check them out here!

Lesson Set-Up

I have 15 students in my AP Lit class, so I went through and selected two task card questions for each student. I tried to pair questions reflecting the same skill, such as metaphor or conflict, but the question is just slightly different. I paper clipped each pair together and put them out on a table. Then, I just printed the poems and was ready to go.

The Lesson

Step 1: Reflect

Here were the student directions:

• Put your name on the top of your lined paper.
• Read “the drone,” annotating on your sheet as you read.
• Consider the poem and its meaning. Then, read over both your questions on the cards.
• Select ONE card to respond to, bringing the other card up to me.
• For five minutes, write down a brief response to your selected question on your lined paper. Make references to specific points in the text, whenever possible. Focus on making observations and interpretations.

I gave students about 8 minutes to process the poem, after reading it aloud to them.

Step 2: Rotate

Student directions:

• Grab your poem and your writing utensil. Leave your card at your desk.
• Move to a different table (still silently) and select another card at random.
• You have 3-4 minutes to read the question on the card, apply it to the poem, and respond to that person’s response.
• Your responses should add, elaborate, or even make a different point. Do not simply agree with them!
• We will rotate 4-5 times.

I asked students to move to a different skill than what they were assigned (so if they were reflecting on structure, they shouldn’t do another question on structure). I should have reminded students to write their names on their comments, but otherwise this went well. We only made it through 3 rotations because I was still trying to fit in independent reading time at the end of our block.

Step 3: Return

Student directions:

Return to your original card.
Silently, read over the responses.

Consider the following questions:

• How did this activity make you consider certain skills, maybe ones that you may not have considered in a blind analysis of the poem?
• How did the silent discussion offer different viewpoints, interpretations, or observations?
• If I made you write a skill-based analysis of this poem, what 3-4 skills would you choose to analyze?

My Takeaways

My students’ responses were very interesting. Here’s some highlights:

• Although I selected 10 different structure-based questions, none of the students would have chosen structure to analyze. They admitted that they would have noticed it, but that’s about it. Now I know that I’ll need to emphasize lessons and texts that teach the function of structure, especially in poetry.
• Several students felt rushed in their initial analysis, telling me I could have stretched this moment out to 10 minutes at least.
• When reading the responses, most students chose to elaborate on the initial analysis rather than to argue. However, there were several who dared to make an alternate interpretation. I’d like to try this with a poem like “Plants” or “The Unknown Citizen,” which are hard to interpret upon first analysis. My students need practice on making interpretations that vary from one another.

I asked my students how they liked this lesson and they gave very positive feedback. I think it’s going to be a common strategy for approaching poetry (in which they’re rusty). I’d also like to try it with my sophomores with poems, an excerpt, or a short story.

Do you use silent discussions? Let me know what they look like in your classroom!