Structured Academic Conversations in ELA

“Hey… hi… hello, can you hear me? Can you [take your earbuds out], [put your head up], [talk with a partner], please?”

The life of a teacher bothering a student to engage in conversation is exhausting, but what if I told you that with a little preparation of materials and a solid routine for collaborating in discussions, this student would be meaningfully contributing to conversation soon?

Depending on what type of conversation you need or how quickly you want the help, these activities can spark meaningful conversation and an engaged student.

1. Quick Reference
1. Put up and reference the Accountable Talk bulletin board often. The key is to reference it often or it’s just a bunch of paper stapled to a wall. I bought one and continuously reference it as an anchor for students to use during partner or group discussions. You also can make your own with poster paper and markers.
2. Handheld and Partner Talk
1. In ELA, we usually are discussing some type of written media–books, plays, short stories, etc, so it’s helpful to have something small and useful when unpacking concepts with peers. A bookmark is a double whammy: a regular, hold-my-place bookmark and a tool for students to reference when discussing the reading. Students are either playing a Speaker role or Listener role, and these sentence frames can help guide them along. These can be printed front/back, cut and laminated for repeat use.
3. Whole-Class Engagement
1. I’ve used “Agree/Disagree/I have more to say” cards for whole–class discussions and really like the results. Each student is responsible for replying to anyone who speaks with this card, holding a certain side of the card up in the air. Once a student shares their opinion or answer, every student replies with “Agree,” “Disagree,” or “I have more to say” on a card. If a student has their “I have more to say” side raised, a student or teacher may call on that student to expand the discussion. The conversation continues until no one has the “I have more to say” side of their card raised. Eventually with lots of practice and the solid expectation that everyone replies (waiting until everyone holds up a card), teachers can step away from the conversation all together and allow students to pop from one to the next.

4. More Structured Whole-Class Discussion

5. 1. Socratic Seminars are some of my favorite class periods because the teacher doesn’t participate or manage the discussion. It’s 100% on the students. Teachers do have to prep a little bit and rearrange their classroom chairs and desks, but with the steps below, I’ve done all the hard work for you (except moving chairs!).

The steps include:

1. Preparing for the Socratic Seminar - provide the students with a study guide of questions that are expected to be discussed during the seminar. Require textual evidence or backup with reasoning. Give a few opinion-based questions too, they can be personal. It’s amazing how much they want their stories to be told or their connections to be shown. I do this the day before the discussion. They may use this sheet during the seminar–it helps with confidence.
2. Set up your classroom with an inner and outer circle.
3. Divide your class into two groups - have students find a partner (or you can assign them). One sits on the inside circle and the other sits behind them with a coaching sheet.
4. The inner circle students discuss; the outer circle tally on the coaching sheet when their partner speaks and what kind of speech it was (asking a question, answering simply, using textual evidence or reasoning, and going above and beyond).
5. First round is 8-10 minutes, coaching break for 3 minutes where coaches give feedback on how the speaker is doing and what to improve on in the next round. Then the last round for the same inner circle group for 4 minutes.
6. Switch groups and repeat step 5.
7. Have students reflect on their coaching sheet how they think they did.
8. Collect the coaching sheets and compare them to your own tally sheet. Grade accordingly.

Students will talk to each other, but they have to know that the teacher is serious about holding them accountable. Being consistent with the strategies you use and the expectations are key. Also, getting them off their phones is probably the biggest part to making these ideas work.

In my state, Iowa, we have a new law this past school year (2025-2026) that doesn’t allow phone usage during instructional time. This has improved the ability to incorporate structured conversation in my classroom.

Regardless of your state’s laws, students who know how to talk to one another will obviously be better off in real-world situations and in future academic or career settings.

Jennifer Epping is a high school ELA and journalism teacher of 14 years who lives in Des Moines, Iowa. She has bachelor’s degrees in journalism and mass communication and English education from Iowa State University, and a professional certificate in book and magazine publishing from New York University. She spent some time in book publishing in New York and found her passion in the classroom helping students find their voices. She loves spending time with her wife, Amanda, and their one-year-old son, Elliott, while also diving into as many books as possible.