Communication Skills

In this engaging review activity, students learn to distill the most essential takeaway from a unit through reflection, revision, and debate.

These models move beyond Socratic seminars to provide students with authentic, engaging class discussions.

Schools often emphasize reading and writing—but speaking is also fundamental to lifelong success, research shows.

Verbal participation in discussions is a tried-and-true formative assessment, but it can also be rubric-based and summative.

Providing the active listeners in the outer ring of a Socratic circle a way to jump in with their burning questions and comments keeps all students engaged.

Middle and high school students not listening is a common complaint, but listening is a skill like any other—it can be improved with practice.

As early as preschool, students can learn how to improve their speaking skills using techniques borrowed from actors.

Students often need scaffolding to engage in high-level academic discourse—and with this guidance, discussions will flourish.

By providing opportunities for students to share ideas with each other, teachers create space for them to develop social skills, retain more content, and deepen understanding of the material.

Brief writing prompts and responses help students in any discipline.

This routine creates an equitable structure for sharing out ideas, questions, or evidence in science class—and helps ensure every student takes part.