Listening and speaking

Listening and speaking are essential to participating in science activities and communities. Amplify Science thus provides many authentic opportunities for talking and listening as students refine their thinking and communicate their ideas to various audiences. Throughout the Amplify Science curriculum, students use discussion to construct explanations and join in oral argumentation. For example, students discuss evidence in order to understand it and to work together to determine what claim the evidence supports. As students discuss, they are practicing vital aspects of constructing explanations and argumentation, such as deeply understanding evidence, working with others to understand the meaning of evidence, convincing others, and providing logical reasoning. Oral language and discussion is further supported across the grades through discourse routines such as Shared Listening, Think-Pair-Share, and Word Relationships, and through organized discussions such as Evidence Circles. See below for more details.