Speaking and listening

Strong texts necessitate and support frequent collaborative discussion. As students determine key ideas and details, notice a writer’s craft, and integrate information from the text with what they know, they need to consider a range of interpretations to refine their understanding. Amplify lessons provide regular opportunities for students to practice and benefit from sharing their thoughts in academic conversation, more formal discussions and debates, and prepared performances and presentations. These opportunities are fully integrated into the process of close reading and rigorous writing to complement and support students’ literacy work.

• Daily academic discussion: The teacher instructional materials note key moments for discussion in pairs, small groups, or the whole class as part of the lesson’s close reading session. These discussions have clear direction and purpose—sometimes they serve to surface the range of observations students have gathered from their first read; other times, they have students use those observations to collaborate and refine their understanding of the text.
• Formal debates and discussion: Working with complex texts or multiple texts surfaces a range of questions and perspectives. Formal debate structures challenge students to use evidence-driven argument and counterargument, and to understand and evaluate the logic and strength of an opposing perspective. Amplify’s Socratic seminars and fishbowl discussions support students as they develop norms and processes to allow for an effective exchange of ideas in their classrooms.
• Performance and presentation: Across grades, students have opportunities to work with the text, their ideas, and their peers through various types of performances and presentations. As students plan and perform a scene from a text, engage in conversation as they role-play as passengers on the Titanic, or deliver their own version of an abolitionist speech, they are learning to adapt language from the text to a particular purpose.