Choose and Chat

Purpose

Students analyze and evaluate their understanding of a concept, text, process, or skill by choosing a response and chatting with a partner.

Materials

• Questions or prompts from which students choose a response
• Music

Instructions

1. Ask students a question or provide a prompt.
2. Students choose their response to show their understanding of the concept:
   • Choose from a variety of assessment answer choices (inline choice, multiselect, multipart, multiple choice, drag and drop, hot spot, etc.)
   • Choose a response symbol: + (I know it)  (I know parts of it)  – (I’m confused)
   • Choose a nonverbal response: thumbs up, sideways, or down
   • Choose a word they know best from a list
   • Choose a visual they can best analyze from a variety of options
3. Students mingle while music plays and get a partner when the music stops.
4. Students chat with their partner justifying their response, symbol, hand signal, word, or visual and help each other better understand the concept.
5. Observe students’ thinking and clarify/verify as appropriate.

Classroom Management

• Role-play appropriate mingling to get a partner and ensure every student ends up with a thinking partner.
• Remind students there will be no harm or humiliation for incorrect answers because correcting mistakes is a sign of intelligence!

Differentiation

• Promote access by previewing the question/task or allowing students to think through a response with a supportive peer or adult.
• Provide response support by offering thinking stems to frame responses.

Think It Up!

• Have students think more deeply about the concept by responding to a Think It Up prompt as an exit ticket or journal entry:
  • Summarize what you learned from the Choose and Chat conversation.
  • Predict what type of activities would help students better understand this content.
• Encourage students to use lead4ward’s Thinking Stems (English/Spanish) to frame their responses, if needed.