"Children are to be seen and not heard." During childhood I heard this statement often. However, my mother would reinforce with me to listen, ask questions, listen, respond, and learn. Those words have enabled me to develop good collaboration skills and an insatiable need to learn each day of my life.

The "Sage on the Stage" delivery style of instruction with minimal queries from students are long gone! Today, 21st Century students are poised to discuss, describe, and defend their work during instruction. In today’s blog post, I would like to share some “tried and true” instructional techniques for encouraging students' critical thinking skills through student-led discussions.

Student-led discussions are key to the K-12 demographic and help prepare students for college and career success. I've found that helping students build vocabulary, construct effective presentations, and develop the ability to defend one's work are critical to their mastery and cognition of literacy skills.

For instance, the intersection between content and practice standards in math is prevalent. Those students who are able to ascertain the differences between a flawed argument and one that is correct can also articulate their logic and reasoning to defend their work.

So, the question becomes, how and where do we start? Teaching students how to lead classroom discussions and feel comfortable doing so, seems like a perfect place. Check out the following tips:

• What do you think? We've provided information, now we want to give students an opportunity to make sense of and apply the information.
• Why do you think that? Encourage students to share their reasoning and their understanding. Doing so will lead to building a fuller understanding of the information presented.
• Tell me more. Great way to inspire students to "stretch" and share more evidence hiding in "their-back-pockets!"
• What other questions do you have? Students may have questions or an additional idea.

Use scaffolding to build confidence and help students feel comfortable sharing with fellow students.

• Ask a question that corresponds to content being delivered.
• Tell students to share their answers with a neighbor.
• Ask volunteers to share their answers with group.
• Provide students with a related topic and facilitate groups helping students with research and the development of a statement about the topic. Each group will select a student who will lead the classroom discussion by presenting their evidence and asking a question.
• Lastly, one of my favorite best practices is to invite students to use the interactive board during their presentations because the 21st Century Student truly enjoys using technology.

Have fun and most importantly remember, More Them and Less Us!