"Silent Discussions" with Google Docs

Class discussions are the gold standard for hitting those communication objectives. It's a beautiful thing to hear students listening to others, disagreeing (respectfully!), building on ideas, and stating opinions (backed by evidence, of course!).

But, a good class discussion takes time. You have to manage the balance of talk time among the group. Class discussions don't always allow enough processing time for all students to meaningfully contribute to the conversation. Some students really don't like speaking in front of others. Once "their" point has been made, some students will put their hand down.

A nice twist on the traditional class discussion is a "silent discussion". This can be done with chart paper or poster board with discussion prompts spread around the classroom. You may have heard these called Chalk Talks. Students can take turns at each poster station, write down their opinion or statement and then respond to others by drawing a line from their comment and adding their own.

I love a good Chalk Talk. It gets my students up and moving and interacting with each other, but I also love using digital tools for this activity.

How to do it

1. Create the Google Doc with a discussion prompt.

This could be a written statement or question, but it could even be a link to a short article, image, or video clip.

2. Add a space for the "discussion"

I like to create a table in the Google Doc with a row for each student. Depending on your students' age and maturity levels, I will add their names to their row in advance. This avoids students simultaneously taking the same spot and writing over one another.

3. Share the document with your students

Make sure your document has the correct share settings. You can also post the link on your class page.

4. Students respond to the prompt

Give students some time to read or watch your prompt and formulate their response. You can set a time limit on this, or not. In a Google doc all students can start sharing their opinion when they are ready. They can put down their thoughts without waiting.

5. Students respond to others

Students pick a few other responses to read and use the comment feature to respond. Students can circle back to comments on their own answer and respond as needed.

You can also join in the discussion. You can read and respond to your students in real time by asking questions, offering other points of views, and pushing their thinking.

Why I love it

This activity is a really fun way to get students thinking and engaging differently.

• All students get the chance to share their opinions at their own speed.

• "Crosstalk" is encouraged.

• It's fast paced and engaging. Students can go back and forth between discussions and responses.

• I can respond and react in real time to my students. They get immediate feedback from me.

• At the end, I have an awesome record of the discussion. Google docs tracks who wrote what and the comment feature makes it easy to see. There is a lot of data to be analyzed here from conversation contributions to argument trends.

Bonus: This is the type of activity that can work for both in-person and at-home learners. All students can be equally involved. It also encourages collaboration while keeping everyone in their seats if that is necessary for you.

Other digital options

I like Google Docs for this because it's easy. We already use docs and so sharing is easy to manage, but there are plenty of other tools out there that can be used for this activity.

Padlet would be great for this and would offer a visual discussion. Even Google Classroom or whatever Virtual Learning Environment you are using (Canvas, Edmodo, Moodle, Schoology, etc.) will have a discussion tool that could work for this activity.

If you are looking for a different way to get students engaging in discussion, try this! Let me know if you do in the comments and how it worked for your students!