This is Jennifer Gonzalez welcoming you to episode 109 of the Cult of Pedagogy Podcast.

In this episode we're going to talk about a simple, effective strategy for getting students

to have rich, one-on-one conversations about what they're learning and get to know each

other a little better in the process.

The strategy is called, quite simply, ongoing conversations.

In our dreamiest of teacher dreams, some of us might imagine days when our students spontaneously

erupt into complex, nuanced conversations about the things they're learning in our classes.

If we borrow the language of the Common Core, they would engage effectively in a range

of collaborative discussions, one-on-one in groups and teacher-led, with diverse partners

on grade-level topics, texts and issues, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

And maybe the teacher-led kind is possible because we could structure and guide it, but that

doesn't give students much ownership of their learning.

In groups, that might be a bit harder to accomplish.

And one-on-one?

Well, how do you even manage that?

Jeff Frieden, a high school English teacher in Southern California, wondered the same thing.

Wanting a less teacher-centered class, he was looking for ways to get students talking

to each other about the content.

He tried all kinds of techniques, think-pareshare, appointment clocks, groups of four, but none

of them gave him the results he was looking for.

Meanwhile, he also discovered that most of his students, who had gone to school together

...